SPB News for Monday.

Army charity hoards millions

Army Emergency Relief grew to $345m, while spending only $64m.

BoA: We don't need more bailout funds

Three-book deal for Condoleezza Rice

Thousands of troops diverted to fight Taliban in Obama's new war strategy By Andrew Purcell In announcing the deployment of 17,000 additional soldiers to Afghanistan, Barack Obama fulfilled two campaign promises at once. The two brigades - one army, one marine - were previously headed for Iraq. Diverting them signalled that the slow withdrawal from that "dumb war" has begun. The question now must be whether it is any smarter to send them into the graveyard of empires. Although Obama declines to use the term "war on terror", his foreign policy manifesto has consistently identified Afghanistan's south-eastern frontier as the crucial battleground in a global conflict. Sending reinforcements made good on his word.

Karzai is US stooge says Afghan deputy president Afghanistan's president and vice-president accused each other of being US stooges during a recent cabinet meeting which degenerated into a furious row, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. In a clash which showed how fragile the Western-backed government has become, President Hamid Karzai was labelled a corrupt incompetent by his own understudy, Ahmad Zia Massoud. He responded in kind, saying Mr Massoud was part of an American conspiracy to oust him.

Gates Sees Need for at Least $83 Billion More in 2009 for Wars The Pentagon needs at least $83 billion more for combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through the end of this fiscal year, Pentagon officials told the White House. This figure includes $7.3 billion to pay for adding troops in Afghanistan, Pentagon officials wrote to the Office of Management and Budget on Feb. 3. The U.S. will add about 17,000 to its force of 38,000, President Barack Obama announced this week.

Iran not producing weapon-grade uranium: IAEA Iran has not converted the low-grade uranium that it has produced into weapon-grade uranium, inspectors belonging to the International Atomic Energy Agency have said. The Austrian Press Agency quoted an IAEA expert as saying that the uranium substances that Iran has produced at its Natanz enrichment facility have been carefully recorded and remote cameras have been installed to supervise part of the stockpile.

Swiss party wants to punish U.S. for UBS probe The right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) called on Saturday for retaliation against the United States over a U.S. tax probe into the country's biggest bank UBS that threatens prized banking secrecy. The populist SVP, the country's biggest party, said Switzerland should not take in any detainees from the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, which the Swiss government said last month it could consider to help shut the camp down.

Last week's poll had asked:

As Russia marks the 20th anniversary of its withdrawal from Afghanistan, former soldiers warn that Nato-led forces are making the same mistakes as the Soviet troops then. Do you believe this is true? Majority of readers answeresd yes. New poll is now up.