. >>> john galiano takes center stage. but for all the wrong reasons. the darling of the fashion world goes on trial for racism. >>> ten years after u.s. forces went into afghanistan, president barack obama will today announce he's pulling thousands of troops out of the country. a source in the u.s. congress tells cnn 30,000 soldiers will be withdrawn by the end of 2012 out of a current strength of about 100,000. it starts with 10,000 troops going home over the next six months. the u.s. is committed to keeping a fighting force in afghanistan until 2014. after that security will be handed over to the afghans. cnn's nick peyton walsh is in the country. he joins us live from bagram air base. nick? >> reporter: absolutely. what we're about to see is a report from a remote part of the border with pakistan, an area called newer stan. this is a small village surrounded by valleys. nato used to have a fairly strong presence here, outposts securing the area. a few years ago pulled back. that left the afghans in control. since late march of this year, the taliban

i'm talking about john galiano.r and it landed him smack dab in a french courtroom. sunny hotin is on this case today. a couple accused him of a racist comment. with people like galliano, you go to rehab and say i'm really sorry but in france i guess it doesn't work. >> it doesn't work that way because in france public hate speech is illegal. so if you say something untoward a person's race or religion, you could be put on trial the way that galliano has been placed on trial today. >> is this a jury trial in france? >> it isn't a jury trial. it's in front of judges. so that is different. and it's only a one-day trial. but they took testimony, brooke, the tweeters have been tweeting everything that is going on inside of the courtroom. there are no cameras there. but they held a hearing or a trial much like the trials that we see here in the u.s. >> what is galliano's defense in this case? >> it is really quite interesting. he says that he doesn't remember saying any of these things because of his triple addiction. he

. >>> and fashion designer john galiano temperatured today in a paris courtroom that his addiction tod sleeping pills kept him from remembering his alleged antisemitic rants against three people. prosecutors say the incidents occurred before he was fired from christian dior in march when a video surfaced of him praising adolf hitler. french law prohibits public insults based on other edge inches, race or religion. if convicted he faces six months in jail and a fine, anderson, of about $32,000. >> fascinating. we'll follow that. time now for the ridiculist. and tonight we're adding southwest airlines. why? because a southwest pilot recently brought it to our attention that quality of flight attendants on the airline is in his opinion, well, kind of lacking. by quality he doesn't mean their professionalism which they have or safety training which they have or how they treat passengers, which is good. oh, no. this pilot is talking strictly about the death of flight attendants who are suitable sex partners for him. how do i know this, you ask? because his mike was open during a flight. an