steve kingston, bbc news, washington. a the moment of which the flag will come down is not so very far away. we've got some pictures for you here in baghdad, where the ceremony itself will take place. the u.s. defense secretary, leon panetta, in attendance as well for what may well be a relatively gentle, somber, quiet procession of events. nonetheless, it is a day that will go down in the history books as the formal close of combat for american troops in iraq. we'll keep across that for you of course here on "bbc world news." i wanted to bring you more now on our breaking and leading story this hour, and that is that jacques chirac has been found guilty of embezzlement and abuse of power on two counts against him while he was mayor of paris. joining me now is our paris correspondent, christian fraser, with more. perhaps you can just fill out a little bit for us the details of what he's been found guilty of, first of all. >> well, he hired members of his political party between 1977 and 1995 and paid them through the crea

steve kingston, bbc news, washington. >> now i can bring you some breaking news we received in just the last few moments. the italian government, literally minutes ago, has passed a vote on a new austerity program outlined by prime and esther mario monti. it has passed its first hurdle in the lower house in the past few moments and is expected to go to another vote in the upper house shortly, before it is turned into law. as we follow the unfolding events in the eurozone efforts to deal with the mountain of sovereign debt, the italians have passed in the lower house of parliament, a new austerity package. still to come on "gmt," defying the odds -- doctors in california preparing to send home one of the smallest premature babies ever to survive. the european council president has offered to the british what he called a technical role when eu and leaders meet at the end of january. but tensions between britain and france are still high. the bank of france chief says credit rating agencies should downgrade britain before france. >> fears of isolation in europe after the british prime mini

steve kingston has taken a look. at the top of the frame, an unhurried dominique strauss, an approach is the reception desk to check out. it is lunchtime, 12:28 according to the security cameras. he leaves the lobby and gets into a taxi, and this was less than half an hour after his sexual encounter with the hotel maid. she is seen on another camera an hour later with the hotel security staff. there is no audio, but she is to be giving an account of what she said happened to the presidential suite. it was then that the hotel staff called the police. >> hi, i want to report a sexual assaults. >> or was it at? >> this is a hotel. that is one of our room attendants. apparently, she was assaulted by a guest. that is not clear how the french television channel obtained the footage, but the maids lawyers say it. she was consistent. >> the videos do not live. -- do not lie. she came down to the security department and did the same thing, because she is telling the truth. >> prosecutors were not convinced. in august, they co