the husband of jailed with ukrainian politicians yulia tymoshenko has requested political asylum in thezech republic. alexander tymoshenko made the request at the end of last year. in october, his wife, the former prime minister, was sentenced to seven years in prison for abuse of office. six firefighters died battling a blaze in southern chile. over the past week, multiple forest fires have ravaged large areas of central and southern chile. the president says some appear to have been started deliberately. after a decade when american politics has been defined by the country's involvement in texas wars -- in afghanistan and iraq -- president obama signaled a major shift in strategy for the world's main superpower, with cuts of about half a trillion dollars over the next decade. details are to come, but it looks like a 10% to 15% reduction in the size of the army and marines. operations will focus on the asia-pacific region rather than europe, to counter the growing threat of china. the u.s. will only be able to fight when war at a time in the future, rather than two simultaneously as no