Obama Plans to Remove Troops from Afghanistan in 2011

In a live address at West Point, President Obama outlined his plan for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, adding 30,000 troops and looking to pull all from the country by the end of 2011. He also seeks to pull all combat brigades from Iraq next year. President Obama’s full remarks can be found here.

Today, December 1st, is World Aids Day. In honor, South Africa has pledged to treat all babies under the age of one who are HIV-positive. In the country, 59,000 babies are born infected every year, but the government has in the past avoided treating them because drugs are too costly, BBC News.

The CEO of General Motors, Frederick “Fritz” Henderson, stepped down today from his post after eight months on the job. The company plans to start an international search for the open presidential and CEO positions, NPR.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has condemned Switzerland for banning minarets, the tall spires with conical crowns commonly found on Islamic mosques. 57.5 percent of the Swiss population approved the ban on constructing new minarets, but Pillay is worried the ban will cause deep division in the country, Voice of America.

Lack of Access to Contraceptives Major Killer of Women Worldwide

In a new report, the World Health Organization says that AIDS is the leading cause of death and disease in women aged 15 to 44 worldwide. Throughout the world, one in five deaths among women in this age group is linked to unprotected sex and lack of access to contraceptives, NPR. WHO press release on the report. Factsheet on women’s health, WHO. WHO report: Women and Health (pdf).

“Women generally live longer than men, but their lives are not necessarily healthy or happy,” Margaret Chan, the head of the United Nations health agency, said at the WHO on Monday.

25 people have been killed in a suicide car bomb attack at a market in Charsadda, Pakistan near the Afghan border today, Los Angeles Times.

The D.C. sniper, John Allen Muhammad, will be executed by lethal injection tonight unless Virginia Governor Tim Kaine intervenes. Muhammad and his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, killed 10 people in the Washington, D.C. area in 2002, Washington Post.

A memorial service will be held this afternoon at Fort Hood to honor the 13 killed and 30 wounded in last Thursday’s shooting by Army psychologist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan,  USA Today.

Google will be offering free wi-fi to travelers in 47 U.S. airports until January 15, 2010, Daily Tech.