Main stories in ABC's World Today

AAP General News (Australia)
12-23-2011
Main stories in ABC's World Today

SYDNEY, Dec 23 AAP - Main stories in ABC's World Today:

* The federal government and opposition are meeting on Friday to try and thrash out
an offshore processing policy for asylum seekers. While the government has made a significant
concession in offering to consider Nauru as a potential site, the coalition has refused
to support the offer because it includes Malaysia as an alternative.

* Pakistan's prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani has effectively accused the country's
powerful military and intelligence services of plotting a coup against the government.

But Akbar Ahmed, chair of Islamic Studies at the American University and former Pakistani
ambassador to London, says the military is too divided to launch a coup in the short-term.

* France's lower house has passed a bill to make it illegal to deny that the 1915 mass
killings of Armenians in Turkey were genocide. The move has further aggravated France's
difficult relationship with Turkey over long-standing differences on the massacres.

AAP ra/

KEYWORD: MONITOR WORLD TODAY

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