Reuters World News Highlights at 1000 GMT, Dec 20

WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush bailed out U.S. automakers on Friday with $17.4 billion in emergency loans as he sought to stave off a collapse that would have cost hundreds of thousands of jobs.

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BRUSSELS - Belgium was left scrambling for political leadership for the third time in a year on Saturday after the government collapsed following its botched attempt to bail out troubled financial group Fortis .

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MOSCOW - Russia will stop developing some strategic weapons if the United States drops plans for a missile shield in Europe, Interfax news agency quoted the commander of Russia's strategic missile forces as saying on Friday.

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WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered a U.S. Army combat aviation brigade to Afghanistan as part of a buildup of forces to counter rising insurgent violence, officials said on Friday.

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BAGHDAD - Muslim preachers from both sides of Iraq's once-bloody Sunni-Shi'ite divide appealed to the government on Friday to release the journalist who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush.

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GAZA - Armed Islamist factions in Gaza went on alert on Friday after declaring an end to a six-month truce with Israel and warned the Jewish state not to attack the coastal enclave.

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CHICAGO - Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich said on Friday he had done nothing wrong and would not resign in the wake of charges he tried to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

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WASHINGTON - Mark Felt, the mysterious "Deep Throat" source who helped Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein crack the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon, has died at age 95.

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BAKU - Azerbaijan on Friday edged closer to a referendum on scrapping a two-term presidential limit, a step that could prolong the Aliyev family's grip on the oil-producing state.

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BINDURA, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe announced on Friday he had invited rival Morgan Tsvangirai to be sworn-in as prime minister in a shared government, but expressed doubt whether he would accept.

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TOKYO - Support for Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has slumped to 16.7 percent, a survey by Jiji news agency showed on Friday, as the gaffe-prone premier struggles to revive the nation's recession-hit economy.