The US Senate has approved an additional $165bn to wage war in Iraq and Afghanistan for another year after lawmakers rejected proposed timetables for withdrawing American troops from Iraq.
A majority of senators approved the war-spending bill, which the Pentagon says it urgently needs to avoid civilian layoffs within months and the interruption of soldier paychecks.
The House of Representatives still must sign off on the legislation.
Last week, it passed a drastically different bill that failed to provide any new money for the wars and would withdraw US combat troops from Iraq by the end of 2009.
Meanwhile, two journalists have been killed in separate incidents in Baghdad and in the province of Diyala in Iraq.
Wissa Ali Ouda was killed by a sniper as he was heading home in the Al-Obeidi district of northeastern Baghdad, according to his editor-in-chief Khazaal Ghazi.
He was a reporter for private television station Afaq.
The body of another journalist, Haidar Hashem al-Husseini, was found in the town of Baquba northeast of Baghdad yesterday.
He had been kidnapped two days earlier.
Last night, a US military helicopter air strike on a car killed eight civilians in Baiji north of Baghdad.
Baiji's police chief Colonel Mudhher al-Qaisi said the civilians were shepherds who were in a farming area in the town when the strike took place.
A US military spokeswoman said this morning 'suspicious activity' had been noted and people in the car ignored warnings to stop.
