Prime Minister Stephen Harper has broken his silence and responded to the Liberal party's suggested changes on Canada's plan for the Afghan mission. - In a speech late Thursday morning during an appearance at the Conference of Defence Associations in Ottawa, Harper unveiled a new motion aimed at bridging the gap between the two political parties and possibly keeping his minority government alive. - The motion adopts wording from a Liberal amendment and spells out that all Canadian troops will be out of the volatile Kandahar region by December 2011, which is just six months later than Stephane Dion's Liberals had called for. - It also says the mission will focus on training and reconstruction, as the Liberals have demanded. - Harper said the government's new motion bridges the gap between the Conservative and Liberal positions on the combat mission in Afghanistan. - "It is a clear and principled position but it is not a...