KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah said in comments published Wednesday that a French firm is studying a plan by the Gulf state for a civilian nuclear project to produce power.Al-Watan daily quoted the emir as saying Kuwait is "seriously considering joining the nuclear club but only for peaceful purposes.""A French company is taking charge of the matter," the daily quoted the emir as saying. He did not name the company.Sheikh Sabah also said that generating power through a nuclear programme would "save large quantities of fuel being consumed by power and water desalination plants."The emir stressed Kuwait has no military ambitions with its planned nuclear programme which will be "within international law and standards."Kuwait is a member of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) which has decided to develop a joint nuclear technology programme for peaceful use under international rules.Besides Kuwait, the group includes Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.Last month, the UAE signed a deal with the United States to cooperate in civilian nuclear energy.The Wall Street Journal reported late last year that the UAE has already signed agreements with two US engineering companies, Thorium Power Ltd and CH2M Hill, to help with developing nuclear power plants.The GCC interest in developing atomic energy comes amid a continuing standoff between the West and Iran over its programme of uranium enrichment.The United States has charged that Tehran is using its nuclear programme to secretly develop an atomic bomb, a claim denied by Iran which maintains its nuclear activities are peaceful.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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