LOS ANGELES: A moderate, 4.7-magnitude earthquake shook southern California Tuesday, according to the US Geological Survey, with no immediate reports of injuries or damage.The tremor hit 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) underground, centered some three miles (four kilometers) from Bombay Beach, which is on the Salton Sea, a large lake in the Salton Sink desert basin, the USGS reported.The town is some 90 miles (144 kilometers) west of San Diego. Geologists say an earthquake capable of causing widespread destruction is 99 percent certain of hitting California within the next 30 years.A study published last year said a 7.8 magnitude quake could kill 1,800 people, injure 50,000 more and damage 300,000 buildings.A 6.7 earthquake in Los Angeles in 1994 left at least 60 people dead and caused an estimated 10 billion dollars in damage, while a 6.9 quake in San Francisco in 1989 claimed 67 lives.
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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