SINGAPORE: Oil prices fell in Asian trade Thursday after US crude reserves rose higher than expected, indicating demand remained weak in the recession-hit US economy, dealers said.New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for June delivery, dropped 17 cents to 48.68 dollars a barrel in afternoon trade.Brent North Sea crude for delivery in June eased 31 cents to 49.50 dollars.The US Department of Energy's weekly report, released Wednesday, showed crude the stockpile in the world's biggest energy consumer was at its highest level in almost 20 years."The inventory report coming out of the US is very bearish, showing stock gains across the board for crude oil," said Victor Shum, senior principal at Purvin and Gertz energy consultancy in Singapore.Reserves of gasoline and distilled products, such as diesel and heating fuel, also increased, confounding analyst expectations of declines.
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.
Comments