RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's earthquake monitoring service is urging residents of several villages in the kingdom's western region to evacuate after it recorded a temblor measuring5.39 on the Richter scale. The Saudi National Center for Earthquakes and Volcanos said in a statement Wednesday the pre-dawn quake caused no damage or injuries. But it urged residents of five villages west of the holy city of Medina to head to tent camps and shelters set up by authorities. Arab satellite new channels had reported that many have already fled the area. Authorities have been distributing surgical masks after many complaints about unpleasant odors emanating from the fissures caused by the quake. Earlier, a magnitude 4.9 quake was registered in the same area.
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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