MANILA: Twelve people were killed and 57 rescued after a ferry sank in waters south of the Philippine capital on Saturday, the coast guard said.The boat, the MV Commander 6, was carrying people from Batangas to a resort beach on the island of Mindoro when it was hit by large waves, which cracked its hull, causing the vessel to sink, the coast guard report said.Coast guard rescue vessels and private boats rushed to the scene to rescue the people. There were no immediate reports on whether any of the people onboard were still missing. The boat had only 42 people on its manifest, indicating that many people had boarded without being listed, coast guard officials said. Small, poorly-maintained ferries are the backbone of inter-island travel in this archipelagic country and many ferry owners resort to overloading their vessels, leading to frequent maritime mishaps.
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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