Thursday, June 18, 2009 LONDON: India and New Zealand will face each other in the first ICC Women's World Twenty20 2009 semi-final at Trent Bridge on Thursday.The White Ferns, who were losing finalists in the ICC Women's World Cup in March in Australia, start favourites to make the final at Lord's after carrying their good form to Taunton with three convincing wins. New Zealand, who had arrived in England on the back of a three-Twenty20 series with Australia, beat an undercooked India comfortably in Taunton ahead of the tournament.Though India eased into the semis with two wins - its sole defeat was to favourite England - Mithali knows that its batting has been shaky and has relied on individual performances such as Anjum Chopra's 37 not out against Pakistan, and her own unbeaten 32 against Sri Lanka.
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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