Wednesday, June 03, 2009 WASHINGTON: A resumption of direct talks between the United States and Cuban on migration issues and a direct mail service is in both countries' interest, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Tuesday.Gibbs said President Barack Obama was pleased that Cuba had agreed to the talks."Obviously, it's in the interest of both governments," he said. "Obviously, I think direct mail would increase the ability for the president's initiative to be able to reach out directly to the Cuban people."Though its interest section in Washington, Cuba on Saturday accepted the US invitation to resume talks on migratory issues, which have been suspended since 2003.Mail between the two countries currently goes through third countries.The latest move to thaw relations followed Obama's decision in April to authorize travel and money transfers to the island by US nationals of Cuban descent.
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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