Tuesday, August 04, 2009 MEXICO CITY: A 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck Monday off the coast of Mexico near Santa Isabel in Baja California, experts from the US Geological Survey said.USGS said the quake struck at 11:00 am (1800 GMT) and was preceded about five minutes earlier by one registering a 5.8 magnitude. There appeared to be no imminent threat of tidal waves from the quakes, USGS said, although individual governments were advised to make their own decisions on whether to issue a tsunami warning. "Earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within a few hundred kilometers of the earthquake epicenter," it added."Authorities in the region of the epicenter should be aware of this possibility and take appropriate action."
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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