Tuesday, August 11, 2009 TOKYO: A strong earthquake with preliminary magnitude of 7.6, jolted eastern and central Japan on Tuesday, a government agency said, rattling houses in Tokyo. The quake, which struck at 0507 a.m. (2007 GMT, Monday), prompted a tsunami warning for waves of up to 50 cm (20 inches) for parts of the Pacific coast, the Japan Meteorological Agency said on its website. A highway was closed and a Chubu Electric Power nuclear power station at Hamaoka shut two units for safety checks. The focus of the tremor was 20 km (12 miles) deep under Shizuoka prefecture, around 150 km (90 miles) southwest of Tokyo, the agency said.
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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