Friday, September 04, 2009 PETRA: Pop star Madonna has wrapped up her world tour with a sightseeing trip to Jordan's famed ruins in Petra.Madonna, 51, was flown by helicopter into this ancient Roman-era city carved out in red stone in a trip arranged by Queen Rania, the wife of Jordan's King Abdullah II.The pop star, in a white shirt and white slacks, was escorted by Jordanian security and an armed bodyguard during her 15-minute tour.She made no comment to reporters as she walked in almost total darkness. Jordanian security lit the area with headlights from their vehicles.Madonna arrived in Jordan from neighboring Israel, where she performed two concerts over the last two days.
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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