Sunday, October 04, 2009 MANILA: A 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck off the Philippines Sunday, seismologists said, but at 630 kilometres (390 miles) below the seabed it was considered extremely deep and no destructive tsunami was expected.The quake hit in the Moro Gulf, off Mindanao, at 6:58 pm (1058 GMT), but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries and the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said it did not expect a destructive tsunami.The epicentre was 100 kilometres southwest of Cotabato, in Mindanao, the US Geological Survey said.Asia-Pacific has in the past week been hit by earthquakes, tsunamis and typhoons that have left nearly 2,000 dead.
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.
Comments