Tuesday, October 06, 2009 ATHENS: The New Democracy Party of Greece's Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis has conceded defeat in the general elections, handing power to the opposition Socialist party. With 87 percent of votes counted, the PanHellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) party is leading with 44 percent of the ballot, compared with New Democracy's 34 percent, according to figures announced by the Interior Ministry late on Sunday. The margin, which indicates a victory for PASOK, is the largest seen in a Greek vote in decades. This could mean 160 seats for the Socialists in Greece's 300-seat Parliament, while the ruling party would receive only 93 seats, officials said, CNN reported.
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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