Tuesday, October 06, 2009 WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama called up Greece's next prime minister, George Papandreou, to congratulate him on his success in Sunday's elections, the White House said.Obama "wished all Greeks well who participated in the democratic process. The president reiterated the importance of the US-Greece relationship and said he looks forward to working with Mr Papandreou", according to a statement released by the White House. Papandreou's Socialist party won 44 percent of the votes, or 160 of 300 parliamentary seats, according to the interior ministry, which had counted 87 percent of the votes. Papandreou's victory was seen as an expression of voters' discontent over the conservative government's handling of the economic crisis and corruption. His father and grandfather also served as prime ministers in Greece over past decades.
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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