Wednesday, November 25, 2009 LA PAZ: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Bolivia for a short visit Tuesday on the second leg of a Latin America tour of three leftist nations sympathetic to his administration. President Evo Morales greeted Ahmadinejad at the airport with full military honors before accompanying to the center of La Paz. There, a small group of feminists held a protest over Iran's treatment of women in front of the presidential palace as Ahmadinejad and Morales headed inside for talks. The leaders oversaw the signing of a deal that would see Iran involved in mining research in Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni, a vast salt desert near the Chilean border that holds half the world's known reserves of lithium -- a key mineral used in rechargeable batteries for cell phones, laptops and electric cars. French, Japanese and South Korean companies are competing to invest in the area, estimated to contain up to 100 million tons of lithium. The Iranian leader began his itinerary on Monday in Brazil, where his host President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reiterated support for Iran's controversial nuclear energy program.
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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