Sunday, December 13, 2009 ORISSA: Orissa police seized 96 turtles, which were being smuggled out of the country, and arrested one in this regard in the late hours on Friday.The illegal consignment was being taken in a vehicle to West Bengal’s Midnapore East district. Police officials said that they intercepted the vehicle on a tip-off.“Total 96 tortoises were kept in the bag. We seized the turtles and arrest one person in this connection. We informed the forest officials regarding this. Later forest officials came and seized the turtles and the detained person named Durgashankar Maan for further legal action,” said Amulya Kumar Champatiray, Inspector-in-charge of Pipili Police Station.Besides slaughtering for meat, the species, protected under India’s wildlife act, are also used in the formulation of certain traditional medicines.India has banned their trade under the 1972 Wildlife Protection Act, but the huge profit margin and lax laws increasingly lure poachers to the trade.
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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