MANILA: Flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rains have left 20 people dead in the eastern Philippines, officials said Monday.Storms lashed the eastern Bicol region and the southern fringe of Luzon island at the weekend, displacing nearly 50,000 people in five provinces, the Civil Defense Office said. Some parts of the eastern provinces of Catanduanes, Sorsogon, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur and Albay remain flooded."There were 20 reported deaths," the agency said, adding that rescuers were still searching for three people buried by a landslide in the town of Magallanes. Ferry operations across the eastern seaboard remained suspended, while the government rushed relief workers to the affected areas.While the storms were dissipating and moving away, the state weather bureau said the eastern-most island of Catanduanes would continue to be battered by rains and strong winds, which may cause more flooding and floods.
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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