NEW YORK: The UN General Assembly has postponed until late June the high-level gathering aimed at assessing the global economic crisis and seeking solutions, which take the interests of all nations into account.Originally scheduled to take place from June 1-3, the 'UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development' will now be held in New York from June 24-26.Delegates had voiced concern that they needed more time to negotiate the draft outcome document to be adopted at the gathering, according to spokesperson for Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto, who is also the summit's organiser.The President has appealed for negotiations on the draft outcome document to be wrapped up by June 15, underscoring at an Assembly session that the three-day meeting's success will hinge on "the active engagement of the political leadership of the Member States at the highest possible level." He further expressed confidence that "Member States will demonstrate the necessary political will and good faith regarding the complex negotiations" at the summit, which was called for by participants at a financing for development meeting held in Qatar in late 2008.
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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