Updated at: 0109 PST, Sunday, August 16, 2009 ALGIERS: A head-on collision between a lorry and a minibus in Algeria on Saturday killed 16 people, including more than a dozen members of the same family travelling together, the Algerian civil guard said. The minibus driver and his 5 passengers were killed in the accident that occurred on the outskirts of the city of Ghazaouet, more than 500 kilometres (313 miles) west of the capital Algiers, the civil guard said. The cause of the collision was not y?et known. All the passengers on the minibus were members of the same family who had gone to the beach earlier in the day, the El Watan newspaper said on its website. It had earlier reported that 17 people were killed. The Algerian government recently toughened the penalties against drivers due to the number of fatal accidents from speeding or reckless driving.
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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