Tuesday, November 10, 2009 KATHMANDU: Maoist activists on Tuesday blocked all roads in and out of Nepal's capital Kathmandu in the latest stage of a two-week protest against the government. Riot police stood on guard as hundreds of activists waving Maoist flags rallied at the main entry and exit points to the capital.Nepal's Maoist-led government fell in May after the president halted their attempt to sack the head of the army, and the party is holding a fortnight of nationwide protests against the new administration. The Maoists, who fought a 10-year civil war against the state before winning landmark elections in 2008, want the president to apologise for preventing the army chief's removal -- a move they say was unconstitutional. Their protest will continue on Thursday and Friday with a blockade of government buildings in the capital. They initially threatened to shut Kathmandu airport, but backed down under international pressure.
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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