Wednesday, November 04, 2009 HANOI: The death toll from Tropical Storm Mirinae rose to 57 in Vietnam on Wednesday as authorities stepped up rescue and relief operations in the affected central regions.In the hardest-hit province of Phu Yen, 24 more deaths were reported as information trickled in from isolated areas, disaster official Dang Thi Lanh said Wednesday. An additional 18 people were reported missing.The storm and flooding left another 18 people dead and seven others missing, according to disaster officials and the government's Web site.Soldiers using speed boats continued to move people from flooded homes and provide victims with instant noodles and water, Lanh said.Authorities have evacuated nearly 15,000 people from Phu Yen, where the water began to recede Wednesday. A day earlier, many families scrambled to rooftops to escape the overflowing Ha Thanh River.In the neighboring province of Binh Dinh, two military helicopters continued to drop food and water to villagers still stranded in isolated areas, said Ho Quoc Dung, deputy chairman of the provincial People's Committee.The storm and flooding also left 52 people injured, destroyed or damaged 14,000 homes, and damaged about 12,400 acres (5,000 hectares) of rice and other crops, according the national committee for flood and storm control.Mirinae hit the Philippines with typhoon strength over the weekend, killing 20 people before losing strength as it moved across the South China Sea toward Vietnam.Both Vietnam and the Philippines were still recovering from Typhoon Ketsana, which brought the Philippine capital of Manila its worst flooding in 40 years when it struck in September. Ketsana killed 160 people in Vietnam.In the Philippines, Ketsana and two later storms killed more than 900. Some 87,000 people who fled the storms were still living in temporary shelters when Mirinae struck.
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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