Wednesday, December 02, 2009 SYDNEY: A moderate 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Vanuatu in the South Pacific Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said. Its epicentre was located 102 kilometres (64 miles) northwest of the capital Port-Vila at 06:42 am (0342 GMT), it said. The quake struck at a depth of 39 kilometres. No tsunami warning was immediately issued as a result of the tremor, which followed a series of huge quakes in mid-October that triggered a region-wide tsunami alert. The Pacific is still recovering from an 8.0-magnitude earthquake and huge tsunami that crashed into Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga on September 29, wiping out villages and resorts and killing 184 people.
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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