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BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Aug. 27, 2008 – Members of the Australian Reconstruction Task Force and Task Force Castle’s 420th Engineer Brigade completed the emplacement of two Mabey Johnson bridges near Andar and Moqur in eastern Afghanistan. Army Spc. Corey Thompson, 420th Engineer Brigade, works with Australian combat engineers as they align two sections of a bridge. U.S. Army photo by Capt. James Reid, Combined Task Force Castle  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Insurgent attacks during the summer left the bridges impassible, forcing Afghans and coalition forces to use single-lane bypasses. Work progressed quickly once the Australian and American...

FALLUJAH — Iraqi Army Soldiers, operating in an area shared by Regimental Combat Team 1, escorted local sheiks and tribal leaders across a newly constructed bridge in the Bagharra region of Iraq, Aug. 19. The passage marked the re-opening of the Salem Bridge, an important link in connecting local citizens with cities on the other side of the Thar Thar Canal. Insurgents had demolished the original bridge with improvised explosive devices more than a year ago, forcing locals to travel nearly five hours to cross the canal. “Before this bridge opened, the people were suffering,” said 2nd Lt. Nasser Kazzoy,...

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

ALBANY - Warning of an approaching economic calamity, Gov. Paterson yesterday called an emergency session of the state Legislature - and raised the specter that New York may have to sell off roads, bridges and tunnels to close a massive budget deficit.

The fallen span of the southbound lane on the Grand Canal Bridge in Taji, northwest of Baghdad, floats in the water underneath the bridge. The damage was caused by a vehicle-born improvised explosive device which was detonated on August 14, 2007. Photo by Pfc. Lyndsey Dransfield, 2nd Stryker Brigade 25th Infantry Division. CAMP TAJI — Engineers with 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team “Warrior,” 25th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad, journeyed to the Grand Canal Bridge in Taji Qada, northwest of Baghdad, July 22, to monitor repair progress. The bridge, which spans a portion of the Grand Canal and is...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

Old photos of the Interstate 35W bridge show two steel connecting plates were visibly bent as early as 2003 — four years before the span collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people. Minnesota Department of Transportation officials declined to say when the state first knew about the bending in the pieces of steel, called gusset plates. Two photos, part of a report issued earlier this month by the National Transportation Safety Board, reveal slight bends in gusset plates that hold beams together at two separate connecting points. The plates are in areas believed to be among the first points...

Rotting holes in steel support beams, enormous rust patches, small splits in steel girders and broken bracing are evident all along the underside of the John Greenleaf Whittier Bridge, the heavily traveled Interstate 95 span that crosses the Merrimack River between Amesbury and Newburyport. A just-released state safety report filed in the wake of last year's disastrous collapse of the similarly designed Interstate 35 bridge in Minneapolis gave the 57-year-old Whittier Bridge "poor" ratings due to deterioration. On a 10-step ranking system, the rating is just two steps above the point where engineers consider closing a bridge due to safety...

At 6:05 p.m. on Aug. 1, silence will fall along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. And those standing along the river's banks will remember that at that moment one year ago, the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people and injuring hundreds of others. A prayer service on Aug. 1 at the Basilica of St. Mary followed by an outdoor memorial service at Gold Medal Park on the Mississippi River will mark the first anniversary of the bridge collapse. "It was one of the worst days that I will ever be part of that ironically showed...

NY's Triborough Bridge To Be Renamed For RFKReported by: Clyde Gray Last Update: 6/05 4:01 pm The bridge leading to New York's JFK Airport will soon be named for the former president's younger brother. Governor David Paterson is set to sign a measure to rename the Triborough Bridge after New York Senator "Bobby" Kennedy. At the time of his death, he was running for the democratic presidential nomination.

Sgt. Matthew Burket, a native of Sandwich, Ill., entertains children from Abu Ghuraib, a neighborhood in northwest Baghdad, June 5. Burket is assigned to 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad. His unit provided security for local national workers and Iraqi army soldiers during a barrier emplacement mission on Leaders Bridge. Photo by Sgt. Paul Monroe. BAGHDAD — Packed cars, meandering pedestrians and the occasional donkey pulling a cart fill the busy streets of Baghdad daily. Couple this with roads blocked off by Iraqi security and coalition forces to lessen...

WATERLOO — One-half of the Sixth Street railroad bridge over the Cedar River in downtown Waterloo has washed away in the flood waters. Half the bridge remains. We will provide more details as they become available. Also, the city of Cedar Falls has now expanded its area of evacuation.

Metro doesn't dismiss a Portland-to-Vancouver "mega-bridge" with up to 12 lanes A divided Metro Council on Thursday endorsed building a new Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River that will extend light-rail transit into Vancouver from Portland, require tolls to cross and have room for pedestrians and bicyclists. The 5-2 decision, after a six-hour public hearing, did not specify how many lanes the bridge should have. Rather, it established Metro's position on what may be the region's costliest public works project in a generation. Also, it rejected a proposal to back off from what critics called an unnecessary "mega-bridge" solution....

BAGHDAD, May 30, 2008 – The promise of a prosperous future for Iraq took one step closer to becoming a reality when the Sarafiyah Bridge linking Baghdad’s Rusafa and Karkh districts was reopened May 27 after being rebuilt. Members of an Iraqi color guard stand ready to receive Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for the May 27, 2008, reopening of the Sarafiyah Bridge, which links Baghdad’s Rusafa and Karhk districts. The bridge, built by the British during the 1940s, was destroyed in a vehicle-bomb attack April 12, 2007. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jerome Bishop, Multinational Division Baghdad  (Click photo...

Sheikh Salah (left), a prominent sheikh in Busayefi, cuts the ribbon on a new bridge May 13. The bridge, constructed by an Iraqi company and funded by the GoI, spans the Mercedes Canal and links the communities of Hawr Rajab and Busayefi. Courtesy photo. FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — Brightly painted flowers, hearts and polka-dots color the new bridge with cheery symbols.  Most importantly, the bridge’s construction between the communities of Busayefi and Hawr Rajab paints a symbol of unity. Once under the control of insurgents, the communities became isolated; they were also separated from each other by the Mercedes...

NURISTAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan -- Operation Mountain Highway II began in Afghanistan's eastern Nuristan province in late April. The operation started April 22 when Soldiers from International Security Assistance Force and the Afghan National Army made a simultaneously night air assault onto three mountains above Gowerdesh Bridge. Afghan and American Soldiers created Observation Posts Mace, Hatchet and Brick, which enabled the Afghan Border Police and ANA to drive up from the south and seize the bridge April 26. "It was (a very) synchronized air assault to get everybody in," said Capt. John Williams, commander of the 1st Squadron, 91st Cavalry's Headquarters...

NEW YORK - The Brooklyn Bridge is 125 years old this month and New York City is getting ready to celebrate. The city on Monday announced an array of activities including a special bridge lighting, concerts, lectures, film series and family events. The five-day festivities will kick off on May 22 with a performance by the Brooklyn Philharmonic at the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park in Brooklyn, and a Grucci fireworks presentation. The bridge connects Brooklyn and Manhattan across the East River, and is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the country. It will be lit up in an array...

TIKRIT — A ribbon cutting ceremony officially opening two temporary bridges in Bayji was held May 8. These two bridges, which expand over the Tigris River, will promote more trade and stimulate the economy of the region by allowing the people of the provinces of Salah ad Din and Kirkuk to unite. Iraqi Security Forces helped to set the conditions in the area to make it possible to reconstruct the bridge, symbolizing the dedication of the ISF. With the skilled workmanship of the Iraqi Army Field Engineer Company who along with the Coalition Forces, built this monument to the people...

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China will open the world's longest cross-sea bridge on Thursday, linking the financial and commercial hub of Shanghai with the booming port and industrial city of Ningbo, the official Xinhua news agency said. The 11.8 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) cable-stayed structure, spanning Hangzhou Bay in Zhejiang Province south of Shanghai, will be open to traffic on a trial basis at midnight following an inauguration ceremony on Thursday afternoon, Xinhua said. The 36 km span will shorten travel time between Shanghai and Ningbo, two key port cities in China's prosperous Yangtze River Delta, to two-and-a-half hours from...

SNOHOMISH — The patch under the bridge is closed in by brambles. Rodent tracks crisscross in the dirt. It may be dry, but still it's not fit for human habitation. Unless you're a sex offender, that is.The underside of the 88th Street bridge, near this river town's greenhouses and horse farms, is where state government last week assigned a released rapist to sleep. David J. Torrence, who assaulted a 16-year-old girl in 1995, had completed his latest prison term (for failing to register as a sex offender.) He had no place to go. So officials gave him a sleeping bag...