PESHAWAR: Terrified, locked up at home and courting death if they go out alone, women oppressed by extremists in Swat have nothing to celebrate on International Women’s Day.Nearly 100 years after the annual day was created to mark the struggle for equal rights for half the world’s population, most women in Swat look blank and go silent when asked about gender rights and discrimination.They’re too frightened to speak in public. They can only leave the confines of their homes accompanied by a male relative, their bodies hidden in veils.‘How can I tell you my name, are you crazy? I was told not to give my name to anyone because the Taliban could hurt me,’ one girl in the ninth grade told AFP by telephone from the former ski resort.The girl’s dreams of becoming a doctor are over. She worries the Taliban will stop her finishing school, regardless of her parents’ support.‘My mother told me I can do anything, but my inner soul is shattered.’‘Tell me if you stop women getting an education where will a sick woman go? Do you want her to go to a male doctor? I was told that education is compulsory for every man and woman in Islam but the Taliban destroyed our schools.’Militants have destroyed 191 schools in the valley, 122 of them for girls, leaving 62,000 pupils with nowhere to study, local officials say.Huma Batool – not her real name – is a 42-year-old mother of two who dices with death to teach girls at a private school in the region’s main town Mingora.‘We have to veil ourselves and wear shuttlecock burqas. We are not safe even at home. We fear the Taliban all the time. Life is becoming worse and worse for women in Swat,’ she told AFP by telephone.Educated and financially self-sufficient, she cannot even pop to the shops without a male relative, leaving her frequently couped up at home for hours, waiting for a suitable escort to become available.‘You cannot imagine how I manage to get to school, practically every day I think about leaving the job and sitting at home.’‘Life bores us to tears. There is no entertainment. We can’t even think about cable TV, cinema, film and music. Imagine I can’t even go shopping or to the bazaar as women are banned by Taliban.’Salma Javed, 35, is a nurse at a local hospital, where women – however sick – can only be admitted if accompanied by a male relative.
‘Every woman fears she will be killed if she comes out, so even sick and pregnant women have to visit hospital with their husbands.’Salma would love to leave, but she cannot scrape together the money to set herself up in Peshawar.‘Now we are waiting to see what will happen after the peace deal, but let me tell you things will not change for women,’ she said.The only light in Shahnaz Kousar’s life is that the Taliban – at least for now – are allowing her to go to school in Mingora. But outside her 10th grade classroom, the daily pleasures of shopping and make-up are gone.‘We are now totally depending on Taliban. There’s not a single shop left where I can go and buy cosmetics, all shops selling women’s things are either closed or empty.’‘I remember when I used to go to this market with my mother and sisters, but now it seems like a dream.’
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Rockets fired in Peshawar
PESHAWAR: Unidentified militants fired at least 28 rockets at Adezai village in the small hours of Thursday. A house was damaged in the attack.Adezai union council nazim Haji Abdul Malik told Dawn that rockets began to land around his residence after midnight and continued for about one hour.‘They were not rockets but mortar shells, which bear marks of Wah Factory,’ Malik said and added that house of Sher Mast Khan was hit by two shells. The owner of the house, he said, had been killed in a similar attack sometime ago.He said that local people tried to locate the attackers, but couldn’t do so as they had fired the mortars from Jani Khwar, about six kilometres away from Adezai village.The nazim said that firing of mortar shells with short intervals showed that the number of attackers was in dozens.He said volunteers were active to defend their village but they couldn’t patrol in the areas every night.
He said that militants had also attacked the village on last Wednesday night and fired about 12 rockets.An official of the Matani police station said that militants had been active in the surrounding areas but police had also beefed up security to frustrate their attacks.
World award for tolerance renamed after Benazir Bhutto
VIENNA: Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari presented the Benazir Bhutto Tolerance Award to actor Claudia Cardinal on Thursday. The award has been renamed after Benazir Bhutto, who received it in 2005.In his speech, Bilawal thanked the organisers for the recognition given to his mother. “By honouring my mother, you are also honouring Pakistan,” he said.“The problems that Pakistan faces at the moment are unprecedented,” he said while referring to Pakistan in the post-Benazir period. Bilawal said the PPP government had inherited a backlog of years of political instability in the region. “The acts of terrorism in Pakistan are a blight on our society and I am deeply shocked at the recent attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore,” he said.But he urged the international community not to lose faith in people of Pakistan. “We are a young nation striving to find our place in the world and God willing we will fulfil my mother’s dream.” Bilawal was accompanied by his aunt Sanam Bhutto and Pakistan’s High Commissioner to UK Wajid Shamsul Hassan.
US Sees a Place for Iran at Meeting on Afghanistan
The United States is proposing a big conference on Afghanistan and wants to invite Iran, one of its neighbors. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says dealing with extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan requires a regional effort.She announced the proposal to hold a high-level meeting on March thirty-first. It would also include donors and members of NATO, and might take place in the Netherlands. The United Nations special representative for Afghanistan, Kai Eide, could be the chairman.
Secretary Clinton presented the idea to NATO foreign ministers in Brussels. Then, on Friday, she met in Geneva with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss arms control and other issues.The NATO ministers agreed to restart high-level contacts with Russia. Those were suspended last year after its military action in Georgia.
President Obama wants Russia to help keep nuclear weapons away from Iran. He says that would reduce the need for an American missile-defense system proposed for the Czech Republic and Poland. But he also says his comments do not suggest a weakening of support for the security of those countries or other NATO members.Russia opposes the defense plan. President Obama says it is directed at Iran, not Russia. But his administration is also re-examining current American policy which aims to isolate Iran from the world. At the same time, he has decided to send two high-level officials to Damascus for talks with Syria.Secretary Clinton announced the trip in Jerusalem earlier this week during her first visit to the Middle East as America's top diplomat. The United States has not had an ambassador in Syria since former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri was killed in two thousand five.The United States has criticized Syria and Iran for supporting militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. But, in a development announced Wednesday, Britain says it is open to talks with the political wing of Hezbollah in Lebanon.Britain halted contacts in two thousand five. And last July it added Hezbollah's military force to its list of banned organizations. But Hezbollah is part of a national unity government that was formed last year in Lebanon. The United States says it has no plans for now to follow Britain's lead.Finally, in other news, this Sunday is International Women's Day. A new study says women's rights have gained some ground in Arab Gulf states since a similar study completed five years ago. The group Freedom House notes that in Kuwait, women have won the right to vote. In Oman, women have made gains in areas of higher education, the work force and politics.Just last month, Saudi Arabia got its first woman cabinet member, Noura al-Fayez, the deputy minister for women's education. But the Freedom House researchers say much more progress is still needed, especially in Saudi Arabia.
People protest bombing of Rahman Baba shrine
PESHAWAR: A large number of angry villagers of Bahader Killay, Garhi Qamardin, Hazarkhwani and other towns Friday held protest demo against blowing up of the shrine of the most revered Pashto sufi poet, Rahman Baba.The demonstrators marched on Ring Road where they also staged a rally. The speakers demanded immediate arrest of the culprits behind the worst act of terrorism at the mausoleum of the most popular and loved Pashto poet.An elder, Noor Ali Shah Bacha, lashed at the government, saying it had failed to provide security to the public and public places. He said a group of people had been left to play havoc with the ‘cultural treasures’ of Pakhtuns. The elder argued that not a single person has any disagreement with the sayings of Rahman Baba who always spoke for peace and love.Hidayatullah, Nazim Union Council Hazarkhwani-I, urged the government to arrest the attackers forthwith. He said they would convene a Momand-Khalil jirga to take up the issue and evolve a future strategy. He termed the coward act a conspiracy against Pakhtun culture and traditions.Habib Gul, a villager while talking to The News, said the miscreants not only damaged the mausoleum but also attempted to suppress the universal message of love and peace of Rahman Baba.Naeem Jan said the government was never serious about arresting the gangsters who had been destroying the shrines in the name of Islam. He was quick to comment that they had received threats from unknown people that they would destroy the shrine. He added that suspected elements were against the visits of women to the shrine.Nawaz Ali, a banker present at the complex, said Rehman Baba had been equally respected in four provinces of the country and the rest of the world where Pakhtuns had settled because of his poetry and the message that he left for the people. He said nobody had the right to bar women from visiting the mausoleum.
NAWAZ SHARIF .......... HYPOCRITE
M WAQAR
I am surfing the net for latest global news and I read Govt of China opened their congress session in which their President is reading progress report and talking about China’s future and what Govt can do for citizens progress and their future, development etc, In America President Obama and his team working hard to fix current economic problems and making moves for better lives of Americans, Same going on in Russia, Latin America , Europe etc, where elected officials are discussing problems, solving problems etc. Then I read about Pakistan, where innocent people getting killed, Taliban kidnapping and beheading foreign workers. Govt seems helpless and clueless, seems like there is no law and order, there is elected Govt but I don’t read in news that they are discussing how to take care of their voters problems, how to get rid of load shedding etc, citizens are on their own, they are selling kids and kidneys, none of elected officials talking about creating jobs, building educational institutions ,controlling poverty, health benefits for citizens etc. Where is the discussion about the higher education in Pakistan? How are the top notch scientists, engineers and doctors going to be trained? When will govt start pouring funds into these fields? There is also EDUCATIONAL FAILURE in Pakistan, a country with over 40 million illiterate people can’t progress and develop . The lack of modern schools and scientific education shows no potential for Pakistan to develop economically or politically in the future. Pakistani elite betraying the better educated parts of its population and turn itself into a backward nation, and they are doing it so they can rule and no one can question them .Pakistan as a nation is failing miserably and corrupt and opportunist politicians and power hungry Generals are responsible for that. If Pakistan is bankrupt ,even all the loans from IMF, World Bank, Paris Club, London Club, overt and covert aid from US, and repeated refinancing of the debt have not worked because all that aid was stolen by Pakistani elite, politicians and Army Generals. Today we see POLITICAL FAILURE in Pakistan because of The military coups, suspension of constitutional law, murders of Bhuttos , reveal no evidence of a modern political culture or democracy and none of the politicians of this country were sincere to help growing that political culture in Pakistan, Pakistani politicians have no agenda for growth or development; no plans for health and education meaningful. Most of the Politicians lack qualifications, experience and even commitment to tackle the problems of the Country. Politics and power dominates their agenda and real issues of poverty, illiteracy and disease do not fare in their book. Anyone who expects them to lead the country to peace and prosperity must be dreaming. The representatives of the people need to pass certain tests of eligibility. Character, ability, a sense of responsibility and experience are necessary ingredients of that eligibility, but in Pakistani Politics we don’t see that, there was marriage of convenience between Zardari and Nawaz but that marriage did not work from day one, Nawaz Shariff loves to destabilize democracy and there is a long list of other politicians who share his fantasy of playing ugly role in failing Democracy. Nawaz Shariff is keep talking about Justice Iftikhar but he forgets that he was involved in attacking supreme court of Pakistan, on the other hand I think it will it be better for Justice Ifthikah to join PML(N) OR make his own political party because I am pretty sure that if Nawaz gets power, he will not reinstate him because Nawaz hands are not clean either. Nawaz Sharif is a big hypocrite. He had the Supreme Court physically attacked on 28th Nov 1997 but is now standing up for the independence of the judiciary just because he hates Musharraf. And another thing is that whatever these politicians want becomes the solution to everything. They wanted democracy, it was the "solution to everything". Now they want judiciary, it is the "solution to everything". Nawaz Sharif , talks of independence of judiciary but before doing that ,at least he should eliminate the culprits of Supreme court attack case from his party. A few months ago he categorically said the reinstatement of the judges is the most crucial issue facing the people of Pakistan. (Actually, I'm pretty sure the food and electricity crises are the most crucial issues facing the people of Pakistan. Then comes the threat of militancy and terrorism. You've got to put inflation in there too. Pakistani politicians have double standards, lets put it this way, Nawaz was after the daughter of chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar but Nawaz forgets that Rules were bent in 1991 to admit Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Mariam Nawaz to King Edward Medical College in Lahore . According to reports Mariam was a grade-B student in matric and FSc and scored 580 out of 850, and 767 out of 1,100 in the two exams in 1989 and 1991 respectively , Clearly, she did not qualify for admission to the KEMC on open merit. She was admitted to the Army Medical College in Rawalpindi and was migrated after only a month to the KEMC, which she left without completing her degree it was ‘almost comical’ that having done something similar, the Sharifs were pointing fingers at the chief justice. PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif wants CJ Abdul Hameed Dogar to resign over allegation that his daughter received undue favor for admission in a private medical college, but he is yet to offer an apology for his own daughter Mariam actually receiving such favor for enrolment in a public sector medical college in 1991 ,I am not defending what DOGER done but all this corrupt Pakistani elite is in same boat. Its also interesting that Nawaz called Zardari worst then Musharaff but Nawaz forgets that his mentor (Dictaor Zia) was the worst dictator in Pakistan and he is no less than him. How will you promote the merit, Mr.Nawaz, you have yourself reached here on Zia's lap .We are fool to expect you anything. Mr Nawaz Sharif, people of Pakistan beg you to please not to destabilize country. People know in any hour of trial, you have your Palace and business in Saudi Arabia and you will flee in minutes but Pakistanis do not have any other place to live. Please stop playing your heinous designs and let us save PAKISTAN . So called politicians likeNawaz Sharif ,survive in politics based on their wealth and fudel background, lets not forget that majority of these politicians forefathers betrayed their nation and helped ENGLISH masters to rule Indian subcontinent . When Nawaz was leaving for Saudia Arabia, where was his pain for people of Pakistan or even of people of his own party. He left them all in crisis to have holidays in Saudi Palaces. He has been financing so called Jihadis and took funds from OSAMA to run his election campaign. In fact his political father Zia has laid all seeds of religious fanaticism. ,Benazir has lost her life ,even Gen Musharaff narrowly escaped two life attempts, ANP leadership suffered, but Do you know any leader of PML(N) to whom militants have posed life threats? If now after his political summersault he begins to believe that the problem lies in our home, Why didn’t he join hands with Zardari to crush out the militants? An indeed example of hypocrisy Nawaz Sharif . It was disappointing to watch the PMLN leadership discard the democratic framework and call upon its workers to take to the streets to voice their anger against the Supreme Court judgement that disqualified the Sharif brothers from holding public office. Perhaps the PMLN leaders think that democracy is relevant only to the extent that it facilitates the achievement of their partisan political agenda. What are the implications of street agitation for the capacity of the government to cope with religious extremism and militancy? PML-N of Nawaz loves to create problems, His party is also involved in making wrong statements on PUKHTUNKHWA name issue and are trying to divide people in Pukhtunkhwa. Nawaz Sharif is playing innocent now but does he remembers what he did to media when he was PM ?Rehamt Shah Afridi of the Frontier Post was sent to prison because FP was telling the truth about Nawaz regime .Mr. Afridi, who was imprisoned by Nawaz because his work was harming the interests of the powerful Punjabi mafia and corrupt. Mr. Afridi was imprisoned because of his peaceful expression of his beliefs during Nawaz Sharif era of corruption. The press faced intense repression during Shariff's second term .In June 1997, Humayun Fur, Peshawar bureau chief of the daily Mashriq, was detained under charges of "anti-state" activities and sentenced to five years in jail by a military court on 9 September 1997.On 8 May 1999, Najam Sethi, editor of the Friday Times, was arrested in Lahore and held without charge for nearly a month by Inter-Services Intelligence. The government finally charged Mr Sethi on 1 June 1999 with sedition, promoting communal enmity, condemning the creation of Pakistan and advocating the abolition of its sovereignty, and violating the Prevention of Anti-National Activities Act. Two other journalists M.A.K Lodhi of The News International and Hussain Haqqani, an opposition leader and columnist for The Friday Times and daily Jang were also arrested. Rehmat Shah Afridi, editor of The Frontier Post, was arrested in April 1999.Nawaz Shariff who as the Prime Minister of Pakistan for two terms i.e. from 6 November 1990 to 18 July 1993 and 17 February 1997 to 12 October 1999 was responsible for gross human rights violations. During the first term of Shariff, even human rights defenders were oppressed. On 1 April 1993, three staff members of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, including its director, I.A. Rehman, were detained by police and documents were confiscated from the HRCP's office. Nawaz Sharif had a history of terrorizing professional journalists. Before becoming PM he was a major share holder along with his brother and cousins of Ittefaq Group, having assets well in excess of £50m in the 90's. However he got richer when he took commissions from foreign companies for construction in Pakistan. He build the first motorway and many new roads and took heavy kickbacks. He then also stole $100m from the Iqra funds, he started a new scheme "Ghar Apna" in which he again looted around $40m, the "Mulk swaaro" scheme involving public & govt. money collections to help pay Pakistan's debts; also was pocketed .Nawaz Sharif is an autocrat with no relation to democratic norms and traditions. His each tenure in the helm of affairs was more dishonest than the previous one. His malpractices not only swayed away the economic structure of the state but also made the lives of poor disastrous . Unfortunately none of Pakistani politicians are interested in progress of their country and people. Pakistan belongs to its people and not to the bunch of rotten corrupt politicians that have come and gone. Pakistan has been resilient enough to withstand the onslaught of corruption year after year for 62 years running, watching one tyrant after another make his own heaven on earth. Nawaz sharif and other politicians have no sense of responsibility, his call for civl dissidence was not only irresponsible but also selfish just like one religious party leader FAZAL REHAMAN told his supporters to pick up arms if Islamic system not enforced in the country, do these politicians know what they are talking about? Are they aware of the situation Pakistan is in? Or they are just selfish and for their political gain they can do and say anything ? Pakistan needs new generation of politicians who are not family members of past hypocrites, dictators and traitors , Pakistani political parties never developed into viable institutions capable of generating leadership. There are talented emerging politicians in some political parties of Pakistan but they stand no chance of occupying their party top slots. Only the educated people can help break the choking grip of wealthy, autocratic feudal politicians. In Pakistan the military has been part of the problem because it has been encouraging the monopoly of a handful of politicians in the country, perpetuating a troubled system and never encouraging its replacement with a better one. The prevalent feudal system of Pakistan is the main obstacle in the progress of the country and the prosperity of the people. Since the creation of Pakistan the Pakistani people are left at distant from the corridor of power so that the ruling elite can do what they wanted to do in favour of their interest, leaving the Pakistani people at the mercy of circumstances. As this policy is denial of right of Pakistani people to rule their country according to their aspiration and desire to build this country, which can provide equal opportunity to all without any discrimination for the establishment of welfare society. It would be wrong to blame Pakistan army alone for having usurped power for more than half of its life. It was in fact feudal corrupt politicians that facilitated first martial law in Pakistan and again in 1999. How long shall we suffer? How long the future of our coming generation will be at stake. With a population of over 160 million, Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world and the second most populous country with a Muslim majority. However, the country faces significant development challenges, with one in 10 children dying before their fifth birthday, and 50% of adults classed as illiterate, no clean drinking water, load shedding and so many other countless problems Pakistanis face everyday. Pakistani politicians failed to develop stability in Pakistan, because they lack an all-Pakistan vision.
By the age of 62, a COUNTRY - like a man - should have achieved a certain maturity. After decades of existence we know, for good and for bad, who we are, what we have done and how we appear to others, warts and all. But unfortunately, Pakistan remains curiously immature, a Country with less then 50% rate of literacy can’t bring political wisdom that usually accompanies age. Therefore ,Pakistanis needs to wake up , stand up for their rights and reject these corrupt and failed politicians.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
REHMAN BABA :Taliban blow up 17th century sufi shrine in Peshawar
PESHAWAR: Suspected Taliban blew an ancient shrine of a 17th century sufi poet – Rehman Baba – in Akhund Baba graveyard early on Thursday, said locals and police, with the AP news agency reporting that a letter delivered three days before the attack to the management of the mausoleum had warned against its promotion of ‘shrine culture’.
The white-marble shrine was badly damaged when explosives planted along its pillars went off at around 5:10am. There were no casualties.
Women: Locals said the administration had also been warned before the attack to stop women from visiting the shrine.
Police told Daily Times that the Taliban planted the explosives and then jumped over a wall of the shrine to escape. Hazarkhawni Nazim Hidayatullah told reporters that the building had been severely damaged in the attack, and called on the provincial government to reconstruct it. He said the Taliban were able to carry out the attack because no guards had been deployed outside the building, and called on the authorities to arrange for the security of the shrine.
He said a Khalil-Mohmand tribe jirga would be held in a few days o look into the attack, and announced a demonstration on Ring Road on Friday to protest against the attack. Prime mMinister Yousuf Raza Gilani has condemned the attack.
City SP Ijaz Abid told Daily Times, “Bara-based militants could be behind the attack, sas they are opposed to shrines and have previously attacked other shrines as well.” He, however, said that police had not been told of any threats before the attack. He said an investigation underway would be competed in two days.
Meanwhile, militants also fired 18 mortar shells at a union council officials house on Thursday, said police, but the house was not damaged and there were no casualties.
Nato woos Russia on Afghanistan
Nato has agreed to resume high-level contacts with Russia, working with what US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called a "greater unity of purpose".
Russia welcomed the move, six months after Nato froze contacts over the conflict between Russia and Georgia.
Mrs Clinton stressed Afghanistan, which she called "Nato's biggest military challenge", was a mutual concern.She has raised the idea of a conference on the issue, with the participation of "all stakeholders", including Iran."If we move forward with such a meeting, it is expected that Iran would be invited as a neighbour of Afghanistan," she said.French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said that he hoped Iran would attend such a meeting, but noted that Tehran had failed to attend recent French talks on Afghanistan."I hope Iran will be here this time," said Mr Kouchner.
"We can and must find ways to work constructively with Russia where we share areas of common interest, including helping the people of Afghanistan," said Mrs Clinton.
Nato remains the central pillar of the trans-Atlantic relationship but it is facing a critical military and political challenge in Afghanistan, where failure could call into question its whole credibility, BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus reports from Brussels.US foreign policy is now very much a team game and US Vice-President Joe Biden will be in Brussels next Tuesday for a more detailed exchange of views on Afghanistan, our correspondent adds.
'Fresh start'
"We are resuming the talks within the Nato-Russia Council as soon as possible after the summit," in early April to mark the 60th anniversary of Nato, said Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak.A statement from the Russian foreign ministry said: "This decision is a step in the right direction.""It's time to explore a fresh start," Mrs Clinton said.On Friday, she will hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.But UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband told the BBC that it was not "business as usual" with Moscow.Mr Miliband said the resumption of ties would provide an opportunity to engage with Moscow "in a hardheaded way".He said "the invasion of Georgia and continuing infringement of its sovereignty" could not be "swept under the carpet".Mrs Clinton added that Nato "should continue to open Nato's door to European countries such as Georgia and Ukraine and help them meet Nato standards".Earlier, Russia's envoy to Nato defended the war against Georgia and said any new relationship with Nato would be on Moscow's own terms.Earlier, Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said that areas of common interest included Afghanistan, counter-terrorism and non-proliferation.Some, like Germany and France, had long been pressing for the resumption of ties with Russia, arguing that their suspension has been counter-productive.
'Our terms'
Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's permanent envoy to Nato, predicted an outcome of the Brussels talks "that should, on the whole, satisfy Russia" but made clear he saw Moscow negotiating from a position of strength.
"We came out of the crisis that we had after the August 2008 events [the war with Georgia], the crisis in the South Caucasus, stronger," he told Russian channel Vesti TV."Our Western colleagues saw in Russia a partner that one cannot wipe one's feet on. We are strong... and we are restoring cooperation, including on our terms."
Nato will, nonetheless, be trying to show that more normal business with Russia does not mean that the alliance is abandoning countries like Georgia and Ukraine, our correspondent says. Their foreign ministers came to Brussels too.
Michael Jackson announces 'curtain call' concerts
LONDON, England-- Reclusive pop icon Michael Jackson will perform 10 concerts in London in July in what he described Thursday as a "final curtain call."The summer shows, Jackson's first major live performances in 12 years, will take place at the 20,000-capacity O2 Arena from July 8.Jackson, 50, appeared in front of fans and media at the venue Thursday to announce the "This Is It" shows.
"These will be my final shows performing in London. "This Is It" really means this is it," said Jackson, wearing a trademark black military-style jacket with sparkling embroidery and black sunglasses. Jackson blew kisses and saluted his fans as they chanted "Michael! Michael!"
"I'll be performing the songs my fans want to hear. I'll see you in July and I love you so much.Tickets for the shows will cost £50-75 ($70-105) and will go on sale on March 13. Fans can pre-register to purchase tickets at www.MichaelJacksonLive.com.
The O2 Arena has acquired a reputation in recent years for staging "must-see" musical events. Last year it hosted Led Zeppelin's one-off comeback gig and in 2007 Prince staged a 21-night residency there.Britney Spears, the Pet Shop Boys and Lionel Richie are among performers due to play the venue this year.Event promoter Rob Hallett welcomed Jackson's return, saying: "We are delighted to facilitate the return of the king of pop, long may he reign! When Michael Jackson performs the eyes of the world will be watching."
Jackson's appearance Thursday was not as slick as some of his signature dance moves.
The star was held up in traffic as he traveled from his central London hotel to the venue on a peninsula of the River Thames in southeast London. An exclusive video that was to be shown before his arrival on stage then failed to play on cue.
Several hundred Jackson fans had waited up to five hours to show their support for their idol."Michael is the best performer in the world," said 28-year-old Joanne English. "I haven't seen him perform before and that's the reason why I definitely want to get tickets to go."English said she thought the media had given Jackson a hard time. "As his fans we want to say to him that we love him, he needs to be strong and give us a good show and we will always support him."
"We want to see if he's still got it," added 23-year-old Vanessa Walker.
Jackson, a child star with the Jackson Five who went onto enjoy stellar solo success with classic albums such as "Thriller" and "Bad," has rarely been seen in public since he was acquitted on child molestation charges in the U.S. in 2005.Rumors of financial difficulties and health problems -- in 2008 he was photographed being pushed in a wheelchair -- have swirled around the famously eccentric star in recent years.Last year he sold his iconic Neverland ranch and he has spent much of his time since his acquittal living in Bahrain.The auction house, Julien's, is selling Jackson's Neverland property including the gates, the singer's famed white-jeweled glove and a stretched Rolls Royce.Jackson hasn't recorded a studio album since "Invincible" -- his 10th solo record -- in 2001. His last major series of concerts was a world tour to promote the "HiStory" album in 1996 and 1997."Thriller," released in 1982 and containing classic Jackson hits such as "Beat It," "Billie Jean" and the title track, is the bestselling album of all time. Jackson is estimated to have sold more than 750 million albums in total.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Nawaz has lost political credibility, says Farzana
ISLAMABAD: Chairperson Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) has said the Pakistan People’s Party is in favour of the restoration of the judiciary but the PML-N should desist from pursuing a narrow agenda.
In a statement issued here on Wednesday, Farzana Raja said the PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif was engaged in political confrontation. She said any collision with the state institutions, whether it is the judiciary or parliament, is not good for the future of democracy, adding the PPP was in favour of the restoration of the judiciary and was not backing the reinstatement of an individual.
The PML-N has chosen a narrow personal agenda instead of holding discussions on the issue of terrorism and other serious challenges confronting the country, she observed. She was of the view that Nawaz Sharif had lost his political credibility. “First, he was saying that he did not enter into any agreement with Pervez Musharraf but when he returned to the country he admitted that there was a deal.”
The PPP does not believe in the politics of agitation and is serving the people and striving to provide them with the basic amenities of life, she added. Farzana said more than one million families had been extended financial assistance at their doorstep under the BISP, while a website of the BISP had also been launched on March 3.
The government has undertaken another project to distribute Benazir Smart Cards (BSC) among the people by the end of this month.She said the families whose members died or got injured in incidents of terrorism would also be able to benefit from the BISP.
China :Economy tops China's congress meeting
BEIJING, China-- China's National People's Congress -- the marquee event of the nation's political calendar -- convened Thursday in Beijing, with Premier Wen Jiabao pledging economic growth amid a growing national deficit and the global financial crisis.
Wen, who delivered his Cabinet's work report to the parliament's 3,000 delegates, said China would be able to achieve an 8 percent growth in the economy.
"As long as we adopt the right policies and appropriate measures and implement them effectively, we will be able to achieve this target," the report says.
The government deficit currently sits at 750 billion yuan ($109 billion) -- 570 billion yuan ($83 billion) more than last year, according to the report. That deficit is expected to grow.
"The global financial crisis continues to spread and get worse," Wen said. Watch how the economy will dominate this year's NPC »
The government has already acknowledged that 2009 will be "austere and complicated."
It officially says 20 million migrants are unemployed, and analysts think more jobs will be lost. China's exports have tumbled as the economic downturn has taken hold. The communist government has already approved a $586 billion stimulus plan, and there's talk of more.
Three thousand delegates from across the country and overseas represent China's central leadership, the military, every province, including minority groups such as Tibetans, and overseas Chinese.
Also on the agenda is landmark social security legislation to be considered, including universal unemployment and retirement benefits as well as health care. If implemented, it would mark a major change in the nation's social welfare system.
"Even if they were to put in place the world's greatest social security system and the world's greatest health services tomorrow, it will still take many, many years of testing the system before it has enough credibility to change household consumption patterns," Michael Pettis, a professor of finance at Peking University, said of ongoing attempts to stimulate the Chinese economy.
The congress will also debate a law that would require officials to publicly declare their assets -- part of a long-term campaign by the Communist Party to fight corruption.
Ahead of the meeting, the congress announced a 15 percent increase in its budget for China's quickly modernizing military.
In the past, the congress has been criticized as a political show, essentially a rubber-stamp parliament. But in recent years discussion and debate have crept in.
"They have a lot of work" to do, Pettis said. "China needs to make the transition from an export-oriented economy to a domestic-market economy, and the historical evidence suggest that it is very, very difficult and it takes a long time."
China is on guard against possible social unrest during a year filled with sensitive anniversaries and rising unemployment. March marks the 50th anniversary of an uprising in Tibet. June marks the 20th anniversary of the Chinese military's crackdown in Tiananmen Square. October marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the nation.
Arrests Announced in Pakistani Cricket Shooting
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A police official in Lahore said Wednesday that about 20 people had been arrested in the attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in which six police officers were killed and six players were wounded.
Nasir Bajwa, the deputy superintendent of police in the Model Town section of Lahore, said the arrests were made Tuesday night, hours after the attack. He gave no details of the identities of those detained.
The owner of a hostel in an area of Lahore close to the attack said the police had detained about 13 students who were at his premises. Muhammad Ashger said the students were arrested around midnight. A rocket launcher and clothes with bloodstains were recovered from the hostel, the police said.
Another nearby hostel was searched by the police but no arrests were made, Mr. Ashger said.
A former interior minister, Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, who is a member of the Pakistan Peoples Party of President Asif Ali Zardari, dismissed the announcement of the arrests. “They want to show to the world they are making arrests,” Mr. Sherpao said. “They don’t know anything. There is not any semblance of government.”
Newspaper editorials accused Mr. Zardari’s government and the opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif, of devoting more attention to power politics than fighting terrorism.
“The politicians need to wake up, bury the hatchet in the national good and rout the real enemy,” an editorial in Wednesday’s edition of Dawn, a national English-language newspaper, said.
With eight dead in Lahore, not even cricket, a cherished national pasttime, seemed secure after 12 gunmen carrying sacks of weapons attacked a bus bearing the Sri Lankan team and then escaped in motorized rickshaws. A video of the attacks was broadcast around the world, a destabilizing image for a nation under siege from an insurgency by Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Most major cricket teams already refuse to risk playing in Pakistan, ever more isolated from the rest of the world.
“This happened in the heart of Lahore, the cultural capital of the country,” Mr. Sherpao said Tuesday. “None of the attackers were shot or caught, and they were coming to the scene with big bags. That’s absurd.”
Mr. Sherpao called the attack a “total security lapse.”
The police said the gunmen — using assault rifles, grenades and even antitank missiles — assaulted the bus with the Sri Lankan team at a grassy traffic circle near the city’s main Qaddafi Stadium during a five day-match. Six police officers in an escort van were killed, and six cricketers were injured, the police said. Two bystanders were also killed.
The operation bore some similarity to the attack in November in Mumbai, India, in which 10 militants attacked hotels and other targets over three days, killing 163 people, security officials said.
In Lahore, the attackers also appeared to be in their early 20s. They wore sneakers and loose pants and carried backpacks loaded with weapons and high-energy snacks of dried fruit and chocolate, all characteristics of the Mumbai gunmen. The gunmen in Lahore walked casually as they fired, a stance that appeared to be part of the training of the attackers in Mumbai, security experts said.
The Sri Lankan team, including those who had been injured, arrived back in the capital, Colombo, on Wednesday morning. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
President Zardari met with the army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani hours after the attack to discuss Pakistan’s security situation, according to a statement by the president’s office.
A senior official at the Interior Ministry, Rehman Malik, who is close to President Zardari, said: “We suspect a foreign hand behind this incident. The democracy of the country has been undermined, and foreigners are repeatedly attacked to harm the country’s image.”
American counterterrorism officials said that it was too early to determine which group was behind Tuesday’s attack, but that the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba were possible suspects. One South Asia specialist also raised the possibility that Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka might have asked Lashkar-e-Taiba militants in Pakistan to attack the cricket team. If true, this would be an ominous sign of collaboration between regional terrorist groups.
American experts voiced concern that such attacks might be the new terrorist strike of choice instead of suicide bombings. “It’s likely there will be more of these kind of attacks, which are much more difficult to defend against,” said Juan Zarate, the White House’s top counterterrorism official under President George W. Bush. “Mumbai has become a terrorist exemplar.”
The attack, which began at 9 a.m. Tuesday, appeared to have been well planned. Because it occurred on the third day of the cricketers’ match, the assailants had time to carry out reconnaissance on the previous mornings.
The driver of the cricketers’ bus, Mohammad Khalil, described how a white car had swerved in front of the bus, forcing him to slow. Television images showed gunmen emerging from the large grassy traffic circle and shooting at the bus from crouched positions.
According to an account on a cricket Web site, cricinfo.com, the players ducked to the floor of the bus and shouted at the driver to speed ahead. Mr. Khalil drove through the gunshots and whisked them to the stadium.
Later, the Lahore police said they had found weapons stashes near the scene and at various points around the city, including 10 rifles, two rocket launchers, a 9-millimeter pistol and detonator cable.
Mr. Sherpao, the former interior minister, contended that it had been possible for the attack to take place because the top echelon of police officials in Lahore had been changed in the last few days.
The changes in police personnel had been ordered by the governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, who is now overseeing the province by executive order at the behest of President Zardari, Mr. Sherpao said.
Mr. Sherpao alleged that the new team of police officials was more concerned with security at political rallies staged by Mr. Sharif, the opposition leader. “The security team was marginalized,” Mr. Sherpao said.
Late Tuesday night, Mr. Taseer acknowledged that the top police officials had been changed, but the home secretary, responsible for security in the province, had remained in office.
The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert S. Mueller III, is scheduled to visit Pakistan on Wednesday on a previously planned trip. The F.B.I. offered to help in the investigation in Lahore, but had been told by the Pakistani government that its help was not needed, a senior bureau official said.
The wounded cricketers received treatment at a Lahore hospital. Two players were treated for bullet wounds, a spokesman for the Sri Lankan High Commission said. The team flew home on Tuesday night.
The Sri Lankan team had been particularly welcomed because it had agreed to play in Pakistan after other major world teams had refused to come, citing Pakistan’s poor security. Last year, the Australian, British and South African cricket teams said they would not take part in the Champions Trophy, a major world cricket event scheduled in Pakistan.
After the Mumbai attack, the Indian team refused to come for matches planned in 2009.
The series with Sri Lanka represented a sort of coming out for Pakistani fans starved of first-class cricket at home.
Cricket is as important to the sports psyche in Pakistan as baseball is in the United States. The matches with Sri Lanka were the first international cricket contests in Pakistan in 14 months.
Nasir Bajwa, the deputy superintendent of police in the Model Town section of Lahore, said the arrests were made Tuesday night, hours after the attack. He gave no details of the identities of those detained.
The owner of a hostel in an area of Lahore close to the attack said the police had detained about 13 students who were at his premises. Muhammad Ashger said the students were arrested around midnight. A rocket launcher and clothes with bloodstains were recovered from the hostel, the police said.
Another nearby hostel was searched by the police but no arrests were made, Mr. Ashger said.
A former interior minister, Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, who is a member of the Pakistan Peoples Party of President Asif Ali Zardari, dismissed the announcement of the arrests. “They want to show to the world they are making arrests,” Mr. Sherpao said. “They don’t know anything. There is not any semblance of government.”
Newspaper editorials accused Mr. Zardari’s government and the opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif, of devoting more attention to power politics than fighting terrorism.
“The politicians need to wake up, bury the hatchet in the national good and rout the real enemy,” an editorial in Wednesday’s edition of Dawn, a national English-language newspaper, said.
With eight dead in Lahore, not even cricket, a cherished national pasttime, seemed secure after 12 gunmen carrying sacks of weapons attacked a bus bearing the Sri Lankan team and then escaped in motorized rickshaws. A video of the attacks was broadcast around the world, a destabilizing image for a nation under siege from an insurgency by Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Most major cricket teams already refuse to risk playing in Pakistan, ever more isolated from the rest of the world.
“This happened in the heart of Lahore, the cultural capital of the country,” Mr. Sherpao said Tuesday. “None of the attackers were shot or caught, and they were coming to the scene with big bags. That’s absurd.”
Mr. Sherpao called the attack a “total security lapse.”
The police said the gunmen — using assault rifles, grenades and even antitank missiles — assaulted the bus with the Sri Lankan team at a grassy traffic circle near the city’s main Qaddafi Stadium during a five day-match. Six police officers in an escort van were killed, and six cricketers were injured, the police said. Two bystanders were also killed.
The operation bore some similarity to the attack in November in Mumbai, India, in which 10 militants attacked hotels and other targets over three days, killing 163 people, security officials said.
In Lahore, the attackers also appeared to be in their early 20s. They wore sneakers and loose pants and carried backpacks loaded with weapons and high-energy snacks of dried fruit and chocolate, all characteristics of the Mumbai gunmen. The gunmen in Lahore walked casually as they fired, a stance that appeared to be part of the training of the attackers in Mumbai, security experts said.
The Sri Lankan team, including those who had been injured, arrived back in the capital, Colombo, on Wednesday morning. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
President Zardari met with the army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani hours after the attack to discuss Pakistan’s security situation, according to a statement by the president’s office.
A senior official at the Interior Ministry, Rehman Malik, who is close to President Zardari, said: “We suspect a foreign hand behind this incident. The democracy of the country has been undermined, and foreigners are repeatedly attacked to harm the country’s image.”
American counterterrorism officials said that it was too early to determine which group was behind Tuesday’s attack, but that the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba were possible suspects. One South Asia specialist also raised the possibility that Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka might have asked Lashkar-e-Taiba militants in Pakistan to attack the cricket team. If true, this would be an ominous sign of collaboration between regional terrorist groups.
American experts voiced concern that such attacks might be the new terrorist strike of choice instead of suicide bombings. “It’s likely there will be more of these kind of attacks, which are much more difficult to defend against,” said Juan Zarate, the White House’s top counterterrorism official under President George W. Bush. “Mumbai has become a terrorist exemplar.”
The attack, which began at 9 a.m. Tuesday, appeared to have been well planned. Because it occurred on the third day of the cricketers’ match, the assailants had time to carry out reconnaissance on the previous mornings.
The driver of the cricketers’ bus, Mohammad Khalil, described how a white car had swerved in front of the bus, forcing him to slow. Television images showed gunmen emerging from the large grassy traffic circle and shooting at the bus from crouched positions.
According to an account on a cricket Web site, cricinfo.com, the players ducked to the floor of the bus and shouted at the driver to speed ahead. Mr. Khalil drove through the gunshots and whisked them to the stadium.
Later, the Lahore police said they had found weapons stashes near the scene and at various points around the city, including 10 rifles, two rocket launchers, a 9-millimeter pistol and detonator cable.
Mr. Sherpao, the former interior minister, contended that it had been possible for the attack to take place because the top echelon of police officials in Lahore had been changed in the last few days.
The changes in police personnel had been ordered by the governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, who is now overseeing the province by executive order at the behest of President Zardari, Mr. Sherpao said.
Mr. Sherpao alleged that the new team of police officials was more concerned with security at political rallies staged by Mr. Sharif, the opposition leader. “The security team was marginalized,” Mr. Sherpao said.
Late Tuesday night, Mr. Taseer acknowledged that the top police officials had been changed, but the home secretary, responsible for security in the province, had remained in office.
The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert S. Mueller III, is scheduled to visit Pakistan on Wednesday on a previously planned trip. The F.B.I. offered to help in the investigation in Lahore, but had been told by the Pakistani government that its help was not needed, a senior bureau official said.
The wounded cricketers received treatment at a Lahore hospital. Two players were treated for bullet wounds, a spokesman for the Sri Lankan High Commission said. The team flew home on Tuesday night.
The Sri Lankan team had been particularly welcomed because it had agreed to play in Pakistan after other major world teams had refused to come, citing Pakistan’s poor security. Last year, the Australian, British and South African cricket teams said they would not take part in the Champions Trophy, a major world cricket event scheduled in Pakistan.
After the Mumbai attack, the Indian team refused to come for matches planned in 2009.
The series with Sri Lanka represented a sort of coming out for Pakistani fans starved of first-class cricket at home.
Cricket is as important to the sports psyche in Pakistan as baseball is in the United States. The matches with Sri Lanka were the first international cricket contests in Pakistan in 14 months.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
SRI LANKAN PLAYERS....The Lahore mayhem
The Frontier Post
EDITORIAL
A huge security lapse it was unquestioningly, this terrorist attack in Lahore on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket players. As the Indians are still vindictively accusing Pakistani agencies for the Mumbai assault and were also angry with Colombo for allowing its team to play in Pakistan, an extraordinary security net was essentially needed to protect the Sri Lankan players. Obviously, that umbrella was not there, for which we squarely blame both President Asif Zardari and the Sharif brothers. With their politics of confrontation, they have plunged Punjab into a boiling political turbulence, to cope with which the provincial security apparatus's big chunk has been apportioned out, leaving just a sprinkle for safety of the whole lot of the populous Punjab's swarming population and our valuable foreign visitors, as these Sri Lankans were. But then neither Zardari nor Nawaz is a Nelson Mandela. For his nation's greater good, this giant of a leader and a statesman par excellence buried his personal hatchet with his three-decade-long tormentors, a racist White minority, preached mutual tolerance and accommodation to his black majority with its centuries-old oppressive White colonial masters and worked hard for the two to coexist and thrive together. It was a Nelson Mandela that the people of Pakistan needed at this critical time to lead it to surmount the gigantic existential threats confronting it so menacingly. Instead, to its great misfortune, it has landed with these two, who are not even a politico worth the salt but just pigmies with myopic mind and barren intellect, driven not by the nation's interests but their own personal agendas and fracas. Even a bloke knows this country is in the throes of a vicious international conspiracy to hurt and cripple it. In the western military academies, their strategists are teaching their trainees on a new world map on which Pakistan does not exist at all as it is today, but as a fragmented land absorbed in regional geographical entities. And knowledgeable people are extremely worked up over the intriguing happenings in and around this country. It is not just the homegrown fanaticism they are distressed at. Their worries are swirling sky-high over the inspirations, inducements and incitements streaming in torrentially from the outside to subvert this nation's unity and solidarity and disjoint its territorial integrity. Money and arms are flooding in here in spates for these outside powers' proxies; even their agents they are infiltrating to fight on their proxies' side against our security forces. And Afghanistan has virtually become a lair of all the inimical agencies working against this country, and the main base of the evil axis of America's CIA, India's RAW, Israel's Mossad and the Northern Alliance-controlled Afghan intelligence agency, Central Directorate of Security. This axis is creating history for hurting this country, as part of their common geopolitical objective of reshaping this region, dismantling Pakistan, disabling China here and encircling it from here. The Lahore assault, too, speaks of a sinister plot, bearing a sophisticated planning and execution beyond the pale of a rig-rag outfit. Yet, undistracted and unconcerned, Zardari and Nawaz are engrossed in their own power plays. The others too are no better. Internal security czar Rehman Malik after mumbling about foreign involvement in Balochistan and tribal region has long fallen stone silent. The prime minister spoke only once or twice of Uzbek, Arab, and Afghan foreign fighters battling on Swati thug Fazlullah's side. The Frontier Corps chief has reiterated feebly that fighting against his formation in Bajaur are also Afghans, Sudanese and Egyptians, making up nearly half of the enemy force of Taliban, a generic term easily covering up the evil axis's proxies and agents. Frontier Chief Minister has at last admitted of foreign fighters in Swat, although his information minister still peddles the bunk that Pakistan army and the ISI are in league with the Swati thug's brigands, as do the dollar- and euro-laden think tanks. Nawaz never ever speaks of it; nor does Zardari; he simply says extremists want to capture the state of Pakistan, never defining who these extremists actually are. It is this inept and lackadaisical leadership that has let down our venerable Sri Lankan guests and this nation in their eyes. We salute them. They dared to come where the Australians and the Indians had refused to come. We apologise to them for our security apparatus's failure to protect them. And we also grieve for the police cops and civilians, killed or wounded in the assault. They were brave people. We pray for them.
EDITORIAL
A huge security lapse it was unquestioningly, this terrorist attack in Lahore on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket players. As the Indians are still vindictively accusing Pakistani agencies for the Mumbai assault and were also angry with Colombo for allowing its team to play in Pakistan, an extraordinary security net was essentially needed to protect the Sri Lankan players. Obviously, that umbrella was not there, for which we squarely blame both President Asif Zardari and the Sharif brothers. With their politics of confrontation, they have plunged Punjab into a boiling political turbulence, to cope with which the provincial security apparatus's big chunk has been apportioned out, leaving just a sprinkle for safety of the whole lot of the populous Punjab's swarming population and our valuable foreign visitors, as these Sri Lankans were. But then neither Zardari nor Nawaz is a Nelson Mandela. For his nation's greater good, this giant of a leader and a statesman par excellence buried his personal hatchet with his three-decade-long tormentors, a racist White minority, preached mutual tolerance and accommodation to his black majority with its centuries-old oppressive White colonial masters and worked hard for the two to coexist and thrive together. It was a Nelson Mandela that the people of Pakistan needed at this critical time to lead it to surmount the gigantic existential threats confronting it so menacingly. Instead, to its great misfortune, it has landed with these two, who are not even a politico worth the salt but just pigmies with myopic mind and barren intellect, driven not by the nation's interests but their own personal agendas and fracas. Even a bloke knows this country is in the throes of a vicious international conspiracy to hurt and cripple it. In the western military academies, their strategists are teaching their trainees on a new world map on which Pakistan does not exist at all as it is today, but as a fragmented land absorbed in regional geographical entities. And knowledgeable people are extremely worked up over the intriguing happenings in and around this country. It is not just the homegrown fanaticism they are distressed at. Their worries are swirling sky-high over the inspirations, inducements and incitements streaming in torrentially from the outside to subvert this nation's unity and solidarity and disjoint its territorial integrity. Money and arms are flooding in here in spates for these outside powers' proxies; even their agents they are infiltrating to fight on their proxies' side against our security forces. And Afghanistan has virtually become a lair of all the inimical agencies working against this country, and the main base of the evil axis of America's CIA, India's RAW, Israel's Mossad and the Northern Alliance-controlled Afghan intelligence agency, Central Directorate of Security. This axis is creating history for hurting this country, as part of their common geopolitical objective of reshaping this region, dismantling Pakistan, disabling China here and encircling it from here. The Lahore assault, too, speaks of a sinister plot, bearing a sophisticated planning and execution beyond the pale of a rig-rag outfit. Yet, undistracted and unconcerned, Zardari and Nawaz are engrossed in their own power plays. The others too are no better. Internal security czar Rehman Malik after mumbling about foreign involvement in Balochistan and tribal region has long fallen stone silent. The prime minister spoke only once or twice of Uzbek, Arab, and Afghan foreign fighters battling on Swati thug Fazlullah's side. The Frontier Corps chief has reiterated feebly that fighting against his formation in Bajaur are also Afghans, Sudanese and Egyptians, making up nearly half of the enemy force of Taliban, a generic term easily covering up the evil axis's proxies and agents. Frontier Chief Minister has at last admitted of foreign fighters in Swat, although his information minister still peddles the bunk that Pakistan army and the ISI are in league with the Swati thug's brigands, as do the dollar- and euro-laden think tanks. Nawaz never ever speaks of it; nor does Zardari; he simply says extremists want to capture the state of Pakistan, never defining who these extremists actually are. It is this inept and lackadaisical leadership that has let down our venerable Sri Lankan guests and this nation in their eyes. We salute them. They dared to come where the Australians and the Indians had refused to come. We apologise to them for our security apparatus's failure to protect them. And we also grieve for the police cops and civilians, killed or wounded in the assault. They were brave people. We pray for them.
No international Cricket in Pakistan unless security improves : ICC Chief
LONDON: Pakistan cannot host international cricket unless it dramatically improves security, the head of the sport's world body said after Tuesday's Lahore attacks, questioning notably the 2011 World Cup."In the current situation it clearly is a very dangerous place," David Morgan, president of the International Cricket Council, told media after the deadly attacks on Sri Lanka's cricket team in Lahore.
Asked about plans for the World Cup, due to be played in four Indian subcontinent countries, Morgan said: "Things will have to change dramatically in Pakistan in my opinion if any of the games are to be staged there."I think that international cricket in Pakistan is out of the question until there is a very significant change, a regime change I guess," he added.An ICC spokesman said he assumed Morgan was referring to a call by Pakistani senators this week for the Pakistani cricket board to be sacked.Eight people died when the Sri Lankan cricket team's convoy was attacked by masked gunmen as they traveled to play at the Gaddafi stadium in Lahore. Seven team members were injured.Pakistan's High Commissioner to Britain Wajid Hasan meanwhile told British media that it was too early to talk of the end of international cricket in his country."I wouldn't like to rush to that sort of conclusion," he said.
Sri Lankan FM Rohitha Bogollagama due in Islamabad today
ISLAMABAD: Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama is due to arrive Islamabad today (Wednesday) for brief visit of Pakistan as a Special Envoy of the Sri Lankan President.During his visit, Rohitha Bogollagama will hold meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, his counterpart Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Advisor to Prime Minister on Interior, Rehman Malik, over issues pertaining to attack on Sri Lankan Team, with investigation of the incident to be the top agenda during his meetings with Pakistani leadership.It is also expected that Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama will address a press conference at Sri Lankan High Commission in which he will announce priorities of his government.
Killings, kidnappings jeopardise Pakistan Swat truce
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A fragile ceasefire in Pakistan's insurgency-hit Swat valley was hanging by a thread Tuesday after two soldiers were killed in an ambush and suspected Islamists kidnapped two local officials.
Pakistani troops and Taliban fighters traded accusations about violating a two-week ceasefire in the northwest former ski resort -- ripped apart by a brutal insurgency waged by Islamist hardliners trying to enforce Islamic law.
The soldiers were escorting a water tanker in Swat valley's Matta district when a group of militants fired on them, a security official told AFP.
In the ensuing gunfight, which lasted about an hour, three soldiers were wounded, the official added on condition of anonymity.
"Two of the injured soldiers died later at a medical facility," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"The militant attack is a clear violation of the peace agreement. The security forces are exercising restraint and complying with the accord," the military said in a statement.
Muslim Khan, spokesman for Swat militant leader Maulana Fazlullah, said the soldiers were attacked because they moved without giving prior information.
"We had an agreement that whenever the army wanted to move, they should inform us, so that we can alert our men not to feel threatened," Khan told AFP.
Thousands of Fazlullah's militants have spent nearly two years waging a terrifying campaign to enforce sharia law in the area, beheading opponents, bombing girls' schools, outlawing entertainment and fighting government forces.
The sharia deal triggered alarm in the United States, Europe, Afghanistan and India, amid concerns it will embolden militants throughout the northwest, which is rife with Taliban and Al-Qaeda extremists.
Another security official claimed the soldiers were attacked by men loyal to commander Ibne Ameen, who has opposed the peace deal.
Police said that Taliban militants also kidnapped two anti-corruption department officials and their friend while travelling in the district of Mingora, the main town in Swat.
Provincial director of the anti-corruption department Yameen Khan, his deputy Bakht Zada and a companion were abducted, police chief Dilawar Bangash said.
"The Taliban have kidnapped them and we have launched a search in the area," Bangash told AFP.
The escalating violence came as pro-Taliban cleric Soofi Mohammad threatened to pull the plug on the peace agreement that he negotiated with the government, accusing the military of violating the ceasefire.
Pakistani authorities had already moved Monday to shore up the fragile ceasefire, vowing to appoint Islamic judges by March 15 to head off threats from Mohammad that the agreement was being implemented too slowly.
The truce was jolted Sunday when a paramilitary officer and five bodyguards were briefly kidnapped and soldiers ambushed elsewhere.
Pakistani troops and Taliban fighters traded accusations about violating a two-week ceasefire in the northwest former ski resort -- ripped apart by a brutal insurgency waged by Islamist hardliners trying to enforce Islamic law.
The soldiers were escorting a water tanker in Swat valley's Matta district when a group of militants fired on them, a security official told AFP.
In the ensuing gunfight, which lasted about an hour, three soldiers were wounded, the official added on condition of anonymity.
"Two of the injured soldiers died later at a medical facility," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"The militant attack is a clear violation of the peace agreement. The security forces are exercising restraint and complying with the accord," the military said in a statement.
Muslim Khan, spokesman for Swat militant leader Maulana Fazlullah, said the soldiers were attacked because they moved without giving prior information.
"We had an agreement that whenever the army wanted to move, they should inform us, so that we can alert our men not to feel threatened," Khan told AFP.
Thousands of Fazlullah's militants have spent nearly two years waging a terrifying campaign to enforce sharia law in the area, beheading opponents, bombing girls' schools, outlawing entertainment and fighting government forces.
The sharia deal triggered alarm in the United States, Europe, Afghanistan and India, amid concerns it will embolden militants throughout the northwest, which is rife with Taliban and Al-Qaeda extremists.
Another security official claimed the soldiers were attacked by men loyal to commander Ibne Ameen, who has opposed the peace deal.
Police said that Taliban militants also kidnapped two anti-corruption department officials and their friend while travelling in the district of Mingora, the main town in Swat.
Provincial director of the anti-corruption department Yameen Khan, his deputy Bakht Zada and a companion were abducted, police chief Dilawar Bangash said.
"The Taliban have kidnapped them and we have launched a search in the area," Bangash told AFP.
The escalating violence came as pro-Taliban cleric Soofi Mohammad threatened to pull the plug on the peace agreement that he negotiated with the government, accusing the military of violating the ceasefire.
Pakistani authorities had already moved Monday to shore up the fragile ceasefire, vowing to appoint Islamic judges by March 15 to head off threats from Mohammad that the agreement was being implemented too slowly.
The truce was jolted Sunday when a paramilitary officer and five bodyguards were briefly kidnapped and soldiers ambushed elsewhere.
Zardari’s Control of Pakistan Shaken by Attack on Sri Lankans
March 4 (Bloomberg) -- Yesterday’s deadly ambush of Sri Lanka’s cricket team in Lahore, Pakistan, further undermined President Asif Ali Zardari’s grip on his nation as guerrillas showed they are increasingly able to hit even officially protected targets.
“This was not simply an attack on Sri Lankans,” said Hasan-Askari Rizvi, a security and political analyst in Lahore who formerly taught political science at Punjab University there. “It was most importantly an attack on the Pakistani government, to show its lack of control.”
Zardari’s inability to stabilize his country is complicating President Barack Obama’s effort to refocus U.S. counterterrorism efforts on the Pakistan-Afghanistan region. The White House plans to unveil a strategy for that campaign this month, U.S. officials say.
The assault yesterday, which killed six policemen and injured six Sri Lankan cricketers, came less than three weeks after the Pakistani government accepted a truce that gave control of the Swat Valley, north of Islamabad, the capital, to the opposition Taliban.
Meanwhile, the government is still trying to recover a senior American United Nations official kidnapped last month in the southwest. And Zardari is facing the prospect of public demonstrations over a court ruling that barred his chief rival, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, from public office.
Succeeding Bhutto
Sharif, who is backing a call for nationwide anti-government protests beginning March 12, accuses Zardari of being behind the court ruling against him. Zardari, 52, was elected last year following the December 2007 assassination of his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
While Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said in a statement in Islamabad that “we suspect a foreign hand behind this incident,” Salman Taseer, the provincial governor of Punjab, of which Lahore is the capital, noted parallels between yesterday’s attack and November’s terrorist assault in Mumbai, India, in which 164 people died.
Pakistan last month announced it would prosecute at least two members of the banned Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba guerrilla group among those it accuses of plotting the Mumbai violence.
As in the raid on India’s financial center, the guerrillas in Lahore were wearing sneakers and carrying backpacks, automatic rifles and grenades in a coordinated ambush, video footage indicated. Police said all 12 gunmen escaped.
‘The Same Pattern’
“It’s the same pattern, the same terrorists who attacked Mumbai,” Taseer told reporters in Lahore. The way they attacked showed that “they were obviously trained,” he said.
“Lashkar-e-Taiba is under pressure and its supporters are very upset at the government’s plan to put them on trial,” said Rizvi. Yesterday’s attack may be a warning by Islamic militants against the government not to proceed, he said.
While Zardari has vowed to act against militant groups, he likely will be “seriously constrained” by Pakistan’s powerful military from any broad crackdown, said a Jan. 19 report by the RAND Corp. in Santa Monica, California.
During the 1990s, the army supported Lashkar and other guerrillas as proxy forces in Pakistan’s dispute with India over the Kashmir region, according to scholars such as Husain Haqqani, the Pakistani ambassador to the U.S.
The terrorist violence has hampered efforts by Zardari to halt an economic slump that slowed growth from an annual average of 6.8 percent over five years to a forecast of 3.5 percent in the 12 months ending in June. Last year, as attacks in Pakistan killed more than 2,000 people, overseas investment tumbled 38 percent, according to the government.
Undermining Democracy
“The democracy of the country has been undermined, and foreigners are repeatedly attacked to harm the country’s image,” Malik said in a statement in Islamabad.
Pakistan borrowed $7.6 billion from the International Monetary Fund in November and will seek a further $4.5 billion because “the war on terror has caused serious economic problems,” government financial adviser Shaukat Tarin said Feb 16. Pakistan’s benchmark stock index, the Karachi Stock Exchange 100, dropped 1.5 percent yesterday.
Sri Lanka agreed to play cricket in Pakistan after India pulled out of a planned series following the Mumbai attack. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa called the Lahore ambush a “cowardly” act against athletes visiting as goodwill ambassadors.
Advance Information
Former Lahore deputy police chief Parvez Rathore, who left that post on Feb. 25 when the court ruling forced Sharif’s party out of office, said in an interview that police had advance information of a possible attack on the Sri Lankan team. He couldn’t say whether the new police administration had implemented extra security steps as a result.
Sri Lanka was given “no hint of a significant security threat,” its foreign secretary, Palitha Kohona, told the British Broadcasting Corp.
India’s former national counter-terrorism chief, B. Raman, said a role by Sri Lanka’s main guerrilla group should be investigated. Sri Lanka’s army has made military advances in the past month against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
While the Tamils are predominantly Hindu, the Tigers cooperated in arms smuggling with Pakistani Islamic militants in the 1990s, Raman said in an e-mail.
‘Dramatic Changes’
Yesterday’s attack calls into question Pakistan’s chances of hosting matches for the 2011 Cricket World Cup in South Asia. The World Cup will include no games in Pakistan without “dramatic changes” in security, International Cricket Council Chief Executive Officer Haroon Lorgat told the BBC.
The assault on a visiting national team in South Asia’s most popular sport “will be a terrible blow to all Pakistanis,” Shaukat Qadir, a retired army brigadier general and political analyst, said by telephone from Islamabad.
Zardari’s office issued a statement expressing shock over the attack and saying that “it was reassuring that our policemen rose to the occasion and laid down their live to protect our Sri Lankan guests.” It promised grants to the families of those killed, saying, “the sun will shine gloriously on the tombs of these heroes.”
Gunmen shoot Sri Lanka cricketers
Gunmen have attacked a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team on its way to play in the Pakistani city of Lahore.
At least five policemen escorting the team bus were killed, along with a driver. Seven cricketers and an assistant coach were injured.
Pakistani officials said about 12 gunmen were involved and grenades and rocket launchers have been recovered.
Officials said the incident bore similarities to deadly attacks in Mumbai in India last November.
The Mumbai attacks were blamed on Pakistan-based Islamic militants.
INJURED PLAYERS
Thilan Samaraweera (hospital)
Tharanga Paranavitana (hospital)
Mahela Jayawardene
Kumar Sangakkara
Ajantha Mendis
Suranga Lakmal
Chaminda Vaas
Assistant coach Paul Farbrace
Pakistani cricket was already suffering from serious security concerns.
Pakistan invited Sri Lanka to tour only after India's cricket team pulled out of a scheduled cricket tour on security grounds, following the Mumbai attacks.
And International Cricket Council president David Morgan told the BBC it would be "very difficult for international cricket to be hosted in Pakistan for quite some time to come".
Evacuation
Reports suggest 10 to 12 gunmen ambushed the team coach and its accompanying police detail on the Liberty Square roundabout in the heart of Lahore, as the convoy was on the way to the Gaddafi stadium for a Test match.
The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says accounts suggest the attack was sophisticated in nature, with one group of gunmen firing a rocket-propelled grenade in order to create a diversion, while others then approached, firing guns on the convoy.
She says the gunmen - two of whom were shown in TV pictures carrying backpacks - seemed to be well-trained.
PAKISTAN CRICKET TIMELINE
Sept 2001: New Zealand pull out of Pakistan tour following US military action in Afghanistan after 9/11 attacks; West Indies and Australia move games to neutral venues.
May 2002: New Zealand cancel tour of Pakistan after explosion outside team's Karachi hotel
March 2008: Australia postpone tour of Pakistan on security concerns
Oct 2008: West Indies call off November tour of Pakistan on security concerns
Dec 2008: India pulls out of 2009 Pakistan tour after government directive
Feb 2009: 2009 Champions Trophy tournament in Pakistan is called off after participants express security concerns
The Sri Lankan wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara told Australia's ABC radio that he and his team mates probably owed their lives to their bus driver.
"Suddenly everyone just said hit the deck, quick, someone's shooting. And we just hit the floor of the bus and stayed there and we heard the bullets hitting the bus and a few explosions," he said.
"But, you know, we had an amazing driver who just kept driving the bus straight through all of that to the ground and that's probably what saved us."
Officials in Lahore said two members of the Sri Lankan team, Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavitana, were sent to hospital. Another five received minor wounds, as well as assistant coach Paul Farbrace.
None of the attackers was killed or apprehended at the scene. Grenades and rocket launchers were found there, police said, and a manhunt is under way.
Our correspondent says security forces will be investigating any connections to al-Qaeda and Taleban militants as well as Kashmiri jihadi groups.
A Pakistani air force helicopter has now airlifted uninjured members of the Sri Lankan team out of the Gaddafi Stadium.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse condemned the "cowardly terrorist attack" and ordered the players' evacuation back to Sri Lanka. A plane is being chartered for this purpose.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari also strongly condemned the attack, and ordered an immediate investigation "so that the perpetrators are identified and their motives exposed", said a statement from his office.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for India's foreign ministry offered sympathy and urged Pakistan to take "prompt, meaningful and decisive steps to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure once and for all".
But a Pakistani minister, Sardar Nabil Ahmed Gabol, reportedly told private Geo TV that evidence suggested the attackers came across the border from India.
He said the assault came in reaction to the Mumbai attacks, and was a "declaration of open war on Pakistan by India".
The third day of play in the Second Test was scheduled to begin, but officials said the match has now been cancelled.
Security fears
Pakistan is engaged in a bloody struggle against Islamist insurgents who have staged high-profile attacks on civilian targets before.
Meanwhile, Sri Lankan authorities are waging their own domestic military campaign against Tamil Tiger separatist rebels.
India and Australia have pulled out of cricket tours in Pakistan in the recent past citing security concerns.
The sport's world governing body, the International Cricket Council, last month decided not to hold the 2009 Champions Trophy in Pakistan due to safety worries.
Monday, March 2, 2009
China's top advisory body to start annual session, with focus on global financial crisis
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China's top advisory body to start annual session, with focus on global financial crisis,The Second Session of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) will open Tuesday afternoon and last nine days, said spokesman for the session Zhao Qizheng at a press conference Monday.
The session's secretariat said political advisors have submitted 296 proposals as of 5 p.m. Monday, with economy, employment and infrastructure being the main concerns as the global financial crisis unfolded. Members of the CPPCC National Committee have shown great concerns about the economy. Some of them are optimistic about the goal of an 8-percent economic growth this year while others think it is difficult to realize, Zhao said. China can achieve the goal through its efforts, said Zhao. China must try all means to ensure stable and rapid economic development and strive for the target in order to ride through the crisis, as the country's political advisors all agree.
Jia Qinglin, chairman of the 11th CPPCC National Committee, will deliver a report on the work of the CPPCC National Committee's Standing Committee over the past year, while Zhang Rongming, vice-chairwoman of the 11th CPPCC National Committee, will report how the suggestions and proposals from CPPCC members were handled since the last session, Zhao said. CPPCC National Committee members, coming throughout the country, are expected to discuss the report on government work by Premier Wen Jiabao, reports on the work of the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate, he said. During the session, the political advisory body will hold two press conferences on the proposals on how to achieve steady and relatively fast economic growth and the World Expo in Shanghai next year.
A total of 2,235 political advisors are expected to attend the session.
Chinese art dealer exacts revenge over 'stolen' bronzes
A wealthy Chinese art collector announced yesterday that he had sabotaged the auction of bronze rat and rabbit heads that were sold for €31m (£28m) in Paris last week despite furious objections by Beijing.
Cai Mingchao revealed that he was the anonymous telephone bidder who had bought the 18th-century animal busts, but that he would hold back the money to block the sale.
Mr Cai said: "What I need to stress is that this money cannot be paid. At the time, I was thinking that any Chinese would do this if they could ... I only did what I was obliged to."
Beijing failed last week in legal and diplomatic efforts to block the sale of the artefacts, which were part of an auction of the vast art collection assembled by the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. The bronze busts were originally among 12 animal heads that decorated a fountain at the Imperial summer palace in Beijing. The Chinese government insists that they were stolen by French and British troops when the palace was burned during the second Opium War, in 1860.
Mr Cai told a press conference in Beijing yesterday that he made the final €15.7m bids for each of the animal heads as part of a plan to sabotage the auction, devised by an association devoted to the recovery of looted Chinese art.
The refusal of a French court, and then the French government, to block the sale has provoked a further downward spiral in the already troubled relationship between Paris and Beijing.
Mr Cai's announcement is also a severe embarrassment for the auction house, Christie's, which had gone to extreme lengths to verify the credentials, and purchasing power, of those authorised to bid in the so-called "sale of the century". Mr Cai, one of the authorised telephone bidders, is an art collector and expert on ancient Chinese art.
He is the owner of Xinheart, an auction company in Xiamen, in southern China. He is also an adviser to the Lost Cultural Relics Recovery Program, a non-governmental body which attempts to repatriate important works of Chinese art.
In theory, Christie's could now organise another auction and order Mr Cai to refund any shortfall in the new sale price. In practice, that may be very difficult to arrange. A long legal, and diplomatic, wrangle is in prospect.
The Chinese government denied that it had played any part in Mr Cai's act of sabotage. Niu Xianfeng, the assistant director of the cultural recovery programme, told a press conference in Beijing that it was he and Mr Cai who had devised a plan to block the sale.
"This is an extraordinary method taken in an extraordinary situation, which successfully stopped the auction," Mr Niu said. He described Mr Cai as a "Chinese man whom everyone should admire".
Christie's said yesterday that they were aware of Mr Cai's comments but would not comment on any specifics of the case or any action they may take.
LET IT SNOW LET IT SNOW
CHEERS ALL IN THIS BEAUTIFUL SNOWY WEATHER..............
WELL I AM SNOWED-IN SO CAN'T GO OUT.............and I'm not even going to try to get to work.......................
A heavy snowstorm roared up the Eastern Seaboard and blanketed the Northeast on Monday with blowing, drifting, blizzard-like conditions, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights, shutting down thousands of schools and disrupting morning commutes for millions across the region.
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