“Heartbroken” Ajmal says Hussey’s final over onslaught will forever haunt him

May 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Islamabad, May 18 (ANI): Pakistan’s stunning loss to Australia in the semi-final of the ICC World T20 Championship at the Beausejour Stadium, St Lucia has left off-spinner Saeed Ajmal ‘heartbroken’.

Chasing a challenging 192 for victory, Australia needed 48 runs from the last 18 deliveries.

Skipper Shahid Afridi threw the ball to the trusted Ajmal to bowl the final over of the match with the Kangaroos still needing 18 more runs.

Pakistan looked all set to reserve a berth in the final of the T20 World Championship for the third consecutive time. But Mike Hussey had some other ideas. He smashed Ajmal for three sixes and a four in the final over to register a breathtaking win over the defending champions.

Hussey’s merciless hitting is still playing on Ajmal’s mind, as he has still not been able to cope with the heavy defeat.

“When Hussey hit the last six I was absolutely heartbroken, I am still heartbroken. It was a very emotional and difficult time for me. My teammates all came up to me and consoled me and told me not to worry, but I was very upset. The pain is there, when you lose a game of this magnitude it hurts really badly,” Ajmal told PakPassion.net.

Ajmal, who boasts an economy rate of only 6.24 in the slam bang version of the game, said that it was pre-planned that he would be bowling the final over of the match and that he had his own game plan ready.

“The first delivery was perfect, it was what I had planned, it was a perfect yorker to Johnson and it only went for a single. However then the wind seemed to pick up and I was bowling into the wind which made me lose my line and length,” he said.

Ajmal, however, did not deny Hussey the credit for his stupendous show in the all important tie.

“It was an amazing innings, you have to give Hussey a lot of credit for playing that sort of innings in such an important match at such a crucial time,” he said.

Now that the tournament is over, Ajmal says he is already looking at doing better in the upcoming tournaments.

“The best way for me to get over this match is to start playing cricket again, get the ball in my hand and to start bowling again. Thankfully the Asia Cup is not far away and I am looking forward to playing in that tournament in Sri Lanka. I have faith in my ability and I am confident that I can bounce back after the match in St Lucia,” he said.

But the question is would Ajmal bowl the final in a crunch match again?

“Of course I would,” is his answer. (ANI)

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Memorable FA Cup final caps incredible English season

May 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Mega-rich Chelsea beat impoverished Portsmouth 1-0 to win the FA Cup and claim the Double on Saturday but that was about the only predictable outcome of a remarkable afternoon at Wembley.

Chelsea, who lifted the Premier League title last week with an 8-0 win over Wigan Athletic, were odds-on favourites and some pundits predicted they could beat the record winning Cup final margin of 6-0 set when Bury beat Derby County 107 years ago.

Portsmouth had other ideas and weathered a ferocious onslaught in the first half with plenty of help from the Wembley woodwork which Chelsea hit five times in 30 minutes.

They restricted the champions to a single goal but that was enough for the west London side to lift the FA Cup for the sixth time to retain the trophy they claimed last year.

In a way the twists and turns of the final reflected in 90 minutes the twists and turns of the domestic season, which saw the lead in the title race change more than 20 times before Chelsea pipped Manchester United by a point to become champions.

The winning goal finally came after 59 minutes when Didier Drogba smashed home a free kick from 25 metres that this time hit the post and went in with David James helpless.

YELLOW BOOTS

The goal came just three minutes after Portsmouth midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng, whose yellow boots dazzled in the Wembley sunshine but failed to blind keeper Petr Cech, saw his penalty saved by the Chelsea stopper’s feet.

But the Portsmouth fans, whose club have gone through five owners and an administrator this season, been docked points and suffered relegation with debts of 138 million pounds ($201.2 million), never stopped cheering.

Their cries of “Play Up Pompey” rang around Wembley, drowning the cheers of the Chelsea fans, who became more anxious and withdrawn as the match went on. They could not relax, even after their team had taken the lead.

The stadium was awash with the blue-and-white of both teams but it was the flag-waving Pompey section that became increasingly animated as the absorbing game ebbed and flowed.

As Portsmouth manager Avram Grant said afterwards: “If anyone ever doubts if it is good to buy this club, it is a good club. If you see the fans today, no competition, they won the final by far.”

The football was not that great but the tension was tangible as Chelsea edged closer to their first double and Portsmouth tried to salvage some silverware from their most traumatic season.

SCUFFED SHOT

Chelsea had a chance to wrap it up when their England international Frank Lampard was awarded a penalty with two minutes to go but the occasion even got to the normally unflappable midfielder who scuffed his shot wide.

It was not Chelsea’s most embarrassing moment of the day though — that belonged to Salomon Kalou who somehow shinned the ball against the bar just four metres from an open goal in the first half, one of the worst misses in any FA Cup final.

On the touchline Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti and Chelsea’s former coach Grant extolled one last effort from their men.

Ultimately Chelsea held out, collected their medals and danced with the Cup as Portsmouth’s players, many if not all of whom had played their last match for the club, cheered their fans then collapsed on the field in dismay.

Grant, Chelsea boss when they lost the Champions League final to Manchester United on penalties two years ago, was widely acclaimed by both sets of fans after the match.

His future is as uncertain as Pompey’s who could yet start next season with a 17-point penalty in the Championship (second division) if they do not come out of administration soon.

On the day, though, balance sheets and finances, tax demands and missed wage payments were far from anyone’s mind.

Although an intriguing final ended in a predictable triumph for the favourites, Portsmouth’s unquenchable spirit should helpt them through the tough times that are still ahead.

(Editing by Ken Ferris To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Mayweather survives onslaught to outclass Mosley

May 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Floyd Mayweather resisted a furious early onslaught by fellow American Shane Mosley to preserve his unbeaten professional record with an unanimous points victory in a welterweight bout on Saturday.

Widely regarded as the best defensive fighter of his generation, Mayweather dominated 11 of the 12 rounds with his lightning hand speed and agile movement to improve his career record to 41-0 with 25 knockouts.

A 4-1 favourite going into the highly anticipated bout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Mayweather was stunned by a flurry of punishing blows from Mosley in the second round.

However, the 33-year-old immediately regained control and he dictated the rest of the fight with his probing right hand, rock-solid defence and a series of telling combinations.

“I did what the fans came here to see,” Mayweather said in a ringside interview. “I went toe-to-toe. That’s not my style but I wanted to give them that kind of fight and I knew I could do it.”

Asked how he had recovered from Mosley’s early onslaught, Mayweather replied: “It’s a contact sport and you’re going to get hit.

“But when you get hit, you’ve got to suck it up and keep on fighting. And that’s what I did.”

The flamboyant American gained one-sided verdicts from all three judges — 119-109, 119-109 and 118-110.

WBA welterweight champion Mosley, who had not fought since a ninth-round TKO upset of feared Mexican slugger Antonio Margarito in Jan. 2009, slipped to 46-6 with 39 knockouts.

CONFIDENT START

Watched by a crowd of around 16,000 that included Hollywood actors Will Smith and Leonardo DiCaprio and boxing greats Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard, Mayweather made a confident start.

Mosley then responded in round two, landing several punishing blows with his right hand on Mayweather’s head. Mayweather briefly buckled and was pinned against the ropes after Mosley switched his attack to a series of body jabs.

“I caught him with my big right hand and I tried to move around but he was too quick and I was too tight,” Mosley, 38, said of his dominance in the second round.

“After I landed the right hand, I thought I needed to knock him out but I needed to do it sooner than later. But I couldn’t adjust and he did.”

With Mosley’s work rate slowing, Mayweather regained the initiative in rounds three and four with several well executed combinations and low body jabs.

Looking fresher and much more composed, he retained control in round five, continually peppering Mosley, bloodying his nose with his probing right hand while maintaining a tight defence.

In the eighth round, Mosley was reprimanded by the referee for grabbing his opponent’s arm and a grinning Mayweather responded with a verbal volley while landing a series of blows to the head.

Mayweather, who had backpeddled in the earlier rounds, continued to push forward and he dictated the rest of the fight with measured body jabs and crunching rights.

He dominated the official ringside statistics, connecting with 208 of 477 punches thrown to 92 of 452 for Mosley. Mayweather also landed 123 power punches compared to Mosley’s 46.

(Editing by Ian Ransom/John O’Brien; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Unbeaten Mayweather survives early Mosley onslaught

May 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Floyd Mayweather Jr preserved his unbeaten professional record with an unanimous points decision victory over fellow American Shane Mosley in a non-title welterweight bout on Saturday.

Widely regarded as the best defensive fighter of his generation, Mayweather dominated 11 of the 12 rounds with his lightning hand speed and agile movement to improve his career record to 41-0 with 25 knockouts.

A 4-1 favourite going into the highly anticipated bout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Mayweather was stunned by a flurry of punishing blows from Mosley in the second round.

However, the 33-year-old Mayweather immediately regained control and dictated the rest of the fight with his probing right hand, rock-solid defence and a series of telling combinations.

The flamboyant American gained one-sided verdicts from all three judges — by 119-109, 119-109 and 118-110.

WBA welterweight champion Mosley, who had not fought since a ninth-round TKO upset of feared Mexican slugger Antonio Margarito in Jan. 2009, slipped to 46-6 with 39 knockouts.

(Editing by Ian Ransom; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Champions Pakistan hold on to beat Bangladesh

May 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Pakistan survived a late onslaught from Bangladesh to win their opening Twenty20 World Cup Group A match by 21 runs on Saturday in an encouraging start to their title defence.

Openers Kamran Akmal and Salman Butt laid the foundations for an impressive total of 172 for three with identical scores of 73 and a 142-run partnership.

Both men hit eight fours while Akmal smashed one six and man of the match Butt cracked two.

Pakistan looked to be cruising to victory when they dismissed Imrul Kayes in the first over and Tamim Iqbal in the sixth.

Bangladesh fought back though with Mohammad Ashraful hitting a stylish 65 off 49 balls, featuring three sixes.

He was supported by Shakib Al Hasan (47) as the pair added 91 for the third wicket to give Pakistan cause for concern before Mohammad Sami, playing his first Twenty20 international, swung the momentum back in favour of his team with two wickets in one over.

Pakistan face Australia on Sunday in their final group match while Bangladesh tackle the Australians on Wednesday needing to win to have any hope of advancing.

(Editing by Tony Jimenez. To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Pak Army’s plans to use private militia against Taliban may backfire: Report

September 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep.18 (ANI): The Pakistan Army’s initiative to sponsor local militias, or the lashkars, as they are commonly known, may have been working in its favour against the Taliban, however some people feel such move could back fire in future.

Backed by the Army, which had initiated an all out operation against the Taliban in Swat and Malakand Divisions in April, more than 8,000 villagers living across the region have joined these militias to try to keep the Taliban away from their villages.

Military officials are encouraging people to join hands with the troops against the extremists and carrying out special drives for forming such lashkars.

“The military is going village to village, speaking with elders and encouraging them to form their own lashkars and unite with existing ones,” said Swat military spokesman Major Mushtaq Khan.

While the Army considers that its initiative would yield positive results and prevent the Taliban’s onslaught in the region, experts have raised questions over it saying the move could have catastrophic effect in future.

“They could be temporarily used in some areas where the Taliban are weak or heavily resented, like in Swat. But at the end of the day, the villagers need to do their work; they can’t be armed every night,” The Christian Science Monitor quoted, Rahimullah Yusufzai, a well-known journalist, as saying.

“Creating these private militias may work in the short-run, but what if they later turn on each other to settle personal scores?” usufzai asked

Experts said the military should think twice before trying to extend the experimant into Pakistan’s other tribal agencies, where the Taliban still maintains a strong grip.

“It’s a very interesting experiment. But if it works in Swat, this can’t be replicated anywhere else, because the guys that they were pitted against were way too powerful, the murder of Qari Zainuddin was a case in point,” said Rifaat Hussain, an analyst at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad. (ANI)

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Salt-tolerant crops come a step closer to reality

July 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, July 8 (ANI): An international team of scientists has developed salt-tolerant plants using a new type of genetic modification (GM), bringing salt-tolerant cereal crops a step closer to reality.

The research team, based at the University of Adelaide’s Waite Campus in Australia, has used a new GM technique to contain salt in parts of the plant where it does less damage.

Salinity affects agriculture worldwide, which means the results of this research could impact on world food production and security.

The work has been led by researchers from the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics and the University of Adelaide’s School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, in collaboration with scientists from the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge, UK.

According to Professor Tester, his team used the technique to keep salt – as sodium ions (Na+) – out of the leaves of a model plant species.

“Salinity affects the growth of plants worldwide, particularly in irrigated land where one third of the world’s food is produced. And it is a problem that is only going to get worse, as pressure to use less water increases and quality of water decreases,” said the team’s leader, Professor Mark Tester, from the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine at the University of Adelaide and the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG).

“Helping plants to withstand this salty onslaught will have a significant impact on world food production,” he added.

The researchers modified genes specifically around the plant’s water conducting pipes (xylem) so that salt is removed from the transpiration stream before it gets to the shoot.

“This reduces the amount of toxic Na+ building up in the shoot and so increases the plant’s tolerance to salinity,” Professor Tester said.

“In doing this, we’ve enhanced a process used naturally by plants to minimize the movement of Na+ to the shoot. We’ve used genetic modification to amplify the process, helping plants to do what they already do – but to do it much better,” he added.

The team is now in the process of transferring this technology to crops such as rice, wheat and barley.

“Our results in rice already look very promising,” Professor Tester said. (ANI)

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Pak Police poorly trained, ill equipped to handle Taliban onslaught

July 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Islamabad, July 6 (ANI): The Pakistani police force is underpaid, poorly trained and ill-equipped to handle the Taliban onslaught, as the army drives them from their strongholds in Swat and surrounding areas.

Experts say the Taliban has now stepped up their attacks on the police because they find them far easier targets than the military, which has employed helicopter gunships, tanks and heavy artillery to push the Taliban out of Swat.

Talat Masood, a military analyst, said the government had been slow to train and equip the police for a wave of attacks.

“The police in this situation are not trained, equipped or geared to fight insurgency,” said Malik Naveed Khan, the Inspector General of the NWFP police.

“It’s a very serious war. You’re fighting the shadows of an invisible army,” the Chicago Tribune quoted Khan, as saying.

“For a force of 50,000, Khan’s department has 7,500 bullet proof vests and 17,000 automatic rifles. The department lacks explosives-detection equipment, a computerised fingerprint database and updated ballistic lab equipment,” the paper reported.

The microscopes that technicians use to conduct ballistics examinations, Khan said, “are the same ones used in high schools.”

“The department has 12 armoured personnel carriers, only three of which function. They are Russian-made and from the 1960s. They’re so old that we have to put a mechanic inside while they run. Every 3 kilometres, they break down,” Khan said.

Sub-Inspector Naseem Hayat said that he is fighting a war he knows police should not be asked to. With a handful of officers, he spends his days and nights opening car trunks, never knowing whether the next vehicle that pulls up is the one primed to explode.

“We are on the front lines. We know this is not our job. But we have been ordered to do this, to check every vehicle. That’s why we do it,” he said.

The Taliban focuses its sights on police stations and checkpoints; police commanders know it takes more than fighting spirit to fend off the terrorists. (ANI)

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Pak ‘reorganizes’ troops on Afghan border following fresh US-led Taliban onslaught

July 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Islamabad, July 2 (ANI): The Pakistan Army has ‘reorganized’ its troops along the Afghan border to prevent the spill over of militants from the neighboring country following the fresh US-Afghan onslaught on the Taliban today.

“We’ve mustered more troops from the other areas of the border to deploy opposite the Helmand region. It is sort of a reorganization,” the ISPR spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said.

About 4000 US Marines and 650 Afghan troops have intensified their action against the militants in the Helmand province, supposedly a Taliban stronghold,The News reports.

US and Pakistan officials are concerned that their intense troop build-up in the region could see the militants cross over to Pakistan from Afghanistan through the poorly guarded porous mountain range.

The US believes that Taliban’s top commanders are hiding in the region opposite Helmand, which is around 260 kilometers long. (ANI)

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Ricky Ponting admits ‘too many mistakes’ – Australia out of T20 World Cup 2009

June 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Ricky Ponting was at a loss to explain how his team had been bundled out of the ICC World Twenty20 following heavy defeats to West Indies and Sri Lanka.

“It’s disappointing to go out of the tournament and I can’t explain why.

“The training was spot-on and there was a good attitude, but in the big moments we haven’t been able to play and we made too many mistakes,” he said.

The Aussies lost by six wickets to Sri Lanka with five balls to spare two days after suffering an even bigger defeat.

But while the seven-wicket loss to West Indies with more than four overs to spare could partly be put down to Chris Gayle firing spectacularly with the bat – and Australia being rusty – this time there were other factors to consider.

“We knew that it would be a huge challenge against Sri Lanka’s spinners,” said Ponting. “We knew we had to play them well. We didn’t do that and Sri Lanka deserved to win the game.

“Now we have to move on as quickly as possible and focus on the Ashes.”

Australia have two official warm-up matches ahead of the first Test, the first starting on 24 June against Sussex at Hove, but they may now try to schedule something extra.

Ponting reflected on Australia’s all-too-brief stay in the World Twenty20, as the two teams who beat them were able to start making plans for the Super Eights.

“We lost early wickets in the first game against West Indies and got hit with an onslaught and weren’t able to get into that game. Today was probably the opposite – we got off to a decent start, lost some wickets in the middle and had a good rally at the end, so 160 was a pretty good effort.

“But there were too many mistakes, too many no-balls – I hate to think how many runs were scored off our extra balls – and unfortunately we’ve gone out in straight sets.

“We’ve got to change things quickly. Whether it’s different personnel or different attitude towards the game I’m not sure, but we felt we had picked out best squad and our best cricket hasn’t come out.”

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Schoolkids should be taught to critically analyse popular culture, say experts

May 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, May 25 (ANI): Schoolkids as young as five should be taught to critically analyse advertising, media and popular culture “messages”, suggests a New South Wales academic.

Karen Brooks, a Southern Cross University Associate Professor, says that kids aged five to 18-referred to as “screenagers” or “mediavores”-should be taught the skills to deal with the onslaught of sexualised images and persuasive advertising they see everyday.

These kids spend up to eight hours a day using televisions, computers and mobile phones, but these technologies were not used enough in classrooms.

She said that giving students the “tools” to decode media messages could help address issues with body image, eating disorders and perceptions of reality.

Brooks urged that popular culture and the use of new technologies in schools should be addressed as part of the new national curriculum.

“If kids are having advertising targeted at them then it is incumbent on us to be intervening in those messages in school and in the home,” News.com.au quoted her as saying.

“It’s important that we… start to teach kids about how these messages are constructed, how to put together what their purpose is, that they are to sell products. The way to do it is to use popular culture (in the classroom) from a very, very young age.
We should be using these messages and teaching (children) how to construct them themselves.

“It’s absolutely shocking that they have to wait until university to learn about something that bombards them every day,” she added.

SA Primary Principals Association president Steve Portlock agreed that it was important for students to understand the effects of media, but said it was already covered in the state’s schools.

“We look at the internet and bias in relation to advertising,” he said.

“We teach the kids that just because it’s on the internet or on TV or in ads doesn’t mean it’s good and they actually need to have a bit more knowledge and find out what the purpose is,” he added. (ANI)

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Hughes raring to take on Strauss after successful county stint

May 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Sydney, May 23 (ANI): Australian opener, who returned after his century-laden stint with Middlesex, has said he knows the secrets behind taking down England captain Andrew Strauss.

Strauss, the Middlesex skipper who spent hours at the crease with Hughes, found weaknesses to exploit, but forgot to tell the county bowlers. Hughes destroyed them.

Much has been made of Strauss probing the technique of world cricket’s latest phenomenon from the other end of the wicket.

Hughes laughs at everyone having ignored the flipside to that story. He was watching Strauss every bit as intently as England’s skipper was probing him, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

“I’ll be talking to the boys about a few things that happened over there. The second championship game we played, I got to meet him (Strauss) a couple of days before the game, and then we got to bat together for nearly a whole day.

We spent a fair bit of time together,” Huges said.

“Obviously, he’s seen a fair bit of me, and there’s no dramas there. It’s kind of funny how people can see that in a bad way. I just wanted to get a lot of runs for Middlesex, and I’m glad I did. Why isn’t that a good thing?

“We got on great, the two of us. There were no Ashes comments or anything like that, we were just a couple of blokes playing for Middlesex.

Thing is, though, and no one has even mentioned it, I batted with him for so long, I got the chance to look at him, too,” he added.

Hughes is a marked man, with former England opener Geoffrey Boycott fearing that he could win Australia a Test – in a session.

South Africa unsuccessfully sledged him during his debut series – back-to-back centuries made them calm down a bit and he expects another verbal onslaught in England.

Hughes assured Ponting on Friday that he had only just begun. He’s played at three Ashes venues. He is oblivious to the mystique surrounding the England skipper because they’ve been sharing a dressing room. (ANI)

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Strauss would be Australia’s No.1 target during Ashes: Ponting

May 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Sydney, May 20 (ANI): Australian captain Ricky Ponting has publicly dared England skipper Andrew Strauss to stand up to an onslaught of pressure coming his way.

Boldly declaring that Strauss would be Australia’s No.1 target for the Ashes series, Ponting has begun a merciless psychological campaign that has been used successfully against previous opposition leaders.

“Being captain, as we all know the Australian team tries to target the captain a little bit and put the captain of opposition teams under a bit more pressure. If you can do that, you can generally take another couple of the guys down with him,” he said.

“That is what we are trying to do. We had the better of him out here in Australia last time, we had him under a lot of pressure here and it is important that we start the series off the same way over there,” The Sydney Morning Herald quoted him, as saying.

Australia will be attempting to invoke in Strauss memories of the humiliating 2006-07 series, won 5-0 by Ponting’s men.

“Since he has been captain he has played very, very well; I think he had his best series against the West Indies over there in his first as captain,” Ponting said, referring to the previous series in the Caribbean lost by England.

Ponting said Kevin Pietersen was England’s most dangerous player. (ANI)

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Sarah Palin defends ‘liberal target’ Miss California

May 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 14 (ANI): Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has defended controversy laden Miss California Carrie Prejean against “the liberal onslaught of malicious attacks.”

Carrie was speculated to have lost the Miss USA crown after she spoke against same sex marriages while responding to a question during the competition.

The 21-year-old, who bagged the first runner-up title on April 19, had evoked a mixed reaction for her anti-gay marriage answer, with some crying out for her title to be stripped off her while conservatives hailed her as a star.

And now, the former vice-presidential nominee for the 2008 United States presidential election has praised the beauty for standing tall for her beliefs and not succumbing to “politically-motivated attacks”.

“I respect Carrie for standing strong and staying true to herself, and for not letting those who disagree with her deny her protection under the nation’s First Amendment Rights. Our Constitution protects us all – not just those who agree with the far left,” the Politico quoted Palin as saying.

She added: “What I find so remarkable is that these politically-motivated attacks fail to show that what Carrie and I believe is also what President Obama and Secretary Clinton believe – marriage is between a man and a woman.”

Palin, 45, further commended Donald Trump, who owns the Miss USA organization, for not taking away Carrie’s Miss California crown after her nude picture was leaked online following her answer in the contest. (ANI)

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US needs to do everything to stabilize Pakistan, says expert

May 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 6 (ANI): An expert on South Asian affairs has said that the United States needs to do everything it can to help stabilize Pakistan, while recognizing that Washington’s best efforts alone will not be sufficient for the task.

Lisa Curtis, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, also says that Pakistani leaders also must step up to the plate and demonstrate they are fully committed to bringing peace and security to the region and are willing to stand up to Taliban advances in their own country.

“Given the fluidity of the current political situation, the U.S. must also develop contingency containment strategies that guard against the possibility of terrorists gaining access to Pakistan’s nuclear weapons arsenal,” she says in a testimony before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Admitting that developing and implementing an effective U.S. policy toward Pakistan is one of the most complicated yet important foreign policy challenges the Obama Administration faces, Curtis says that Pakistan is in the midst of societal and political shifts that are challenging its leadership’s ability to maintain stability and even raising questions about the potential for an Islamic revolution in the country.

“Pakistan has long suffered from ethnic and sectarian divisions in different parts of the country. But the more recent threat from a well-armed and well-organized Islamist insurgency pushing for the establishment of strict Islamic law in the country’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) adds a new and more dangerous dimension to the country’s challenges,” she adds.

While ruling out the collapse of the Pakistani state, she says the government’s surrender of the Swat Valley is a major victory for Islamist extremists seeking to carve out pockets of influence within the country.

“Islamabad’s decision to allow the implementation of a parallel Islamic courts system in the Malakand Division of the NWFP (including Swat Valley) demonstrates the weakness of the Pakistan government and military in the face of an onslaught by Taliban-backed extremists seeking to take over parts of the province,” she said.

The Pakistan military, she says, has surrendered to militants in the region. The closing of the civil courts in Swat Valley several weeks ago has belied the Pakistan government’s claim that the establishment of Islamic courts in the region would not usurp state authority.

Events over the last two weeks, however, may have finally awakened some Pakistani officials to the downsides of the Swat peace deal and in the final analysis, it will be up to the Pakistani military to decide how much of the country will be ceded to the Taliban. (ANI)

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Pak on brink of chaos: Expert

May 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Lahore, May 6 (ANI): Pakistan is on the brink of chaos and is deteriorating, and in such a situation, the United States should be flexible enough in preventing that country from sinking into a political and lawless abyss dominated by Talibanisation, feels a Pakistani journalist.

According to Ahmed Rashid, who is also a fellow at the Pacific Council on International Policy and the author of “Descent Into Chaos: The U.S. and the Disaster in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia,” the U.S. Congress should pass the emergency funds quickly and, at minimum, offer the first year of the 1.5 billion dollars without conditions to foster stability between the two sides.

He says that the speed and conditions with which Congress provides emergency aid to Islamabad will affect the Pakistani government and army’s ability and will to resist the Taliban onslaught. It will also affect America’s image in Pakistan and the region. Pakistanis are looking for evidence of the long-term U.S. commitment about which President Obama has spoken.

Describing the relationship between the two countries as being at a critical juncture, he says U.S. lawmakers should stipulate that aid for Pakistani and Western aid agencies involved in development, particularly agriculture, education and job creation, should not be conditioned.

Since Obama announced his strategic review of U.S. policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan, worsening conditions here have nudged Afghanistan from the top of his foreign policy agenda. Pakistanis are beset by a galloping Taliban insurgency in the north that is based not just among Pashtuns, as in Afghanistan, but that has extensive links to al-Qaeda and jihadist groups in Punjab, Sindh and Baluchistan.

That means the Taliban offensive in northern Pakistan has the potential to become a nationwide movement within a few months. Violence is already spreading.

The army’s recent counteroffensive against the Taliban was prompted in part by U.S. pressure and, more significant, by a dramatic shift in public opinion toward opposing the Taliban.

Many people are beginning to see the country threatened by a bloody internal revolution. This public pressure can lead to a major change in army policies toward India and Afghanistan, Rashid opines.

However, he says in his article in the Washington Post that the army and the civilian government still lack a comprehensive counterinsurgency strategy as well as a plan to deal with the one million refugees who have fled the fighting.

“Certainly the United States can demand that its money be used for good purposes. The original Biden-Lugar bill introduced last year had the mix just right, setting down three strategic benchmarks-that Pakistan be committed to fighting terrorism, that Pakistan remain a democracy (in other words, the army must not seize control), and that both nations provide public and official accountability for the funds. Unlike the extensive conditions that lawmakers are seeking to impose now, such broad parameters would provide space for further negotiations and progress between Pakistan and the United States,” Rashid says.

U.S. flexibility to set a minimum of conditions that can be further negotiated once aid delivery begins could become a model for donors in Europe and Japan, he concludes. (ANI)

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Taliban using 2,000 villagers as human shields in Buner

May 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Islamabad, May 3 (ANI): The Taliban are using at least 2,000 people as human shields in North West Frontier Province’s (NWFP) Buner District.

According to the ISPR, the hostages are being held in Pir Baba in Buner district.

A British daily quoted an elderly refugee in Timergara in Dir as saying on Sunday that: “Kidnapping has become routine in our village. Armed Taliban were picking up people and then demanding a huge ransom for their release.”

According to the paper, many of the 90,000 refugees fleeing the conflict zone in NWFP welcomed the military action despite their anger at being forced to leave their homes.

Although Pakistani officers described their onslaught as a “mopping up” operation, much of Buner remains under Taliban control, the report said.

On Saturday, Pakistani security forces seized control of a key highway in Buner. Sixteen militants were killed after they made an abortive bid to attack a post close to the Afghan border. (ANI)

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3 fronts party hard in Orissa

April 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Orissa is up for grabs. Clearly, that’s what the leaders of all three coalitions vying for power both at the Centre and state – assembly polls are being held too – believe.

Ever since the BJD decided to break its alliance with the BJP in early March, leaders of the UPA, NDA and Third Front have been converging here as never before. All believe the state is in political flux and if only they put in the effort, they can win a majority of the 21 Lok Sabha and 147 assembly seats.

The political onslaught on the state reached a fever pitch on Wednesday as NCP chief Sharad Pawar finally took the step of addressing four rallies together with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and holding a press conference in the company of CPM leader Sitaram Yechury as well. Elsewhere Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed meetings in Kalahandi and Kandhamal, while Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi descended on Sambalpur and Rourkela, promising to make Orissa as vibrant as Gujarat if the state voted for the BJP. While Pawar was careful not to attack the Congress, Patnaik had no such compulsions and sought to recall Orissa’s ‘dark days’ when the party ruled.

Rahul returned the compliment in Kandhamal charging the BJD leader with not only having failed to implement centrally funded welfare schemes, but also destroying peace. “We have to keep both the Congress and the BJP at bay,” said Naveen Patnaik, “to protect the interests of the people of Orissa.

” “Orissa was once a peaceful state, but that is no longer true,” said Rahul in Kandhamal. “The government has presided over the torture of people and communal riots in the name of religion.

” “The BJD betrayed us without any provocation,” thundered Modi in Sambalpur. He is making his second campaign trip to Orissa, having addressed four rallies on Sunday.

“But we will emerge triumphant because we believe in development. Orissa has far more natural reserves than Gujarat, and yet it has lagged behind.

There is not a taluka in Orissa from where people have not gone to Gujarat seeking employment. We want to bring about such a change that people from Gujarat will want to go to Orissa to work.

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Fritzl bombards family with ‘meet me’ calls

April 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Apr 11 (ANI): Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who has been convicted of imprisoning his daughter for 24 years in a windowless cellar and fathering her seven children, is begging his family through phone calls to visit him in jail, it has emerged.

The calls, however, usually end with kids hanging up on him, prison officials said.

The 74-year-old has not been able to contact his daughter Elisabeth, 42, or the six children he fathered with her during her ordeal, reports The Sun.

But he knows where she resides, and has even requested to be shifted to a prison nearer to her in the hope that she or the children might want to see him.

Austrian justice ministry officials have confirmed the phone call onslaught, after Fritzl started a life sentence for rape and the murder of one of his cellar children.(ANI)

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