WASHINGTON: “Failure is not an option” in Pakistan’’s battle against terrorism, President Asif Ali Zardari said in an op-ed piece published in Wednesday’’s Wall Street Journal.”This is an existential battle. If we lose, so too will the world. Failure is not an option,” the president said a day after a Mumbai-style attack on members of Sri Lanka’’s cricket team in Lahore killed eight people including six Pakistani policemen and two civilians. Tuesday’’s attack, said Zardari, “shows once again the evil we are confronting.” Speaking for his government, Zardari also said, “We have not and will not negotiate with extremist Taliban and terrorists,” adding that the recently struck deal in the troubled Swat Valley was not with the Taliban. “The clerics with whom we have engaged are not Taliban,” he said, adding that Pakistan had made clear to the clerics “that it is their responsibility to rein in and neutralize Taliban and other insurgents” in their area. Zardari warned, however, that “our security forces will act accordingly” if the Swat Valley authorities were unable to control the insurgents.
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LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan published photos of two of the militants who ambushed Sri Lanka’s cricket team and offered a reward Wednesday for help tracking the men who killed six police, wounded seven players and exposed the country’s inability to prevent terrorism.
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English cricket legends expressed widespread shock and disbelief on Wednesday following the brazen attack on the Sri Lanka team in Pakistan — and a sadness that the sport was changed forever.
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WASHINGTON: “Failure is not an option” in Pakistan’’s battle against terrorism, President Asif Ali Zardari said in an op-ed piece published in Wednesday’’s Wall Street Journal.”This is an existential battle. If we lose, so too will the world. Failure is not an option,” the president said a day after a Mumbai-style attack on members of Sri Lanka’’s cricket team in Lahore killed eight people including six Pakistani policemen and two civilians. Tuesday’’s attack, said Zardari, “shows once again the evil we are confronting.” Speaking for his government, Zardari also said, “We have not and will not negotiate with extremist Taliban and terrorists,” adding that the recently struck deal in the troubled Swat Valley was not with the Taliban. “The clerics with whom we have engaged are not Taliban,” he said, adding that Pakistan had made clear to the clerics “that it is their responsibility to rein in and neutralize Taliban and other insurgents” in their area. Zardari warned, however, that “our security forces will act accordingly” if the Swat Valley authorities were unable to control the insurgents.
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Pakistan stepped up a manhunt on Wednesday for the armed militants behind a deadly ambush targeting Sri Lanka’s cricket team, which has plunged the troubled nation deeper into crisis.
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ISLAMABAD: Polling for 19 Senate seats is underway, as candidates on 31 seats have already returned unopposed. Media coverage of the polling has not been allowed. Presently, 79 candidates are vying for the Senate slots against 19 seats, including 11 Balochistan seats and four each for the NWFP and the Fata.The National Assembly hall has been declared a polling station. Eleven MNAs from Fata will be electing four senators for the tribal areas for which hectic lobbying has been under way.The newly elected Senators will take oath on March 12.
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WELLINGTON: New Zealand indicated on Wednesday they would call off their tour of Pakistan after the deadly attack against the Sri Lankan team, fuelling doubts over the future of international cricket there.The tour in November-December looks increasingly unlikely to go ahead amid huge question marks over security in volatile Pakistan, which is in danger of losing its co-host status for the 2011 cricket World Cup.”We”re not going, and I think that’’s pretty clear,” New Zealand Cricket’’s chief executive Justin Vaughan told Radio New Zealand, adding: “I don”t think any international team will be going to Pakistan in the foreseeable future. “Now we”ve seen that cricket can be a target… I think it creates a whole new set of issues and raises the security issue to a whole new level.”However, Vaughan later backtracked from saying the tour was off, issuing a statement stressing that no final decision had been made even if it appeared “very unlikely” to happen. “We will discuss the security issue with the Pakistan Cricket Board at the next ICC (International Cricket Council) meeting, and we are likely to look at options such as the use of neutral venues,” Vaughan said.
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Vice President Joe Biden will consult NATO allies in Brussels next week as part of a strategy review on Afghanistan and Pakistan ordered by President Barack Obama as he shifts the U.S. military focus away from the Iraq war.
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A new route through Uzbekistan provides an alternative to the one through the troubled border with Pakistan.
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Pakistan News
Sri Lanka’s cricket administrators came under heavy criticism Wednesday for their decision to tour Pakistan despite other countries pulling out due to security concerns.
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