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Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Attack on Sri Lankan team near Liberty Market Lahore Pakistan exclusiveVideo

Pakistan squad for Bangladesh announced

Pakistan, LAHORE Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced a 16-member team for the tour of Bangladesh here on Wednesday but Shoaib Akhtar is not included in the team. Chief selector Abdul Qadir announced the Pakistan squad for playing a series of five One-day Internationals and two Twenty20 Internationals in Bangladesh. 

The team is as follows:

Squad: Younus Khan (captain), Salman Butt, Shahid Afridi, Nasir Jamshed, Ahmed Shahzad, Shoaib Malik, Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal, Fawad Alam, Umar Gul, Sohail Tanveer, Mohammad Aamir, Yasir Arafat, Yasir Shah, Rao Iftikhar, Sarfraz Ahmed.

Nadal ready for Davis Cup return

World number one Rafael Nadal will make his return from injury when Spain begin the defence of their Davis Cup crown against Serbia in Benidorm on Friday. Nadal has not played since losing to Andy Murray in the Rotterdam final on 15 February because of a knee injury. "I feel great and with a great will to keep going on," Nadal told his personal website. "I'm very excited about representing my country." The 2009 Davis Cup gets under way with eight first-round ties this week. Champions Spain are without Australian Open semi-finalist, and 2008 Davis Cup hero, Fernando Verdasco because of injury but are otherwise at full strength.

Commonwealth Games move ruled out

The head of the Commonwealth Games has rejected any suggestion the 2010 event will be switched from Delhi as a result of fears about security in the region. Tuesday's terror attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan has prompted further questions about Delhi's ability to stage the Games. But Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) boss Michael Hooper said Delhi would do whatever is required to ensure safety. "There is no plan B, the Games will be here, that's the reality," he said. "The Games are 20 months away and no other city, no matter how good its infrastructure, could manage to stage an event of this magnitude in the time now available. "There has never been any discussion whatsoever about shifting the Games. The Games will be in Delhi in 2010."

Sri Lanka cricketers arrive home

The Sri Lanka team have arrived home following the attacks on their bus by armed gunmen in Lahore on Tuesday. Seven players were wounded in the attacks, which killed six policemen and a driver. "None of us thought we would come alive out of the situation," said skipper Mahela Jayawardene. Batsman Thilan Samarweera, the most seriously injured, will have surgery on his knee in a private Colombo hospital after suffering a bullet wound. Tharanga Paranavitana, Kumar Sangakkara, Ajantha Mendis, Suranka Lakmal, Thilan Thushara and assistant coach Paul Farbrace sustained minor injuries. Jayawardene explained the civil war in Sri Lanka left them better able than other teams to cope with the atrocious attack."We have been brought up in a background of terrorist activities," he said. "We are used to hearing, seeing these things. Firing, bombings. So we ducked under our seats when the firing began - we were screaming and hurt but couldn't help each other. "It's about families, livelihoods, kids, wives, parents everybody," he continued. "We need to look at the bigger picture and hopefully in the future we can make right decisions looking at all these and not just the small things. Geethanjana Mendis, director general of the Sports Ministry medical unit said: "The boys are all suffering from trauma. But they should all be OK and can get back to cricket in a week to 10 days. "Samaraweera, however, will need further surgery and treatment and he will need more time to recover." Spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, the leading wicket-taker in Test and one-day cricket, added: "All the while bullets were being sprayed at our bus, people around me were shouting. I am glad to be back." Former England batsman Chris Broad, the match referee in Lahore who shielded a wounded Pakistani umpire as his car was fired upon and the driver killed, is set to arrive back at Manchester airport on Wednesday morning. 

Seize the moment, Brown urges US

Gordon Brown has received a standing ovation from the US Congress after he called for a renewal "of the special relationship for our generation". Mr Brown, the fifth UK prime minister in history to address both houses on Capitol Hill, urged the US and UK to push for "essential" economic changes. Neither nation should "succumb" to protectionism "which protects no-one", but "seize the moment", he said. Mr Brown announced Senator Ted Kennedy would get an honorary UK knighthood. The prime minister paid tribute to the work of US troops in Afghanistan and said terrorists could "not ever destroy the American spirit". The partnership between the UK and the US is "unbreakable" and that "no power on earth can ever draw us apart", he also said.

Asteroid passes close to Earth

You had a close encounter with a 40-yard-wide asteroid this week, but the astronomer who first spotted the large rock said it's nothing to worry about.Asteroid 2009 DD45 on Monday passed within 38,000 miles of Earth, less than twice the height of the geostationary satellites we depend on for communications, according to Robert McNaught of the Australian National University. McNaught, who watches for asteroids with his telescope 250 miles northwest of Sydney, Australia, discovered the approaching rock last week. "It's not something to worry about, but something to be aware of," he said. While a direct hit on Earth could be a devastating natural disaster, McNaught said keeping track of asteroids can make a hit "potentially preventable." "If discovered in advance and with enough lead time, there is the possibility of pushing it off course, if you have decades of advance warning," McNaught said. "If you have only a few days, you can evacuate the area of impact, but there's not a great deal [else] you can do." In either case, he said, a global catastrophe as depicted in Hollywood movies such as "Deep Impact" is "very, very unlikely." The 2009 DD45 asteroid circles the sun every 18 months, but its path will not threaten this planet at least for the next century, he said. The number of "potentially harmful asteroids" discovered each year has grown dramatically over the past decade as "systematic programs" to scan the skies have been put in place, McNaught said. Nearly 100 new ones have been found in each of the past several years, he said. 

Abu Dhabi to hold Pakistan talks

Abu Dhabi Cricket Association boss Dilwar Mani plans further talks with the Pakistan Cricket Board about having more games in the neutral venue. Abu Dhabi and Dubai are already due to host Pakistan's limited overs games against Australia next month, and New Zealand could go there later this year. That could extend to England, who are scheduled to play four Tests and five one-day matches in Pakistan in 2010. "The decision must be made between the two cricket boards," Mani told the BBC. England are due to tour Pakistan in February and March next year, but in the wake of the attacks in Lahore it appears unthinkable that those matches will go ahead there. Mani said he had not yet been approached about staging some of England's matches but told me he would be 'delighted' to step in as host. ''Should any country require our assistance and facilities we can make them available," said the chief executive.

Sudan soldier: 'They told me to kill, to rape children'

As the International Criminal Court issues a landmark warrant for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir over war crimes in Darfur, CNN's Nic Robertson interviews a man who was told to rape and kill children.I wanted to believe the man in front of me wasn't a rapist. I knew he was a former Sudanese soldier, I knew he wanted to talk about rape in Darfur. A humanitarian group working on Darfur issues had introduced him to us. They told us his testimony was important to hear. Last year in Darfur aid workers told me children as young as five were being raped in the huge displacement camps that are home to several million Darfuris. In some camps, they told me, rape had become so common that as many as 20 babies a month born from rape were being abandoned. As I sat inches from Adam --not his real name -- I feared the revulsion I knew I would feel at my own questions as I asked about rape and his involvement. I have interviewed rape survivors in Darfur. I have two daughters. I am a human being with a conscience. It would be hard to listen to his replies. He told me he was conscripted by force in to the Sudanese army in the summer of 2002. He thought he was being taken for six months' national service and then would be released. The conversation was slow going at first. We were both holding off from delving into the sordid details he'd come to discuss. His answers were short, he told me he got no pay from the army, only food and drink. He said he was rounded up in an army truck from a market in Darfur and trained to kill. He said he was armed with Kalashnikovs and told to "shoot targets."  Then, he says, his officers told him "we will be taken to a patrol and then soon after that we were asked to join other people to go and burn and kill people".

Zardari rules out Taleban truce

Pakistani President Asif Zardari has said Pakistan has not and will not negotiate with the "extremist Taleban and terrorists". Mr Zardari said that the "clerics" with whom his government had engaged in Swat valley were not the Taleban. Authorities and a key radical cleric recently agreed a deal that would bring Sharia law to the region in return for an end to Taleban militancy. The scenic valley has long been blighted by militant violence. The Taleban have also destroyed nearly 200 schools, most of them for girls, during a sustained campaign against secular education in Swat. Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Mr Zardari said: "The clerics with whom we have engaged [in Swat] are not Taleban. Indeed, in our dialogue we'd made it clear that it is their responsibility to rein in and neutralise Taleban and other insurgents." "If they do so and lay down their arms, this initiative will have succeeded for the people of Swat Valley. If not, our security forces will act accordingly." Mr Zardari said that "this process of weaning reconcilable elements of an insurgency away from the irreconcilables has been mischaracterised in the West". Mr Zardari said that Pakistan "will not condone" the closing of girls' schools in Swat. "Indeed, the government insists that the education of young women is mandatory. This is not an example of the government condoning or capitulating to extremism - quite the opposite."Mr Zardari said Pakistan's fight against terrorism is "relentless" and the ruling government had conducted a number of operations against militants. Taleban insurgents in the troubled Swat valley of Pakistan announced an indefinite ceasefire following the deal with the authorities. The situation in Swat remains tense and the militants are yet to disarm or end their hold over areas they control. Swat has been the scene of bloody clashes between militants and government forces since November 2007. More than 1,000 civilians have died in shelling by the army or from beheadings sanctioned by the Taleban. Thousands more have been displaced.

How the attack on cricketers happened (Full Story)

Eyewitnesses to Tuesday's attack on Sri Lanka's cricketers described scenes of shock and horror as gunmen opened fire in the heart of the Pakistani city of Lahore. "As the Sri Lankan team was approaching the stadium for the test match this morning, about a half a kilometre away from the stadium, two cars entered the roundabout... and fired a grenade," said Graham Usher, a British journalist, who was approaching the area just as the attack took place. "As they did this, three other gunmen ran into the roundabout, where the bus was, opened fire on a police vehicle - where a police officer was killed - and then opened fire on the bus, spraying the bus we understand with machine gun fire," he told the BBC's Today programme."The gunmen targeted the wheels of the bus first and then the bus," Sri Lankan cricketer Mahela Jayawardene told Cricinfo website. "We all dived to the floor to take cover." The driver of the bus carrying the Sri Lankan team, Khalil Ahmed, said: "As we approached the city's Liberty Roundabout, I slowed down. Just then what seemed to be a rocket was fired at my coach, but it missed and I think flew over the top of the vehicle. "Almost immediately afterwards a person ran in front of the bus and threw a grenade in our direction. But it rolled underneath the coach and did not seem to cause that much damage. Soon after that the vehicles were shot at, before Mr Ahmed drove off at top speed. He said the attackers were all aged between 20 and 30 and many had beards.'Bullet holes' Another bus carrying the umpires for the game also came under fire, said a Pakistani umpire whose bus was stopped just behind the Sri Lankan players. "The firing started at about 0840 (0340 GMT) and it continued for 15 minutes. Our driver was hit, and he was injured," Nadeem Ghauri was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying. Lahore resident Ahmad Hassan described the chaos on the streets as he was driving to work near the cricket stadium. "People got straight out of their cars, they were panicking and running in the road," he told the BBC. "All I could think of was that I might be killed by a stray bullet... It was the worst day of my life."Former England cricketer Dominic Cork - who was providing commentary for the series - said he heard the loud gunfire shortly after he arrived at Gaddafi stadium and rushed into the commentary box to see what was happening. "The Sri Lankan team bus had arrived with bullet holes all over. There was a lot of, obviously, screaming and shouting from the medical staff of the Sri Lankan team. We could see that at least six players at that time I knew had got wounds." "They all hit the ground, then there was shrapnel flying all over," Mr Cork said. He said one of the players remembered thinking, "This is it. I'm dead." Journalist Graham Usher said police were investigating the scene.

"There are two white cars that were apparently used in the ambush that are being investigated by police officers, and there is the police van that bore the brunt of the gunfire," he said."One of the police officers, we understand, was killed in this van. It is surrounded by broken glass and there is blood spilled and congealed on the seats and there is a real sense of shock and bewilderment as hundreds of local journalists and police are milling around." Punjab Governor Salman Taseer arrived at the scene about an hour after the attack. "These [attackers] were fully trained people, the way they were running and the kind of weapons they had... they are the same [type of] people who launched attacks in Mumbai. They were no ordinary terrorists." 

Polling for Senate seats underway

Pakistan, 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.

China to boost military spending

China says it will increase military spending by a "modest" 14.9% this year to 480.6bn yuan ($70.2bn; £50bn). The added money is to go to higher pay and improved counter-terrorism and disaster relief programmes, a spokesman for China's parliament said. China's military is for self-protection and does not pose a threat to any country, said spokesman Li Zhaoxing. Analysts say defence spending is higher than the official figure, but Beijing says there are no hidden outlays. The figure was released ahead of the annual session of the National People's Congress, China's parliament, which begins on Thursday. "The increased part of the budget is mainly used to raise salaries for soldiers as well as spending on military 'informatisation', counter-terrorism and internal security," Mr Li told a news conference in Beijing. China wanted to protect the "sovereignty and integrity of Chinese territory and would not threaten any country". The military's share of the total budget was down from last year, at 6.3%, he said. Mr Li described the increase as modest. It marks the 19th double-digit boost in defence spending in the last 20 years, said Associated Press news agency.

Scientists discover new species in ocean's depths

Until last December, no one had ever seen the bottom of the Tasman Fracture, a trench that drops more than four kilometers below the surface of the ocean. A group of Australian and American researchers recently spent a month hundreds of kilometers southwest of the Tasmanian coast, exploring the fracture's depths.Jess Adkins, a professor at Caltech and one of the project's lead scientists, remembers sitting in his control room and watching the underwater life on his monitors with a sense of awe. Once, he says, none of the scientists or pilots said a word for 10 minutes straight as their submersible glided over an undiscovered coral reef full of urchins and sponges and sea stars. The researchers explored the fracture with Jason, a remotely-operated submersible the size of a small car. On loan from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, it carried a high-definition camera that weighed more than 500 pounds and beamed underwater video up to the ship through a long fiber-optic tether. At 3,000 meters below sea level, the crew saw thousands of sea spiders. At 3,500, millions of specimens of a new, purple-spotted sea anemone. At 4,000 meters, a single never-before-seen carnivorous sea squirt with a funnel-shaped body that snapped shut like a Venus flytrap around any shrimp unfortunate enough to brush against it. Back on land, the three new species (the anemone, the sea squirt, and a new kind of barnacle) have drawn the most attention, but it's the team's coral collection, some 10,000 pieces of it, that can tell us about the history of our climate and, perhaps, its future. A coral skeleton acts as a tape recorder of its environment. As it grows, the coral's chemical structure (specifically the weight of its oxygen molecules) varies depending on the temperature of the water around it. And, because the coral's uranium decays into thorium over time, it is conveniently datable.By charting different corals' ages and oxygen weights, researchers can map the ocean's changing temperature. During the coming months, expedition scientists will compare 40,000 years of oceanic and atmospheric records.

Sri Lanka cricketers arrive home

The Sri Lanka cricket team has arrived home from Pakistan after masked gunmen opened fire on its bus in Lahore. Six policemen and a driver were killed in the ambush and eight members of the cricket touring party were injured.

The team's return to Colombo saw emotional reunions with anxious family members at the international airport. Meanwhile, the police hunt for the gunmen continues in Pakistan as officials try to establish who is responsible for the attacks. The attacks on Tuesday drew international condemnation. New Zealand cricket officials have said they expect to cancel their forthcoming tour of Pakistan. Separately, Pakistani police have shown journalists a large cache of arms recovered from several locations near the site of Tuesday's attack. The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says there were backpacks stuffed with food and water, suggesting that the gunmen may have been prepared for a long siege, as was the case in last year's attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai. Rehman Malik, Pakistan's Interior Ministry advisor, said the country was in a "state of war". He called for patience but vowed to "flush all these terrorists out of the country". Up to 14 gunmen were involved in the attack on the Liberty Square roundabout in the heart of Lahore. The masked men opened fire as the Sri Lanka team coach approached the cricket stadium for its latest Test match against Pakistan.

None of the injured Sri Lanka team members was so seriously hurt that they could not fly back to Colombo but once they arrived, five players and assistant coach Paul Farbrace, who is British, went to a local medical centre for further checks.

Funerals

"There were just these images of life flashing through my mind; all the while bullets were being sprayed at our bus, people around me were shouting," spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan told the AFP news agency. Captain Mahela Jayawardene told reporters at the airport that he was relieved to be home but admitted that it will take time to get over their experience.Meanwhile, funerals for the dead Pakistani policemen took place in Lahore on Tuesday night. Officials said Sri Lanka's Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona had travelled to Pakistan to be updated on the investigation. Earlier, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse condemned the "cowardly terrorist attack". Grenades, rocket launchers and backpacks belonging to the attackers were found at the scene, police said. Officials in Pakistan said the incident bore similarities to the deadly attacks in Mumbai in India last November. The Mumbai bombings were blamed on Pakistan-based Islamic militants and the security forces are expected to investigate any connections to al-Qaeda and Taleban militants as well as Kashmiri jihadi groups.

Security failures

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. The Pakistani politician Imran Khan, a former captain of the country's cricket team, criticised the security arrangements for the Sri Lanka team. "This was one of the worst security failures in Pakistan," he said. Pakistani cricket was already suffering from serious security concerns. Last month, the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council, decided not to hold the 2009 Champions Trophy there due to safety worries. New Zealand cricket authorities have told the BBC that a proposed tour to Pakistan now seems unlikely. The ICC is now considering whether Pakistan can co-host the cricket World Cup, due to be held across four South Asian countries in 2011. Pakistan invited Sri Lanka to tour only after India's cricket team pulled out of a scheduled tour following the Mumbai attacks.

Sindh govt withdraws cases against Altaf

Pakistan, HYDERABAD Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has informed that the government has withdrawn most of cases against Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain. Addressing a news conference here on Tuesday, Shah said the government has taken this step as part of its policy of national reconciliation. “The cases have been withdrawn. It is now up to Altaf Hussain whether he returns to country or not,” he said.

Terror Attack on Sri Lanka's Cricket Team

India win rain-affected one-dayer

India beat New Zealand by 53 runs in the rain-interrupted first one-day international at Napier on Tuesday to take a lead in the five-match series. India made 273-4 from 38 overs after their innings was halted for two-and-a-half hours because of rain. New Zealand were set a revised target of 216 to win off 28 overs after their reply was also interrupted by showers. However, the hosts could only manage 162-9, losing by 53 runs under the Duckworth-Lewis method. India captain Mahendra Dhoni top-scored with 84 not out from 89 balls while opener Virender Sehwag blasted 77 from 56 and Suresh Raina 66 from 39. Martin Guptill led New Zealand's reply with a solid 64 but their hopes of winning were destroyed when Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh captured three wickets in four balls. The second match of the series takes place in Wellington on Friday. 

Hunt for Lahore cricket attackers

Pakistani police are hunting gunmen who attacked a convoy carrying Sri Lanka's cricket team in the city of Lahore.The masked men opened fire, killing six policemen escorting the Sri Lankans and a driver. Seven players and an assistant coach were wounded. There is no word on the identities or motives of the gunmen, who escaped. No arrests have been made so far. However officials said the incident bore similarities to deadly attacks in Mumbai in India last November. The Mumbai bombings were blamed on Pakistan-based Islamic militants. Officials said about 12 gunmen were involved in Tuesday's attack on the Liberty Square roundabout in the heart of Lahore.

Collapsed building traps 9 in Germany

Hundreds of German rescue workers are searching the ruins of a collapsed building in Cologne for nine people who may be trapped beneath the rubble.The collapse of the city's historic archive damaged two other buildings, according to Carlo Schlender, a reporter for German TV station RTL, a CNN affiliate. Firefighters were using dogs to help search the rubble, and police said heavy-lifting equipment was on the way, CNN's Ben Brumfield reported from the scene. Rescuers do not know if anyone is alive in the rubble, he said. As many as 100 emergency vehicles were on the scene, he added. The collapse of the main building tore the facade off a neighboring structure, revealing the rooms inside, photos from the scene showed. Rescue efforts are ongoing and are expected to last until at least midnight local time (2300 GMT), a fire department spokesman told CNN. The spokesman did not identify himself. Police are evacuating all the buildings in a 150-meter (yard) radius around the scene of the incident, including two schools and a retirement home housing 76 people, Brumfield said. There will be no classes at the school Wednesday, he added. The building did not collapse quickly, Schlender said, giving people the chance to flee.