22 December 2009

Pakistan: Through the Eye of a Needle [blog], Reuters // Pakistan:Now or Never? Perspectives on Pakistan, 21 December 2009

EXCERPT: "For the first time in many months, the future of Pakistan is being determined not in the fight against Islamist militants, but within its institutions ? its judiciary, its political parties, its government and its military.  Last week's decision by the Supreme Court to strike down a 2007 amnesty given...

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22 December 2009

Strategic Balochistan Becomes a Target in War Against Taliban, The Guardian, 21 December 2009

EXCERPT: "Look around Balochistan, and you may not see much. Pakistan's largest province is also its poorest and least inhabited ? an expanse of rocky deserts and ramshackle villages where hardy tribesmen live by ancient laws. But to outside eyes, Balochistan's barren sands glisten with hidden value. Mining companies eye its natural riches: vast...

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22 December 2009

, The Associated Press, 22 December 2009

EXCERPT: "A suicide bomber detonates his explosives outside a press club in northwestern Pakistan, leaving three people dead in the latest attack against the city of Peshawar since the military launched a major offensive near the Afghan border. A policeman tried to search the attacker as he approached the press club's gate, but the man resisted and was...

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22 December 2009

US Forces Mounted Secret Pakistan Raids In Hunt For Al-Qaida, The Guardian, 21 December 2009

EXCERPT: "American special forces have conducted multiple clandestine raids into Pakistan's tribal areas as part of a secret war in the border region where Washington is pressing to expand its drone assassination programme. A former Nato officer said the incursions, only one of which has been previously reported, occurred between 2003 and...

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