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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Kiwis claim they have the firepower to tackle Oz top order


Sydney: Though it is ranked seventh among Test-playing nations, New Zealand has said that it has the firepower to knock the Australian top order over.

Black Caps pacer Chris Martin was quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald as saying that Australia were finally beatable without Warne and McGrath, citing the side''s inability to dismiss India in the failed Test series.

He said that his side is planning a similar bowling strategy to that used effectively by Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan to rattle the top order.

"I think when you lose two once-in-a-generation players who bowl in tandem so well, you''re going to feel a bit of a hole there for a while. And winning cricket and taking 20 wickets might not become as easy, which has perhaps made the Australian side beatable,” Martin said.

"But also you have to play extremely well to beat them. Whereas in the past perhaps you could play extremely well and still lose. So that''s the only thing that''s changed," he added.

Endorsing Martin’s view, South African cricket coach, Mickey Arthur, told the Herald last weekend that his side could finally end Australia''s long-held reign at the top.

"In familiar conditions - South Africa, England and Australia - I think it''s going to be us [who will succeed Australia]," Arthur said, adding "We certainly have the ammunition to mount a serious challenge.”

Windies coach John Dyson added: "I think everyone has begun to realise that this current Australian side is human and can be beaten. And that''s good for cricket."

Martin believes if the Kiwi pace attack can reproduce the stunning efforts of the Indians, Ricky Ponting and his men are fair game.

New Zealand is expected to go with four quicks for the opening Test in Brisbane next week. They include teenager Tim Southee, Iain O''Brien, Kyle Mills and Martin, who missed the Bangladesh tour with a hamstring injury. (ANI)





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Pakistan Not Involved In Kashmir Protests: FM Qureshi


NEW YORK: Foreign Minister of Pakistan Mehmood Qureshi said that Pakistan is not involved in protests being staged in Kashmir.

This he said while talking to news men at sidelines of interfaith summit of United Nations here on Thursday.

Putting light on the meeting held between President Asif Ali Zardari and US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, Qureshi said Pakistan was seeking help of international community to steer the country out of financial crises, adding the government was striving to make the Friends of Pakistan forum effective in this regard.

The FM said Kuwait had been invited to invest in energy sector besides participating in Expo 2008, the arms exhibition to be held shortly in Karachi.



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Symonds, Siddle Included In Oz Test Squad


Melbourne: All-rounder Andrew Symonds has been included in the Australian squad ahead of next week’s first Test against New Zealand at the Gabba.

Symonds was included in a 13-man squad along with Victorian fast bowler Peter Siddle as selectors dumped leg-spinning all-rounder Cameron White.

Symonds returns after missing the four-Test tour of India when dropped after going fishing instead of attending a team meeting during the one-day series against Bangladesh in Darwin in September, The Age reported.

Siddle made his Test debut in the second Test against India in Mohali, taking four wickets, but then made way when Stuart Clark returned from an elbow injury.

Australian opener Matthew Hayden on Wednesday had called for Symonds’s immediate recall to the Test side.

Australian 13-man squad: Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke, Stuart Clark, Brad Haddin, Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich, Jason Krejza, Brett Lee, Peter Siddle, Andrew Symonds, Shane Watson. (ANI)




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Spate of Iraq Attacks Leaves 31 Killed


BAGHDAD: At least 31 people were killed including two American soldiers in a string of attacks across Iraq on Wednesday, including a dozen people who lost their lives in a rush hour bombing in Baghdad and two US troops slain by an Iraqi comrade.

In the deadliest single attack of the day, a booby-trapped car exploded, followed by another bomb blast at a bus station in a working class district of Baghdad, killing 12 people and wounding 60, according to the interior ministry.

In the chaotic northern city of Mosul, an Iraqi soldier opened fire on his American comrades, killing two and wounding another six, according to the US military and the Iraqi ministry of defence.

Iraqi officials said the soldier opened fire after an altercation with US troops during a patrol through the city, but a senior US military commander said the shooting was unprovoked and took place inside an Iraqi army base.

It was the second such incident this year in the volatile northern city, though there have been no other accounts of Iraqi soldiers killing US soldiers since the end of the 2003 US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

Elsewhere in Mosul — which the US military call one of the last bastions of Al-Qaeda in Iraq — two Christian sisters were slain by gunmen who broke into their home and wired it with bombs.

The intruders killed Lamia and Walaa Sabih and wounded their mother before booby-trapping the house. When police arrived a bomb went off, wounding two of them, an officer said on condition of anonymity.

The US military said in a statement that five bombs were placed in the home and that two exploded.

The women — one the mother of three children — both worked for the provincial council, which condemned the attack.

More than 2,000 Christian families fled Mosul in October after a wave of killings there.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Tuesday that some Christians were starting to return, with around a third of the families in one neighbourhood coming back to their homes.

After the latest killings the governor of the Nineveh province, where Mosul is the capital, transferred the head of security for the province to Baghdad and appointed a replacement, a senior military official said.

The order “came after Nineveh witnessed violent operations, especially during the last month, including the dispersal and targeting of hundreds of Christian families,” the official said, adding that Baghdad had been forced to send another two brigades to Mosul.

More than 200 Iraqi Christians have been killed across Iraq since the 2003 invasion and a string of churches have been attacked, with the violence intensifying in recent months, particularly in the north.

Another six people were killed on Wednesday in a string of bombings in Baghdad, which has seen near-daily attacks in recent days, most targeting security forces, despite an overall improvement in security over the past year.

Four people were killed, including two policemen, and another 14 were wounded by a bomb near Saadun Street, a main thoroughfare through the heart of the city.

Another car bomb exploded later in a residential neighbourhood in northeast Baghdad, killing two people and wounding another 10, police said.

The attacks came two days after 28 people were killed and dozens wounded in a triple attack in a market in the Sunni district of Adhamiyah, the bloodiest Baghdad bombing since June.

Major General Qassim Atta, a spokesman for the Iraqi army in Baghdad, said in a statement that security forces were stepping up efforts “to prevent an increase in terrorist operations in the capital.”

He added that they would deploy sonar equipment to try to detect explosives would also boost their intelligence-gathering operations.




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Monday, November 10, 2008

Fazl-ur-Rehman received land for allowing 17th amendment: (ANP), Asfandyar Wali Khan

Awami National Party (ANP), Asfandyar Wali Khan has alleged that Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman received land in exchange for latter’s understanding with the previous government regarding 17th amendment.

Talking to media in Wali Bagh, he said he is not responsible for the repossession of the government land earlier allotted to Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman in exchange for allowing 17th amendment of the Constitution.

Asfandyar Wali Khan visited Charsadda amid strict security today for the first time after he was attacked here on the second day of Eid-ul-Fitr last month.

He said he would never leave the ground and that any aggression against the country will be confronted strongly. To a question, he said he is ready to make any sacrifice for the country.