Pakistan and America: How to beat the terrorists?

The leaders of America and Pakistan are set to meet, as tensions grow between the two countries

PRESIDENT George Bush and his Pakistani counterpart, Asif Zardari, were due to hold their first official meeting on Tuesday September 23rd at the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The American president and Mr Zardari face a common challenge: a Taliban insurgency is burgeoning in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, and al-Qaeda continues to pose a threat from sanctuaries in the two countries’ border areas.

That threat was underscored by a massive suicide bomb-attack on a hotel in Islamabad at the weekend that killed at least 53 people and wounded more than 260. Footage from security cameras showed a tarpaulin-covered truck, which was laden with bricks, sand, rounds of ammunition and 600kg of high-grade TNT and RDX explosives, rumbling into the security gates of the Marriott Hotel. Hapless guards dithered after the driver first detonated a minor explosion. The main blast kicked-in four minutes later leaving nothing but a crater 30ft (9m) deep. It pulverised the landmark international hotel, which was gutted after being engulfed in flames. ...

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[Source: The Economist: News analysis

Pakistan:

Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf, jumps before he is pushed

UNPOPULAR, isolated, and facing the humiliation of impeachment, Pervez Musharraf resigned as president of Pakistan on Monday August 18th. In an emotional address, he accused his opponents of pursuing a “vendetta” against him. Even before the speech ended, they were dancing in the streets.

The former dictator’s demise had looked inevitable since August 7th, when the ruling coalition, led by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), declared that it would impeach him. A list of Mr Musharraf’s alleged crimes had been compiled and would have been presented to parliament shortly after his address, if he had not resigned. The charge-sheet included Mr Musharraf’s first seizure of power in 1999 and his second last November, when he declared a state-of-emergency as a means to get himself re-elected president. ...

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[Source: The Economist: News analysis - Posted by King Of Videos and Blogs]