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/ 9 November 2007
Pakistani police placed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under virtual house arrest on Friday, a spokesperson said, to stop her from holding her first rally since President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule. A senior official in Islamabad said police had cordoned off Bhutto’s home in the city but only for her protection.
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/ 8 November 2007
Pakistani national elections will take place before February 15, President Pervez Musharraf said on Thursday, after Western allies and opponents had demanded polls be held on time and emergency rule scrapped. Pakistan had been scheduled to hold elections by mid-January until the general imposed emergency powers on Saturday.
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/ 7 November 2007
Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto threatened on Wednesday to lead a mass protest march to the capital unless President Pervez Musharraf quits as army chief, holds elections and restores the Constitution. Bhutto, the politician most capable of mobilising street power, gave Musharraf until Friday to comply.
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/ 6 November 2007
Pakistan’s opposition grappled for a united response on Tuesday to President Pervez Musharraf’s imposition of emergency rule, leaving lawyers to protest alone for a second day and bear the brunt of a police crackdown. Ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry said ”the people should rise up and restore the Constitution”.
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/ 6 November 2007
Pakistani police beat and arrested lawyers protesting for a second day on Tuesday against President Pervez Musharraf’s emergency rule, while officials under United States pressure said an election would be held in early 2008. Opposition politicians, including Benazir Bhutto, have spoken out but there has been no real action on their part so far.
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/ 6 November 2007
Blocked by the government and facing harsh curbs, Pakistan’s private television channels have turned to the internet to reach viewers starved of news about the state of emergency. Authorities took cable broadcasters off the air on Saturday evening when they first started to report that President Pervez Musharraf was about to impose an emergency.
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/ 5 November 2007
Pakistani police used tear gas and batons to crush protests by lawyers against President Pervez Musharraf on Monday, despite world outrage at the imposition of a state of emergency. The White House said it was ”deeply disturbed” by the crisis, urging Musharraf, a key ally in the fight against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, to quit his military post.
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/ 5 November 2007
Pakistan police used tear gas and batons on Monday against lawyers protesting at President Pervez Musharraf’s imposition of emergency rule and detentions mounted, prompting Washington to postpone defence talks. Musharraf cited spiralling militancy and hostile judges to justify Saturday’s action, and slapped reporting curbs on the media.
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/ 5 November 2007
Pakistan police baton-charged lawyers protesting against President Pervez Musharraf’s emergency rule on Monday, as police continued to detain his opponents in the face of United States pressure to hold elections in January. Declaring an emergency on Saturday, General Musharraf cited spiralling militancy and hostile judges to justify his action.
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/ 5 November 2007
The United States and Britain are on Monday expected to demand that Pakistan’s President, Pervez Musharraf, honour pledges to hold elections in the next two months and step down as the army chief, or face a cut in Western support. The diplomatic showdown will come in the form of a meeting in Islamabad between the Pakistani leader and a group of ambassadors.
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/ 4 November 2007
Police detained Pakistani opposition figures and lawyers on Sunday as military ruler President Pervez Musharraf tried to stifle the outcry over the imposition of emergency powers. The United States and other Western allies condemned General Musharraf’s decision to announce emergency rule on Saturday.
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/ 4 November 2007
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has imposed a state of emergency in a bid to end an eight-month crisis over his rule stoked by challenges from a hostile judiciary, Islamist militants and political rivals. General Musharraf said he decided to act on Saturday in response to a rise in extremism and what he called the paralysis of government by judicial interference.
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/ 1 November 2007
A suicide bomber rammed an air force bus in Pakistan on Thursday killing eight people while troops killed up to 70 militants in the north-west, as rumours swirled that President Pervez Musharraf could invoke emergency rule. Nearly 800 people have been killed in militant-linked violence and there have been more than 22 suicide attacks in the last four months.
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/ 31 October 2007
A suicide bomber on a motorcycle rammed a Pakistan Air Force bus — killing at least eight people and wounding 40 — near the central city of Sargodha on Thursday, the military said. The security situation in Pakistan has deteriorated sharply in the past few months at a time of political uncertainty.
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/ 30 October 2007
A suicide attack killed at least seven people, including the bomber, less than a kilometre from Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s army residence in Rawalpindi on Tuesday. The attacker blew himself up next to a police checkpoint metres away from the gates to the residence of one of Musharraf’s most senior officers, General Tariq Majid.
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/ 30 October 2007
A suicide attack killed at least seven people, including the bomber, less than a kilometre from Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s army headquarters in Rawalpindi on Tuesday, police said. Three police officers and three passers-by were among those killed, while 11 people were wounded in the blast.
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/ 30 October 2007
Skipper Graeme Smith said his team’s Test and one-day series wins in Pakistan could mark a huge step forward for South African cricket. The Proteas clinched a double after a 14-run win in the fifth one-dayer in Lahore on Monday helped them wrap up the series 3-2 after winning the preceding two-Test series 1-0.
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/ 29 October 2007
South Africa spoiled Pakistan paceman Shoaib Akhtar’s comeback match on Monday with a stunning 14-run victory in the fifth and final limited-overs game to clinch the series 3-2. Akhtar took 4-43 to restrict South Africa to 233-9 off 50 overs with Jacques Kallis scoring a fighting 86 and Herschelle Gibbs making a fine 54.
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/ 29 October 2007
Former premier Benazir Bhutto on Monday wrapped up a visit to her ancestral home in southern Pakistan, hailing her supporters for defying security threats and promising them democracy. It was her first trip outside Karachi since twin suicide bombings on October 18 that targeted the two-time premier on her return from exile.
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/ 28 October 2007
Benazir Bhutto visited a family whose son was killed in the suicide blasts that targeted the former Pakistan premier’s homecoming, as she kept up a tightly secured trip on Sunday to her ancestral home. Bhutto made a jubilant return to her family district in rural southern Pakistan on Saturday.
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/ 27 October 2007
Thousands of supporters cheered Benazir Bhutto as she visited her ancestral village amid tight security on Saturday, her first trip in Pakistan since last week’s devastating bombings. Bhutto, the first female leader of an Islamic nation, travelled to the remote corner of southern Pakistan to offer prayers at her family’s mausoleum.
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/ 27 October 2007
Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto set off for her ancestral village in southern Pakistan on Saturday, security heavy in the wake of an assassination attempt at a Karachi welcome rally last week that killed 139 people.
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/ 26 October 2007
Brilliant half-centuries from Graeme Smith and Shaun Pollock helped South Africa win the fourth one-day international against Pakistan by seven wickets on Friday to level the five-match series 2-2. Pakistan’s total of 230-9 had looked respectable, but Smith (81) and Pollock (90) added 159 runs for the second-wicket stand to help their team reach 233-3 in 37.4 overs.
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/ 25 October 2007
A blast tore through a security-forces vehicle in restive north-west Pakistan on Thursday, killing 30 people and wounding dozens more, officials said. The attack in scenic Swat Valley in the North West Frontier Province was the latest in a wave of violence targeting the military since government troops stormed the al-Qaeda-linked Red Mosque in Islamabad in July.
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/ 25 October 2007
South Africa’s chances of clinching a one-day and Test series double against Pakistan will be decided when they play a fourth one-day international on Friday. South Africa trail 2-1 in the five-match series, having already won the Test series, and must win on Friday to keep the series alive.
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/ 24 October 2007
The fifth one-day international between Pakistan and South Africa scheduled for Karachi on Monday has been switched to Lahore because of security fears, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said on Wednesday. Shafqat Naghmi, the PCB’s chief executive, said the touring South Africans did not want to play in Karachi following last week’s bomb attacks.
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/ 23 October 2007
Pakistan produced disciplined cricket to upstage South Africa by six wickets in the third day-night international in Faisalabad on Tuesday, to take a 2-1 lead in the series. Rao Iftikhar made a career-best 3-33 and leg-spinner Shahid Afridi 3-37 to restrict the tourists to 197 all out.
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/ 23 October 2007
South Africa will send a top security consultant to Karachi to decide whether it is safe to play the fifth and final one-day international there next week. Pakistani officials said South Africa were uncertain about going ahead with the game following Friday’s assassination attempt on former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, which killed 139 of her supporters.
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/ 22 October 2007
South Africa coach Mickey Arthur said on Monday the team was confident of bouncing back in the one-day series against Pakistan after losing the second match last week. ”Lifting the team after the loss is not difficult at all and it will not be an issue,” said Arthur ahead of the third match on Tuesday.
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/ 22 October 2007
A senior government official on Monday rejected a call from Benazir Bhutto for foreign experts to help investigate the suicide attack on her homecoming procession. Bhutto said on Sunday she wanted United States and British experts to assist in the probe into Thursday night’s bombing in Karachi.
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/ 20 October 2007
Mohammad Yousuf hit a brilliant century to lead Pakistan to a 25-run victory over South Africa in a day-night international in Lahore on Saturday and level the series 1-1. Yousuf’s 143-ball 117 ensured Pakistan posted a fighting 265-9 before the home team overcame poor fielding to restrict the SA to 240 in 49.3 overs.
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/ 19 October 2007
The Pakistan government blamed Islamist militants for twin blasts early on Friday that killed 133 people as opposition leader Benazir Bhutto drove through masses of supporters in Karachi. Bhutto, travelling in a truck reinforced to withstand bomb attacks, was unhurt by the deadliest bomb attack in her country’s violent history.