Another crime against humanity. So sad with this failed state of Pakistan.
Militants drove a truck packed with explosives into a luxury hotel in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar where dozens of United Nations officials were gathered, killing one relief worker and several other people.

More than 40 others were also injured in the blast late yesterday at the five-star Pearl Continental Hotel, state-run media reported. Television images showed a shattered wreck of twisted steel and collapsed concrete slabs, as bloodied guests and workers staggered to waiting ambulances.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called it a “heinous terrorist attack which no cause can justify.” Aid workers coordinating the relief effort for about 2 million people driven from their homes by fighting in the Swat Valley were at the hotel at the time of the blast.

A good piece on politcs, radical Islam and ultra-nationalist Taliban / Pashtun phenomenon. A must read for those who wants to understand the complicated situation in the region. Some important points below.

The Taliban represent zealous and largely ignorant mountain Islamists. They are also all ethnic Pashtuns. Most Pashtuns see the Taliban — like them or not — as the primary vehicle for restoration of Pashtun power in Afghanistan, lost in 2001. Pashtuns are also among the most fiercely nationalist, tribalized and xenophobic peoples of the world, united only against the foreign invader. In the end, the Taliban are probably more Pashtun than they are Islamist.

Occupation everywhere creates hatred, as the U.S. is learning. Yet Pashtuns remarkably have not been part of the jihadi movement at the international level, although many are indeed quick to ally themselves at home with al-Qaida against the U.S. military.

Only the withdrawal of American and NATO boots on the ground will begin to allow the process of near-frantic emotions to subside within Pakistan, and for the region to start to cool down. Pakistan is experienced in governance and is well able to deal with its own Islamists and tribalists under normal circumstances; until recently, Pakistani Islamists had one of the lowest rates of electoral success in the Muslim world.

In the end, only moderate Islamists themselves can prevail over the radicals whose main source of legitimacy comes from inciting popular resistance against the external invader. Sadly, U.S. forces and Islamist radicals are now approaching a state of co-dependency.

“Suspected” US missiles kills 3 in Pakistan
Suspected US missiles struck a Taliban compound in a northwestern Pakistan militant stronghold bordering Afghanistan on Sunday, killing three people, officials said.

Rampage in Pakistan Shows Reach of Militants
Militants who have launched two audacious attacks in the Pakistani city of Lahore in the past month want to show they can strike at the heart of the country’s power establishment, police and an analyst said.

Militants firing rifles and throwing grenades stormed a police training academy in the eastern city on Monday, killing eight recruits, wounding scores and holding off police and troops for eight hours.

The attack, claimed by Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, came less than a month after a dozen gunmen attacked Sri Lanka’s cricket team in the city, killing six police guards and a bus driver.

A real blow to Pakistani cricket sport in particular and Pakistan  as a country in general–especially tourism:
Because of what might happen, no one wanted to come to Pakistan to play cricket anymore. Not Australia, not New Zealand, not India.

After months of security warnings and suicide attacks, and after the Mumbai attack in November caused the Indian team to back out of a planned tour, only Sri Lanka agreed to come and play the national team, against the advice of everyone else.

On Tuesday morning, as buses drove the Sri Lankan cricket team from a fancy hotel to the Gadhafi stadium in Lahore, about a dozen heavily armed gunmen attacked the buses with rifles, grenades and rocket launchers, killing six police officers and a driver and injuring seven players, an umpire and an assistant coach from Britain.

With this audacious attack on South Asia’s favorite sport, the severity of the crisis in Pakistan hit home for many people who never thought terrorism could hurt them. And South Asia was again reeling from a coordinated assault that reminded many of the recent attack on hotels and foreigners in Mumbai.

AP ISLAMABAD, Pakistan:
Pakistan’s prime minister has dismissed the significance of a dossier handed over by India about the Mumbai attacks, saying it was just information and “not evidence.

By Khaleeq Ahmed Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) – Assassinated Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto’s vision for democracy has faded in the 12 months since her killing as the government battles rising militancy and a weakening economy.