Pakistan cricket future in doubt

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Pakistan should play at neutral venues - ICC chief

The future of international cricket in Pakistan is in doubt following Tuesday's attack, the International Cricket Council has said.

Seven Sri Lanka players were injured in Lahore on their team bus, while six policemen escorting it were killed.

ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said: "Perhaps for some time Pakistan should consider playing at neutral venues. Rather play some cricket than none.

"I'm not sure any team would be ready to play cricket in Pakistan."

He added: "It's very unfortunate for the people in Pakistan who love the game so much and have been very desperate to see international cricket but I'm afraid that situation is very desperate now.

"If this is the situation it's going to be very difficult to see them being part of hosting the World Cup."

ICC needs to play bigger role - Iqbal

The country is nominally one of the co-hosts of the 2011 event, along with India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

But although Lorgat believes staging matches there is not viable in the near future, ICC chairman David Morgan says no decision has yet been taken regarding the World Cup.

"I believe that there is currently great reluctance - and rightly so - for players to return at this time," he said.

"But the future situation needs not be perpetuated as it is today.

"We must not believe that Pakistan is going to be unsafe forever and ever, and we must hope that it won't be unsafe for too long.

"Teams should not be expected to go there in the immediate future but things can change and change quickly.

"The World Cup is due to be shared between four countries.

"That is the current plan and the board will have to think carefully about the extent to which Pakistan will be used in that event.

Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan has been critical of Sri Lanka's security

"We need to be careful of a knee-jerk reaction. The World Cup is two years away."

In light of the attacks, questions have been raised regarding the security arrangements afforded to the Sri Lanka team, with former Pakistan captain Imran Khan particularly scathing.

He said: "I think this was one of the worst security failures in Pakistan.

"The Pakistani government guaranteed the Sri Lankan team that they would provide them with security.

"To see the type of security provided to the Sri Lankan team was completely shameful.

"Most ministers in Pakistan have better security than that provided to the Sri Lankan team."

606: DEBATE What now for cricket in Pakistan?

Despite the criticism, Morgan said the ICC would not be intervening to oversee Test match security arrangements - the responsibility for which currently lies with the two nations involved.

He said: "The ICC only becomes directly involved in safety and security if there is a disagreement between the host and visitor.

"There was no disagreement and we weren

Winds stoke Victoria fire fears

Thousands of firefighters have come to Victoria from Australia and overseas

Strong winds are ripping through the Australian state of Victoria, where four major bushfires are still burning.

Three thousand firefighters are battling the blazes and 2,000 more are on stand-by in case the gusts open up new fire fronts.

Almost 400 schools have been closed in the state and millions of text messages sent out warning of the fire danger.

Last month, more than 200 people were killed in southern Australia by fast-moving bushfires.

Cleared lines

Many Victorians awoke to rain and cooler temperatures than were forecast, reports the BBC's Nick Bryant, in Sydney.

But state authorities have warned against complacency, because of the threat of gale-force winds and because the rain did not fall in fire-affected areas.

Strong gusts, and the danger of falling tree branches, have already forced firefighters to pull out of bush land to the north of Melbourne.

The fire-fighters are working to control four large blazes that have been burning for three weeks.

Containment lines - cleared areas up to 60m (200ft) across - are currently holding the fires in check.

Forecaster Evan Morgan told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that strong winds would continue into the night.

Bushfires have been burning in Victoria for a month now, sparked by high temperatures and a prolonged drought.

Police are also investigating whether some of the blazes were man-made; one man has been arrested.

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The firm wants to invest

Guinea-Bissau president 'killed'

President Vieira ruled intermittently since 1980

Renegade soldiers have shot dead the president of Guinea-Bissau, Joao Bernardo Vieira, officials say.

The news comes just hours after the killing of the army chief of staff, who had fallen out with Mr Vieira.

Gunfire has been heard in the capital Bissau and it is unclear who is in control of the West African nation.

Bissau is one of the world's poorest states. It has a history of coups and has become a major transit point for trafficking cocaine to Europe.

Reports quoted military and government officials as saying the president was dead.

"President Vieira was killed by the army as he tried to flee his house which was being attacked by a group of soldiers close to the chief of staff Tagme Na Waie, early this morning," military spokesman Zamora Induta told AFP news agency.

He accused Mr Vieira of being responsible for the death of the army chief of staff.

Revenge

Gen Tagme died after a blast late on Sunday that destroyed part of the military headquarters.

An aide, Lt Col Bwam Nhamtchio, told AFP the chief of staff was in his office when Sunday's blast went off.

"He was gravely wounded and did not survive his injuries. This is a loss for all of us," Lt Col Nhamtchio said.

At least five people were reportedly killed in the explosion.

Following the attack on the military HQ, officers ordered two private radio stations in the city to cease broadcasting.

"For the security of the journalists, you must close the radio station and stop broadcasting. It's for your own safety," armed forces spokesman Samuel Fernandes told reporters at one station.

"We are going to pursue the attackers and avenge ourselves," he added.

The president and army chief are said to have been at odds for months.

Renegade soldiers last November attacked the presidential palace with automatic weapons in a failed coup attempt.

Plagued by coups

It is not yet clear who was behind the attack on Gen Tagme, but it once again highlights the country's fragility, the BBC's West Africa correspondent Will Ross says.

After last November's attack, the president was subsequently given his own 400-strong militia for protection.

In January, that militia was accused of trying to kill the head of the army and was then disbanded.

Guinea-Bissau has been plagued by coups and political unrest since it gained independence from Portugal in 1974.

President Vieira, just like the country's previous leaders, has relied on the army to stay in power, and personal rifts have made it a rocky relationship, our correspondent says.

Guinea-Bissau - a major transit point for Latin American cocaine headed for Europe - has also been destabilised by the effects of drug trafficking.

Some officials in the army are known to have become involved in the trade, our correspondent says.

China relics buyer refuses to pay

China says the bronzes were taken abroad illegally 150 years ago

A Chinese man who won a high profile auction for two bronze relics claimed by China says he will not pay for them.

The relics, sold to a Chinese buyer for 15m euros ($19m;

Basques short of overall majority

Turnout in the Basque Country was similar to that in the last election

Nationalists have won the most votes regional elections in Spain's Basque Country, final results show, but fallen short of a majority in parliament.

The results mean the nationalists, who have governed the Basque Country for 29 years, could lose power in the region to a coalition of other parties.

In the north-western region of Galicia, Spain's Socialists lost power to the opposition conservative Popular Party.

The polls are the first political test for Spain since it slid into recession.

The results mean the Socialists could form a coalition with a range of parties - including the conservatives, the BBC's Steve Kingstone reports from Spain.

Never has a non-nationalist party led an elected government in the Basque Country, he adds. The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) has been in power in the region for 29 years.

Much depends now on coalition talks which will take place over the coming days, our correspondent adds.

Bomb alert

In the Basque Country, the Socialists had been focusing their campaign on the economy rather than issues of national identity.

More than four million people were eligible to elect the regional parliaments in Galicia and the Basque Country.

Hours before polls opened, the Basque police arrested a suspected member of the militant group Eta, who was believed to have been planning an imminent attack.

The 24-year-old had been under surveillance.

Officers later found what has been described as "bomb-making equipment" in an apartment in the town of Hernani, our correspondent says.

Eta had called the Basque election "anti-democratic" following a decision by Spain's Supreme Court to ban two separatist parties from fielding candidates.

Job concerns

In the Basque Country, the PNV has been in power since Spain returned to democracy three decades ago.

What kind of unemployment do people prefer, 8%, as we have here, or 14%, as they have in Madrid? Miren AzkarateBasque Nationalist spokeswoman Analysis: Basque race wide open

The party has sought to loosen constitutional ties with the central government in Madrid and assert the rights of Basques to decide their own political future.

However, the Socialist Party of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero had been seeking to score a historic victory in the region.

With the country in recession, polls suggested that Basques were more concerned about jobs than legalistic arguments about sovereignty, our correspondent says.

The Socialists portrayed the leader of the current Basque government, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, as out of touch with real issues.

The PNV rejected the claims, saying that the Basque economy was doing so much better that the rest of Spain.

Unemployment is lower in the region than the national average, and Basque incomes are among the highest in Spain, our correspondent says.

The outlawed parties, D3M and Askatasuna, were barred from fielding candidates earlier this month by Spain's supreme court, after prosecutors accused them of links to Eta militants.

Eta is blamed for more than 800 deaths in a 40-year campaign for an independent Basque homeland.

Colombia discovers Farc hideouts

There had been a five-year search for the cave complex

Colombian soldiers says they have found extensive caves deep in the country's jungle used by Farc guerrillas.

Special forces came across the caves after a five-year-long hunt for the secret hideout of a top Farc commander.

The caves, in Meta province, are thought to have been able to shelter as many as 500 fighters from air attacks.

Farc (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) is a left-wing group which has been fighting the government since the 1960s.

As well as protecting Farc's fighters from Colombia's air force, the caves south of the capital Bogota also included a bomb-making factory and thousands of kilos of explosives, mortar shells and mines, officials said.

Intelligence tip-off

Colombia's defence minister Juan Miguel Santos said one of the caves even housed an operating theatre and equipment to perform dental surgery.

They used to live like princes, and now literally they are living like rats Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos

"This proves that the wounded, including the leaders of the Farc's Eastern Bloc may have recovered here from their wounds and were sent back into combat. They used to live like princes and now they literally live like rats."

The BBC's Greg Morsbach says the subterranean medical facilities in Colombia are reminiscent of those used during the Vietnam War by the Communist Viet Cong fighters.

Special forces entered the network of tunnels and caverns after an intelligence tip off by a Farc deserter, our correspondent says.

One of the Colombian soldiers who found the tunnels, Yesid Arroyo, explained how they made the discovery.

"The dog traced the smell of explosives from the tanks they were in. Then we were led to here, and we found the explosives in a hole nearby.

"These are caves which they used to hide from us, but fortunately, because of our strength and the strength of all the Colombian people, here we are, and we have found them," he added.

Farc has funded its 44-year war against the Colombian government with drug-trafficking, kidnapping and extortion.

But under Colombia's new president, Alvaro Uribe, the military has launched operation deep into Farc-held rural areas, lessening the group's ability to launch attacks on urban areas.