EPL title race starts now - Liverpool

Jamie Carragher has demanded an instant return to winning ways as Liverpool negotiate what he views as an increasingly unforgiving Premier League title race.The Reds slipped off the summit of the table with their 2-1 defeat at White Hart Lane on Saturday, Carragher's own goal letting Tottenham Hotspur back into the match.Chelsea responded to last weekend's home defeat to Liverpool by putting eight goals past Hull and Sunderland and Carragher wants a similar response from his team-mates.

"Look how Chelsea have reacted since we beat them and how Manchester United reacted when they lost to us," he said.

"They've been on a great run since. It's how you come back from your setbacks that counts. This will be a test for us now.

"If you want to show you're championship contenders it's how you bounce back that matters.

"Before Jose Mourinho came to Chelsea you could get away with losing five or six but now it seems to be three or four.

"The standards are so high. You can't afford to lose too many."

Fixtures against the likes of West Brom, Bolton and Fulham mean Liverpool face, at least on paper, a kind November but Carragher is taking nothing for granted.

"It's a different test in itself playing against the teams lower down," he said.

"Portsmouth was a very difficult game and we didn't score until late on.

"If we play as well as we can we should go on to win the next six games but in the past we've come unstuck in those matches and it's important we get maximum points now."

Fernando Torres should be back for Tuesday's Champions League clash with Atletico Madrid after recovering from a hamstring injury.

Carragher admits Torres has been missed but insists the squad should be able to cope in his absence.

"You'll always miss Torres. He's probably the best striker in the world of his type," he said.

"Even if we'd won here we would have still missed him because he's such a great player. That's what squads are for.

"That's why the manager talks every year about big squads and good benches.

"Everyone misses players. Chelsea are without Didier Drogba at the moment. You've just got to adapt to it."

Liverpool could have done with Torres' clinical touch as they let a series of chances go begging against Spurs before Carragher's own goal changed the match.

"That's the Premier League for you. Credit to Spurs but we were in total control," said Carragher.

"We should have got a second or third goal but if you don't do that Spurs have definitely got quality going forward.

"I'm disappointed to score the own goal. I don't know what happened. I don't know if I was unlucky - I'll have to see it again.

"Even then 1-1 isn't too bad at Spurs. It's not an easy place to go, even though they're in a bad situation.

"We're more than disappointed to concede a goal in the last minute. We missed a couple of chances we would normally score.

"Normally when you're in such control you go on to win the game but you have to give credit to Tottenham for showing character and sticking in there."Harry Redknapp is having quite an effect there." (ESPN)

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US predator strikes in Pakistan killed at least 32

AFP Photo

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Suspected US missiles struck two deadly blows Friday killing 32 mainly Al-Qaeda operatives and injuring a key Taliban commander in a Pakistani tribal area near the Afghan border, officials said.

The two strikes within a few hours were the latest in series of attacks that have raised tensions between Washington and Islamabad. In the first attack two missiles hit a pick-up truck and a house west of Mir Ali, a town in the troubled North Waziristan region bordering Afghanistan, killing 20 mainly Arab militants, officials said. They told AFP the strike targeted an Al-Qaeda financial coordinator known as Abu Akasa Al-Iraqi and that there were unconfirmed local reports that he was among the dead. Two further missiles fired by a suspected US drone at a militant hideout near Wana, the main town in neighbouring South Waziristan, killed 12 suspected rebels soon after, a senior security official said. They included "foreigners", the official said -- using the term by which security services refer to Al-Qaeda operatives. Officials said top Taliban commander Mullah Nazir was wounded in the strike. "Nazir sustained injuries and was rushed to a hospital by Taliban. We are not sure about the seriousness of injuries to him" a top security official told AFP. "In the two strikes the majority of those killed were Al-Qaeda operatives and some Taliban local commanders."

Local administration official Mowaz Khan also confirmed Nazir, who leads the Pakistani Taliban faction accused by the United States of sending fighters across the border, was wounded in the attack. Officials said 30 militants, mostly Taliban fighters, were injured in the attack. The attacks came just two days after Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led "war on terror", summoned Washington's ambassador to Islamabad to deliver a strong protest over a number of similar strikes. "Some 20 militants were killed in the attack and most were Arabs. It was a successful strike," another security official told AFP on condition of anonymity, referring to the first attack. Local residents said the strike hit the house of a Pakistani tribesman named Amanullah Dawar. It was not immediately clear whether the house or the vehicle, a pick-up truck, was blown up first, officials said. Officials in North Waziristan said al-Iraqi was believed killed but added that they were still seeking confirmation. He was known locally as Abdullah and officials said that while he was not part of the top Al-Qaeda hierarchy he played an important role as a financial "lynchpin".

Friday's attacks were the 17th and 18th such strikes in the past 10 weeks, according to an AFP tally. All have been blamed on US-led coalition forces or CIA drones based in neighbouring Afghanistan. A strike on Sunday killed senior Taliban commander Haji Omar Khan, a lieutenant of veteran Afghan Taliban chieftain and former anti-Soviet fighter Jalaluddin Haqqani. The attacks have sharply raised tensions between Washington and nuclear-armed Pakistan. Pakistan's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that it called in US envoy Anne Patterson over the strikes. "It was underscored to the ambassador that the government of Pakistan strongly condemns the missile attacks which resulted in the loss of precious lives and property," the ministry said in a statement. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has promised zero tolerance against violations of his country's sovereignty. The attacks have also become an election issue in the US presidential campaign. A New York Times report last month said Pakistan's national security adviser Mahmud Ali Durrani made an unannounced visit to top White House officials after a strike in early September to voice his anger in person. The attack on September 3 led to civilian casualties.(AFP)

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Don't run UMNO top posts without money - Mustapha

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PUTRAJAYA: Senior UMNO minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed will only run for the supreme council post in the coming party elections, citing "not enough money to run for top posts."

Although he did not elaborate on "not enough money," to some extent what he said has reflected on the phenomenon of money politics within UMNO.

"Don't run for top posts without money."

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  During the last party election, Mustapa lost in his contest for the party vice presidency.
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• Mustapa, who is also the agriculture and agro-based industry minister, said during an exclusive interview with Sin Chew Daily as he led a delegation to the ASEAN+3 Agriculture and Forestry Ministers Meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam recently, that because of his political style which saw him distance himself from political tussles, he often gave the public an impression of a "technocratic ministerial political leader."

He felt that UMNO had come to a stage for an overhaul of its leadership, adding that the party needed to bring in more new blood and lure new generation professionals to its rank for the party's future developments.He took himself as an example. Former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin offered him a chance to become his political secretary so that he could have the opportunity to learn, and with the support of other leaders, he had got promoted in the government.He also cited MCA as another example, saying that both Ong Ka Ting and Ong Tee Keat had all been political secretaries before they could scale the pinnacle of their political careers.As such, he said party leaders must try to groom new blood, but more importantly, offer the opportunites for them to perfect themselves in politics. (Translated by DOMINIC LOH/Sin Chew Daily)

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