A tale of two Pakistani fronts :

From the Asia Times Online Pakistan Bureau Chief:

Quiet on one Pakistani front.

The political front:

The major stumbling block in the whole crisis is over. Now that the Pakistan People's Party has decided to take part in the polls, the dust will settle and after that even the Pakistan Muslim League will follow suit and contest the elections."

The War on Terror front -the one that's about to get noisy:

The attack on December 28 in North Waziristan by a US Predator drone on al-Qaeda ideologue Sheikh Essa, who advocates all-out war on the Pakistani army and state, was a war drum.

Immediately after, men of the chief commander of the Taliban in South Waziristan, Baitullah Mehsud, carried out big attacks on the positions of the Pakistani security forces. The latter have sustained several casualties and many have been abducted.

According to Asia Times Online contacts, a special services group has been assigned the target of killing Baitullah Mehsud at all costs. "This is a war on the Islamic Emirates [the self-proclaimed name given to the Waziristans by al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban] and we have the full right of our defense," said a contact from North Waziristan.