Pakistan parties begin final push for presidential votes

ISLAMABAD, Sept 5 (AFP) Pakistan's presidential hopefuls began a final push for support Friday on the eve of an election that slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's widower is expected to win.brAsif Ali Zardari is the frontrunner in a three-way race to take power in a country riven by Islamic militancy and economic turmoil.brSecurity will be raised on election day, officials have told AFP, and Zardari has already moved house due to fears of attempts being made on his life, just nine months after Bhutto was killed at a campaign rally.brTensions rose further after a failed assassination attempt on Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, whose car was hit by sniper fire Wednesday as it drove to meet him at an airportbrZardari will face a multitude of problems if he wins a secret ballot among lawmakers and takes charge of a nuclear-armed state where bombings and suicide attacks have killed nearly 1,200 people in the past year.brMeanwhile Five Islamist militants were killed Friday in a missile attack by a suspected U.S. drone in Pakistan's North Waziristan region, in a stepped up campaign against militants near the Afghan border.brU.S.-controlled Predator aircraft have struck several sites used by al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan this year, most recently on Thursday when four low-level al Qaeda-linked militants were killed in the same region, security officials said. The Friday attack was on a house in the Guvrek area, near the border with Afghanistan.brAn intelligence official said five militants were killed while another said the toll could rise. It was not immediately known if any senior al Qaeda figures were among the casualties.brOn Wednesday, U.S. forces carried out a pre-dawn helicopter-borne ground assault on the village of Angor Adda in the nearby South Waziristan in the first known incursion into Pakistan by U.S.-led troops since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.brOfficials said 20 people, including women and children, were killed in the attack which sparked fury in Pakistan.brPakistan is a staunch ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism but rules out encroachment by foreign troops onto its territory.brPakistan condemned the Wednesday attack and summoned the U.S. ambassador to lodge a protest. Parliament called for border raids to be repulsed.