December 29, 2007
Troops on streets to stop riots as Bhutto buried
Troops were sent into the streets of cities around
Pakistan yesterday to quell widespread rioting by supporters of
Benazir Bhutto who blame the government for her
assassination.
Assassination shifts focus in election from domestic affairs to foreign policy
America: If Hillary Clinton and John McCain become
their party's nominees for president, their success may have less
to do with anything that happens in the snows of Iowa or New
Hampshire than with a tragic event on the streets of
Rawalpindi.
Army chief Kiyani could be the new king-maker in Pakistan
Pakistan drifted deeper into turmoil yesterday with
two men sharing the helm: the president Pervez Musharraf and the
general he appointed to take his place at the head of the army,
Ashfaq Kiyani.
PPP left scrambling to regroup with no obvious successor
For all her modern outlook and education, Benazir
Bhutto was a great believer in destiny, and her destiny, as she saw
it, was to be the unchallenged leader of the Pakistan People's
party.
An insecure democracy: elected politicians always had military looking over their shoulders
East and West Pakistan were created in 1947 in
frontier areas of British India, where the military had always been
a key part of local administrations. The generals would continue to
play a significant role in the largely Muslim states.
US insists nuclear arsenal is safe
The Pentagon is working on contingency plans to
prevent Pakistan's formidable nuclear arsenal from falling into the
hands of Islamist radicals and insisted yesterday that the arsenal
was safe in spite of the upheaval in the aftermath of the
assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
Never doubted the threat to her life
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto (54) in Rawalpindi
has a grim symbolism. It was there nearly 29 years ago that her
father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, also a former prime minister, was
hanged by a previous military regime.
E-mail blames Musharraf for inadequate security
Two months ago, Benazir Bhutto complained to an old
friend about an inadequate security detail even as the death
threats against her mounted. Now that e-mail reads like an
accusation from the grave.
Irish Pakistani community mourns opposition leader
Members of the Pakistani community in Ireland
yesterday held a funeral service "in absentia" to commemorate the
slain leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Benazir
Bhutto.
Al-Qaeda will be keen to feed off crisis
Bhutto's assassination casts a shadow on the war
against the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan, writes Thomas
Ricks in Washington