Pakistan tense amid dispute over Bhutto

Pakistan was on Saturday gripped by division and uncertainty following the burial of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto as her supporters angrily rejected a government explanation of her death. Bhutto died on Thursday shortly after a suicide attack targeting her vehicle at a campaign rally in the northern city of Rawalpindi.

Pakistan in crisis as Bhutto is buried

Benazir Bhutto was laid to rest next to her father in the family mausoleum on Friday after the opposition leader's assassination plunged Pakistan into crisis and triggered violent protests across her native Sindh province. Thousands of mourners wept as Bhutto was carried from her ancestral home in Sindh to the mausoleum.

Bhutto: Pakistan points to al-Qaeda

Pakistan pointed a finger on Friday at al-Qaeda for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, as her body was taken to her ancestral home for burial and anger at her death erupted into deadly unrest. The scale of the violence left the nuclear-armed Muslim nation shell-shocked, triggering alarm around the world.

Pakistan on edge after Bhutto assassination

The body of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was taken to her family village for burial on Friday, a day after her assassination plunged the nuclear-armed country into one of the worst crises in its 60-year history. Her killing after an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi triggered a wave of violence.

World outraged over Bhutto assassination

World leaders voiced outrage at the assassination on Thursday of Pakistan's opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and expressed fears for the fate of the nuclear-armed state. United States President George Bush condemned the killing as a "cowardly act".

Benazir Bhutto killed in suicide attack

Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on Thursday as she left an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi, putting January 8 polls in doubt and sparking anger in her native Sindh province. State media and her party confirmed Bhutto's death from a gun and bomb attack. "She has been martyred," said party official Rehman Malik.

Pakistan's Bhutto slain by suicide attacker

Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, slain in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi on December 27, knew very well the risks she ran when she decided to wage a public campaign for the restoration of democracy. Hours after she returned home in October after eight years of self-imposed exile, a suicide bomber killed nearly 150 people in an attack targeting her motorcade.

Truck bomb kills at least 20 north of Baghdad

A suicide truck bomb killed at least 20 people and wounded 80 in the northern Iraqi city of Baiji on Tuesday, the United States military and police said, in one of the deadliest attacks in Iraq in two weeks. A Reuters photographer on the scene said the attack targeted a security checkpoint on a road leading to a residential compound.

Bhutto says some madrasas groom killers

Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto said on Sunday some religious schools were turning children into killers. Speaking to about 25 000 supporters near her ancestral home in the southern town of Larkana, she also renewed accusations the government had done nothing to stop militant violence.

Al-Qaeda chief launches 'any questions' session

Hundreds of subscribers to jihadist websites are posting questions for al-Qaeda's leadership at the invitation of Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's deputy. "Individuals, agencies and all information media outlets" have been told they can question Egyptian-born Zawahiri.

Suicide bomber kills 12 north of Baghdad

A suicide bomber wearing a belt packed with explosives struck a recruiting station for neighbourhood patrols in Iraq's restive Diyala province, killing 12 volunteers and wounding 10 on Thursday. Iraqi police said United States forces may have also been among the casualties in the strike that took place in the town of Kanaan.

Suicide bomber kills 14 in Iraqi village

A suicide bomber killed 14 people when he detonated a vest rigged with explosives in a Shi'ite Muslim village north of Baghdad on Tuesday. Suicide bombers, gunmen and car bombs also killed 14 other people across the country. The violence coincided with a visit by United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Rice pushes 'roadmap' as Turkish troops enter Iraq

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a visit overshadowed by a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq, called on Iraqi leaders on Tuesday to urgently implement a national reconciliation roadmap. Turkish troops crossed overnight into the Iraqi Kurdish province of Dahuk, about 200km from the city of Kirkuk, where Rice's plane first touched down.

Algiers bombers had been released in amnesty

Two convicted terrorists who had been freed in an amnesty carried out this week's suicide bombings at United Nations and government buildings that killed 37 people, an Algerian security official said. One of the bombers was a 64-year-old man in the advanced stages of cancer, while the other was a 32-year-old from a poor suburb.

Anger as library makes exhibition of Bush

A series of six black-and-white prints on display in an unassuming corner of the New York Public Library have sparked controversy on the airwaves and blogosphere quite out of keeping with the dark, marble-lined corridor in which they are hung. The prints show the mugshots of main members of the Bush administration.

Female suicide bomber kills 15 in Iraq

A female suicide bomber wearing a vest packed with explosives killed 15 people in a town north-east of Baghdad on Friday. Police said the attack targeted members of the 1920s Revolutionary Brigades, a Sunni Islamist insurgency group which has recently begun working alongside security forces against al-Qaeda.

CIA destroyed video of 'waterboarding' detainees

The CIA destroyed video evidence of the coercive interrogation of al-Qaeda operatives held under its secret rendition programme in order to shield agents from prosecution, it was revealed on Thursday. The decision to destroy two videotapes documenting the use of waterboarding against Abu Zubaydah and another high-value al-Qaeda detainee was made in November 2005.

US commander says al-Qaeda still a dangerous foe

Al-Qaeda Sunni Arab militants remain a dangerous foe in Iraq despite a decline in violence, the commander of United States forces said on Thursday, a day after the deadliest bombing in Baghdad since September. "We have to be careful not to get feeling too successful," General David Petraeus told reporters.

Blast at Nato convoy near Kabul airport hurts civilians

A suicide bomber rammed a car into a convoy of Nato forces close to the airport in the Afghan capital on Tuesday, wounding 10 Afghan civilians, a police official said. A spokesperson for the Taliban said the militant Islamic group carried out the attack to "welcome" United States Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

Bush handed blueprint to seize Pakistan's nukes

The man who devised the Bush administration's Iraq troop surge has urged the United States to consider sending elite troops to Pakistan to seize its nuclear weapons if the country descends into chaos. In a series of scenarios drawn up for Pakistan, Frederick Kagan has called for the White House to consider various options for an unstable Pakistan.

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