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/ 30 December 2007
The son of slain Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was chosen on Sunday to take the mantle of her party and immediately vowed to keep up what he called her struggle for democracy. At an emotional news conference where his father was named co-chair of the Pakistan People’s Party, 19-year-old Bilawal Bhutto said he was ready to lead.
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/ 30 December 2007
Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden warned Sunni Muslims in Iraq not to take up arms against the terror network and promised the "liberation of Palestine" in a new online message. In the 56-minute tape released late on Saturday, the Western world’s most wanted man also accused the United States of seeking to control the region through the Iraqi government.
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/ 30 December 2007
Pakistan’s political future hung in the balance on Sunday with Benazir Bhutto’s party deciding whether to pull out of planned elections amid an acrimonious dispute over how she was killed. Her husband and top party officials were also expected to name a successor to Bhutto as head of the country’s largest opposition party.
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/ 29 December 2007
Benazir Bhutto’s party challenged official versions of the opposition leader’s assassination and accused the government on Saturday of trying to cover up failures just days before planned elections. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda-linked militants denied being behind the killing of the 54-year-old former prime minister.
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/ 29 December 2007
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.
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/ 28 December 2007
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.
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/ 28 December 2007
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.
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/ 28 December 2007
The JSE had recovered some of its earlier losses by midday on Friday, but was still over half a percent in the red. It had been down as much as 0,93% for the day. By noon on the JSE, the all-share index was 0,55% lower. The gold- and platinum-mining indices pulled back 2,42% and 1,17% respectively, while resources lost 0,46%.
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/ 28 December 2007
Barack Obama rejected rival Hillary Clinton’s vow to forge change on Thursday, as polls showed a tight Democratic White House race in Iowa, a week before the state’s lead-off nominating clash. In a soaring new speech, the Democratic senator sharpened his attacks on the former first lady.
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/ 28 December 2007
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.
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/ 28 December 2007
World oil traded near $97 a barrel in Asia on Friday, its highest level in a month, following the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, dealers said. They said the rise in prices was also supported by a United States report showing a higher-than-expected drop in US crude stockpiles.
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/ 27 December 2007
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”.
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/ 27 December 2007
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.
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/ 27 December 2007
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.
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/ 27 December 2007
Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was wounded in a gun and suicide bomb attack after an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi on Thursday, a party security official and police said. ”She is injured,” said party security official Rehman Malik. She had been taken to hospital.
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/ 23 December 2007
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.
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/ 8 December 2007
Three supporters of Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto were killed on Saturday when gunmen attacked her party’s office in a town in south-western Pakistan, police said, in the first reported deaths in the current election campaign. Police had no immediate information about the motive for the attack.
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/ 7 December 2007
Pakistan’s two main opposition leaders have failed to overcome key differences preventing them forging a united front ahead of general elections in January, party officials said on Friday. Former premiers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif will now have to meet again next week to try to hammer out an agreement, their parties said.
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/ 3 December 2007
Pakistani authorities on Monday banned former premier Nawaz Sharif from standing in next month’s general election, further damaging the credibility of a vote that the opposition may yet boycott. The ruling came as Sharif prepared to hold crunch talks with fellow opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
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/ 29 November 2007
President Pervez Musharraf promised on Thursday to lift Pakistan’s state of emergency on December 16, making a long-awaited gesture of reconciliation hours after being sworn in as a civilian leader. Addressing the nation on television, Musharraf said he would also restore the Constitution, which was suspended when he declared emergency rule on November 3.
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/ 29 November 2007
Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf was sworn in as president for a second term on Thursday, but this time as a civilian and without his army uniform to protect him from pressure to end emergency rule. Musharraf took the oath for another five years in office from the newly installed chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar.
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/ 28 November 2007
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf stepped down as army chief on Wednesday and will be sworn in as a civilian leader for a second five-year term on Thursday. Musharraf passed the baton of command to his hand-picked successor, General Ashfaq Kayani, at a ceremony at army headquarters in Rawalpindi.
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/ 27 November 2007
Pakistan’s General Pervez Musharraf said farewell to military colleagues on Tuesday as he prepared to become a civilian president ahead of January’s general election. Musharraf visited Joint Staff headquarters in Rawalpindi a day before he steps down as army chief to fulfil one of the long-held demands of his political rivals and Western allies.
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/ 26 November 2007
Pakistan’s ex-premier Nawaz Sharif plotted tactics with key aides on Monday as he sought to capitalise on his hero’s welcome home from exile to spur opposition to President Pervez Musharraf. Sharif, who was ousted by Musharraf in a coup in 1999, was due to file his nomination papers for general elections, despite warning his party may end up boycotting the January 8 vote.
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/ 20 November 2007
Pakistan has freed 3 400 people detained under a state of emergency imposed by President Pervez Musharraf and will soon release the remaining 2 000, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday. That would leave ”very few” detainees facing criminal charges, a ministry spokesperson said.
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/ 19 November 2007
Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Monday rubber-stamped President Pervez Musharraf’s contested re-election victory in October, after he purged the court of hostile judges. ”Five petitions have been dismissed. One is pending and it will be heard on Thursday,” said the Attorney General Malik Qayyum.
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/ 18 November 2007
The bruises suffered by Hassan Tariq, a senior barrister in Sindh province, extend in large purple patches from his hip to his rib cage. According to his own account, he was beaten with ”a hard object” and kicked and punched by officers for refusing to chant slogans in favour of Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf.
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/ 17 November 2007
United States envoy John Negroponte spoke to Pakistan’s opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Friday and said moderate forces should work together to put the country back on a democratic path.
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/ 16 November 2007
Pakistan freed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto from house arrest early on Friday, hours after a caretaker prime minister was appointed in a first step towards a national election. Jail officials left the residence in the eastern city of Lahore where Bhutto has been held to prevent her from leading a pro-democracy rally.
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/ 15 November 2007
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is expected to appoint a caretaker government on Thursday to oversee elections he has promised for January but which the opposition say will be a sham under emergency rule. ”We don’t expect fair and free elections under General Musharraf and his mini martial law,” said Farhatullah Babar, an opposition spokesperson.
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/ 14 November 2007
Pakistani opposition parties tried to forge a united front on Wednesday against military President Pervez Musharraf who insisted a state of emergency was necessary for fair elections. United States ally Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, declared emergency rule in nuclear-armed Pakistan on November 3.
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/ 14 November 2007
Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is trying to forge an alliance with Islamists and other opposition parties to launch a campaign to force military president Pervez Musharraf from power. Musharraf plunged the nuclear-armed country into crisis on November 3 when he declared emergency rule.