Bhutto successors face tough challenge

Pakistan's largest political party (PPP) has appointed Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the 19-year-old son of its slain leader Benazir Bhutto, as its new chairman. The party has also decided to contest parliamentary elections, due on 8 January

While friends of Benazir say she always envisaged Bilawal becoming her political heir, they agree that she would not have wanted him to have to bear that burden so young.

Only 19 years of age, Bilawal is still some way from completing his education. Bilawal also echoed his mother's own experience of tragedy when he quoted her at his first press conference.

"My mother always said democracy is the best revenge," he declared, raising his voice.

But he looked not entirely at ease as party supporters broke into chants of: "Bilawal, step forward! We are with you!"

"I put my life in danger and came here because I feel this country is in danger."

" His Government Provided All Possible Security"

CBS) Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, leads a country in crisis ten days after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Pakistan is the only Islamic country with nuclear bombs, a place where the influence of the Taliban and al Qaeda is growing.

The Bush administration hopes Musharraf can save his country, but he's the man many Pakistanis blame for its crisis.

"Ms. Bhutto knew the dangers to her safety. But she would not be intimidated. We also must not be intimidated."

New York Mayor Giuliani

Pakistan's President Musharraf has said for the first time that murdered opposition leader Benazir Bhutto may have been shot.

Until now Pakistani officials have maintained that Ms Bhutto had banged her head on part of her car's sunroof.

But asked in a US television interview if a gunshot could have caused her head injury he replied: "Yes, absolutely, yes. Possibility."

She died on 27 December in a gun and suicide bomb attack while campaigning. More than 50 people were killed in violence following her death.

The elections she was campaigning for were subsequently postponed from 8 January to 18 February.

The government said the attack had been ordered by a tribal leader in the lawless South Waziristan area on the border with Afghanistan, Baitullah Mehsud. It described him as an al-Qaeda leader.

In the interview, aired on Sunday in the CBS show 60 Minutes, Mr Musharraf repeated his government's line that Ms Bhutto was to blame for her own death.

A gunman fired at Ms Bhutto as she stood up through the car's sunroof to greet supporters after a rally in Rawalpindi. Moments later, a bomb exploded.

Ms Bhutto was taken to hospital, but doctors could not save her.

She was buried the next day, as Muslim custom demands, and no post-mortem was carried out. She had the threat. She was given more security than any other person

32 Killed In Funeral Blast After Period Of Relatively Low Violence

(CBS/AP) A suicide bomber killed at least 32 men and wounded 34 others gathered in eastern Baghdad Tuesday to mourn the death of a retired Iraqi army officer, a Shiite who was slain last week in a car bombing blamed on al Qaeda in Iraq.

The bloody start to the new year came as residents of Baghdad were enjoying a festive holiday period marked by unusually low levelsof violence - compared to the thousands that died during attacks in the last month of 2006 and the first of 2007.

In a New Year's message from London, where he flew last week for what his office described as routine medical tests, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that "we witnessed sorrow and pain in 2007, but with the effort and brotherhood of Iraqis as well their insistence to wake up, the year ended with victories and successes."

(AP) Three Iraqi soldiers threw themselves on a suicide attacker wearing an explosives vest at an Army Day celebration Sunday - an act of heroism the U.S. said likely prevented many more deaths. Iraqi police said at least 11 people were killed in the blast, the deadliest in a series of bombings in Baghdad.

"The blast happened as civilians were giving flowers to soldiers and sticking them in the muzzles of their guns," recalled Mizban, an Iraqi national. "It was a jubilant scene."

Afterward, he said, the street was littered with bodies, weapons and shoes. Dazed soldiers and policemen carried their bloodied colleagues to nearby pickup trucks that whisked them to a hospital.

Foreign Ministry Says, Despite Report, U.S. Forces Cannot Engage Militants On Pakistani Soil

(AP) Pakistan reiterated that it will not let American forces hunt al Qaeda and Taliban militants on its soil, after a news report said Sunday that the Bush administration was considering expanding U.S. military and intelligence operations into Pakistan's tribal regions.

"We are very clear. Nobody is going to be allowed to do anything here," said Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, the top spokesman for Pakistan's army.

"The government has said it so many times," Arshad said. "No foreign forces will be allowed to operate inside Pakistan."

A suicide bomber has killed 10 people in an attack in the city of Baquba, north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Most of the casualties are said to be members of a local volunteer force opposed to al-Qaeda. Another 15 people were wounded in the explosion.

This is the latest in a number of attacks on members of the mainly Sunni Muslim volunteer forces, known as Awakening Councils.

A double bombing in Baghdad has killed at least 14 people, including the head of a US-backed armed group which fights al-Qaeda in Sunni Muslim areas.

Police say a suicide bomber struck at the entrance of the Sunni Endowment, or Waqf, office in Adhamiya district. A second suicide attacker set off a car bomb a few metres away as people fled from the scene of the first explosion.

Riyadh Samarrai, leader of the Adhamiya Awakening group, also a Waqf employee, was killed along with his son.

Five Iranian speedboats harassed three US navy ships at the weekend, approaching them and radioing a threat to blow them up, US officials say.

The incident happened in the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route. The US said their ships were about to open fire when the Iranian boats withdrew.

The White House warned Iran against "provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future". Iran played down the event, describing it as an "ordinary'Serious provocation'

The speedboats, believed to belong to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, came within about 200m of the US vessels, Pentagon officials said.

"I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes," the Iranians said in a radio transmission, according to US officials.

The Iranian boats were operating at "distances and speeds that showed reckless, dangerous and potentially hostile intent

US sailors assumed battle stations and the captain on one of the ships was about to order an attack when the Iranian boats turned away, dropping unidentified objects in the path of the vessel, US officials said.

Iraq

There have been 4,210 coalition deaths -- 3,904 Americans, two Australians, 174 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, one Czech, seven  Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijian, one Hungarian, 33 Italians, one Kazakh, one Korean, three Latvian, 22 Poles, three Romanians, five Salvadoran, four Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians -- in the war in Iraq as of January 8, 2008

Afghanistan

There have been 743 coalition deaths -- 471 Americans, four Australians, 86 Britons, 76 Canadians, one Czech, nine Danes, 12 Dutch, two Estonians, one Finn, 12 French, 22 Germans, 10 Italians, three Norwegians, one Pole, two Portuguese, five Romanians, one South Korean, 23 Spaniards, two Swedes -- in the war on terror as of January 8, 2008