Islamic Militants Abandoned Fort

Militants abandon Pakistan fort
CNN International -
(CNN) -- Islamic militants have abandoned a border fort in northwestern Pakistan they overran during a pitched battle Wednesday, a military spokesman said.
Militants abandon Pakistan fort CNN
• 47 Killed as Insurgents Take Key Fort in NW Pakistan 47 Killed ... Washington Post
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U.S. Journalist Is Ordered to Leave Pakistan

U.S. Journalist Is Ordered to Leave Pakistan
By John Ward Anderson, Washington Post

An American freelance journalist and scholar based in Pakistan was ordered to leave the country this week after writing an article that might have been deemed unflattering to the Pakistani government, according to friends, colleagues and a U.S.-based media rights group. Nicholas Schmidle, a frequent contributor to Slate magazine and a fellow with the Institute of Current World Affairs in Washington, was served with a deportation notice at his Islamabad home Tuesday night and left Pakistan on Friday, the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement. Under an arrangement hammered out with Pakistani officials, his departure would not be recorded as a deportation if he agreed to leave the country, according to a colleague familiar with the deal. His wife, an American student studying in Islamabad, was asked to leave with him.

Bhutto's son: Demoncracy is Revenge

Bhutto's son: Democracy is revenge
SI.com -

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of the assassinated Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto, said Tuesday that he fully intended to take on a political role in his homeland but only after he has completed his studies at Oxford ...

Bhutto's Son Calls for UN Investigation Into Murder FOX News
Bhutto's Son Says Pakistan May Disintegrate Without Free Vote Bloomberg
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Britain to help probe Bhutto killing

AP Photo: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf speaks to the national in this image taken from TV Wednesday...

• Slideshow: Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto killed
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• Benazir Bhutto chronology AP
• Scotland Yard to help in Bhutto probe AP

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - President Pervez Musharraf announced Wednesday that Scotland Yard will help investigate the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, reversing his initial rejection of foreign help after he came under pressure to allow a U.N. probe.

Authorities also pushed back parliamentary elections until Feb. 18 — a six-week delay prompted by the rioting that followed the opposition leader's death. Opposition parties condemned the delay but still plan to take part in the elections, seen as a key step in bringing democracy to Pakistan after years of military rule.

Both developments could ease the turmoil that has gripped Pakistan since Bhutto's slaying in a gun and suicide bomb attack Thursday, which plunged the nation deeper into political crisis as it struggles to contain an explosion of Islamic militant violence.

The government declared just one day after the attack on Bhutto that an al-Qaida-linked militant orchestrated the killing and aired video footage. But the hasty accusation only served to cast doubt over the government's account of exactly how she died. READ MORE

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Pakistan: The Impending Showdown : Hussein Shobokshi
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Pakistan elections to be delayed a month

AP Photo: A Pakistani taxi driver passes by an election sign for opposition leader Nawaz Sharif Tuesday..

By MUNIR AHMAD, Associated Press Writer Tue Jan 1, 4:31 PM ET

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan elections will be delayed by one month following the turmoil sparked by Benazir Bhutto's assassination, despite opposition threats of street protests unless the crucial vote is held Jan. 8 as originally planned, a top official said Tuesday.

A senior Election Commission official told The Associated Press that the commission has agreed on a new date. He indicated it would not be before the second week of February, but refused to disclose the exact schedule before the formal announcement on Wednesday.

The opposition is likely to accuse authorities of postponing the polls to help the ruling party, which is allied to President Pervez Musharraf. Many believe Bhutto's party could get a sympathy boost if the vote takes place on time. Bhutto had accused elements in the ruling party of plotting to kill her, a charge which it vehemently denies. READ MORE

Former PM now leads Pakistan opposition

AP PHOTO: Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif confers with aides at his house Monday Dec. 31,... Slideshow: Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto killed

By MATTHEW ROSENBERG, Associated Press Writer Tue Jan 1, 1:59 PM ET

LAHORE, Pakistan - In his two turns as prime minister in the 1990s, Nawaz Sharif tried to endear himself to Pakistan's people with populist policies and did little to please the United States and other foreign allies. He might yet get the chance to repeat that role.

Last week's assassination of his erstwhile rival, Benazir Bhutto, has left Sharif, who cultivated ties with the Taliban and tested nuclear weapons while in office, as the standard-bearer of the opposition to President Pervez Musharraf.

"He is the only credible national leader left on the scene," said Rasul Bakhsh Rais, a political scientist at Lahore University of Management Sciences. READ MORE