Shocker: Bhutto’s Son, Husband Succeed Her

Sur le même thème que "Shocker: Bhutto’s Son, Husband Succeed Her"

Bhutto’s Son will Succeed Her as Head of PPP

[Guest post by DRJ] Sounding more like a monarchy than a political party, the Pakistan People’s Party has announced that Benazir Bhutto’s 19-year-old son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will succeed her as head of the PPP: “The teeenage son of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto will succeed her as the leader of the country’s largest democratic party, Pakistan People’s Party, the party announced today. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, 19, assumed not just a new political position, but also a new name to include his mother’s last name, a reminder of his tie to the political dynasty that began with his grandfather. He is now the leader — at least nominally — of the largest political party in this turbulent nuclear nation. The televised news conference held in the Bhuttos’ ancestral home of Naudero. [lien] [EN]

Hillary: I’ve Know Mrs. Bhutto Many Years

From a campaign press release: Statement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on the Death of Benazir Bhutto “I am profoundly saddened and outraged by the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, a leader of tremendous political and personal courage. I came to know Mrs. Bhutto over many years, during her tenures as Prime Minister and during her years in exile. Mrs. Bhutto’s concern for her country, and her family, propelled her to risk her life on behalf of the Pakistani people. She returned to Pakistan to fight for democracy despite threats and previous attempts on her life and now she has made the ultimate sacrifice. Her death is a tragedy for her country and a terrible reminder of the work that remains to bring peace, stability, and hope to regions of the globe too often paralyzed by fear, hatred. [lien] [EN]

Benazir Bhutto Assassinated (Updated)

[Guest post by DRJ] Pakistani People’s Party opposition leader and former PM Benazir Bhutto was assassinated today in Rawalpindi following a political rally: “Pakistan’s charismatic leader Benazir Bhutto was shot dead on Thursday when gunmen opened fire at her vehicle just before a suicide bomber blew himself up at a election rally addressed by her in Rawalpindi, killing more than 20 people and injuring several others. Reports said that five bullets were fired, one of which pierced her neck. The 54-year-old leader of Pakistan People’s Party was rushed to Rawalpindi general hospital, where she was pronounced dead.” This is tragic for Bhutto and her family. In addition, she was a strong supporter of democracy in Pakistan, resolute against Muslim extremists, and a very brave person. [lien] [EN]

Shocker: Al Qaeda Claims Bhutto’s Death

From Italy’s AKI: Pakistan: Al-Qaeda claims Bhutto’s death Karachi, 27 Dec. (AKI) - (by Syed Saleem Shahzad) - A spokesperson for the al-Qaeda terrorist network has claimed responsibility for the death on Thursday of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto. “We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat [the] mujahadeen,” Al-Qaeda’s commander and main spokesperson Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid told Adnkronos International (AKI) in a phone call from an unknown location, speaking in faltering English. Al-Yazid is the main al-Qaeda commander in Afghanistan. It is believed that the decision to kill Bhutto, who is the leader of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), was made by al-Qaeda No. 2, the Egyptian doctor, Ayman al-Zawahiri in October. Death squads were allegedly constituted for the mission and ultimately one cell comprising a defunct Lashkar. [lien] [EN]

Court Gives Sole Custody Of Britney Spears’ Sons To Ex-Husband Kevin Federline

Court Gives Sole Custody Of Britney Spears’ Sons To Ex-Husband Kevin Federline LOS ANGELES (AP) - Britney Spears was derailed yet again in her struggle to get her life back on track, losing custody of her two sons to ex-husband Kevin Federline.[…]Read more! This entry was posted on Saturday, January 5th, 2008 at 1:02 pm and is filed under Britney Spears. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. [lien] [EN]

Reaction to the Bhutto Assassination

Updated — Scroll down for the latest additions. It did not take long for blogs and online comment forums to erupt with reaction to the attack on Benazir Bhutto at a rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Ms. Bhutto died in the attack, either of gunshot wounds or injuries from a suicide bombing or both, and more than 20 others at the scene were also killed. Though there have been a number of attacks on Ms. Bhutto’s life in recent months, along with other political violence in the country, and she has said often that her life was in danger, the common initial reaction to the assassination is naturally one of shock. On the All Things Pakistan blog, Adil Najam writes: I, like most Pakistanis, am still too numb with shock and grief to think coherently about what has happened or what the implications of this are for the country and for the world. [lien] [EN]

Benazir Bhutto’s Successor is Her Son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Sunday chose her 19-year-old son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari as her successor and appointed him as Chairman of the party. (Interestingly, Benazir Bhutto became chief of the PPP at the age of 31 following the assassination of her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto). While Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari, was appointed co-chairman of the PPP. These decisions were taken by the party’s Central Executive Committee in a closed-door meeting. The PPP has decided to participate in the forthcoming elections in Pakistan. “It catapults Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, an Oxford University student with no political experience, to the center of Pakistan’s tumultuous public life. Bhutto’s husband Asif Ali Zardari, 51, is powerbroker in the party who served as environment minister in her second government. [lien] [EN]

Hillary’s Ignorance About Pakistan Elections

An op-ed by Thomas Houlahan from the Middle East Times: How credible is Hillary Clinton on Pakistan? December 31, 2007 Last weekend after returning to my office from the television studios of a major network where I had done a brief segment on the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, I turned on CNN to watch their coverage of the Bhutto assassination’s aftermath. Sen. Hillary Clinton was telling Wolf Blitzer that she didn’t think “the Pakistani government at this time under President Musharraf has any credibility at all.” She then said something that betrayed a serious lack of knowledge about Pakistan and called her own credibility on the subject into serious question. “If President Musharraf wishes to stand for election,” she told Blitzer, “then he should abide by the same rules that every other candidate will have to follow. [lien] [EN]

Benazir Bhutto and the Politics of Chaos

The question has been raised by many, and all the more ruefully after her assassination today: Given how unstable her country was and how dangerous it would be for her, why did Benazir Bhutto return to public opposition politics in Pakistan? Steven R. Weisman, who now covers international economics for The New York Times, was the paper’s New Delhi bureau chief in the mid-1980s, and covered Ms. Bhutto’s return to the country and to prominence in the tumult and violence of 1986. he put some thoughts about what she was thinking then, and now, into a memo shared with The Lede: “Benazir not only understood that Pakistan was a chaotic country, she often seemed almost to court chaos as an ally,” Mr. Weisman writes. “I believe that in effect was her strategy in her current return.” He says he asked one of Ms. [lien] [EN]

Hillary Still Lying About Knowing Bhutto

From an adoring Washington Post: U.S. first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton with her daughter Chelsea, left, and Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, holding hands with her son Bilawal and daughter Bakhtawar, take a stroll in this March 26, 1995 file photo, in the garden of the prime minister’s residence, in Islamabad. Clinton, Obama Seize on Killing Reactions Illustrate Their Key Differences By Anne E. Kornblut and Shailagh Murray Friday, December 28, 2007; A01 DES MOINES, Dec. 27 — News of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination came just hours before Sen. Barack Obama delivered what his campaign had billed as the “closing argument” in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday, forcing his campaign to scramble to incorporate the Pakistani opposition leader into his message of change. [lien] [EN]

NYP: Don’t Shed Any Tears For Ms. Bhutto

From Ralph Peters at the New York Post: Sand artist Sudarsan Patnaik creates a sand sculpture of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, following her assassination, at a beach in Puri, close to the eastern Indian city of Bhubaneshwar, December 28, 2007. THE BHUTTO ASSASSINATION: NOT WHAT SHE SEEMED TO BE By RALPH PETERS December 28, 2007 — FOR the next several days, you’re going to read and hear a great deal of pious nonsense in the wake of the assassination of Pakistan’s former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto. Her country’s better off without her. She may serve Pakistan better after her death than she did in life. We need have no sympathy with her Islamist assassin and the extremists behind him to recognize that Bhutto was corrupt, divisive, dishonest and utterly devoid of genuine concern for her country. [lien] [EN]

Bhutto did not Implement US Security Recommendations

[Guest post by DRJ] The US government provided intelligence information to Benazir Bhutto and her staff to assist in her security and protection, but she failed to act on it: “The United States provided a steady stream of intelligence to Benazir Bhutto about threats against her before the former Pakistani prime minister was assassinated and advised her aides on how to boost security, although key suggestions appear to have gone unheeded, U.S. officials said Monday. Senior U.S. diplomats had multiple conversations, including at least two private face-to-face meetings, with top members of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party to discuss threats on her life and review her security arrangements after a suicide bombing marred her initial return to Pakistan from exile in October, the officials told The Associated Press. [lien] [EN]

Courtney Thorne-Smith Welcomes Son!

When it rains it pours! According to Jim star Courtney Thorne Smith welcomed son Jacob 'Jake' Emerson Fishman this morning in Los Angeles. Jake weighed it at 6 lb. 13 oz. son This is the first child for Courtney and her husband, Santa Monica media owner Roger Fishman. The actress was nearly two weeks past her original due date and decided to wait it out instead of opting to be induced. She entered the hospital in Los Angeles last night and Jake made is arrival this morning. “They were surprised and of course delighted when Jake arrived," a source says. "She had selected the name Maya in the event she was greeted by a girl baby instead of a boy. Courtney’s son’s middle name Emerson is also her father’s name. “She is happily breastfeeding at the moment and bounced back so fast from her delivery ordeal that she has been given the ‘all clear’ to leave the hospital tonight if she wants. [lien] [EN]

Rumor: Christina Aguilera Welcomes Son!

Life & Style is reporting that singer Christina Aguilera, 27, has given birth to a son in Los Angeles. According to a report posted by MSNBC, Aguilera and husband Jordan Bratman welcomed a boy this afternoon Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The article sites a friend of her father-in-law as the source for the news. At this point, the birth is a rumor until we hear it from a more credible source. [lien] [EN]

Christina Aguilera’s ’song’ son

Christina Aguilera’s ’song’ son has paid homage to husband Jordan Bratman’s Jewish roots by giving her baby boy, who weighed a healthy 6lbs 2oz, the Hebrew moniker. This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 1:02 pm and is filed under Christina Aguilera. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. [lien] [EN]

Britney Spears’ sons call

Britney Spears’ sons call Britney Spears has been told she can speak to her children on the telephone. The ‘Toxic’ singer - who hasn’t seen her two sons Sean Preston, two, and 16-month-old Jayden James for more than three weeks after she refused to return them to ex-husband Kevin Federline - is forbidden from visiting her children indefinitely, meaning her only access to them … This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 at 5:02 pm and is filed under Britney Spears. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. [lien] [EN]

Julianna Marguiles Welcomes Son!

Former ER star Julianna Marguilies and husband Keith Lieberthal welcomed a son - Kieran Lindsay Lieberthal. The couple have not released any details about his arrival. "Obviously I'm utterly delighted to be a grandfather," said Keith's father, Dr. Kenneth Lieberthal. "I have to say, he is cuter than any other baby I've seen." Margulies's mother, Francesca, dodged questions about his birth too, "I better not open my mouth. I don't want to get in trouble with my daughter." However the name was announced on the proud grandmother's voicemail in which Francesca announces, "A beautiful baby boy has been born to us. All is well. His name is Kieran Lindsay Lieberthal. Is that poetry? Do a little dance. Love this day! All is well. God bless! Can't wait to hear from you." This is the first child for the couple. [lien] [EN]

Benazir Bhutto names her Killers

[Guest post by DRJ] In a posthumous autobiography excerpted in the Times of London, Benazir Bhutto names four groups that she was told intended to kill her. One group included Hamza bin Laden, the son of Osama bin Laden. Another includes Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud, who is reported to be behind her assassination: “The former Pakistan prime minister, who was assassinated as she left a rally in Rawalpindi in December, reveals she was warned by both President Pervez Musharraf and a “friendly Muslim government” that Hamza Bin Laden was planning her murder. The naming of Bin Laden's teenage son appears to bolster intelligence claims that Hamza is being groomed as a future leader of Al-Qaeda. In her new autobiography, Bhutto writes: “I was told by both the Musharraf regime and the foreign Muslim government that four suicide bomber squads would attempt to kill me. [lien] [EN]

Christina Aguilera’s hypnotic son

Christina Aguilera’s hypnotic son Christina Aguilera “can’t stop staring” at her new son Max. The ‘Dirrty’ singer - who gave birth to Max Liron, her first child with husband Jordan Bratman, on January 12 - is still coming to terms with the idea that she “created” a life. This entry was posted on Saturday, February 9th, 2008 at 5:02 am and is filed under Christina Aguilera. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. [lien] [EN]