Breaking: Bhutto Assassinated in Pakistan

Sir David Frost interviews Benazir Bhutto about a prior attempt on her life in the video at left.  She was killed today by a suicide attacker who shot her and then blew himself up, killing at least another 14 of her supporters in the process.

The NYTimes has some updated information, as they can get it at the moment.

Condi Rice and the US State Department have been working behind-the-scenes with the former prime minister to work on a potential power-sharing arrangement with the increasingly weakened Musharrif government.  This is a spark in a powder keg that was already hot and ready to blow. 

There was also an attempt on the life of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.  Via WaPo:

Also Thursday, a rooftop sniper opened fire on supporters of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif at a different pre-election rally in Rawalpindi, leaving four dead and at least five injured.

This has all occurred 12 days prior to elections in Pakistan.

It is worth a reminder this morning that millions of dollars have been poured into Pakistan with no oversight from the Bush Administration as to how they have been spent.  Things were already a mess from the benign neglect and looking the other way on crackdowns and payoffs — and now this.

More news on this as we can sift through it…

UPDATE:  NDI has been doing election monitoring, and has filed a series of reports on the problems they were seeing with the upcoming Pakistani elections.  Including significant concerns about security.  Worth a peek at their reports and releases on this.  Will Bunch at Attytood has some thoughts on this as well.  BBC is doing up-to-the-minute coverage that is quite thorough.

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