Teenager Arrested in Pakistan for Part in Murder of Bhutto

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - A teenager who said he was part of a team of assassins sent to kill former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was arrested near the Afghan border, Pakistani officials said Saturday.

The teen also confessed to taking part in a plot to attack Shiites during Ashoura, even as police in Pakistan's far south said they had foiled suicide attacks planned for the Shiite Muslim festival.

In Karachi, police chief Azhar Farouqi said officers detained five men who were in the possession of explosives, detonators and a small quantity of cyanide intended for attacks on this week's Ashoura processions.

"With these arrests we have foiled major attacks," Farouqi said.

The intelligence official said the 15-year-old told investigators that the five-person squad was dispatched to Rawalpindi, where Bhutto was killed, by Baitullah Mehsud, a militant leader with strong ties to al-Qaida and an alliance with the Taliban in nearby Afghanistan, on Afghanistan's northwest border.

Bhutto's Children Travel to Dubai

Today, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who at 19 is the oldest son of slain Bhutto, left for Dubai along with his sisters: Bakhtawar and Aseefa, 17 and 14 respectively.

Their mother was buried in Larkana district in the southern province of Sindh on Friday, having been assassinated in Rawalpindi on Thursday when shock waves from a suicide bomb caused her to fall and sustain a skull fracture.

Bilawal presently studies at Oxford University, his mother's alma mater. He was named chairman of her party after her assassination, but must be 25 years old before he is allowed to join the Parliament.

Her son says he plans to finish his education prior to taking control of his country.

Happy New Year 2008

No big surprise here: Happy New Year!

My retreat to Mepkin Abbey near Moncks Corner, South Carolina got extended into the full week of Christmas, not that I stayed there for more than three days, but I just fell into leaving my computer off - amazing feat - and therefore did not check emails or write blog posts or read blogs or watch tv news, etc.

This hiatus from the world at large was so refreshing. Then, the other day, I noticed a headline in the local Publix grocery store that announced in bold letters that a suicide bomber in Pakistan had killed Bhutto.

I cried.

And, here I am back at my computer for the first time since December 21st (as I recall) and for the first time in the new year: 2008.

So, happy new year.