Bhutto's aides also said they doubted the militant commander Baitullah Mehsud was behind the attack and accused the government of a cover-up. THE DISPUTE AND CONFLICTING REPORTS ABOUT BHUTTO'S EXACT CAUSE OF DEATH was expected to further enflame the violence wracking this nuclear-armed nation two days after the popular former prime minister was killed in a suicide attack.

Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema described Mehsud as an al-Qaida leader who was also behind the Karachi bomb blast in October against Bhutto that killed more than 140 people. But a spokesman for Mehsud, Maulana Mohammed Umer, denied the militant was involved in the attack and dismissed the allegations as 'government propaganda'. "WE STRONGLY DENY IT. BAITULLAH MEHSUD IS NOT INVOLVED IN THE KILLING OF BENAZIR BHUTTO," he said in a telephone call he made to The Associated Press from the tribal region of South Waziristan. "The fact is that we are only against America, and we don't consider political leaders of Pakistan our enemy," he said, adding he was speaking on instructions from Mehsud.

Mehsud heads Tehrik-i-Taliban, a newly formed coalition of Islamic militants committed to waging holy war against the government, which is a key US ally in its war on terror. Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party accused the government of trying to frame Mehsud, saying the militant - through emissaries - had previously told Bhutto he was not involved in the Karachi bombing. "The story that al-Qaida or Baitullah Mehsud did it appears to us to be a planted story, an incorrect story, because they want to divert the attention," said Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Bhutto's party.

AFTER THE KARACHI ATTACK, BHUTTO ACCUSED ELEMENTS IN THE RULING PRO-MUSHARRAF PARTY OF PLOTTING TO KILL HER. The government denied the claims. Babar said Bhutto's allegations were never investigated. Bhutto was killed Thursday evening when a suicide attacker shot at her and then blew himself up as she left a rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi near Islamabad. The attack killed about 20 others as well. Authorities initially said she died from bullet wounds, and a surgeon who treated her said the impact from shrapnel on her skull killed her.

The most conspicuous doubter in France is Claude Allegre, a former education minister and a physicist by profession. His new book, "Ma Verite Sur la Planete" ("My Truth About the Planet"), doesn't mince words.

HE CALLS GORE A "CROOK" PRESIDING OVER AN ECO-BUSINESS THAT PUMPS OUT CASH. As for Gore's French followers, the author likens them to religious zealots who, far from saving humanity, are endangering it. Driven by a Judeo-Christian guilt complex, he says, French greens paint worst-case scenarios and attribute little-understood cycles to human misbehaviour.

ALLEGRE DOESN'T DENY THAT THE CLIMATE HAS CHANGED OR THAT EXTREME WEATHER HAS BECOME MORE COMMON. He instead emphasizes the local character of these phenomena. WHILE THE ICECAP OF THE NORTH POLE IS SHRINKING, THE ONE COVERING ANTARCTICA -- OR 92 PERCENT OF THE EARTH'S ICE -- IS NOT, HE SAYS. NOR HAVE SCANDINAVIAN GLACIERS RECEDED, HE SAYS. To play down these differences by basing forecasts on a global average makes no sense to Allegre.

SINCE 9/11 THERE HAS NOT BEEN A SINGLE COUNTRY IN THAT REGION THAT HAS HAD PEACEFUL AND SUCCESSFUL ELECTIONS. Hamas's victory in Gaza, the stalemate in Lebanon, elections in Iraq and now Pakistan - none of them have led to the stability, modernity and civil society this Administration promised us.

The common denominator between Pakistan, Gaza, Lebanon and Iraq is an ongoing war, wars without end, wars that poison democracy. The Bush Administration is particularly culpable in creating the chaos in Pakistan because it forced a premature reconciliation between President Musharraf and Bhutto; it forced Musharraf to lift martial law; it showered money on Musharraf to fight a war that was never popular in Pakistan. THE ADMINISTRATION COULD NOT UNDERSTAND THAT IT CAN'T HAVE BOTH IN PAKISTAN - A DEMOCRACY AND A WAR ON TERRORISM.

The immediate reaction in the United Sates will be visceral: al-Qaeda killed Bhutto because she was too secular and too close to the United States, an agent of American imperialism. It will be of some comfort that the front lines of terrorism are thousands of miles away; that we are fighting "them" there rather than in lower Manhattan; that there are heroes like Bhutto ready to fight and die for democracy, moderation and rationality. But this misses the point. The real problem in Pakistan undermining democracy is that it is a deeply divided, artificial country, created by the British for their expediency rather than for the Pakistanis. Independent Pakistan has always been dominated by a strong military. And democracy will only be nurtured when the wars on its border come to an end, whether in Afghanistan or Kashmir, and the need for the military to meddle in politics is removed. As never before.

Another irony underscored by Bhutto's assassination is that after 9/11 the Bush Administration justified going to war in Iraq to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction. But as of today all that it has managed to do is invade two countries, Afghanistan and Iraq, neither of which has weapons of mass destruction, WHILE LEAVING IRAN AND PAKISTAN TO FESTER - TWO COUNTRIES THAT ONE DAY VERY WELL PROMISE TO THREATEN US WITH THEIR WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION.

Robert Baer, a former CIA field officer assigned to the Middle East, is TIME.com's intelligence columnist and the author of See No Evil and, most recently, the novel Blow the House Down

Even as the smoke still lingered in Rawalpindi, President Bush demanded that those responsible for Bhutto's death be caught and punished. But there are some who think the Bush Administration is not without blame.

Hussain Haqqani, a former top aide to Bhutto and now a professor at Boston University, thinks the U.S., which has counted Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf as a key ally against terrorism since 9/11, bears some of the responsibility. "Washington will have to answer a lot of questions, especially the Administration," he says. "People like me have been making specific requests to American officials to intervene and ask for particular security arrangements be made for her, and they have been constantly just trusting the Musharraf Administration." U.S. officials said they were leery of intervening in another nation's internal affairs, and didn't want to give Bhutto Washington's imprimatur.

Haqqani is not shy about pointing fingers. He blames Musharraf himself, above all, for Bhutto's death. "It's quite clear that Musharraf does not want an election - you can quote me - he is the one who has constantly wanted anybody who can threaten him or his power, out." Haqqani told Congress in October that U.S. aid for Pakistan has for too long been tilted toward the Pakistani military. "SINCE 1954 ALMOST $21 BILLION HAD BEEN GIVEN TO PAKISTAN IN AID," he told the House Armed Services Committee.

It is Musharraf's iron grip on power that has made Washington's own policy toward Pakistan such a target of criticism. While Washington has publicly extolled the virtues of democracy and hoped that Bhutto's return to Pakistan in October would usher in a power-sharing deal with Musharraf, IT WAS ALSO CLEARLY NERVOUS ABOUT THE INSTABILITY IF THE COUNTRY'S STRONG MAN WERE TO LOSE POWER ENTIRELY.

PAKISTAN - THE WORLD'S SECOND-MOST-POPULOUS MUSLIM NATION, with elements of al-Qaeda and the Taliban controlling lawless mountainous pockets in the northwest - IS ALSO THE ONLY ISLAMIC STATE WITH A NUCLEAR ARSENAL. And though Washington publicly says Pakistan's nuclear weapons are safe, there are always private concerns about their security, concerns that will only heighten in the wake of Bhutto's assassination. The U.S. has few options in Pakistan. One thing is clear, says Peter Galbraith, senior fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation: IT IS "NOT A GOOD IDEA TO HAVE 70 NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN THE HANDS OF A COUNTRY THAT IS FALLING APART."

The ministry said that one of Bhutto's assailants was a known member of the extremist organization Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a group it said was allied with al-Qaeda and the Taliban. If so, it could mean further evidence of a dramatic and disturbing diversification in Al-Qaeda's terrorism playbook.

"One of the things that makes terrorism so difficult to prevent is IT'S DESIGNED TO STRIKE TARGETS YOU DON'T REALLY EXPECT, OR CAN'T PREDICT because they only look different from thousands of other potential targets in hindsight," says a French counter-terrorism official. "That's one reason why extremists haven't gone after political leaders often: those are the holders of real power everyone expects jihadists would want to kill." But that isn't an ironclad policy - and it may be changing quickly.

IF THE PATH FROM BHUTTO'S MURDER LEADS TO THE AL-QAEDA CAMP, IT COULD WELL INDICATE POLITICAL ASSASSINATION, ONCE AN EXCEPTION TO THE RULES, HAS NOW BECOME A MUST-DO IN THE JIHADIST PLAYBOOK. "Going after a well-protected leader or politician is harder, so the situation has to be just right," says a French intelligence official. "That usually means ambient chaos, possible help from within security forces, and good chance of success."

All those elements may have been in place ahead of the attack on Bhutto. The problem is determining exactly who exploited them. Al-Qaeda and the Taliban had both previously threatened her for her pledges to modernize Pakistan, and promises to allow U.S. forces to hunt down jihadists on Pakistani soil. Military and intelligence forces in the country also considered her a threat.

"SO MANY PEOPLE HAD A MOTIVE FOR KILLING HER IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO KNOW WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE DESPITE THE THEORIES AND CLAIMS NOW BEING MADE," says the intelligence official. Perhaps, but no matter who was behind Bhutto's assassination, one thing seems clear early in its aftermath: IT HAS HELPED CREATE THE UPROAR AND TURMOIL AL-QAEDA HAS ALWAYS SEEN AS ITS BEST METHOD OF DESTABILIZING ENEMY REGIMES IT WANTS TO REPLACE.

Now, food banks under pressure. This week, two big companies --- Wal-Mart and ConAgra -- announced the donation of 85 truckloads of food to the nation's food pantries. The gifts are badly needed, as FOOD BANKS FACE A CRITICAL SHORTAGE THIS HOLIDAY SEASON.

DEBRA OCAMPO, United Methodist Church Pantry said, "Supplies have gone down to from about two-thirds of what we were actually getting before. Where we were getting seven cases, we're now getting one or two cases of vegetables, same thing with the fruits. We get no fruit at all. From week to week, we worry if we going to be able to stay open this week? Are we going to be able to feed the people that come in?"

Vicki Escarra, executive director of America's Second Harvest, estimates that MORE THAN 35 MILLION AMERICANS DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO ENOUGH FOOD TO STAY HEALTHY. "This is a really critical time. We have made a call out to all of our major food manufacturers and retailers. WE'RE SEEING A 30 PERCENT REDUCTION IN FLORIDA - AND A 40 PERCENT REDUCTION IN CALIFORNIA - in the amount of food that they're bringing in. They're having to turn people away during a really critical time of year," she said.

In Chicago, Dominick's has made major contributions to food pantries and the Chicago Food Depository. Nationwide, Dominick's parent company, Safeway, donated over $110 million to food banks last year. But Dominick's' Wynona Redmond acknowledges that traditional contributions are down. It's no secret that all food banks are feeling a pinch because THE PRODUCT SUPPLY AVAILABILITY HAS DECREASED at a time where the need has just continued to soar," he said.

Even before her plane touched down at Karachi airport on Oct 18, two Taliban commanders had vowed to kill her, while a letter from an associate of Osama bin Laden threatened to slaughter her "like a sheep". Her status as number one target came partly from her unsparing criticism of the Islamists, ranging from teachers at religious colleges or madrassas, students and politicians to Taliban commanders and financiers, al-Qa'eda leaders sheltered in the country's lawless tribal regions and even renegade or retired intelligence officers.

"Terrorists and fanatics" was the expression Miss Bhutto used for them all in one of her last rallies. During this speech, in her home town of Larkana on Sunday, she accused Pakistan's madrassas of "teaching their pupils how to make bombs, how to use rifles and how to kill women and children". PAKISTAN'S MOSAIC OF TERROR GROUPS KNEW AN IMPLACABLE OPPONENT WHEN THEY SAW ONE - SO THEY WERE DETERMINED TO REMOVE MISS BHUTTO FROM THE SCENE.

SHE PERSONIFIED EVERYTHING THAT A RADICAL ISLAMIST ABHORRED. She was secular, Westernised and instinctively pro-American. By gaining an education and taking on her father's mantle of national leadership, SHE VIOLATED EVERY CANON OF THE TALIBAN CODE OF FEMALE BEHAVIOUR.

Even her public appearances seemed calculated to offend the extremists. While Miss Bhutto always wore a headscarf in public, she never covered her face or hesitated to shake a male hand.

HER VERY PRESENCE AT THE FRONT RANK OF PAKISTANI POLITICS WAS AN AFFRONT TO ISLAMIST RADICALS. For as long as Miss Bhutto lived, SHE WAS A SYMBOL OF THE ALTERNATIVE ROUTE OPEN TO PAKISTAN - the route towards a liberal, secular, open democracy, offered in stark contrast to the closed and militant path of the radicals.

Gardasil has been hailed as a breakthrough against the human papillomavirus (HPV) which could help cut up to 1,000 deaths a year from the disease. The Department of Health is backing an annual programme of vaccination for girls aged 11 to 13 through school clinics, but it will not start until next September. Parents who do not want to wait can buy the vaccine, which is licensed for girls over nine, at around £500 for three jabs.

But some critics argue that treating young girls with the vaccine might encourage under-age sex. Stephen Green of Christian Voice said: "Anyone giving this drug to a girl is telling her, 'I think you are a slag'. The best way of not getting cervical cancer and genital warts is to stay a virgin and marry a virgin. The message is one of despair, disrespect and low expectations. It is also irresponsible and will raise promiscuity, teenage pregnancy and, worst of all, infertility. No one will warn young women that they are not protected against chlamydia, which is already affecting one in ten teenagers."

Thompson, commenting at the FAIR talk radio row in Des Moines, Iowa, said he suspected al-Qaida was responsible for the attack. "The chance that a secular woman had a possibility of ascending to power in Pakistan drove the more radical Islamic elements in the country to violence," Thompson said. The former Tennessee senator said the Bhutto assassination was "part of a much larger picture."

"This is an international war we are engaged in," he emphasized. "Bhutto's assassination is not a law enforcement matter. This is a global conflict, and al-Qaida wants to bring Western civilization to its knees." Thompson stressed the urgency of retaining stability in Pakistan, because the nation has nuclear weapons. "It could be a lot worse if those nukes fall into the wrong hands," he said. "Right now, the question of stability is paramount in the short run in Pakistan."

At least 87 people were dead or missing, and tens of thousands have been forced from their homes. Authorities struggled to get tractors and bulldozers over washed out roads 24 hours after torrential rain sent mud crashing into hilly districts of Java island. Hundreds of police, soldiers and residents were digging through the debris with their bare hands, shovels and hoes.

Rivers bloated by days of rain burst their banks in the towns of Solo and Sragen, forcing more than 28,000 people to leave their homes, said Pakaya. Witnesses said water levels were a yard high in places. Residents scrambled to save their most valuable possessions, from television sets to motorbikes. Others carried the elderly through the water or sat on rooftops, waiting for the floods to subside.

Seasonal rains and high tides in recent days have caused widespread flooding across much of Indonesia, the world's fourth most-populous nation. Millions of people live in mountainous regions and near fertile flood plains that are close to rivers.

Mahmoud Abbas urged Ehud Olmert to stop building homes for Jews in occupied East Jerusalem, officials said. Israel has said the hundreds of new homes in the Har Homa settlement are within existing boundaries. Follow-up peace efforts since the US-sponsored Annapolis summit last month have been paralysed by the issue.

The Palestinians have accused the Israelis of trying to torpedo a peace deal and are calling for a total freeze on settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which they hope to make their future capital.

Mr Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said the two sides decided on "serious talks on all the sensitive issues", but added that "we won't agree with the Palestinians on every issue on day one". At Annapolis they pledged to work all-out for a final peace deal before the end of 2008.

The outlook for the UK jobs market is the worst for a decade with unemployment and redundancies expected to rise in the wake of the international credit crisis, according to research by a leading employment organisation. The institute's study follows a survey of independent forecasts published by the Treasury which predicted that the number of people claiming unemployment benefit would rise by 12 per cent to 910,000 by the end of next year.

John Philpott, CIPD's chief economist, warned that the jobs slowdown could prompt "bigger cuts in interest rates than currently anticipated to head off the threat of recession" and prolong the effects of the economic downturn into 2009. It could also undermine the government's flagship welfare-to-work policies designed to get more long-term unemployed into work and reduce by 1m the number of people claiming incapacity benefits.

Much would depend upon whether the flow of eastern and central European migrants coming to Britain to work would slow as the labour market weakened, Mr Philpott said.

News of her assassination in a suicide gun and bomb attack outside a political rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi sent global gold and oil prices higher, also unsettling global foreign exchange markets. "The killing of Bhutto will likely lead to further political and social instability in Pakistan and across the subcontinent," Swiss investment bank UBS said in a research note.

Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's said Pakistan's sovereign foreign currency rating of B+ could be lowered if the assassination was followed by instability, making it more difficult for the country to borrow money in global markets. "If this assassination ushers in a period of heightened political instability, the ratings will be lowered," John Chambers, chairman of S&P's sovereign rating committee, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

But some other analysts were more apocalyptic, pointing to Pakistan's ongoing failure to control an Islamist insurgency in the north-west frontier province, its nuclear arsenal and sometimes fraught relations with fellow nuclear neighbor India, and warning it outstripped other global worries. "The big take-away from this horrible event is that Pakistan could slide into a civil war of sorts," said Win Thin, senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman and Co in New York. "We can't think of a more scary situation in the region, and believe that the fate of Pakistan could have a much bigger impact on geopolitics that anything Iran could do right now."

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said his opposition party will boycott national elections next month, and he called on President Pervez Musharraf to quit as the nation's leader. "Under the present circumstances and under Musharraf, neither is campaigning possible nor is a free election," Sharif told reporters in Islamabad.

The elections had been planned for Jan. 8 as part of a U.S.-backed effort to restore democratic rule and fend off an Islamist threat in the nuclear-armed nation. Analysts said the attack on Bhutto may threaten the strategy.

"This is a bad day for Pakistan, this is a bad day for the United States, and I think we're going to be paying a price for it for a while," said former State Department policy planner Daniel Markey, now at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

"Pakistan is clearly turning into one of the failed states in Asia"
MAX KING - strategist for Investec Asset Management, after stock markets worldwide plunged following the assasination of Benazir Bhutto, amid concerns over spreading instability.

"Pakistan has long been a key part in the war against extremism and radical jihadists. For those who think Iraq is the sole front in the War on Terror, one must look no further than what has happened today. America must show its commitment to stand with all moderate forces across the Islamic world and together face the defining challenge of our generation - the struggle against violent, radical jihadists."
MITT ROMNEY

"The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is a tragic event for Pakistan and for democracy in Pakistan. Her murderers must be brought to justice and Pakistan must continue the path back to democracy and the rule of law. Her death is a reminder that terrorism anywhere - whether in New York, London, Tel-Aviv or Rawalpindi - is an enemy of freedom."
RUDY GIULIANI

"I am shocked and saddened by the death of Benazir Bhutto in this terrorist atrocity. She was a respected and resilient advocate for the democratic aspirations of the Pakistani people. We join with them in mourning her loss, and stand with them in their quest for democracy and against the terrorists who threaten the common security of the world."
BARACK OBAMA