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

Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic priests were sweeping up at the church following the Christmas rites of the Western churches earlier in the week. Reports say some Orthodox faithful encroached on the Armenian section, prompting pitched battles with brooms.

Intense rivalries at the jointly-run church can set off vicious feuds. The basilica, built over the grotto in the West Bank town that is the reputed birthplace of Jesus Christ is shared by Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian religious authorities.

Palestinian police formed a human cordon to separate the battling dark-robed and bearded priests and deacons, said to number about 80, so that cleaning could continue.

A PPP spokesman has told the BBC that Ms Bhutto was injured. It is not clear how badly. She had just addressed the rally in the town of Rawalpindi. National and provincial assembly elections are due on 8 January.

In October some 130 people were killed in an attack on Ms Bhutto's cavalcade when she returned to the country. It was one of the worst incidents of violence in a year of deteriorating security in Pakistan.

Update: BBC:- "Benazir Bhutto's husband is quoted as saying his wife's condition is serious.

Update: Reuters are reporting that Benazir Bhutto has died.

"We, believers from three religions, have been placed in this land -- Jews, Christians and Muslims. It is our responsibility to find the right way to live together in peace rather than to fight and kill one another," the council members said in a communiqué. Ten members of the council met with American religious and government leaders. "Each religious community should treat the Holy Sites of other faiths in a manner that respects their integrity and independence and avoids any act of desecration, aggression or harm," the council communiqué said.

The group included Chief Rabbi David Rosen, president of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations; His Beatitude Michel Sabbah, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem; and Sheikh Tayser Rajab al-Tamimi, the supreme judge of Sharia Courts in Palestine.

In a separate action on Monday, senior Palestinian religious leaders agreed to establish a Palestinian branch of the Religions for Peace Interreligious Council.

The proposals come in the wake of criticism that the Church is top heavy and the bishops too costly, while congregations are shrinking and parishes are strapped for cash. But they are likely to anger some bishops, who feel they are already overstretched and undervalued. All of the Church's 113 bishops are currently paid for centrally by the Commissioners, last year to the tune of nearly £25 million.

The cost includes housing for 44 senior diocesan bishops, some of whom live in historic palaces and castles. But under the proposals being discussed by the Archbishops and other leaders, the Commissioners would reduce their support to no more than two bishops per diocese. According to confidential Church papers, any diocese with more than two bishops - nearly half have between three and six - would have to fund the extra posts themselves or scrap them. While a few wealthy dioceses may be able to raise enough from donations, most would be forced to shed posts.

Critics of the hierarchy point out that in 1900 there were 57 bishops - 31 diocesan and 26 suffragan - and about 24,000 clergy. While there are now 113 bishops - 44 diocesan and 69 suffragan - and only 9,000 full-time parish clergy, supplemented by a similar number of part-time clergy and licensed lay people.

One Synod member said yesterday: "Frankly, half the bishops could go and they wouldn't be missed. Those that are left should be out and about taking the Gospel to the country rather than sitting in meetings all day."

Diocesan bishops are paid £35,890 a year while suffragans, who are generally provided with accommodation by their diocese, get £29,560.