Benazir Bhutto’s homecoming turned into a bloodbath last night when a suicide bomber struck the vehicle in which she was travelling, killing at least 126 people and wounding another 248.
Ms Bhutto escaped unhurt and was evacuated to her residence in the city. A procession that had attracted several hundred thousand supporters was abandoned in chaos.
The opposition leader had flown into Karachi hours earlier, ending eight years of self-imposed exile in Dubai and London. Two weeks ago, Baitullah Masood, a Taliban commander, vowed to send suicide bombers to kill her.
– The Guardian
Allegations that the CIA held al-Qaida suspects for interrogation at a secret prison on sovereign British territory are to be investigated by MPs, the Guardian has learned. The all-party foreign affairs committee is to examine long-standing suspicions that the agency has operated one of its so-called “black site” prisons on Diego Garcia, the British overseas territory in the Indian Ocean that is home to a large US military base.
– The Guardian
Diamonds worth GB pound 1.2 million have been stolen from the headquarters of the flourishing Indian gem trade in the third big jewel heist in Bombay within a year.
Police said that the stones were taken on Tuesday night from a locked wooden drawer in the office of Aarshit Gems, in the Pancharatna building, the centre of the Indian diamond-polishing industry.
The robbery came only a week after diamonds worth GB pound 500,000 were apparently stolen while being unloaded from a Thai Airways flight at Bombay international airport.
– The Times