06 September 2008

Pakistan chooses "Mr. Ten Percent"

Trust me... Pakistanis will come to rue the day they got rid of Pervez Musharraf...
-- ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The widower of slain former leader Benazir Bhutto will succeed Pervez Musharraf as president of Pakistan following a landslide election victory Saturday.

A horse-loving aristocrat who has spent about 11 years in prison on corruption allegations that never resulted in a conviction, Mr. Zardari has surprised many with his ability to concentrate power since his wife was killed in a December gun-and-bomb attack and he inherited her party's leadership.
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RELATED: And it's not like nobody knew...
A decade after she led this impoverished nation from military rule to democracy, Benazir Bhutto is at the heart of a widening corruption inquiry that Pakistani investigators say has traced more than $100 million to foreign bank accounts and properties controlled by Ms. Bhutto's family.

The documents leave uncertain the degree of involvement by Ms. Bhutto, a Harvard graduate whose rise to power in 1988 made her the first woman to lead a Muslim country.

But they trace the pervasive role of her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who turned his marriage to Ms. Bhutto into a source of virtually unchallengeable power.

If you think there is a single thing left in Pakistan... and that includes nuclear weapons technology... that didn't suddenly just come on the market... you'd better read the whole thing.

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RELATED: In other "landslide election" news...
-- TORONTO -- The Canadian Auto Workers have elected a new president. Ken Lewenza, former president of CAW Local 444 in Windsor, Ont., was unanimously elected Saturday morning at a special convention in Toronto.

In a lengthy and wide-ranging speech that touched on everything from the war in Afghanistan to violence against women, Mr. Lewenza vowed to continue the fight to protect the Canadian auto industry started by his predecessor, Buzz Hargrove.
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