When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

This Happened

This Happened—December 27: Brutal End For A Woman Political Icon

Benazir Bhutto, twice Prime Minister of Pakistan, and then leader of the opposition Pakistan People's Party, had been campaigning ahead of elections scheduled for January 2008 when she was shot, in a suicide terrorist attack.

Sign up to receive This Happened straight to your inbox each day!

When Was Benazir Bhutto killed?

After eight years in exile in Dubai and London, while her court cases for corruption remained pending in foreign and Pakistani courts, Bhutto returned to prepare for the 2008 national elections, with a possible power-sharing deal with President Pervez Musharraf. Upon her return to the country to begin campaigning, she was killed on December 27, 2007.

What happened after Benazir Bhutto’s death?

After her death, supporters rioted and reportedly chanted "Dog, Musharraf, dog", referring to President Pervez Musharraf. Others attacked police and burned election campaign posters. Though the upcoming elections would be postponed, opposition groups said that the assassination could lead to a civil war. After protests broke out, Musharraf ordered a crackdown on rioters and looters to "ensure safety and security", but in the end, over 100 people died, either by police or in the crossfire.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Ideas

In A World Of Hunger And Greed, Knowledge For Its Own Sake Is More Vital Than Ever

Students are now paying customers and the world revolves around capital and commerce. But reading and education are our best forms of both pleasure and resistance. Reminders from assassinated Spanish poet Federico García Lorca.

In A World Of Hunger And Greed, Knowledge For Its Own Sake Is More Vital Than Ever

"The classics are not read to get a degree, but to learn to live."

Reinaldo Spitaletta

-Essay-

BOGOTÁ — In 1931, when inaugurating the public library of his hometown of Fuente Vaqueros in southern Spain, the poet Federico García Lorca gave a speech about hunger. He spoke of a hunger for learning and its baser variety, inside the belly, denouncing those who speak of economic demands without ever mentioning the cultural needs "for which peoples have cried out."

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

The latest