BRIEFS

WORLD

KARACHI, Pakistan – Benazir Bhutto blamed al-Qaida and Taliban militants Friday for the assassination attempt against her that killed at least 136 people, and she declared she would risk her life to restore democracy in Pakistan and prevent an extremist takeover.

The former premier presented a long list of foes who would like to see her dead – from loyalists of a previous military regime that executed her politician father to Islamic hard-liners bent on stopping a female leader from modernizing Pakistan.

Bhutto, who came home to lead her party in January parliamentary elections, said she had been warned before returning that Taliban and al-Qaida suicide squads would try to kill her.

“It was an attack by a militant minority that does not enjoy the support of the people of Pakistan, that has only triumphed in a military dictatorship,” she said.

Authorities said the assault bore the hallmarks of a Taliban-allied warlord and the al-Qaida terror network – with a man first throwing a grenade into the sea of people around Bhutto’s convoy and then blowing himself up with a bomb wrapped in bolts and other pieces of metal.

Bhutto’s procession had been creeping toward the center of Karachi for 10 hours Thursday when a small explosion erupted near the front of her truck as well-wishers swarmed around it. A larger blast quickly followed, destroying two police vans.

Rejecting criticism that she had endangered her supporters, Bhutto said it was the right decision to return to help her homeland and she was willing to pay the price.

PHOENIX – Police raided a drop house for illegal immigrants and discovered several, including a pregnant woman, whose handlers had beaten and tortured them, authorities said.

Police took 54 people into custody after the raid Friday, including four children and seven suspected smugglers.

One man’s head had been wrapped in a plastic bag and submerged in a toilet, said Maricopa County sheriff’s spokesman Capt. Paul Chagolla. The man’s pregnant wife was severely beaten and will probably lose her baby, he said.

Deputies are investigating reports that smugglers held at least five other immigrants at gunpoint and demanded more money.

Women and children were screaming inside the home when deputies entered, Chagolla said. There was little food and no furniture inside, he said. “Toilets were filled with human waste and buckets were dispersed throughout the house as makeshift toilets,” he said.

Sheriff’s officials learned of the drop house during an investigation into human smuggling, Chagolla said. The home is the third discovered in a ring of related drop houses, and 80 people have been arrested under immigration laws, Chagolla said.

RICHMOND – A proposed wildlife protection plan to limit the impact on wildlife by a Highland County wind farm could hinder the energy project, the company behind the proposal says.

Highland New Wind Development is seeking certification from the State Corporation Commission to build the $60 million project, which would plant 19 turbines more than 400 feet tall on remote Highland County ridges. According to a report issued last week by an SCC hearing officer, there should be plenty of revenue to make the wind project financially viable and still protect wildlife.

The report by Alexander Skirpan now goes to the SCC for a final decision on whether the project can be built in a 4,200-foot cow pasture outside Monterey. Skirpan found that the towering turbines post a “significant risk” to bats and “a lesser risk” to birds. He recommended that Highland New Wind Development pay for monitoring
and altering their use, including speed, for the life of the wind farm.
Residents believe Highland, for instance,
should be required to qualify for a permit to account for any incidental
deaths of endangered species, such as the Virginia big-eared bat, which migrates through Highland County, or bald and golden eagles.
The company opposes the proposal.