The widower of slain former leader

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The widower of slain former leader Benazir Bhutto will succeed Pervez Musharraf as president of Pakistan after winning a landslide election victory Saturday.

Unofficial results announced after separate votes in the federal and provincial assemblies showed Asif Ali Zardari winning an overwhelming majority.

Pro-Zardari lawmakers, some in tears, shouted "Long live Bhutto!" as the figures came in. The couple's two jubilant but tearful daughters, one carrying a portrait of their late mother, smiled and hugged friends in the gallery of the National Assembly.
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But Saturday also brought a brutal reminder of the threats to the nuclear-armed nation's stability, when a suicide car bomber killed at least 30 people near the northwestern city of Peshawar.

The blast destroyed a police checkpoint, collapsed several shops nearby and left a three-foot crater in the road. Civilians dug frantically with their hands in hopes of finding survivors.

In other violence in the region, 24 people were killed after residents of villages tired of a "reign of terror" by Islamic militants foiled a militant kidnap attempt, then were attacked, the military said.

A military statement said residents of the town of Tehsil Matta, some 100 miles north of Peshawar, decided to fight back against militants operating in the area. They launched an attack Friday night to prevent a suspected plan to snatch a village elder accused of supporting the government.

Six of the would-be kidnappers were killed. The militants later returned en masse, and ensuing clashes left 15 residents and three more militants dead, along with scores of people injured, the military said.

Already head of the main ruling party, Zardari becomes one of the most powerful civilian leaders in Pakistan's turbulent 61-year history. Last month, he marshaled a coalition that forced longtime U.S. ally Musharraf to quit as head of state.

Zardari, a novice leader untested on the international stage and stained by past corruption allegations, takes over at a critical time for the volatile, nuclear-armed Muslim nation of more than 160 million.

Pakistan's economy is crumbling, and Saturday's attack was the latest in a string of suicide bombings usually claimed by Islamic militants who have steadily gained strength since Pakistan joined the U.S. war on terrorism in 2001.

Washington is pressing Pakistan hard to eradicate Taliban and al-Qaida havens near its border with Afghanistan. An American-led ground attack said to have killed at least 15 in Pakistani territory Wednesday sparked outrage and embarrassed Zardari's party.

U.S. reaction
Rob McInturff, a State Department spokesman, extended congratulations to Zardari.

"Our position has been and has long been that we support the democratic process in Pakistan and we hope the government will focus on the challenges facing the country and the needs of its people," McInturff said.

Government ministers hailed Zardari's expected victory as a triumph for democracy nine years after Musharraf seized power in a military coup.

Musharraf, a former general, stepped down from the army last year, but only after imposing a state of emergency to fend off legal challenges to winning another term, this time as a civilian head of state.

Zardari says he will give some of the powers accumulated by Musharraf back to Parliament, but has not made clear how far he will go, sustaining concern that one strongman is replacing another.

Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said Saturday's bombing was an attempt to upset the progress of a country riven by ethnic and sectarian divides toward a more stable democratic federation.

If a reported Taliban claim of responsibility proves correct, "They'll have to pay for it," he said.

Like his late wife, Zardari is generally considered a pro-West liberal, and he is not expected to change Pakistan's commitment as an ally in the U.S. war on terrorism despite the recent raid and suspected U.S. missile strikes along the border.

Zardari and senior party officials have matched Musharraf's tough line against terrorism, insisting the battle against militants is Pakistan's own war. But a key test will be how much clout Zardari wields over Pakistan's powerful military, which has failed to halt the Taliban's rise in the nation's northwest despite stop-start battles.

The president has the power to dissolve Parliament and appoint army chiefs, and chairs the joint civilian-military committee that controls Pakistan's nuclear weapons.