UPI NewsTrack TopNews

Lawyer says Bhutto autopsy prevented

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The police chief of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, did not permit an autopsy on slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, a lawyer said Monday.

The allegation by Athar Minallah, a lawyer on the Rawalpindi Hospital Board, came after a new videotape showing Bhutto, who was killed Thursday at a political rally in Rawalpindi, slumping just after gunshots rang out, CNN reported.

The report said the videotape, showing she was shot, offered the clearest view thus far of the incident.

Minallah said hospital doctors "suggested to the officials to perform an autopsy" but that Police Chief Aziz Saud "did not agree," saying that under the law, police investigators had "exclusive responsibility" on whether to have an autopsy, the report said.

Minallah was quoted as saying that without an autopsy there's a perception of "some kind of coverup, though I might not believe in that theory."

The Pakistani government has said Bhutto died after fracturing her skull on the sunroof latch when she ducked or fell into the car after the shots and explosion.

A government spokesman said the government has no objection to exhuming the body for an autopsy upon request of the family. Bhutto's husband has opposed such a move, saying the family does not trust the government, the report said.

Sharif says Musharraf should resign now

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted as Pakistan premier in 1999 by Pervez Musharraf, said Monday the president should resign immediately.

Sharif, seen as the biggest challenge to Musharraf since last week's assassination of Benazir Bhutto, said the former military chief who took power after a bloodless coup in 1999, should quit right away, The New York Times reported.

Sharif, who was sent into exile after his downfall, returned earlier this year to contest in the elections set for next week.

Attacking Musharraf, Sharif told a news conference in Lahore, "He is a one-man calamity and the source of all the problems. The country is burning."

Lahore, capital of the Punjab province, is the headquarters of Sharif's faction of the Pakistan Muslim League.

His brother, Shahbaz, also a prominent politician, said Musharraf should leave to allow a government of "national consensus" to be formed in consultation with the opposition parties.

Earlier, Nawaz Sharif's party said it would participate in the upcoming elections, reversing an earlier decision to boycott them made immediately after Bhutto's killing.

The elections were originally set for Jan. 8 but the election commission will decide Tuesday whether to postpone them.

The Times report said both Sharif's party and Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party, now led by her son and husband, feel they can draw much support from a public angered by the Bhutto killing.

Iraq bomb targets pro-government tribe

BAGHDAD, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Suicide bombers killed five people at an Iraqi checkpoint manned by members of a Sunni tribe that had turned against the anti-U.S. insurgency.

The truck bomb targeted the al-Tarmiya Awakening Council and came just two days after al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden denounced groups that don't side with the insurgency.

Awakening councils are groups of people who fight insurgents and terrorists.

The New York Times said Tarmiya was once a hotbed of the insurgency but has since switched sides. Bin Laden has linked such groups in with an alleged U.S.-Israeli plot to control Iraq.

Bombings across Iraq Monday left 16 dead, including two Iraqi soldiers, the Times reported.

At the same time, U.S. and Iraqi forces continued a series of security sweeps across the country against Sunni insurgents who are still fighting on bin Laden's side.

Kuwait's KUNA news agency reported that a U.S. soldier died from non-combat injuries, bringing the total number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion to 3,902.

Court martials ordered in Haditha killings

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A U.S. Marine sergeant was ordered court-martialed for his alleged role in the killings of Iraqi civilians in Haditha two years ago.

Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich will face voluntary manslaughter, assault, obstruction of justice and other charges.

The Marines said in a statement Monday Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland dismissed a murder charge and two other counts. Helland also decided Monday Lt. Andrew Grayson would be tried on charges he obstructed the investigation into the Haditha incident.

The trials will take place in 2008 at Camp Pendleton in California.

Eight Marines have been charged in the deaths of two dozen Iraqi civilians in Haditha after one of their comrades was killed in a roadside bombing. Witerich was a squad leader when the alleged massacre occurred.

Storm sends Coloradoans to shelters

DENVER, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A winter storm's high winds and blowing snow closed Colorado highways and sent nearly 2,900 people to high-country shelters.

Some 950 people were housed Sunday in the Silverthorne Recreational Center shelter, and 550 stayed at Summit County Middle School in Frisco, Colo., Red Cross spokesman Robert Thompson told the Denver Post. The Red Cross tallied 2,872 at 12 shelters.

Wind gusts up to 70 mph closed portions of Interstate 70 around Floyd Hill, Vail and Georgetown, the paper said.

"I really can't venture a guess how long I-70 will remain closed," Rod Mead, operations manager for the Colorado Traffic Management Center, told the paper. "It is all weather dependent. The crews need to do avalanche control."

Travelers were advised to use U.S. 285 and U.S. 24, or for those headed to states west of Colorado, Interstate 80 through Wyoming or U.S. 50 through Gunnison to Grand Junction.