OVER EDGE ee ee The Assassination of Benazir Bhutto Simran LEHAL News Epiror | On December 27, Benazir Bhutto, the first female Prime Minister of a Muslim state, was assassinated amid a throng of supporters celebrating her return to Pakistani politics. Bhutto, a leader of the Pakistani Peoples Party (PPP) and a supporter of democracy, was born in Pakistan in 1953 and educated in arts and government at Harvard and Oxford. Twice prime min- ister (from 1988 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1996), Bhutto had returned to Pakistan to seek another term of office after eight years of self-imposed exile in Dubai. Although conflicting government and medical reports con- tinue to stir the controversy surrounding around her exact cause of death, released footage reveals a gunman fired three shots at Bhutto moments before a suicide bomber ended her life and the lives of twenty others. Bhutto was well aware of the dangers of her return to Pakistan; this attack was not the first attempt at her life during the 2007 campaign trail — on October 18, two explosions occurred while Bhutto’s plane was landing in a Karachi airport, killing 136 people. She, however, was not deterred. The aftermath of Bhutto’s death has left the Pakistani people in mourning and unrest. Rioters burnt or wreaked havoc upon vehicles, banks, railways lines, offices, and shops. Over twenty people were killed, with the majority being police of- ficers. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf acknowledged a three-day period of mourning, and international response overwhelmingly condemned the attack. Survived by three children and her husband Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto — paralleling the Nehru-Gahndi political relationship in Indian politics — initially rose to political authority as a re- sult of the legacy of her father, former Pakistani Prime Min- ister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Zulfikar, ousted by a military coup and charged with conspiracy of murder, was hanged in 1979. Bhutto and her mother, classified as political enemies of the state, were imprisoned for five years. First becoming politic- ally active by resurrecting her father’s party overseas, Bhutto returned to Pakistan in 1986 as a fresh contrast to male-dom- inated politics. Bhutto presented a modern, western voice with her ideals for democracy and free voting. Yet, Bhutto’s involvement has ventured much into the personal rather than political arena. Bhutto has claimed she became interested in politics to avenge her father’s death; Bhutto was forced to resign twice as Prime Minister after multiple corruption and money laundering scandals surfaced. This trend of personai/familial vengeance and, ultimately, the undermining of the fundamentals of democratic govern- ance, continues — Bhutto’s 19-year-old son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, has been appointed, not elected, head of the PPP. Bilawal, who has never lived in Pakistan and whose only pol- itical experience involves being a Student Council vice-pres- ident, is expected to resume his mother’s duties upon comple- tion of his undergraduate coursework. Bilawal bears the last of the family’s political legacy — both of his mother’s broth- ers were shot to death in mysterious circumstances outside of Pakistan. Officially, al-Qaeda has taken responsibility for Bhutto’s assassination, claiming she was a threat as a result of her democratic stance and ties to the US. Bhutto, like the US in 1996, originally believed the Taliban and al-Qaeda could sta- bilize Afghanistan; her government financially supported the Taliban’s efforts. Recently, however, she strongly opposed the Taliban and their terror attacks, viewing them as a threat to democracy and to her security. Nevertheless, critics maintain Pakistani President Musharraf played a role in the assassination. Musharraf, who initially en- tered politics by orchestrating a 1999 military coup, was suf- fering declining popularity and fear of defeat. In November 2007, for instance, Musharraf demonstrated that he is capable of taking great measures to maintain control — he declared a national state of emergency days before the Supreme Court was to review the legality of his position as President. In an attempt to maintain authority, Musharraf placed members of the court under arrest, imprisoned critics, and temporarily shut down independent media. On November 8, Bhutto was placed under house arrest as part of President Musharraf’s state of emergency, limiting her access to speak to the public and to slam Musharraf for his censorship actions. On December 30, while the PPP called for a UN inquiry into Bhutto’s death, President Musharraf strongly disagreed, claiming the assassination is an internal affair to be handled without outside interference. However, the journalists and news feeds of the world that have flocked to Pakistan have already determined that the assassination of a political leader in a Muslim-state equipped with nuclear weapons demands the attention of outside interference. Thus, Musharraf, while explicity refusing UN or American forces on Pakistani soil, has releuctantly accepted members from Scotland Yard to in- vestigate the site-of the assassination. Most of the evidence of the assassination, however, has already been removed by Pakistani officials. As well, critics argue that Musharraf’s reluctance to divulge a note Bhutto wrote, in which she listed possible suspects she feared would threaten her life, is unethical. Critics also feel more security for Bhutto should have been provided by the government. Yet, proponents of Musharraf argue that Bhutto did have extra security detail and that she has not been the only leader attacked by militants — in the past four years, Musharraf has survived two car bombs, fire from an anti-aircraft gun, and an attempted bridge explosion. Intrigue not only shrounds Pakistan’s internal forces; exter- nal forces have also come under scrutiny. The United States, a major sponsor of Pakistan in the “war on terror,” initially supported Bhutto’s challenge against Musharraf. Bhutto, who was popular in the United States due to her vision for demo- cratic reform in muslim nations, was seen as a powerful agent for the westernization of eastern countries. She was encour- aged to seek the change she (and America) wanted to see in the world. Her assasination, however, altered America’s zeal for democratic reform in Pakistan. Amid allegations of con- spiracy, the United States has decided to support Musharraf both in his reaction to Bhutto’s assassination and in his inten- tion to remain head of state in upcoming elections. The US, rather than risking political upheaval, is defending Musharraf to generate more political stability in Pakistan. Musharraf’s threats to America — about Pakistan relaxing the fight on terror and becoming a haven for extremists if American support is removed — has appeared to be effective. Even in death, Pakistani politics continues to be influenced by Bhutto. By calling for a UN probe to investigate Mush- arraf’s involvement in the assassination, the PPP is using the world’s interest into Bhutto’s death to destroy Musharraf’s credibility. Minor opposition party leaders are aligning with Bhutto’s party in the hopes of deflecting voters. HarperCollins Publishing anticipates Bhutto’s final book, “Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West,” will be released on February 12 to great revenue — just six days before Pakistani presiden- tial elections. Software Giants in Multibillion Dollar Merger Or (How They Took Over the Gaming Industry) JOSEPH JEFFERY Stare Writer In 2006 Youtube was bought by Google for $1.65 billion US and that was considered quite a fair bit. But, in 2007 that was topped by the deal between software giants Blizzard (of World of Warcraft fame) and one of the gaming industry’s most dominant publishers Activision (Guitar Hero, et al). These two companies are now walking hand in hand to the tune of $18.8 billion US. Now considering that if you’re a gamer it was more than likely redundant me telling you who they were, as you were doubtless aware. This makes them calling their creation “the world’s most profit- able games business” all the more obvious. While the company that actually took part in the merger, and the owner of Blizzard, was Vivendi, the company formed from these two is to be called Activision Blizzard, This is rather than Activision Vivendi and prob- ably because Blizzard is much better known than Vivendi. Vivendi itself is a French media group and its presence in the gaming industry through such companies as Blizzard has been one of its ventures in recent years which it hopes to expand upon with this merger. The coming together of these two giants means that competition just got a lot tougher. Blizzard is the well known producer of the MMORPG World of Warcraft which current- ly has nine million users worldwide; that’s a bit less than one third of the Canadian popula- tion. In addition to the biggest selling MMO they also have the Strategy games Starcraft and Warcraft and the ever popular Diablo ser- ies (an RPG). Lesser known (but no less bril- liant) was the Lost Vikings series, an adven- ture in which you switched control between three Vikings, each with their own ability to survive the traps and puzzles as they tried to escape their alien kidnappers. Even though Starcraft, Diablo I and II and Wacraft II are all fairly old games now they still command huge player bases and are well respected as brilliant games, especially in Asian countries like Korea where Starcraft is practically an actual sport (and you though North America was obsessed with video games!). Activision brings to the table the highly enjoyable (and more than a little addictive) rhythm game Guitar Hero as well as skating series Tony Hawk, top shooter Call of Duty and movie tie ins of popular box office hits such as Spider-Man and X-Men. To make Activision Blizzard work the two companies are putting up $1 and $2 billion US respectively. Jean-Bernard Levy, Vivendi chief executive, said: “This alliance is a major strategic step for Vivendi and is another illustration of our drive to extend our presence in the entertain- ment sector.” “By combining Vivendi’s games business with Activision, we are creating a worldwide leader in a high-growth industry.” Whatever you think of the merger or the two companies, there’s no doubt that they’ve rocked the gaming industry. Together they now control some of the top titles across a range of genres and neither of them are slow- ing down. Blizzard had already announced that it has been working on Wrath of the Lich King, their second expansion to the popular MMO which will take the game back to its more traditional and gothic roots rather than the high fantasy of the first expansion, The Burning Crusade. As well as the follow up to their classic strategy game Starcraft with the imaginatively titled Starcraft II. Activision will, almost certainly, be coming out with Guitar Hero Four in the near future as well as another Call of Duty game, hopefully the same quality as COD4 with a little bit more length in the single player. However, despite the fact that these two do make formidable partners there is some op- position. EA Games recently brought Bioware (think BioShock, Mass Effect, Knights of the Old Republic) and Mythic (who are creating their own MMO to rival WoW, namely a MMO version of tabletop game Warhammer). These two acquisitions do a lot to bolster the com- panies strong repoitoire, specifically bringing to the table the two genres that EA has always been lacking in MMOs and straight RPGs. So while the future of the game industry does look to be dominated by giants clashing, it’s important to remember that those giants make some excellent games and any compe- tition that makes them push for better than just plain excellent can’t be bad for any of us gamers!