Suspicion swirled around Islamic extremists Thursday as news spread that former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had been assassinated.

Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated Thursday in Rawalpindi, was the first female prime minister of Pakistan and of any Islamic nation. She led Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996.

The body of Pakistan's assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was being flown home Friday, as sporadic violence was reported in cities across the country.

Any chance of a peaceful transition to a semblance of democratic rule in Pakistan died Thursday with Benazir Bhutto. Bhutto possessed enormous reserves of good will that crossed a host of factional lines that divide this troubled nation. No other individual was at once so potentially uniting and divisive in the world's sixth-most-populous country.

Supporters of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan are blaming the government of President Pervez Musharraf for her assassination on Thursday, with violent protests breaking out around the country.

Aniq Zafer, a media adviser to Benazir Bhutto's campaign, is near Bhutto's home in Islamabad. "People are weeping ... people are quite angry, and they are blaming the state for not protecting their leader," he says. Zafer says it is too early to discuss the future of her Pakistan Peoples Party, though the election is in 11 days. "The world will judge," he says, "who will benefit from taking her out."

For weeks Hillary Clinton's aides have looked at the landscape through a simple prism: the more dangerous the world looks, the more voters will be drawn to a "safe" candidate like the former first lady. That seemed like an easy and comforting explanation for Barack Obama's rise in the polls—that voters were tempted to "roll the dice" (in Bill Clinton's phrase) only at a relatively stable time when domestic issues started to seem more pressing than foreign affairs.

Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto spoke of the dangers she faced just before her assassination on Thursday.

Benazir Bhutto was born on June 21, 1953, into a wealthy landowning family. Her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founded the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and was president and later prime minister of Pakistan from 1971 to 1977.

PAKISTANI opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed yesterday in a suicide bombing and shooting attack after she had addressed a rally in Rawalpindi.

The torrent of bullets that killed Benazir Bhutto cut short an epic life, one bathed in blood and awash with controversy. Bhutto's father was hanged and a brother was shot to death. She had risen to become the Muslim world's first female prime minister, only to lose office and flee Pakistan for most of a decade in the face of accusations she was corrupt.

From Moscow to Washington to New Delhi and points in between, dismay and condemnation poured forth today over the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, along with concern for the stability of the volatile region. World leaders lauded her bravery and commitment to democratic reform.

There was a sense of the inevitable when Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan two months ago. She spoke frankly of the dangers ahead as she moved to regain political power in the land where she had served as its first female prime minister.

Before her return to Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto said this about the risk of assassination: "What I really need to ask myself is: Do I give up, do I let the militants determine the agenda?" It is a question every Pakistani, indeed everyone, must now ask after her Dec. 27 killing by a suicide terrorist.

A Welsh Assembly Member says he warned Benazir Bhutto's security advisers she needed better protection when he was with her during a previous attack.

"The United States strongly condemns this cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan's democracy," Bush said. "Those who committed this crime must be brought to justice."

*Benazir Bhutto's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was dismissed as Pakistan Prime Minister in 1975 and executed by hanging for conspiracy to murder a political opponent in 1979.

Benazir Bhutto excelled at asserting her right to rule. In a male dominated, Islamic society, she rose to become her slain father's political successor, twice getting elected as Prime Minister of Pakistan. She would also be exiled twice. But in the end, Bhutto was better at rallying people to the idea of her power than at keeping them inspired by her use of it.

Pakistani former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated in a suicide attack.

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in an election-rally attack in Rawalpindi, threatening the stability of a nuclear-armed nation that is a focal point of the West's war on terror.