Election Commission of Pakistan Secretary Kanwar Dilshad speaks to reporters outside the commission building in Islamabad, Jan. 1.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jan. 1--Pakistan’s election commission said the date for parliamentary elections would be announced on Wednesday, with a delay until February now in view following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, AFP said.
The January 8 vote, the next step along the road to civilian-led democracy in Pakistan, was thrown into chaos with the killing of the opposition leader last week, which set off days of unrest that left nearly 60 people dead.
After urgent meetings on Tuesday morning as officials tried to assess the security situation across the country, election commission spokesman Kanwar Dilshad said the date for the vote would be made public on Wednesday.
“After consulting with the political parties, we will give the date tomorrow,“ Dilshad said. He later told AFP: “It looks impossible to hold elections on January 8.“
In remarks to reporters, Dilshad said political parties needed to be consulted and that the Muslim holy month of Moharram, which ends in Pakistan around February 8, was likely to come into consideration.
He said provincial governments had been asked to report on security following the unrest, which caused tens of millions of dollars in damages, and that they had said it should be taken into account.

DES MOINES, USA, Jan. 1--Barack Obama leads Hillary Clinton in Iowa by seven points among Democrats, according to a new poll, just two days of campaigning before the state opens the 2008 White House nominating race.
The Des Moines Register poll of people likely to attend caucuses on Thursday, put Obama on 32 percent, with the former first lady on 25 percent, a point ahead of former Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards.
The poll, by the only statewide paper in Iowa, is highly respected in the state, which is notoriously difficult to survey and where voters traditionally make up their minds late, AFP reported.
Among Republicans, the paper had former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee holding his lead on 32 percent over the ex-governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney on 26 percent.
Arizona Senator John McCain, expected to make his first major stand of the 2008 race in the New Hanpshire primary on January 8, was third in the Republican field on 13 percent.
The poll came out as candidates made last-ditch forays across the state, ahead of the caucuses, which open a month-long blizzard of nominating contests which could produce presidential nominees by early February.
Clinton appeared at a late night New Year’s Eve rally here with Democratic champion and former president Bill Clinton and her daughter Chelsea.
“We have got two full days until Thursday comes and then Iowans are going to pick the next president,“ the former first lady told cheering supporters.
“I, with your help, am going to run a winning campaign in 2008 and take back the White House.“
Edwards, who earlier polls suggested may be putting on a spurt just three days from the caucuses, told voters they could choose to give America a new future starting in 2008.

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan. 1--Brutal unrest across Kenya over President Mwai Kibaki’s reelection left about 150 people dead late Monday--some hacked to death--taking the overall toll to at least 185 killed in four days.
According to AFP, police opened fire on some protesters and looters and many people were killed with machetes as ethnic tensions mounted.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga renewed his accusations that the presidential election was rigged and the United States withdrew its endorsement of the result.
Kibaki vowed to clamp down on the unrest.
“We have put enough police officers in the specific areas where the incidences of violence have occurred to ensure everyone is secure,“ he said in a New Year message in which he appealed for “national healing“ and reconciliation.
Odinga again rejected Kibaki’s victory and urged his supporters to turn out for an alternative “inauguration“ rally in Nairobi on Thursday.
Police banned his plan for a rival swearing in on Monday and threatened Odinga with arrest if it went ahead.
The 76-year-old Kibaki overtook Odinga’s early lead to win the election and his swearing-in on Sunday sparked a new round of violence.
Riots broke out almost immediately and police and mortuary officials said at least 75 people were killed in cities in western Kenya overnight and a further 48 in Nairobi’s slum areas.
At least 24 people have died in election-related violence in the western town of Eldoret since Saturday, a hospital official said.
Around 53 people were killed in Kisumu, an Odinga stronghold in the west, hospital officials said.
Ethnic rivalries have flared in the political tensions.
Six members of Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe were hacked to death Monday in the port of Mombasa, residents said.
“Whatever has happened to us, because Raila was not sworn in as president, we will avenge and start moving from house to house to kill the Kikuyus,“ one Mombasa resident said, before running amok with a gang of looters.
The Kikuyus, the country’s largest tribe, responded to the deaths in Mobasa, killing three Luo, the second largest group, to which Odinga belongs. Another 10 people were killed in Mombasa in separate incidents, police said.

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Jan. 1--A new joint African Union-United Nations force took over peacekeeping in Darfur Tuesday from an AU mission which failed to stem nearly five years of conflict in western Sudan.
A largely symbolic handover ceremony in Darfur’s main city of Al-Fasher saw the AU troops of the now-defunct African Mission in Sudan force literally swap their green berets for the blue of the United Nations, reported AFP.
The mission, the UN’s largest, will eventually consist of 20,000 troops and 6,000 police and civilian personnel, but only around 9,000 troops and police are currently in place.
The head of the new United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), Rodolphe Adada, appealed to the Khartoum government, which the United States accuses of waging genocide in Darfur, and troop-contributing countries to do more.
“We are determined to deploy the most robust force possible so that it can carry out effectively the difficult mandate the Security Council has entrusted to it,“ Adada said as the UN flag was hoisted.
“This means contributing countries deploy their personnel as quickly as possible.“
He appealed to rebels to negotiate, adding that the mission’s bid to bring peace and stability to Darfur depended on “the active cooperation of the government of Sudan.“