Death toll climbs in Pakistan car bomb blast

Pakistan’s president today vowed that crucial parliamentary elections would go ahead tomorrow as planned despite a massive suicide car bombing at a campaign rally that killed up to 46 people – many of them supporters of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

The army, meanwhile, imposed a curfew in the northwestern tribal area town of Parachinar, where the bomber struck last night at the end of a rally for an independent candidate. Cars were banned from the roads and residents told to stay indoors.