Bhutto's widower elected Pakistani president

The widower of slain former leader Benazir Bhutto will succeed Pervez Musharraf as president of Pakistan after winning a landslide victory in today’s election.

Partial results announced by officials after separate votes in the federal and provincial assemblies show that Asif Ali Zardari won an overwhelming majority of the votes.

Pro-Zardari MPs, some in tears, shouted “Long live Bhutto!” as the results came in. The couple’s two teenage daughters, one carrying a portrait of their late mother, smiled from the gallery.

But today also brought a brutal reminder of the threats to the nuclear-armed nation’s stability when a suicide car bomber killed a dozen people in the north-western city of Peshawar.