Benazir Bhutto's widower swept Pakistan's presidential election on Saturday, offering hope for stability to a nuclear-armed country feeling intense U.S. pressure to crack down on Islamic militants.

Already head of the main ruling party, Zardari becomes one of the most powerful civilian leaders in Pakistan's turbulent 61-year history. Last month, he marshaled a coalition that forced stalwart U.S. ally Pervez Musharraf to quit as head of state.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she was looking forward to working with Zardari.

"I've been impressed by some of the things he has said about the challenges that Pakistan faces, about the centrality of fighting terrorism, about the fact that the terrorism fight is Pakistan's fight and also his very strong words of friendship and alliance with the United States," Rice told reporters on a trip to North Africa.

Zardari made no mention of those topics as he savored his triumph over Musharraf, during whose reign he sat for years in jail on graft charges that never produced a conviction.

full story:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/06/news/Pakistan-Election.php

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"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms." --Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, 1787.

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