Reports are already in of Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, al Qaeda’s commander in Afghanistan, taking responsibility for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan today. Al Qaeda already took responsibility for the first unsuccessful attempt on Bhutto’s life back in October. In some slight potential good news, they are claiming they did it just because they disliked her and her desire to root them out of western Pakistan and not as a favor to current PM Uncle Pervy before possibly attacking us (like they did for the Taliban back in 2001). Yeah, no, we’re not really sure that it makes us feel safer, but we’d it like to. [ABC News]

It’s one of those massive political assassination world story sadness unrest political crisis nuclear death sad sad times, so, two things: (1) condolences to the Bhutto and (2) CNN.com is sooooo funny in times like these! Crisis logo with morose black-and-white gravity and tender fonts? Check. Obvious article about how world leaders are “shocked” at this mindfuck of a story? Check. Articles about how CNN knew this would happen all along, how you can send send your thoughts to CNN then watch them proceed to not give a shit, and how Time — a publication under the same ownership as CNN — has made a definitive statement for the record that will go down in history? Check, check, check. And then of course, other pressing headlines about girls getting attacked by dogs/tigers/screwdrivers, as opposed to assassins. [CNN]

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated today in Rawalpindi, Pakistan after attending a political rally. After someone pumped her full of lead, a suicide bomber detonated his load in her crowd of supporters, probably to slow emergency services enough to assure the shooting was successful. We would normally probably snark, but we also recall that Al-Qaeda assassinated Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud as sort of a favor/thank-you gesture to the Taliban on September 9, 2001 to ensure their continued protection, so we’re sorta just going to hide under the covers for a couple of days. [Washington Post]