He was aware of the death threats that had been made against him, but the assassination of Pakistani Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti on March 1st still came as a shock. The Christian was killed after he pushed for reforms to Pakistan's blasphemy law. It's because of that law that a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, is currently facing the death sentence.
French trade unions staged their second 24-hour strike in a month Thursday against President Nicolas Sarkozy's unpopular pension reform, with unions and the government giving wildly different figures for the number of protesters who turned out.
