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The governor of Pakistan's central Punjab province, a senior member of the ruling party, was shot dead by one of his bodyguards in Islamabad on Tuesday, plunging the country into a new political crisis.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said, citing initial reports, said Salman Taseer was killed because of his opposition to Pakistan's blasphemy law.

Rights groups say the law is often exploited by religious extremists and ordinary Pakistanis to settle personal scores. Islamist groups have been angered by what they believe are government plans to change or scrap the law.

The shooting occurred as Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani tried to muster support for the government after a leading partner withdrew from the coalition over fuel price policies.

A witness said Taseer was stepping out of his car at a shopping area when he was shot.

"The governor fell down and the man who fired at him threw down his gun and raised both hands," said the witness, Ali Imran.

The shooting left bloodstains on a parking area at Kohsar shopping center in Islamabad, which is popular with foreigners.

Taseer, a liberal and charismatic politician close to President Asif Ali Zardari, had no day-to-day role in the affairs of the central government but his killing will add to a sense of crisis.

Earlier, the main opposition Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said it would not demand a vote of no confidence in Gilani because to do so would aggravate instability in the South Asian country, a strategic ally of the United States.

The PML-N, believes a no-confidence vote would "damage the whole country," chairman Raja Zafar-ul-Haq told Reuters.

Sharif told a news conference he would present the government with demands such as the scrapping of fuel price rises and the dismissal of ministers accused of corruption, and gave it three days to agree, from the end of a three-day mourning period.

EVICTION THREAT

He threatened to evict members of the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) from the Punjab provincial government, which his party dominates. Sharif suggested there might be a need for new national elections, but did not say when.

Taseer's assassination in broad daylight will reinforce the impression that the government is nowhere near stabilizing nuclear-armed Pakistan.

"We will conduct a thorough investigation to know whether it was an individual act or someone else was behind it," said Malik.

The blasphemy law came under the spotlight after a court in November sentenced a Christian mother of four, Asia Bibi, to death in a case stemming from a village dispute.

The law has widespread support in Pakistan, which is more than 95 percent Muslim, and most politicians are loath to be seen as soft on the defense of Islam.

Taseer visited Bibi in prison in a campaign for her release. He wrote on his Twitter page last Friday: "I was under huge pressure sure 2 cow down b4 rightist pressure on blasphemy. Refused. Even if I'm the last man standing."

Malik said the bodyguard, identified as Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, confessed and had been arrested.

"Salman Taseer is a blasphemer and this is the punishment for a blasphemer," Qadri said in comments broadcast on Dunya television.

His hands and legs bound by nylon rope, the bearded Qadri smiled confidently as he spoke to reporters from the back of a police truck just after killing Taseer and surrendering.

Political analysts said Taseer's death would compound political tension as the opposition steps up its pressure on the government.

The second biggest opposition party also said it would not push for a no-confidence vote, suggesting the opposition might prefer to wear down a weak prime minister by blocking legislation or holding protests to force an early election.

 

Family members of a northern Illinois mother of four who left behind a slipper and footprints in the snow when she vanished after a car accident that killed her husband had to wait through the holidays before finally learning that she too had died.

The body of 40-year-old Tanya Shannon was found Monday in a LaSalle County field about three-quarters of a mile from where she and her husband crashed into a light pole while returning during a snow storm from a holiday party in the early morning hours of Dec. 5.

Shannon was last seen leaving a friend's holiday party in a red dress. Her footprints and slipper found near the car were the only clues investigators had.

Dale Shannon was found dead behind the wheel, and his blood-alcohol content was found to be 0.266, or more than three times the state's legal driving limit of 0.08. An autopsy found he died of spinal injuries.

Those who knew the Shannons said they hoped Monday's discovery might offer the family, especially the children, some closure.

"I'm glad to know that the kids now will have that relief to know what happened," said Chris Kesler, who worked with Tanya Shannon at the Turtle Tap in Morris. "It's hard, but at least we now know where she is and that she's in a better place."

Searchers had spent days last month combing through the flat, snowy terrain on horseback, on foot and in helicopters, probing snow banks with poles and sweeping through soybean fields with metal detectors. The search resumed Monday because conditions had improved.

The clothing on the body found Monday matches what Shannon was last reported to be wearing — the red dress and a gray hooded sweat shirt — and her purse was found nearby, said LaSalle County Sheriff Tom Templeton. The body was first spotted by a helicopter for Chicago's WBBM-AM.

Templeton said searchers had the Shannons' four children in mind as they continued their mission in brutal weather conditions.

"Four children lost their father right before Christmas, for sure, and this young lady was now missing. Hopefully we would bring some closure to the family" by finding her, he said.

An autopsy was scheduled for later in the week.

The disappearance of Tanya Shannon, a part-time barmaid widely described as a devoted mother, shook those living in and around her hometown of Ransom, a village of 383 people about 70 miles southwest of Chicago.

While Templeton acknowledges no one will ever know why she got out of her battered car and began walking through the snow in 10-degree weather, most people assumed she was disoriented after the crash and went looking for help but didn't make it. But some speculated that perhaps she ran off or was abducted.

The Shannons' neighbor, Naomi Hauser, said she always viewed the disappearance as nothing more than a "terrible tragedy."

"I was just kind of holding my breath," Hauser said. "I had a feeling she was out in one of those fields."

Tanya Shannon's sister, Corinne Johnson, said in the days after the crash that her sister wouldn't have walked away from her life. On Monday, Johnson said she was too emotional to talk and was in the process of making funeral arrangements.

The crash occurred about six miles from the couple's home. The Shannons' four daughters, who range in age from 4 to 15 years old, have been staying with family.

 

Bill Erwin, a character actor best known for playing an irascible old man on a "Seinfeld" episode, has died of natural causes aged 96.

He died December 29 in the Los Angeles suburb of Studio City, coincidentally near the old "Seinfeld" production lot. Erwin received an Emmy nomination for his turn as Sid Fields, an embittered man whom Jerry Seinfeld's character volunteers to look after -- but then loses -- in an episode involving flying dentures, a giant goitre and a Senegalese housekeeper.

He also played Arthur the Bellman in the 1980 film "Somewhere in Time," a time-traveling romantic drama starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. Erwin returned many times to the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Mich., the film's setting, to participate in annual fan celebrations.

The Texas native had a long career on stage, working on Broadway and locally in southern California. Among his numerous TV commercials was a Dreyer's Ice Cream spot in which he played an old man notified by his wife that "Dessert's ready, it's Dreyer's Ice Cream." That prompted Erwin's chair-bound character to leap up and break dance.

He was also a self-taught cartoonist whose work was published in the New Yorker, Playboy and Los Angeles magazine. He is survived by four children and eight grandchildren.