Pakistan president's close aide killed in suicide attack

One of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari's most trusted aides was killed in a suspected suicide bombing in the volatile port city of Karachi on Wednesday as he stopped his armored vehicle to buy some fruit, police said.

Pakistan has suffered a spate of bombings since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was sworn in last month, underscoring the challenges facing the nuclear-armed nation in taming a Taliban-linked insurgency. A police officer in Pakistan's financial capital said Bilal Shaikh - Zardari's security chief who was always spotted next to the president during public appearances - was killed along with two others in a prosperous area of eastern Karachi. (Reuters)