BBC News with Fiona MacDonald
The former military ruler of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, says he is forming a new political party for an attempted
comeback
in the next general election due in 2013. He was speaking to Owen Bennett Jones who has this report.
Pervez Musharraf, who now lives in London, has for some months been talking about the possibility of returning to Pakistan, but now his plans are
firming up
. He said he will be standing for a seat in the next parliament, and from there he hopes to become either prime minister or president. Asked whether he'd already had his chance and that it was time to give others an opportunity to lead, he said last time he lacked
legitimacy
internationally because he was in uniform. "I can't be sure of becoming president again," he said, "but I believe there is a good chance of my winning."
President Obama has called on Americans to maintain respect for other religious faiths as protests continue in the Muslim world over a threat by a fringe American church to burn copies of the Koran. The pastor behind the threat, Terry Jones, now says he's been persuaded to suspend his plan. Mr Obama said burning religious texts
was contrary to
the values on which the United States was founded.
"I think it is
absolutely
important now for the
overwhelming
majority of the American people to
hang on to
that thing that is best in us, a belief in religious tolerance, clarity about who our enemies are. Our enemies are al-Qaeda and their allies who are trying to kill us but have killed more Muslims than just about anybody on Earth."