BHUTTO'S SON RETURNS TO UK STUDIES

Oxford law student Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was named his mother's successor as chairman of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) following her assassination 12 days ago.

Too young to stand for office, he is returning to university while his father, Ms Bhutto's husband Asif Ali Zardari, takes day-to-day control of the party.

Bilawal will hold a press conference in London at which he is expected to appeal for the media to leave him alone while he completes his studies.

Ms Bhutto's killing after a political rally on December 27 sparked four days of rioting across Pakistan.

Parliamentary elections in the troubled Islamic republic were postponed for six weeks following the violent unrest.

President Pervez Musharraf's government initially said Ms Bhutto was killed when the shock waves from a suicide bomb slammed her head into her vehicle.

But her supporters say she was killed by a gunman and accuse the government of a cover-up.

British anti-terror investigators arrived in Pakistan last week to provide forensic and technical expertise.

President Musharraf invited the Scotland Yard officers in an effort to quell growing demands for a UN investigation, and to dispel accusations that government forces may have had a hand in the assassination.