Chaotic court appearance for Pakistani governor's bodyguard

A planned court appearance for the alleged killer of Salman Taseer, the governor of Pakistan's Punjab province who was assassinated on Tuesday, has ended in chaos.
Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, Mr Taseer's bodyguard, has confessed to shooting Mr Taseer, citing the governor's opposition to the death penalty for blasphemy.
He had been due to appear before an anti-terror court in the city of Rawalpindi today.
Correspondents say Muslim lawyers and students staged a protest at the court building, resulting in officials seeking to move the trial to a makeshift court inside a heavily secured building in the capital Islamabad.
But they were blocked by Qadri's supporters, who set up a cordon to stop the judge from travelling to the capital.
"We requested the judge that legally he cannot go to Islamabad to hear the accused and he accepted our request," lawyer Malik Waheed Anjum told reporters.
In the end the judge agreed that the trial should go ahead in Rawalpindi.
AFP reports that the trial began more than seven hours late, and that Qadri's supporters threw rose petals as he arrived at the court.

State funeral

The court hearing comes a day after thousands of people attended a state funeral for Mr Taseer, a longstanding opponent of Islamic extremism.
The Punjabi capital Lahore was shut down for the funeral.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani attended the prayer service, under tight security at the Governor's House.
Mr Taseer's body was then flown by helicopter to a military cemetery. (From VOA)