360 program note: Anderson anchors live from Pakistan at 10p ET"There's an eerie calm on the streets." That's one of the oldest cliches in the news business, but the stupid phrase kept running through my head as I drove through the empty streets of Karachi about an hour ago. Of course, there was an eerie calm. It was 3:30 in the morning. It's eerie at that hour just about anywhere.
"Stunned Karachi descends into anarchy." That's the headline in one of the local papers here. Anarchy may be a slight exaggeration, but it's been another difficult day. Burning tires in the streets, angry demonstrators milling around, throwing rocks. A lot of people have locked themselves inside their homes, shops are closed. There's a heavy police and military presence on the streets.
I've never been to Karachi before. It's one of those cities that has always fascinated me, though I must admit I find it unsettling. You get the feeling on the streets that anything could happen at any moment. Even in normal times this is a sprawling, chaotic city. It's where Daniel Pearl was kidnapped, of course, and security is always a concern on journalists minds here.
Tonight we're going to focus on the conflicting accounts of Bhutto's death. The government announced today she died when her head hit something inside her vehicle. Of course yesterday they said it was shrapnel, then bullets, so today's announcement hasn't really convinced anyone here of anything. We'll also look at the investigation into who attacked Bhutto. As for what happens next, no one knows, and anyone who says they do is mistaken. It's still dark out here, and no one can even predict what will happen in an hour or two when the first rays of light begin to break.
-- Anderson Cooper
