TALIBAN NAMES NEW LEADER :MULLAH FAZLULLAH

Pakistan's Taliban have named Mullah Fazlullah as their new leader, after the death of Hakimullah Mehsud in a drone attack. Mullah Fazlullah is a particularly hardline commander whose men shot the schoolgirl activist Malala Yousafzai. The former leader was killed when missiles struck his vehicle in the North Waziristan region on 1 November. The government had been trying to set up peace talks, but the new leader has already rejected the initiative.  The Taliban have indicated that Mullah Fazlullah wants revenge for the killing of Mehsud. A Taliban spokesman said the militants would target the military and the governing party. The Mehsud killing had angered the Pakistani government. Interior Minister Chaudry Nisar Ali Khan said that the drone strike was "not just the killing of one person, it's the death of all peace efforts". The announcement of the new leader was made by the Taliban's caretaker leader Asmatullah Shaheen at a news conference at an undisclosed location. When the news was announced, there was reportedly heavy celebratory gunfire in the area around Miranshah, the main town in the tribal area of North Waziristan. Mullah Fazlullah led a brutal campaign in Swat between 2008 and 2009, enforcing hardline Islamic law, that included burning schools, and public floggings and beheadings.