The bottom falls out: Bhutto dead in Rawalpindi

You know, this is going to sound crazy but when I read the story about the escaped tiger at the San Francisco zoo, I had a sense of foreboding. Coming as it did -- on Christmas day -- it seemed a stark reminder that the bottom can fall out at any time.

Now Benazir Bhutto is dead in Rawalpindi in an act of carnage so sudden and brutal that it shocks the conscience.

And no matter what I do, I can't get the foreshadowing image of that rampaging tiger out of my mind. It is simply...too much. If this were something that had been described in a novel, or shown in a movie, you'd walk away thinking, "Nah. Too unbelievable."

And yet here we are.

P.S. All the "Top stories of 2007" articles have already been written. But surely this one would have to be at, or near, the very top. We can only watch in anxious anticipation as to what might happen in the coming year.