Pakistan ? As Pakistan’s ruling coalition government got off to a new start Tuesday a day after the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf, political disagreements and a bomb that killed at least 26 people in the country’s volatile northwest underlined the challenges faced by the new government.

The heads of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League-N faction met in the capital of Islamabad for the second day of talks on next steps after nearly nine years of military rule. Asif Ali Zardari of the People’s Party and his counterpart, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, appeared to be at a new impasse over how and whether to restore some 60 judges deposed under Musharraf’s government.