The New Nation - Internet Edition

Pakistan PM Gilani wins vote of confidence

AFP, Islamabad

Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani Saturday secured an unprecedented unanimous vote of confidence from parliament, tightening his grip on power in the nuclear-armed state.

Opposition parties backed Gilani after he called for their support for democracy and stability.

A coalition lawmaker had moved a resolution for the vote of confidence, which Gilani won from all 342 lower house MPs.

"The resolution is passed unanimously," speaker Famida Mirza told the house.

A key aide of murdered opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, Gilani will lead a coalition that won general elections last month, trouncing loyalists of US-ally President Pervez Musharraf.

Pakistan has been a bulwark in the US-led fight against Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

The country has suffered an unprecedented wave of violence including suicide bombings in the past year blamed on Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants trying to destabilise the Islamic nation.

Gilani on Tuesday told US President George W. Bush that a broader approach to the "war on terror" was necessary, including political solutions and development programmes.

Gilani made the call for a rethink in policy when Bush telephoned him to congratulate him on taking office.

Yousaf Raza Gilani, in his first policy speech, also said the government would seek to reinstate judges ousted by President Pervez Musharraf last year - a move that could prompt a showdown with the U.S.-backed leader.

"We are confronting many challenges, but we are not afraid of these challenges, and we will face them," Gilani told lawmakers.

Parliament elected Gilani on Tuesday, six weeks after opposition parties triumphed in elections that have restored democracy after eight years of military rule under Musharraf.

Underlining the transformation of Pakistan's political landscape, lawmakers on Saturday gave a unanimous vote of confidence to Gilani, a loyalist of assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto.

In a gesture to Western nations concerned that Musharraf's decline could result in an easing of Pakistan's efforts to counter al-Qaida and Taliban militants entrenched along the Afghan border, he announced that "fighting terrorism" was his government's "top priority."

"The war against terrorism is our own war," Gilani told lawmakers, who repeatedly thumped their desks in approval as he outlined his priorities.

But he also said authorities were "ready to hold talks with those who will lay down their arms" in order to restore peace.

Gilani promised to develop the impoverished frontier region's economy and abolish criminal codes dating back to British colonial rule that contribute to its isolation.

However, he gave no indication whether his government was prepared to negotiate with hardcore militants blamed for a wave of suicide attacks in Afghanistan and, increasingly, in Pakistan.

Deputy U.S. Secretary of State John Negroponte cautioned on Thursday during a visit to Pakistan that some militant groups were "irreconcilable" and had to be fought.

Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and that of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif finished first and second in Feb. 18 parliamentary elections, trouncing Musharraf's political allies.

The country faces gathering economic problems, including double-digit inflation, electricity shortages and deteriorating state finances. Gilani announced a government austerity campaign, including restricting the size of cars driven by ministers.

But Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower and political successor, also want the new government to deliver quickly on a politically explosive pledge to restore Supreme Court judges ousted by Musharraf.

Gilani said his government would "work for" that goal, but didn't explain how it would be achieved.

Musharraf declared emergency rule and purged the court last November to forestall legal challenges to his re-election as president the previous month.

Musharraf retired as army chief only in November.

Sharif, who was ousted as prime minister and exiled after the 1999 coup, is pushing hard for Musharraf's resignation. Party lieutenants say parliament could impeach him if he doesn't resign.

"Musharraf is part of the problem in Pakistan, and he can't be part of the solution," Chaudhry Nisar, a leader of Sharif's party, told reporters outside parliament on Saturday.

"Only after his removal from office, can Pakistan move forward on the road to prosperity and democracy t Under no condition are we prepared to work under Pervez Musharraf," he said.

Iraq clashes spread as death toll soars

AFP, Baghdad

Fierce clashes between Shiite gunmen and troops spread to new Shiite areas of Iraq on Saturday as the overall death toll from five days of bloodshed surged to nearly 230.

On Saturday violence was reported from the central Shiite city of Karbala in which 12 "criminals" were killed, local police chief Raed Jawdat Shakir said.

He did not provide further details, but said 25 people were also arrested in the operation that began overnight.

The death toll from similar clashes between Shiite gunmen and Iraqi and US troops in Baghdad's sprawling Sadr City stronghold rose to at least 75, with another 498 people wounded in the past four days.

"Seventy-five people have been killed and 498 wounded in clashes in Sadr City.

Japan completes missile defence system deployment

ADP, Tokyo

Japan completed deploying a ballistic missile defence system in the Tokyo area on Saturday, a day after North Korea reportedly fired short-range missiles off its west coast, news reports said.

Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) surface-to-air interceptors were installed at a Japanese groundforce base in Ibaraki prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, Jiji Press said. It was the fourth and last set of interceptors for the nation's four-part missile defence system protecting Tokyo as the pacifist nation beefs up its military capability in the face of North Korea and China.

Immediate confirmation of the reports was not available.

Following Pyongyang's reported missile launches on Friday, the Japanese defence ministry said it does not believe that "there is an emergency significantly affecting the country's national security."

The Japanese defence ministry plans to deploy the US-developed PAC-3s at a total of 11 bases in eastern and western Japan by March 2011.

Japan and the United States started working on a more advanced missile shield after North Korea fired a missile over Japan's main island in 1998.

Israel kills two Palestinians in Gaza

AFP, Gaza City

Two Palestinian militants were killed on Friday in separate gunfights with Israeli forces who carried out a brief ground incursion into southern Gaza, Israeli military sources said. One militant was killed in the northern Gaza Strip close to the security fence after a gunbattle broke out with Israeli troops. "An observation post spotted an armed man at the security fence in the north of the Gaza Strip. A unit was dispatched to this sector to neutralise him," an Israeli military spokesman said.

"An exchange of fire broke out and grenades were thrown in the direction of the soldiers. The armed Palestinian was killed and there were no casualties on the Israeli side," he added.

Several Israeli armoured vehicles and tanks crossed into the Hamas-ruled territory earlier near the Kissufim crossing where they engaged in a gunfight with militants, the medics said. One member of Hamas's armed wing was killed and two other militants were wounded by Israeli fire, the Israeli army said, adding, "during a regular operation in Gaza, a force identified militants and opened fire at them."

Al-Sadr wants Arabs to back Iraq's 'resistance' against foreign occupation

AP, Baghdad

Anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has called on Arab leaders meeting in Syria to voice their support for Iraq's "resistance" to what he calls foreign occupation.

Al-Jazeera television has shown a brief clip of an interview with the Mahdi Army militia leader. It says the full interview will be shown later Saturday.

The broadcast is the first word from the reclusive cleric since the Iraqi government launched a crackdown against militia violence in the southern oil port of Basra earlier this week.

Al-Sadr is believed to be in Iran, but Al-Jazeera doesn't say where or when the interview took place. The portly al-Sadr, who is in his mid-30s, appears to have lost a great deal of weight in the clip.

Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr wants a "political solution" to the crisis that has led to deadly clashes between his followers and government security forces this week in Baghdad and the oil-rich south.

Dalai Lama appeals to world community to help resolve Tibetans crisis

AFP, New Delhi

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Saturday appealed to the world community to "please help" resolve the crisis in his homeland that has been rocked by deadly anti-Chinese protests.

"We have no power except justice, truth, sincerityt that is why I appeal to the world community to please help," the Buddhist icon told a news conference in the Indian capital, where he was conducting meditation sessions. "I am here helpless, I just pray," said the exiled spiritual leader two weeks after anti-Chinese protests in the Himalayan region turned deadly, leading to calls for a boycott of the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games.