Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani yesterday secured an unprecedented unanimous vote of confidence from parliament, tightening his grip on power in the nuclear-armed state.
Opposition parties backed the resolution backing 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 members of parliament.
"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 Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
Pakistan has been a bulwark in the US-led fight against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US.
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 destabilize the country.
Gilani on Tuesday told US President George W. Bush that a broader approach to the "war on terror" was necessary.
Meanwhile, a senior US official visiting Pakistan held out the prospect of increased assistance for the new government on Friday, while stressing the need to work together in the fight against al-Qaeda.
US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said there were militants in Pakistani tribal areas planning attacks on Pakistan, Afghanistan, Europe, the US and elsewhere.
"We want to move together to help Pakistan be safe and have economic opportunities and we want to move together to make Pakistan a success as a democratic society," Boucher said.
"So, as the government lays out its plan, in that regard, we will look for the proper ways to support," he said.
A body of opinion was forming in the US that Pakistan should get more assistance, he said.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
RSS