Tag: Vows

TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said on Friday he was ready for a long fight to bring a quake-hit nuclear plant under control but was convinced Japan would overcome the world's worst nuclear crisis since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
"I am prepared for a long-term battle over the Fukushima nuclear plant and to win this battle," he said in a nationally broadcast news conference as the country marked three weeks since a massive earthquake and tsunami triggered the

SANAA - Yemen's embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed to defend his people on Friday as he hailed a massive show of support on the streets of Sanaa, in a brief address to crowds outside his palace.
"I pledge... to sacrifice myself for the people, with my blood and with everything I hold dear," Saleh said, thanking his supporters inside and outside Yemen in the face of two months of escalating protests calling for his ouster.

NEW DELHI - Women in India are encouraged to dress modestly at all times, but a brasher side to modern life has been exposed after a popular model vowed to strip naked if the nation wins the cricket World Cup.
Poonam Pandey, 20, who features in a best-selling Indian swimwear calendar, said she wanted to provide an incentive to players by promising them she would bare all - though whether her offer will be welcomed is not known. "I'm a cricket fanatic and I'm a diehard supporter

ISLAMABAD - Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Wednesday vowed to defend the country against terrorists. Addressing a ceremony held at the police lines for paying tributes to the martyrs of Islamabad Police, the interior minister said that the terrorists were trying to destabilize the country. "We are the best... we will continue to be the best and the government would also continue its efforts for safeguarding the country," Malik said while addressing the heirs of the martyrs of

COLOMBO - Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi has vowed to unleash a surprise assault on defending champions Australia in their eagerly-anticipated World Cup Group A clash on Saturday. Both teams have a chance to top the group and face a relatively weaker team from Group B in their quarter-finals, with Pakistan on eight points from five matches and Australia nine from five. Depending on the finishing positions, Pakistan could even end up facing arch-rivals India in Ahmedabad in the

TOBRUK - Libyan strongman Moamer Gaddafi said his forces would fight a "decisive battle" on Thursday, as Washington added its voice to efforts at the UN Security Council to impose a no-fly zone. Gaddafi's latest comments came after his forces pressed rebels in the west and threatened their eastern bastion of Benghazi, despite calls from UN chief Ban Ki-moon for an immediate ceasefire. "The battle starts today (Wednesday) at Misrata and tomorrow, that will be the decisive battle,"

BRUSSELS - The NATO allies Friday agreed new rules under which they can withdraw their troops from Afghanistan as US Defence Secretary Robert Gates slammed 'too much talk about leaving'. The alliance Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced the deal looking ahead to a 2014 deadline to pass control to the Afghan security forces after Gates warned that early withdrawal would jeopardise the war effort just as the Taliban had lost the upper hand. "Frankly, there is too much talk

LAHORE - Punjab Governor Sardar Latif Khosa said on Wednesday that the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) would neither destabilise the provincial government nor strive to topple it. While visiting the ailing Arshad Ghurki, brother of Khaild Ghurki, at National Hospital in Defence, the governor said that he would not deviate from the constitutional limits. Arshad Ghurki had a heart attack at the funeral of Khalid Ghurki and was under treatment.
Khosa said that PPP was following

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Tuesday that Israeli troops would remain on the border between Jordan and the West Bank under any future peace deal with the Palestinians. Speaking to reporters as he toured Israeli military facilities along the Jordan river, Netanyahu said only Israeli troops would be able stop militants and rockets from infiltrating into the West Bank.
"Our security border is here on the Jordan and our defence line begins here. If

SANAA - Yemen's opposition coalition vowed on Monday to escalate protests that have swept the country demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, after he rejected a plan that would have him step down in 2011.
Tens of thousands of protesters are camped out in major Yemeni cities, staying awake through the night to hear speeches and sing national songs, as their tone against Saleh hardens. Saleh, a US ally against al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing, rejected a plan

SANAA/ADEN - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Saturday reiterated that he would remain in power until his term ends in 2013, rejecting an opposition plan for him to step aside this year. "The peaceful and smooth transition of power is not carried out through chaos but through the will of the people expressed through elections," an official source at the presidential office said in a statement. The opposition on Friday said Saleh was sticking to an earlier plan to step down in

LAHORE - The Pakistan People's Party (PPP)'s parliamentary leader in the Punjab Assembly Raja Riaz announced on Monday that the PPP would expose all the malpractices of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government, though it would still continue its policy of reconciliation and not destabilize the provincial government.
Riaz told reporters at Data Darbar that the PPP had documentary evidence against the so-called good governance of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and

MOSCOW - Russia announced on Saturday that it intended to fulfil its contract to supply Syria with cruise missiles despite the turmoil shaking the Arab world and Israel's furious condemnation of the deal.
"The contract is in the implementation stage," news agencies quoted Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov as saying. Russia initially agreed to send a large shipment of anti-ship Yakhont cruise missiles to Syria in 2007 under the terms of a controversial deal that was only

KARACHI - Disgraced Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Asif Wednesday vowed to clear his name in an attempt to revive his career after being banned for seven years on charges of corruption. The 28-year-old paceman, along with Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir, received lengthy bans on charges of corruption relating to last year's Lord's Test against England. Butt was banned for ten years and Amir for five years. Asif's ban includes a two-year suspended ban, meaning if he does not commit

CAIRO - Egypt's new military leadership on Saturday vowed to pave the way for democracy and abide by international treaties as the hopeful country celebrated victory on the day after Hosni Mubarak's overthrow. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said the current government would remain in place for a peaceful transition to "an elected civil authority to build a free democratic state," though it set no official timetable.
The streets and squares of downtown Cairo were in the

LAHORE - Former wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider has vowed to "name and shame" those players who he believes are still engaged in corruption in cricket. Haider says it is the right time to come down hard on those who he believes are involved in corrupt practices. "There are some very big names involved in these illegal activities, but they are getting away with it as thorough investigations are not being carried out," PakPassion quoted Haider as saying.
"I am ready to name and

FAISALABAD - The dividends of city government's ongoing operation against encroachments will be enjoyed by the citizens in the coming months as most of the traffic-troubled spots have been cleaned up in an operation and District Coordination Officer (DCO) Nasim Sadiq has expressed his determination to expand the roads and highways to solve the traffic problems.
In the recent operation, the DCO, accompanied by Deputy District Officer Revenue (DDOR) Asif Chaudhary personally