MIDDLE EAST

MIDDLE EAST
20 May 2013 Last updated at 16:31 GMT

Israel bank shooting leaves four dead

A man has shot four people dead in a bank in southern Israel before turning the gun on himself, police say.
One person was injured, while a woman held hostage for about an hour was freed before the gunman killed himself. Police initially described the incident as a robbery, but later said the man may have entered the bank with the intention of shooting. Investigators think he was refused a settlement over a 6,000-shekel (1,070) overdraft, Israeli media said. "It appears that we are talking about a lone individual who came to the bank in the morning hours, sought cover for a debt, a loan, and did not get it," said Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch. He told Army Radio that the man found he could not withdraw money from an automatic cash machine, and came back to the Bank Hapoalim branch in Beersheba with a pistol before opening fire. Witnesses were quoted as saying the gunman had killed a security guard at the bank before shooting three people who were lying on the floor. "He took a hostage, held her for close to an hour or more," Mr Aharonovitch said. "The moment the police forces burst in, he killed himself - shot himself and committed suicide." Media reports identified the attacker as a Jewish man in his 40s formerly employed as a paramilitary border guard. "We are not convinced entirely at this point that we are talking about a robbery or an attempted robbery," said national police chief Yohanan Danino. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incident as a "great tragedy". "It is not a common event in Israel," he was quoted as saying. "An attack like this must not [be allowed] to recur."

EUROPEUROPE
20 May 2013 Last updated at 16:38 GMT

Eurovision: Azerbaijan probes Russian 'nul points'

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has ordered an inquiry into why his country gave Russia "nul points" at Saturday's Eurovision Song Contest.
Voters and the official Azerbaijan jury in fact gave strong backing to the Russian entry, according to officials. Azerbaijan's state broadcaster suggested there may have been voting violations. Russia gave the maximum 12 points to Azerbaijan's entry - a ballad by Farid Mammadov. He came second behind winner Emmelie de Forest from Denmark. Russia's Dina Garipova came fifth at the event in the Swedish city of Malmo. Azerbaijan's ambassador to Russia, Polad Bulbuloglu, disclosed that President Aliyev had ordered an investigation and votes were being recounted. He said that a large number of voters in Azerbaijan, submitting votes by text message, had supported the Russian Federation. "According to this data, Russia should have received 10 points from Azerbaijan. An announcement will be made about this tonight on Azeri Public Television." Camil Guliyev, head of the country's state broadcaster, said the failure to give Russia any points was of serious concern. "We sincerely hope that this incident, possibly initiated by certain interest groups, will not cast a shadow over the brotherly relations of the Russian and Azerbaijani peoples," he said, without elaborating. Azerbaijan, which hosted last year's contest, has traditionally tried to maintain good relations with Moscow though there have been tensions over energy in the past.

19 May 2013 Last updated at 00:37 GMT

Eurovision Song Contest won by Denmark

COMMENTS (482)

Denmark has triumphed at this year's Eurovision Song Contest, held in the Swedish city of Malmo.
Emmelie de Forest, 20, had been the overwhelming favourite among the 26 entries, with her song Only Teardrops. Azerbaijan finished second. The UK's Bonnie Tyler came 19th, an improvement on last year when Engelbert Humperdinck came second from last. There was disappointment for Ireland's Ryan Dolan as he finished in last place with just five points. De Forest won with 281 points and Azerbaijan's Farid Mammadov finished 47 points behind, followed by Ukraine in third and Norway in fourth. Denmark, which will now have the job of hosting the 59th contest next year, had previously won in 1963 and 2000.

'It's amazing'
De Forest sang her up-tempo tune barefoot, saying before she performed: "It makes me feel closer to the ground, the earth and makes me feel more relaxed." At the post-event news conference, she told reporters: "It has been quite stressful but it's also a wonderful thing that has happened to me. It's amazing. "It was crazy when they put the butterfly [of the winning country's flag] on the dress. I didn't understand we had won at that point." She added: "Of course I believed in the song, but that's the exciting thing about Eurovision you don't know what's going to happen. So I was surprised and shocked when it happened." TV viewers across Europe were treated to the mix of high-energy pop and power ballads that have become synonymous with the contest, as well as some outlandish stage performances. One of the more eccentric acts was Romania's Cezar, who mixed his operatic voice with a disco beat. He managed a respectable 13th position.

'Ready to party'
UK entrant Tyler, 61, who is best known for her 1983 hit Total Eclipse of the Heart, had high hopes for her chances. But the Welsh singer scored just 23 points for her performance of Believe In Me. Speaking afterwards, Tyler said that despite her final score the experience had been "a night to remember". She said: "I got the feeling tonight that I got at the Grammy awards. "I'm sure a lot of people will be disappointed on my behalf but I have really enjoyed my Eurovision experience. "I did the best that I could do with a great song. I don't feel down and I'm ready to party." Johnny Logan, the three-time Eurovision winner who represented Ireland, said the UK's entries had not been strong enough in recent years.

"I think over the years it's been slated so much in England and Ireland that the best writers don't take part in it any more. That's the reality," he said.

What next for the UK in Eurovision?

The annual Eurovision Song Contest has taken place in Malmo, Sweden, and the UK has once again failed to get anywhere near the top of the leaderboard.
Bonnie Tyler's entry Believe In Me came 19th out of 26 countries. The power balladeer gained 23 points - way behind the winner, Denmark's Emmelie de Forest, who amassed 281 points. So what should the UK do next year - and should the UK even bother entering? Here is a round-up of the views of Eurovision pundits. Johnny Logan, Ireland's three-time Eurovision winner I think Bonnie's great. I don't think the song was strong enough. If you had the right song, if you had a Total Eclipse of the Heart, Bonnie's the right girl for it. But I never felt the song was strong enough. If you're going to win Eurovision, to go through some of the incredible voting I've noticed over the last few years, you have to have something that's going to stand out above everything else. Otherwise you're just going to hope to pick up 10 or 11 votes. Over the years, Eurovision has been slated so much in England and Ireland that the best writers don't take part in it any more. That's the reality. England has a history of some of the best music and writers in the world, from the Beatles up to today. The writers are still there - just look at Adele. There's no problem. But nobody wants to get involved because you're on a hiding to nothing. Johnny Logan was speaking to BBC 5 live. Nathan Moore - Brother Beyond singer and manager of 2004 UK entry James Fox I didn't feel it was quite as political in the voting this time around. But it was the same old story - I didn't feel that the song was good enough. It was a great idea to get Bonnie involved, there's a lot of love for Bonnie out there. But the song was in a very low register and it just sounded a bit dreary. I think really good songwriters avoid this show, unfortunately. It exists in its own little world, and it's a great little world to dive into for one night's TV. But our quality songwriters just won't offer their songs. Going down down the road of Bonnie or [2012 entrant] Engelbert Humperdinck or [2011 entrants] Blue is a good way to go. But you've got to get them a better song. You've got to persuade really, really good current songwriters. What has this [Bonnie Tyler's song] got to do with our current number one single at the moment, Daft Punk? That's what the single buyers are buying. We need vibrant songwriters to say, 'Here's a great tune.' Nathan Moore was speaking to BBC Breakfast. Dave Goodman, journalist and Eurovision fan

Bonnie did all right but she didn't look confident and she didn't have a great position in the running order. She did better than last year, so we've got to congratulate ourselves. Why would you walk away from the world's greatest TV event? You don't walk away from the football World Cup because you don't do well. Being there is good enough. We don't have to win this. Why do we complain every year that we do badly? We [in the UK] don't buy Bonnie Tyler's song. Is she in the charts at the moment in the UK? Why do we expect the rest of Europe, automatically, because we produce great amounts of music the rest of the year, to suddenly vote for our song on that night? There were a load of great songs in that Eurovision top 10. Songs will win out, and the UK will do well if we send something that we want to listen to. Dave Goodman was speaking to BBC 5 live. Neil McCormick, Daily Telegraph Bonnie Tyler continued Britain's dismal record, coming 19th, only marginally improving on Engelbert Humperdinck's 2012 humiliation. She may be 61, and her song may be a by-the-numbers power ballad written by a team of American hacks, but she has that cheese-grater soul voice that can make even the most throwaway lyric sound like a matter of life and death. She came, she sang, and she rose up on a platform with wind blowing through her hair, smiling like a superstar who was convinced no-one would dare give her nul points. It made little difference to established voting patterns. Maybe next year we should send a pop singer not as close to retirement age. Or tanks. Read Neil McCormick's full review. Katrina Leskanich of Katrina and the Waves, 1997 winners for the UK I was underwhelmed by Denmark. I never really got it. It was too derivative, not very exciting for me. I thought Bonnie was going to do really well. We should probably have an X Factor-style selection process where the people get to make a decision. If somebody like Simon Cowell got involved, I think it might help things as well. Katrina was speaking to BBC Radio 2. Alex Hardy, The Times As the contest's host said during another hit-and-miss montage, in Eurovision "the most important thing of course is participating - and to go out with a bang". Well, one out of two is not bad. We came, we participated, and with a bang-free entry we got a bangfree result. In terms of hopes of victory, we've long been no-hopers. Bonnie signed off her song with a polite 'thanks"; Greece with a rowdy "Yamas". They came sixth. Next time, let's do this thing with far more "bottoms up". Perhaps literally. May as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb...

19 May 2013 Last updated at 08:08 GMT

Bonnie Tyler: 'I did my best at Eurovision'

Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler has said she "did the best that I could do" at the Eurovision Song Contest after her UK entry came 19th out of 26 countries.
"I'm sure a lot of people will be disappointed on my behalf but I have really enjoyed my Eurovision experience," she said in Malmo, Sweden. "I did the best that I could do with a great song. I don't feel down and I'm ready to party." Denmark's Emmelie de Forest won the contest with her song Only Teardrops. Denmark finished with 281 points, followed by Azerbaijan with 234 points, while Ukraine were third with 214 points. Tyler, who found global fame in the 1980s with hits such as Total Eclipse of the Heart, garnered 23 points for her song Believe In Me. "The songs at the top of the table totally deserve to be up there," the 61-year-old star said afterwards. "Of course I would have liked to bring it back to the UK but it's been a night to remember." She added: "I'm so glad and so happy that I did it because it was an incredible experience. It was like the Grammy Awards all over again." Her result was an improvement on last year when the UK's entrant Engelbert Humperdinck came second from last with just 12 points. Overnight viewing figures show that an average of 7.7 million people tuned into the contest on BBC One in the UK, reaching a peak of 9.2 million between 22:45 and 23:00 BST (21:45 and 22:00 GMT). There was disappointment for Ireland's Ryan Dolan, who came last with just five points. Johnny Logan, the three-time Eurovision winner who represented Ireland, said the UK's entries had not been strong enough in recent years. "I think over the years it's been slated so much in England and Ireland that the best writers don't take part in it any more. That's the reality," he said.

CHINA Chen Guangcheng issues plea for relatives in China

20 May 2013 Last updated at 15:25 GMT

By Michael BristowBBC News

A Chinese activist who fled to the US last year has told the BBC he thinks Washington should do more to protect the relatives he left behind in China.
Chen Guangcheng caused a diplomatic row between the US and China when he escaped house arrest and sought refuge in the American embassy in Beijing. He was eventually allowed to settle in New York with his immediate family. But he said relatives he left behind had been subjected to "systematic persecution" by the authorities. China's authorities do not usually comment on the case of Mr Chen and his relatives. In the past they have denied allegations of mistreatment and even that he was under house arrest. Mr Chen, who exposed forced abortions and sterilisations in his home province of Shandong, said he felt let down by both the Chinese and American governments. "I think the US government should publicly and officially ask the Chinese government to fulfil their commitments. It's been a year now and neither side is living up to their promises following the negotiations last year," he said in a BBC interview in London. Mr Chen said his relatives had been constantly harassed since he left for the US in May last year. He said an elder brother was stopped by an unmarked car while driving on a motorway and beaten up. He added that a nephew, Chen Kegui, was denied medical treatment when he developed appendicitis while in prison. The nephew was sentenced to more than three years in jail for attacking officials who broke into the family's home when they learnt of Chen Guangcheng's escape. The activist also said other family members have suffered intimidation; dead chickens, stones and even home-made bombs have been thrown into the family compound in the village of Dongshigu, near the city of Linyi. "They sent my nephew to prison, they attack and harass my family constantly and officials who harassed me in the past have now been promoted," he said. Mr Chen, who has been blind since childhood, was sent to prison for more than four years in 2006 for damaging property and disrupting the traffic - but many thought these were trumped-up charges used to silence a government critic. When he was released he was put under house arrest, but managed to escape and flee to the US embassy, just before the then US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, was due to arrive in China. The embarrassing situation, which at one point threatened to turn into a full-blown diplomatic row, was resolved when Mr Chen agreed to leave the embassy. He was then allowed to fly into exile in the United States. Mr Chen thinks the Chinese authorities now regret allowing him to leave. "We've heard this morning that some people from the Communist Party are saying: 'We made a mistake letting Chen go to the US, we should have beaten him to death last year'," he told the BBC.

INDIA Premier Li Keqiang's visit: India and China in border row pledge
20 May 2013 Last updated at 15:44 GMT

Visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has said India and China must "improve mechanisms" to settle a long-running border dispute, pledging his commitment to "peace and tranquility".
Premier Li was speaking during a joint address with his Indian counterpart, PM Manmohan Singh, in the capital, Delhi. Mr Singh said special representatives from the two countries would meet soon to discuss ways to end the row. The meeting comes after a recent flare-up in border tensions. Premier Li arrived in Delhi on Sunday in the first stop of his maiden foreign trip since taking office. The two neighbours are the world's two most populous countries. During Monday's talks, the two sides discussed trade ties and other bilateral issues and signed eight agreements. "We don't deny there are problems between the two sides," Premier Li said. "We need to improve border related mechanisms and make them more efficient," he added. "Both Mr Singh and I believe there are far more interests than differences between our two sides. We need to confront issues with a broad mind, and tackle them in a mature way," he said. PM Singh said India and China had "agreed that our special representatives will meet soon to continue discussions seeking an early agreement on a framework for a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable boundary settlement". "Peace and tranquillity on our border has to be preserved," he said. A decades-long border dispute flared up last month after India accused Chinese troops of crossing the countries' de facto frontier. The dispute over the territory in the Ladakh region has dogged the two countries since the 1950s. At an informal meeting on Sunday night, Mr Singh told Mr Li that a recent military standoff on the Himalaya border could affect relations between the two countries. Both sides, however, were keen to ensure that the border spat did not derail a general warming in relations between the neighbours and the two leader talked of "more shared interests than differences". China is already one of India's top trading partners and both countries have already agreed a new $100bn (65bn) bilateral trade target for 2015. Premier Li said he had agreed to address India's concerns about the size of the trade deficit with China. On his arrival in Delhi, Premier Li said said his decision to choose India for his first foreign visit since taking office "indicates the great importance Beijing attaches to its relations" with Delhi.

During his three-day visit in India, he is also expected to meet Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi and leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha [the lower house of Indian parliament] Sushma Swaraj. He is also scheduled to address university students in Delhi and business leaders in Mumbai, India's financial capital, before travelling on to Pakistan, Switzerland and Germany.
20 May 2013 Last updated at 07:16 GMT

Indian media: Li Keqiang's visit

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's visit and spot-fixing allegations in cricket are dominating the front-page headlines in Indian newspapers.
Most newspapers are highlighting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's "plain speaking" with Mr Li on the border dispute, trade and water-sharing. The Times of India says Mr Singh sought "greater transparency" from Beijing on building dams on transborder rivers. The Indian Express refers to the recent tensions in the border region of Ladakh with its lead headline: "PM takes tough line on incursion issue." Mr Singh told the Chinese premier "that peace and tranquillity on the boundary was at the foundation of this relationship, and must be maintained", the paper adds. On trade, the Hindustan Times notes that PM Singh has sought greater access for Indian products in the Chinese market to reduce the trade deficit. But in his article in the same paper, analyst Jayadeva Ranade warns against relying too much on China. "Delhi must remember that China has, on several occasions, already demonstrated its readiness to use trade and economic ties to pressurise countries on issues that it perceives affect its sovereignty and territorial integrity," Mr Ranade writes. On a lighter note, The Times of India notes that Mr Li surprised people by opting for a vegetarian meal at Mr Singh's dinner on Sunday evening and impressed many with his personality. "Indian guests reported that they had come prepared to meet a starchy Chinese leader but found Mr Li to be eminently likeable, open and engaging," the paper says.

Spot-fixing
Newspapers are also discussing the latest measures unveiled by the Board for Control of Cricket India (BCCI) to stem the "fixing rot" in cricket. "Board tightens control, sets snoops on players," reads the headline in the Hindustan Times. The paper adds that the board's new guidelines suggest that players' agents will now have to be accredited with the board, access to players will be limited and each IPL team will be assigned an anticorruption official. The arrest of a former domestic cricketer over fixing allegations also finds its way into the top news stories of the day. The Indian Express reports that the Delhi police have arrested three more people, including a former cricketer, over spot-fixing in IPL matches. The Hindu says the Rajasthan Royals will formally file a police complaint against three of its players who were arrested last week by the Delhi police over their alleged role in spot-fixing.

Blazing heat
Meanwhile, a severe heat wave has hit north India with temperatures nearly touching 50C (122F) in some parts of the country, reports say. On Sunday, the capital, Delhi, sizzled at 44.6C, the season's hottest day so far. And it seems there will be no respite from the heat in the near future. The NDTV website says dry heat may continue in the coming days in many parts of the country including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana and Rajasthan. But far away from the blistering heat, two 21-year-old Indian students have become the first twins to climb Mount Everest. Nunshi and Tashi Malik were among the 135 people to reach the summit of the world's highest peak on Sunday, The Times of India reported.
20 May 2013 Last updated at 06:25 GMT

China media: Co-operation with India

China's state media are promoting Premier Li Keqiang's India tour as a "dragon and elephant dance", showcasing the economic might of the two Asian giants.
China Central Television, Liberation Army Daily, China Daily and other state media have laid more emphasis on business deals and have played down a recent border "tent confrontation" between the two armed forces. Global Times says both countries have prevented border problems from derailing ties by prevailing in the face of "the West" and "media hype" about the border stand-off. "Internal dissension between China and India meets Western interests... China's surrounding environment will suffer if India, a country which has the prospect of running neck-and-neck with China, becomes another Japan or Philippines in terms of its policies toward China," it says. "In order to curb China's rise, the US, Japan and a few other countries have in recent years enlarged differences between China and India," says Wen Wei Po, a Beijing-backed Hong Kong newspaper. In other international news, the owner of a fishing boat whose crewmen have reportedly been held for ransom by unidentified North Koreans tells Global Times that the armed men were most likely to be North Korean soldiers. An "insider" also tells Global Times that the North Korean military previously detained three Chinese fishing boats sailing from northeast Dandong city this year and released two of them after collecting "fines". Yu Yingli, a North Korea expert at the Shanghai Institute of International Studies, tells The Beijing News that Pyongyang's recent test launch of short-range missiles are aimed at "diverting internal contradictions" amid food shortages as well as expressing further discontent to the international community over sanctions. Over in Taiwan, many local newspapers say Ma Ying-jeou's five-year term as president has "not made the grade".

Business Times and Economic Times says Mr Ma has failed to satisfy public expectations mostly on economic governance. Liberty Times "fails" Mr Ma on overall governance, stalled livelihood reforms as well as "corruption" within his ruling party, the Kuomintang. It says his biggest mistake was weakening Taiwan's economy with an "excessive tilt" to mainland China. In Mr Ma's remaining three years in office, United Daily News stresses that he must find an alternative to a shelved peace agreement with Beijing to enable both sides to set up mutual representative offices. Apple Daily says there have been "numerous mishaps" and "no outstanding achievements" during Mr Ma's term. It even questions whether Beijing will use closer cross-strait economic ties to partially lock Taiwan's economy into a "China cage" and force it to accept "authoritarian rule". However, Central Daily News says it is unfair to hold Mr Ma entirely to blame for a sluggish economy. It credits him for Taiwan's global competitiveness, strong trade ties with the mainland, a visa waiver scheme with the US and a fisheries agreement with Japan.

Party downsizing
Finally, a series of articles in last Friday's edition of People's Tribune, a party-run magazine, calling on the Chinese Communist Party to "slim down" its massive membership has won support from academics. One article by Zhang Xi'en, politics professor at Shandong University, said the world's biggest political and ruling party should set up an "exit mechanism" to trim its 83 million members to 51 million, hereby removing at least 31 million "unqualified and corrupt" members. Also in People's Tribune, Li Tuo, professor at the National School of Administration, a civil service training institute, said the party's image has been tarnished by corruption and "obesity" like the former Soviet Union's communist party. Global Times says the articles mark the first time that a state-run publication has suggested party downsizing. Cai Zhiqiang, a communist party school professor, tells the newspaper that the party's massive membership "poses a huge challenge to its management". He says many members are not passionate about communism and only joined the party to "seek professional benefits and networking opportunities". Zou Shubin, an associate professor of politics at Shenzhen University, tells Hong Kong's South China Morning Post that the People's Tribune articles reflect the thinking of many political experts on the mainland. "Nowadays, it is common sense that if the party doesn't sweep away all of its bad elements, it might follow in the path of the former Soviet Union," he says. However, Hong Kong's Oriental Daily News says "slimming down is easy", but getting rid of corruption that stems from systemic flaws and unchecked power will be much harder.
7 May 2013 Last updated at 11:04 GMT

Why China seeks better relations with India

On Sunday, India and China began pulling back troops from disputed territory near their ill-defined border in the Ladakh region of the Himalayas

after a stand-off lasting nearly a month. Senior Indian journalist Subir Bhaumik, who was travelling in China last week, reports on the mood in the country.
China has much more to do with India than fight over a de facto border where, as former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had said, "not a blade of grass grows". "We have a problem with the border, no denying it. But we want it solved. That may take a while, but we do not want our relations to suffer," says Kong Can, chief of the Development Research Centre in China's south-western Yunnan province and a senior Communist party official. Kong Can wants border trade with India to flourish, the way it has with some of China's other neighbours. China is already one of India's top trading partners: the two sides have agreed a new $100bn (65bn) bilateral trade target for 2015, up from over $66bn in 2012. "The volume of trade will go up further if we can develop border trade," said Kong Can.

'Huge trading bloc'

With more than a third of the world's population living in India and China, the two countries can be "one huge trading bloc", says Li Zhu of the Yunnan University of Finance and Economics. Yunnan is China's gateway province, crucial to its strategy to forge close trade and cultural ties with neighbouring countries in south-east and South Asia. "From Yunnan we are developing a whole network of highways, rail links and waterways to Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Burma," said Kong Can's colleague, Yang Ye. He said China was also keen on reopening the old Stillwell Road, through which the allies used to send supplies to China during WWII. The road begins in India's tea-producing state of Assam. It passes through the dense forests of the neighbouring state of Arunachal Pradesh and Upper Burma's Kachin state before reaching Yunnan. But India has security reservations about reopening the road. China, Mr Yang says, is keen to develop transport links from Yunnan to eastern India and Bangladesh. Also, Kong Can says, China seeks "Indian investments in Yunnan, mainly in [the] pharmaceutical and information technology [industries]". He would be also happy to see an Indian consulate in the city of Kunming. Beside boosting trade and business ties, China seeks closer relations with India for other reasons.

'More nuanced'
If Sino-Indian ties worsen, India could well be firmly drawn towards the US, a possibility that worries Beijing considerably, say analysts. "If we have bad relations, there are many to take advantage," says Zhou Yunxiang, who leads a Yunnan research group in sub-regional studies. China-watcher Binoda Mishra of the Calcutta-based Centre for Studies in International Relations and Development says that Chinese policy towards India "appears to be more nuanced than many imagine in India". "Military commanders may push hard on the border to seek some tactical advantage but the top leaders in Beijing are aware of India's importance as a growing market and a balancing factor in Asia," he says. The tension points will remain: the disputed border, Tibet and much else.

China has a domestic nationalist constituency to address, but, unlike in India, the 1962 month-long border war is hardly in the public memory. "We have a huge problem with Japan for historical reasons but not with India. We like you people," Yunnan university student Li Hsun told me.

ASIA Imran Khan's PTI 'wins revote' in tense Karachi

20 May 2013 Last updated at 17:54 GMT

Imran Khan's party has won its first National Assembly seat in the Pakistani city of Karachi after a partial re-run of voting following rigging fears, unofficial results show.
The revote also saw the PTI take two provincial assembly seats, reports say. The news came after Mr Khan blamed the murder of a senior party figure on Karachi's dominant party, the MQM, which has denied any involvement. Thousands of MQM supporters rallied in the city to denounce Mr Khan. The general elections on 11 May handed an emphatic victory to Mr Sharif and his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party. They ensured that Mr Khan's party became Pakistan's third-largest electoral force. The vote also marked the first transition of power between democratically elected governments since the creation of the state of Pakistan in 1947.

'Baseless'
On Monday, MQM protesters burned an effigy of Mr Khan, and attacked his character and Western lifestyle from his days as an international cricket star. Khan supporters held a separate demonstration in the city. The party has urged the British government to take action against MQM leader Altaf Hussain. He runs his party, and effectively Karachi, from his headquarters in north London where he has been based for more than two decades. The election gave the MQM 16 out of 19 National Assembly seats in its stronghold, Karachi. Sunday's re-run took place amid tight security in 43 out of about 200 polling stations across Karachi's upmarket NA-250 constituency - the MQM boycotted the partial re-run. The latest results show that Dr Arif Alvi of the PTI polled 77,000 votes and that the MQM's Khushbakht Shujaat was the runner-up with more than 30,000 votes. Once confirmed, it will be the PTI's only National Assembly seat from Sindh province. The party also appears to have won two provincial assembly seats from Karachi. Voting for these seats was also completed on Sunday. Tensions peaked at the weekend over the killing of PTI vice-president, Zahra Shahid Hussain, who was shot dead outside her home by gunmen on a motorcycle. Her funeral was on Sunday, the day repolling was held with a heavy police and army presence. MQM spokesman Mohammad Anwar dismissed the accusations by Imran Khan, telling the BBC his comments were the "groundless, baseless" accusations of a man who had suffered a bitter, unexpected loss in the election and accused him in turn of behind the killing. The MQM (Muttahida Quami Movement) is supported mainly by Muslim Urdu-speaking people whose families moved to Sindh province at the time of the partition of India in 1947.

Correspondents say that the party is seen as a perpetrator - as well as a victim - of violence in Karachi. Since the 1980s, it has won every election it has contested there. The projected victory for the PTI in this final assembly seat will not change the big picture in the city or in the country, correspondents say. However, it will give the PTI an influential foothold in Pakistan's commercial capital, something the MQM will see as a major setback, particularly after results show that the PTI got the most votes in the city after the MQM.
13 May 2013 Last updated at 00:01 GMT

Pakistan election: Why voters backed Nawaz Sharif

By Owen Bennett-JonesBBC News, Lahore

Nawaz Sharif has established himself as the most successful politician in Pakistan's history.
It's not just that he has won an unprecedented third term as prime minister. He has also survived sustained corruption allegations, periods of deep unpopularity, imprisonment, exile and being thrown out of power in a military coup. The last time he lived in Prime Minister's House, in the late 1990s, his main objective was to see off anyone who challenged his authority. Frustrated by opposition in the parliament, he tried to pass a constitutional amendment that would have enabled him to enforce Sharia law. He also confronted other power centres - a mob of his supporters ransacked the Supreme Court and he tried to rein in Pakistan's powerful military. It was his decision to sack two army chiefs in rapid succession that led to General Pervez Musharraf's military takeover in 1999. The army convicted Mr Sharif of hijacking a plane in which Gen Musharraf had been flying. Mr Sharif was imprisoned and then sent into exile in Saudi Arabia. It is still not clear whether he will want revenge against the army in general and Pervez Musharraf in particular.

'Power hungry'
Gen Musharraf is currently stuck in his Islamabad home, which has been declared sub-jail. He faces a whole array of legal charges and can only have watched the TV coverage of the Sharif election victory with consternation. When Nawaz Sharif was removed from power in 1999, many Pakistanis expressed great relief, describing him as corrupt, incompetent and power-hungry. By overlooking that history and giving him such a strong mandate in this weekend's elections, Pakistanis have expressed their confidence that Mr Sharif is now an older and wiser politician. And many voters are hoping his family's business acumen will help Pakistan recover from near bankruptcy. Mr Sharif understands that is one of the main reasons people voted for him. At his victory party, he was asked to outline his priorities. "The economy, the economy, the economy," he said. Nawaz Sharif has a record of delivering high-profile infrastructure projects. The motorway between Islamabad and Lahore is one of his proudest achievements. This time he is promising a bullet train between Karachi and Peshawar.

As well as his ability to think big, Mr Sharif's appeal lies in his conservative values and Punjabi identity. Punjab is the richest and most populous province in Pakistan, and has over half the seats in the National Assembly. Mr Sharif has relatively little support outside the province. He can communicate with the religious middle classes and small-town traders who see him as being as politically solid as he is physically stout. His placid, rather shy, character gives him an air of dependability. And his decision to conduct nuclear tests in 1998 shores up his image as a proud Pakistani, strong enough to stand up to India and the US. In his election victory speech, he reflected the yearnings of many in his electoral base when he said he wanted Pakistan to be "a respectable country. This is what I want in my heart".

Blunder on militants?
Nawaz Sharif was born into a family that made huge sums of money from steel mills and other industrial interests. Even though he was always surrounded by great wealth, and has properties all over the world, many Punjabis see the family's industrial background as a welcome break from the landed aristocrats who have tended to dominate the country's politics. In the 1970s the family suffered under the nationalisation programme of the leftist Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Nawaz Sharif initially went into politics to protect the family's business interests. He was then spotted by military ruler General Zia-ul Haq and, during his dictatorship, became an increasingly important politician. Washington will be concerned that Mr Sharif's stance on religious militancy is ambiguous. His party candidates for this election included some individuals with a record of jihadi sympathies. Sharif supporters say that's tactically sharp. Critics believe it is a strategic blunder that reveals his willingness to tolerate religious extremism. During the campaign he failed to condemn the Taliban by name despite the organisation's numerous attacks against so-called "secular" candidates and their supporters. Cynics suggest that is why Mr Sharif's party was never a target and he was able to hold mass rallies with little fear of attack. When it comes to security and foreign policy, Mr Sharif's campaign speeches left plenty of wiggle room. Although he has suggested that Pakistan should end its involvement in the US-led "war on terror" and that he would favour talks with the Pakistani Taliban, many expect that once he gets into power, he will accept the army's view that all past negotiations have failed and the only option is to fight the jihadis who attack domestic targets.
14 May 2013 Last updated at 16:14 GMT

Pakistan elections: Imran Khan out but not down

By M Ilyas KhanBBC News, Islamabad

It has been like a drawn test match for Pakistani cricket hero-turnedpolitician Imran Khan.
He played a long, dogged innings, and though he could not lead his team to victory, he has avoided a defeat. His party has emerged as the largest in the north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, a region that has borne the brunt of attacks by Taliban militants.

He has also won one, and may win another, of the 12 parliamentary seats from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), a strip of land adjacent to KP where Taliban militants fighting the Nato forces in Afghanistan have sanctuaries.

Remarkable achievement
It wasn't until final results were released that it emerged that Mr Khan had only narrowly missed out on securing the legally important position of leader of the opposition in the national parliament. For many, however, his has been a remarkable achievement, and one which will see his party make further inroads into the Punjab heartland from where it bagged a substantial amount of votes, though fewer seats. But that will depend on how quickly he can recover from the back injury he sustained when he fell off a fork-lift during an election rally last week. He suffered three minor fractures in the spine but his nervous system was unharmed. His doctor has told the BBC that Mr Khan will have another two weeks of bed rest before walking again with the help of a brace. He is set to make a full recovery over the coming weeks, his doctors say. In an end-of-the campaign speech from his hospital bed last week - which was broadcast to a rally in the capital Islamabad via a video link - he seemed to open his heart to his audience when he talked about the long struggle which was about to come to fruition, and the sacrifices he had had to make, including the pain of losing his wife. "My wife, poor woman, she had to leave me because they wouldn't let her live in peace," he said in an emotional moment. An international cricketing celebrity, Mr Khan led Pakistan to its cricket World Cup triumph in 1992. But he made a shaky start of his political innings back in the mid-1990s. He was harassed by the conservative and Islamist circles who accused him of being a "Zionist agent". This was because he had married an English heiress, Jemima Goldsmith, whose father, Sir James Goldsmith, came from a Jewish background. The marriage lasted nine years and produced two children, both boys.

Playboy-turned-puritan
To the electorate, he came across as a political lightweight who had no ideological moorings and only ambiguous views on crucial issues. His message of Islamic values and the formation of an Islamic welfare state that would not be a slave of the West were interpreted by many as the ramblings of a "playboy-turned-puritan". He suffered an early scandal when a widely respected welfare activist, Abdus Sattar Edhi, took temporary refuge in London, saying he was being threatened by a group that included Mr Khan and Hamid Gul, a former chief of Pakistani intelligence (ISI). In a 2010 interview, Mr Edhi explained: "They wanted to topple [Prime Minister] Benazir Bhutto's government, and wanted to fire their guns from my shoulder. When I refused, they threatened to kidnap me. I'm not the political type, so I caught a flight to London."

The charge was denied by Mr Khan's party which said that Mr Khan only wanted Mr Edhi to join him in a pressure group "to push the government into spending more on health, education and welfare". More recently, there were allegations that another former ISI chief, General Shuja Pasha, helped boost his political support, a charge the party denies.

A 'new Pakistan'
Despite his celebrity appeal and hero's status, he could only win one seat in the 2002 elections. He boycotted the elections in 2008. But during the last couple of years he seems to have burst into aggressive batting, and has suddenly caught the fancy of the crowds. He has done this by promising a "new" Pakistan, and getting rid of the old guard who he says have been "fixing the matches so that they can take turns at power". As election results show, he holds greater appeal in the north-west - inhabited by ethnic Pashtuns - presumably because he himself comes from the Pashtun Niazi tribe, settled in the Mianwali region of Punjab province. And his opposition of the US-led war against militancy has also touched a chord with the people of this region. His argument that militancy in Pakistan is the direct result of the American invasion of Afghanistan, and that it would end once the Western troops leave that country, has gone down well with the youth in the north-west. His rhetoric to shoot down the American drones also appealed to the Pashtun people in the tribal areas, who have been at the sharp end of the drones for several years. Whether he will interfere with Nato's 2014 exit through Pakistan if he is able to form a government in KP is a question that only time will answer. One thing is clear. He is going to have a solid block of votes on the opposition benches in the national parliament and he will use them to maximum effect to pave the way for a victory in the next elections. He is just 61 years old and generally in good health. If nothing serious has happened to his back, he will soon be back on his feet. The match is over, but the series is on.