2100 HRS. 
12-05-2013

THE HEADLINES:

• Nawaz Sharif poised to be Pakistan's Prime Minister for a third term as his party PML(N) heads towards a majority in the National Assembly; says, will take up India-Pakistan relations from where he left it in his last term.
• Dr. Manmohan Singh congratulates Nawaz Sharif on his emphatic victory; invites him to visit India.
• Congress says, dropping of two ministers from the Union Cabinet was a joint decision by party President and the Prime Minister.
• A Parliamentary Committee recommends lowering the age of male juveniles from 18 to 16 years to check juvenile crime.
• Serena Williams beat Maria Sharapova to win her 50th career singles title.

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Nawaz Sharif is poised for a record third term as Pakistan's Prime Minister with his PML-N party today taking an unassailable lead over its rivals in the landmark general elections. This is a triumphant comeback after being toppled in a coup and sent to exile. Trends from 264 of the 272 parliamentary seats that went to the polls showed that the PML-N was set to bag in excess of 125 seats, while Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf lagged behind with 34 seats and the Pakistan Peoples Party with 32 seats.Analysts said it was possible that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, leading in 12 seats, could back the PML-N. To win a simple majority, a party or coalition will have to bag 137 out of 272 National Assembly seats.63 years old Sharif is set to return to power at a time when Pakistan is facing several major challenges, including growing extremism, a strong Taliban presence in the country's northwest, rampant corruption, uneasy relations with the US ahead of the withdrawal of foreign forces from war-torn Afghanistan and an economy that has virtually been in free fall for the past few years. He has already made it clear that he intends to take up India-Pakistan relations from where he had left when he was ousted from power in 1999.We spoke to Pakistan watcher Rahul Jalali about the election results:

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In Nawaz Sharif's ancessteral village Jatti Umara in Tarn Taran district in Indian Punjab people took to street beating drums. 

Residents of his native village Jatti Umara believe that relations between both the neighbouring nations would improve as was happened during Mr. Nawaz Sharief’s earlier term as Prime Minister. People watched the news channels the whole day to keep themselves apprised of the situation there. As soon as they learnt about Nawaz Sharief’s unprecedented lead, they started beating drums on the roads. Villagers are expecting Mr. Sharief’s visit soon after he becomes the Prime Minister. People are also confident that those Indian prisoners who had completed their term would also be released soon. With Maninder Monga in Tarn Taran, Rajesh Bali/AIR News/Jalandhar

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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has congratulated Nawaz Sharif and his party PML(N) for their emphatic victory in elections in Pakistan. Dr Singh also invited Sharif to visit India at a mutually-convenient time. The PMO said in a twitted message that the Prime Minister also congratulated the people and the political parties of Pakistan for braving the threats of violence and voting in large numbers. It added that the Prime Minister expressed India's desire to work with the new government of Pakistan in charting a new course for the relationship between the two countries.

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External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today hoped that India will continue to have good relations with Pakistan if former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif comes to power after the general elections there. Talking to reporters in New Delhi, Mr Khurshid said India welcomes whatever result that comes out of a democratic election. 

The relations that had been built with Mr. Nawaz Sharif and his government has instilled the confidence that we can proceed further. He has talked to our media and spoken elsewhere also, giving such indications. We can be hopeful that his initiatives will continue to be positive and India can also give its response.

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Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today hoped PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif would restart the peace process with India. Abdullah also urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to extend a hand of friendship to Sharif for resolving issues between the two sides.

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The Congress Party has dismissed the perception that Sonia Gandhi had forced a reluctant Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to drop two Union ministers Ashwani Kumar and Pawan Kumar Bansal. The party said, it was a joint decision. The party came out with an unusual rebuttal of media reports which said Gandhi had prevailed over Singh. In a statement party General Secretory Janardan Dwivedi today said, it has appeared in a section of the media that it was at the insistence of Congress President Sonia Gandhi that the two Ministers were dropped. This perception is not correct. The correct position is that it was the joint decision of the Congress President and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

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Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Shukla has criticised the BJP for frequently demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and stalling the Parliament session proceedings. He told reporters in Jabalpur that the BJP has demanded resignation from the Prime Minister 180 times since 2004. If they were obliged then the country by now could have seen 180 Prime Ministers in just nine years. He said that the BJP's only aim is to disrupt the House proceedings and the party should learn from former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who became popular in the country because of his speeches instead of creating a ruckus in the House.Defending the former Law Minister in the light of Supreme Court's critical remark on CBI, he said that Ashwani Kumar had not made any amendments in the CBI report on coal block allocations scam and had only corrected some grammatical errors and language in his capacity as the Minister.

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Former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal today claimed that he is innocent and that nothing will come out of the case. Referring to the Railway bribry scam, Bansal welcomed a CBI investigation into the bribery charge. He was talking to party workers in Chandigarh.

The CBI has arrested Bansal's nephew Vijay Singla, Railway Board Member Mahesh Kumar and others in the 10-crore bribery scam.

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President Pranab Mukherjee today called for augmenting nursing capacities in existing institutions and opening many more schools of nursing to meet the goal of health for all, set in the 12th plan. Speaking after giving away National Florence Nightingale Award in New Delhi, Mr Mukherjee said with the expansion of the medical infrastructure and its coverage, there will be an increased demand for nursing staff. The President said that time has come for effective utilisation of the services of Nurses in Public Health Services beyond their traditional domain of hospitals and dispensaries.

The skills of our nurses can be used to great advantage in improving health services in rural areas where there are no doctors.

Earlier, Mr. Mukherjee honoured 35 nursing professionals with National Florence Nightingale Award-2013.May 12 is observed as International Nurses Day to commemorate the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.

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A Parliamentary Committee has recommended lowering the age of male juveniles from 18 to 16 years and suggested a serious debate on remedial measures to check the trend juvenile crime. Relying on the data provided by various agencies, the Parliamentary Committee on Empowerment of Women has urged the Centre to reconsider the reduction of age of male juvenile in view of crimes committed against women and offences under various laws of the country.In its report on 'victims of sexual abuse and trafficking and their rehabilitation, the panel observed that in 2011, there was a 10.5 per cent increase in crimes committed by juveniles punishable under the Indian Penal Code as compared to 2010. The committee also analysed the profile of apprehended juveniles and found that most of the crimes have been committed by male juveniles in the age group of 16 to 18.

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In Haryana, two persons were killed and 50 including 30 police personnel were injured when a mob went on a rampage, torching vehicles during a protest over control of an ashram at Karontha village near Rohtak today. The row over possession of Satlok Ashram at the village turned violent when the protesting mob was prevented by policemen from marching towards the Ashram. The agitators consisting hundreds of people torched four government vehicles. The Situation in the area is tense but under control. Police have blocked the Rohtak-Jhajjar road from both sides to prevent any untoward incident.

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Governor of Karnataka H R Bharadwaj will administer the oath of office and Secrecy to Chief Minister designate Siddaramaiah at Sri Kanteerava Outdoor stadium in Bangalore tomorrow morning. Siddaramaiah was elected as leader of the legislature on last Friday. Elaborate arrangements are on to hold the swearing in ceremony in the sprawling athletics stadium, as more than 50,000 people are expected to attend the event.

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Senior BJP leader L K Advani has said that the Karnataka poll verdict has not come as a surprise to him and it serves as a lesson to both his party and Congress about not taking the common man for granted. Advani said this on his blog. On the party's handling of corruption during B S Yeddyurappa's regime, Advani said had the BJP taken immediate firm action, the course of events would have been quite different".

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World number one and top seed Serena Williams beat Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-4 to defend her Madrid Open Tennis crown today. Williams' victory, her fourth tournament success of 2013 prevented Sharapova from leapfrogging her to the top of the rankings. That was her 50th career singles title.

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In the IPL Cricket, the match between Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings is in progress in Sawai Mansingh Stadium at Jaipur. Chennai were 102 for 3 in 15 overs when reports last came in.Earlier, Rajasthan won the toss and chose to field first.In the other match played today at Ranchi, Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Royal Challengers by five wickets with four balls remaining.

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The higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh today received a fresh spell of snowfall while the middle and lower hills were lashed by intermittent rain and thunderstorm, causing a sharp fall in temperatures. The maximum temperatures plummeted by 10 to 12 degrees Celsius while the minimum dropped by 3 to 7 degrees. State capital Shimla and the adjoining districts saw severe thunderstorms which hit the power supply and caused damage to apple and stone fruit crops along with standing wheat crops in the higher hills.Meanwhile, heat wave conditions prevailed in some parts of Odisha, eastern Uttar Pradesh, coastal Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.Delhites today got respite from hot and humid weather conditions as rain lashed various parts of the national capital.

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Syria today denied accusations that it was behind a bomb attack in a Turkish town that left 43 killed and more than 100 people injured, a day after Ankara blamed supporters of President Bashar al-Assad for the blasts. Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi said at a press conference that Syria did not commit and would never commit such an act because our values would not allow that. Yesterday's attack was the deadliest in Turkey in recent years