Viceroy

Reply by what you hear! I HEAR: LAUREL

Imran Khan giving his televised speech from his home on the outskirts of Islamabad Former cricketer Imran Khan has claimed victory in Pakistan's election, amid accusations of vote rigging by rivals. In a television address, he said: "We were successful and we were given a mandate." His PTI party is still expected to fall short of an overall majority, so it would have to seek coalition partners in order to form a government. Campaigning has been marred by violence. On voting day a bomb killed 31 people at a polling station. Mr Khan, the charismatic patrician who captained Pakistan to a World Cup victory in 1992, has long shed his celebrity playboy image and has recently faced accusations that his election challenge was benefiting from military interference in the nuclear-armed republic. An official confirmation of the vote is still to come. Can Imran Khan change Pakistan? Why Pakistan's election matters The party of disgraced former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has rejected the results, as have a host of smaller parties, all alleging vote-rigging and mani[CENSORED]tion. The election has been seen as a contest between Mr Khan's PTI party and Mr Sharif's PML-N, with the party of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the historically liberal PPP, widely expected to come third. In his address, Mr Khan said: "I think this has been the clearest, fairest election Pakistan has ever had." He added that he would investigate any claims to the contrary. He also appealed to his rivals to join hands with him to develop Pakistan. And he vowed to hold talks with India to seek a resolution to the dispute over the Kashmir region, a key flashpoint between the nuclear-armed countries. He also called for "mutually beneficial" ties with the United States, despite being an outspoken critic of that country's anti-terrorism measures in the region, such as drone strikes. What are the latest figures? Figures from the Electoral Commission show Mr Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party has 105 of the 272 National Assembly constituencies being contested. Earlier, unofficial projections from Pakistan's Dawn Newspaper reported the PTI on 120. A total of 137 seats is required for a majority. Who is Imran Khan? Mr Khan, who first entered politics in 1996 but struggled for years on the political sidelines, now styles himself as a pious, populist, anti-poverty reformer. "God has given me a chance to come to power to implement that ideology, which I started 22 years ago," he said in his speech. He also said he would not live in the prime minister's usual grand residence. "Whatever the ruling elite has been doing in Pakistan so far with the taxpayers' money, I'm promising you today I will change all of that." The cricket hero turned politician The 65-year-old campaigned on a message of anti-corruption and vowed to take on Pakistan's entrenched political dynasties. But his views on Islamist militancy will be scrutinised if he becomes prime minister - he has criticised some of the Taliban's violence but last year his party's government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province gave $3m (£2.3m) to the notorious Haqqania madrassa, headed by a man known as the "father of the Taliban".

Israel has attacked military targets in the Gaza Strip, after its soldiers came under gunfire at the border. The Israeli military announced that one soldier had died from his wounds, the first in the most recent clashes. Gaza officials said four Palestinians were killed in the strikes, three of them members of militant group Hamas. They said a fourth Palestinian was shot dead during protests along the border. Hamas, who run Gaza, later said a ceasefire had been agreed with Israel. "With Egyptian and United Nations efforts it has been agreed to return to the era of calm between (Israel) and Palestinian factions," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told Reuters news agency. Israel has yet to comment on a ceasefire. What about the Israeli strikes? The military said it had struck 15 Hamas military targets in the northern Gaza Strip and an additional 25 in Khan Yunis in the south, adding that the strikes were continuing. The operation came during another Friday of protests by Palestinians at the border between Israel and Gaza. The Israeli army said three projectiles had been fired into Israel by Palestinian militants. Israel last week carried out its biggest attack against Hamas targets in Gaza since the war in 2014, in response to more than 200 rockets and mortars fired into the country. Palestinians have now been protesting at the border for 17 weeks. Gaza health officials say more than 130 Palestinians have been killed and 15,000 injured by Israeli forces during that time. The death of a soldier on Friday is the first Israeli fatality in the exchanges. Human rights groups have accused Israeli troops of using excessive force. Israel says it has only opened fire in self-defence, or on people trying to infiltrate its territory under the cover of the demonstrations. Following Friday's clashes, the UN's envoy for the Israel-Palestinian conflict called on all sides to "step back from the brink" of war. "Everybody understands that unless the situation is defused we will very quickly be back to another confrontation," said Nickolay Mladenov. "I expect all parties, all sides to do their best right now. Not next month, not next week, right now, to prevent this escalation." Mr Mladenov called specifically on Hamas and Islamic Jihad - the two largest militant factions in Gaza - to end the launch of rockets and prevent attempts by Palestinians to breach the border fence. Israel resumed air attacks on Gaza after last week's projectile attacks, warning that it would take whatever action necessary to stop incendiary kites and balloons being flown over the border. It accuses Hamas of controlling the makeshift devices, which have set fields in Israel ablaze, as well as orchestrating the protests at the border, which Israel regards as a threat to its border communities. The past week had seen efforts to try to keep the situation under control, but Israel's Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned on Friday of a "much tougher" response against Hamas if continued to fire rockets from the Gaza Strip. "If Hamas continues to fire rockets then Israel will respond in a much tougher way than they think," Mr Lieberman said in a statement. A relative of a Palestinian killed by Israeli troops on Friday reacts at a hospital in the central Gaza Strip A Palestinian protester taking part in violent protests at the Gaza border on Friday

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