NEW DELHI: As a warm autumn sun shone benignly on a Cambridge lawn, the champagne being passed around seemed a perfect toast to the prime minister of India.

CHENNAI: Indicating extension of its winning run since the 2011 assembly elections, ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu on Friday forged ahead in 30 out of 39 Lok Sabha seats leaving way behind its arch-rival DMK, which seems to be heading for yet another electoral loss.

BHUBANESWAR: BJD in Odisha established leads in 13 seats, BJP in three while Congress was leading in two seats trends of which were available.

New Delhi: Finally, there is a break in the thrill-a-minute Pepsi Indian Premier League as the whole of India - as well as key pockets in many other nations around the world - will focus on results of the general elections. Finally, the cricketers can pause to take a breath or three rather than sustain the pack-travel-unpack-train-play-pack routine.

South Africa's ODI and Twenty20 captain AB de Villiers says he is ready to lead his country in the Test arena as well. De Villiers, who was uncertain about taking over as Test captain earlier, is now the front-runner to take up the responsibility following Grame Smith's retirement in March.

 LOS ANGELES: Thousands of people are fleeing their homes to escape raging wildfires in southern California, which on Wednesday triggered the partial evacuation of a military base and a tourist amusement park.

 SOMA, Turkey: In a relentless procession that ignited wails of grief, rescue workers coated in grime lumbered out of a mine in western Turkey again and again Wednesday, struggling to carry stretchers laden with bodies covered in blankets.

MOKPO, South Korea: South Korean prosecutors indicted four crew members of a ferry on Thursday that capsized in April killing more than 280 passengers for manslaughter, a senior prosecutor said.

History will be kind to Manmohan Singh. It will remember him as the finance minister who launched India's economic reforms in 1991, and the Prime Minister who presided over 8.5% GDP growth for most of a decade.

CHENNAI: With exit poll results overwhelmingly in favour of the NDA, indications are that the AIADMK and BJD, a staunch Jayalalithaa ally, are warming up to the saffron party. Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, who returned to Chennai from her Kodanad retreat on Wednesday, appeared to keep her options open. To a question whether her party would extend support for NDA government at the Centre, she told reporters, "I am eagerly waiting for the results like anyone else. At this juncture, I have nothing more to say. I will make my comment after results are announced," she said.