World

PARIS — Sitting in rows on a grassy embankment overlooking a Paris square, around 50 asylum-seekers recite the alphabet in French following a young woman pointing to letters on a whiteboard.

"Ew", 22-year-old Louise shouts, attempting to make herself heard above the passing traffic and the music spilling out of a nearby bar.

"Ooh!" comes the reply from the group of mostly Sudanese and Afghan youths, struggling to pronounce the tricky French “u”.

The migrants are attending free open-air language classes organised by a refugee support group at a dozen locations around the French capital.

On a warm July evening two classes are under way on the banks of the Bassin de la Villette, part of the canals in northeast Paris near where migrants are often found sleeping rough.

While Louise, who did not wish to give her full name, teaches beginners, Pierre Piacentini, a retired nurse, instructs Level 2 students on how to describe the various ailments they may find themselves explaining to a doctor.

Many in Piacentini's group are regulars at the daily classes, who show up come rain or shine.

"They were here when it was -5oC, they're here when it rains, when it's hot, when they have the sun in their faces. They're really into it basically," the energetic, white-haired volunteer said.

A rare sight anywhere in the world in the 21st century, the teaching taking place under the trees in Paris causes passers-by to stop and stare.

Founded in November 2015 at the height of the migrant crisis in Europe, the association BAAM aims to give asylum-seekers some of the support withheld by the state while their asylum claims are being processed.

That includes language classes, with the French government only offering lessons to people who have received refugee status.

"The problem is that the asylum processing times are very long. People want to learn French and they can't," complained Julian Mez, one of the founders of BAAM (French acronym for Office of Reception and Assistance for Migrants). He accused the state of holding up the integration process.

From street to school 

President Emmanuel Macron, elected in May, has promised to cut the waiting times for asylum claims from around 18 months at present to six months. 

By the time the changes take effect the Level 2 students may have graduated on to the subjunctive tense.

Omar, a 28-year-old Sudanese, began classes nine months ago. Before, he said, he knew "nothing".

"Now, I speak well," he said proudly, in correct French.

On the evening AFP visited the students were learning the vocabulary for the various parts of the body.

"I've got a pain in my back," Piacentini tells the class, pressing a hand to his lower back and wincing with mock agony.

The students, all males aged between 15 and 30, repeat the sentence in unison and jot it down diligently on notebooks balanced on their knees.

The open-air classroom in the multi-ethnic Stalingrad neighbourhood in northeast Paris is next to an overhead metro line under which a sprawling migrant camp sprouted up last year. 

In November, police cleared the camp that was home to over 3,000 people and an official shelter was opened nearby, but migrants from across Africa, the Middle East and Asia continue to arrive.

For those who attend the classes, France is the destination and not merely a transit point on the well-worn route to England via the port of Calais.

Hissan, a 27-year-old Egyptian in the beginners' class, roamed for years around Europe before deciding to settle in Paris.

He has found work in construction and can understand a lot of French. "But I cannot speak it," he said ruefully in English.

 'Like a drug' 

Besides teaching French, BAAM's volunteers help migrants negotiate France's byzantine bureaucracy and complete forms.

Piacentini has been teaching every day for nine months. "It's like a drug," he says, laughing.

It is a steep learning curve both for teacher and pupil, as he discovered one day during a class about family. 

Amazed that all the Sudanese students, when asked to list their siblings, mentioned only their brothers, he asked: "Don't you have any sisters?" 

Later, one of the students took him aside and told him that it was inappropriate to ask Sudanese men about female relatives.

KABUL — A suicide bomber blew himself up outside the Iraqi embassy in Kabul on Monday and militants breached the compound, Afghan officials said, in a complex hours-long attack claimed by the Daesh terror group. 

All the attackers had been killed and the compound secured roughly four hours after the assault began, Afghanistan's interior ministry said, adding that all embassy staff were safe and only one policeman wounded "slightly". 

There were conflicting reports about how the attack unfolded. The interior ministry said at least four militants had attacked the embassy, beginning with a suicide bomber who detonated his vest at the compound entrance. 

"The quick-response police forces arrived in time and evacuated the Iraqi diplomats to safe place. No embassy staff have been harmed, only one policeman was wounded slightly," a ministry statement said.

An Afghan security official at the site of the attack and a number of witnesses however suggested the attackers were dropped by a car nearby, who then stormed the Iraqi embassy building with hails of bullets, before penetrating and detonating themselves inside.

Black smoke billowed into the air above the neighbourhood in northwestern Kabul as the sound of gunfire, blasts and ambulance sirens could be heard. Panicked residents, including women and children, could be seen fleeing the area.

The Iraqi foreign ministry in Baghdad said the charge d'affairs was among those evacuated and that it was monitoring the situation with Afghan authorities, without giving further details.

The Afghanistan affiliate of the Daesh group claimed responsiblity for the attack, according to a statement by its propaganda agency Amaq. It said two of its members attacked the embassy killing at least 27 guards and other embassy staff.

The militant group is known to often exaggerate its claims on the number of causalities inflicted. 

The Iraqi embassy is located in northwestern Kabul, in a neighbourhood that is home to several hotels and banks as well as large supermarkets and several police compounds.

"I heard a big blast followed by several explosions and small gunfire," said Ahmad Ali, a nearby shopkeeper.

"People were worried and closed their shops to run for safety. The roads are still blocked by security forces."

 The attack is the latest to rock Kabul, which is regularly devastated by bomb blasts and militant assaults, often killing many civilians. 

The resurgent Taliban claim many of the attacks as they step up their bid to drive out foreign forces with a series of assaults across the country. 

But Daesh, recently ousted from the Iraqi city of Mosul, have been expanding their footprint in eastern Afghanistan and have claimed responsibility for several devastating attacks in Kabul.

‘We will hunt
them down' 

First emerging in 2015, the group's local affiliate Daesh Khorasan Province (IS-K), overran large parts of eastern Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, near the Pakistan border, where they engaged in a turf war with the Taliban.

US forces in Afghanistan have repeatedly targeted the group, killing its head Abu Sayed and several senior advisers in a July 11 strike in Kunar, the Pentagon has said. 

The decision to deploy the so-called Mother Of All Bombs also targeted Daesh hideouts in Nangarhar, according to the Afghan defence ministry, though fighting in the area has continued.

Pentagon officials say the group now numbers fewer than 1,000 in Afghanistan.

"We will be relentless in our campaign against IS-K. There are no safe havens in Afghanistan," said General John Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, in a statement Sunday confirming some of the deaths in the July 11 strike.

The group is believed to be on the back foot in the Middle East, where analysts have said it has lost more than 60 per cent of its territory and 80 per cent of its revenue, three years after declaring its self-styled "caliphate" across swathes of Iraq and Syria. 

But analysts said Monday's attack in Kabul would be seen as a warning to Baghdad after it pushed Daesh out of Mosul.

"[IS] wants to send a message to many states, not just to Iraq, to prove that it is present everywhere... particularly after the victories of the Iraqi security forces in Mosul," said Issam Al Fili, a professor of Political Sciences at the Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad.

"Attacking embassies is part of the strategy of this kind of group, because embassies represent a strong symbol for the affected states," he said, adding that the attack would not have come as a "surprise" to Baghdad.

PARIS — France announced on Monday it would open two shelters for migrants sleeping rough around the Port of Calais, relenting to pressure to improve the lot of hundreds of people hiding from police.

The centres will be located in the towns of Troisvaux and Bailleul, situated about 80 kilometres inland from Calais, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said.

Each will have a capacity of 300, he told reporters, estimating the number of migrants currently in the northern port at between 350 and 400.

His announcement came hours after France's highest administrative court ordered the state to provide running water and sanitation for the migrants, saying that its refusal so far to do so "exposed them to inhuman and degrading treatment".

 The council of state was ruling on an appeal by the interior ministry and the city of Calais against an injunction issued by a court in Lille last month.

In its decision on Monday the council of state upheld the order sought by a group of charities, saying that migrants were developing skin diseases such as scabies and festering wounds as they had no way of washing themselves or their clothes. 

The situation was causing "serious psychological problems", it added, calling the state's failure to address the situation "a serious and clearly illegal blow to a basic right".

Calais' Mayor Natacha Bouchart said she would ignore the order.

"The decision by the council of state is unfair to the people of Calais because it threatens them with the emergence of yet another Jungle," she said, referring to the sprawling migrant camp from which over 6,000 people were evacuated last year.

"In the absence of a national and European policy offering a global solution on controlling immigration, Calais will not implement the injunctions," she declared in a statement.

Collomb too had argued that the provision of services could have a pull effect on migrants who trek across Europe to Calais in the hope of stowing away on a truck crossing the Channel to England.

On Monday, the minister said that the addition of two new shelters to the around 450 already in operation around the country would help speed up the processing of asylum claims from those migrants who wished to stay in France.

'Individual excesses' 

"We do not want to repeat the bad experiences of the past," he warned, alluding to the squalid Jungle.

He also announced an internal police investigation into claims of excessive force being used by officers against the migrants in Calais.

In a report entitled "Like living in hell" Human Rights Watch last week accused the police of routinely using pepper spray on asylum seekers and migrants.

Collomb said the security forces did not use pepper spray but he did not rule out "excesses by a few individuals".

France's new centrist government has taken an ambivalent line on migration.

During his campaign President Emmanuel Macron was fulsome in his praise of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door policy but his government has taken a tough line with migrants in Calais.

Last week, Macron softened the tone somewhat, promising to find temporary shelters for all those on the streets by the end of the year.

KONSTANZ, Germany — A gunman opened fire at a packed nightclub in southern Germany early on Sunday, killing one and wounding four before being shot by police, authorities said, in an attack likely motivated by a personal feud.

The 34-year-old man, identified as an Iraqi national, "was critically injured in a shootout with police officers as he left the disco, and later succumbed to his wounds in hospital”, police said in a statement.

"Investigations are ongoing into the background of the act, which was likely linked to a dispute in the attacker's personal life. There are no indications of a terror act," police added.

The foreign gunman was not an asylum seeker and has been living in the Constance region, which borders Switzerland, for 15 years.

Officers began receiving emergency calls from terrified clubbers at around 4:30am (0230 GMT) as the man began shooting in the nightclub heaving with "several hundred" people, said police.

One person was killed on the spot and three others seriously wounded in the club called "Grey", located in an industrial zone of the city, which draws Swiss revellers during the weekends.

Shortly after the gunman left the building, he was shot by police. One officer was also injured in the exchange of fire.

Frightened revellers had either fled the building or found a place to hide, police said, adding that the danger was now over.

Helicopters were circling overhead and special forces were also deployed to secure the site.

'Club was jam-packed' 

A witness told national news agency DPA that the attacker was shooting randomly at clubbers around him.

"The club was jam-packed," added the unnamed man, who said he had seen the attacker and fled quickly with his friends.

Another unnamed clubber was quoted by Suedkurier daily that he was in the washroom when someone came in and closed the toilet door saying there was shooting.

"I didn't believe it and went out. But I heard shots and quickly ran back to the toilet and closed the door with another person. With us was a bouncer who was shot and he was bandaging the wound with a belt," said the witness.

A bartender then opened the emergency exit door, allowing revellers to flee, he said, adding that he saw another person with a wound in the leg lying on the grass by the parking lot.

"I just shouted at everyone to run and when we were in the parking lot, we heard shots again," he said.

Police was unable to confirm the type of weapon used, but Bezikofer said it was "not just a pistol, the talk is of a long weapon or an automatic pistol".

The shooting came just two days after Germany was shaken by a knife attack in the northern port city of Hamburg.

A 26-year-old Palestinian had killed one and injured six in an assault at a supermarket.

He was a known Islamist with psychological problems, and investigators say his motives remain unclear.

Germany has been on high alert about the threat of an extremist attack, especially since last December's truck rampage through a Berlin Christmas market that claimed 12 lives.

But it has also been hit by other assaults unrelated to the extremist threat.

Among the deadliest in recent years is a Munich shopping mall rampage last June by 18-year-old German-Iranian man which left 10 people dead including the gunman himself.

SEOUL/WASHINGTON — North Korea said on Saturday it had conducted another successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that proved its ability to strike America's mainland, drawing a sharp warning from US President Donald Trump and a rebuke from China.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un personally supervised the midnight launch of the missile on Friday night and said it was a "stern warning" for the United States that it would not be safe from destruction if it tries to attack, the north's official KCNA news agency said.

North Korea's state television broadcast pictures of the launch, showing the missile lifting off in a fiery blast in darkness and Kim cheering with military aides. 

"The test-fire reconfirmed the reliability of the ICBM system, demonstrated the capability of making a surprise launch of the ICBM in any region and place any time, and clearly proved that the whole US mainland is in the firing range of the DPRK missiles, [Kim] said with pride," KCNA said.

DPRK is short for the north's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The launch comes less than a month after the North conducted its first ICBM test in defiance of years of efforts led by the United States, South Korea and Japan to rein in Pyongyang's nuclear weapons ambitions.

The north conducted its fourth and fifth nuclear tests last year and has engaged in an unprecedented pace of missile development that experts said significantly advanced its ability to launch longer-range ballistic missiles.

"By threatening the world, these weapons and tests further isolate North Korea, weaken its economy, and deprive its people," Trump said in a statement. "The United States will take all necessary steps to ensure the security of the American homeland and protect our allies in the region."

 China, the north's main ally, said it opposed North Korea's "launch activities that run counter to Security Council resolutions and the common wishes of the international community."

 A foreign ministry statement added: "At the same time, China hopes all parties act with caution, to prevent tensions from continuing to escalate, to jointly protect regional peace and stability." 

Early on Saturday, the United States and South Korea conducted a live-fire ballistic missile exercise in a display of firepower in response to the missile launch, the US and South Korean militaries said.

All options

The Trump administration has said that all options are on the table to deal with North Korea. However, it has also made clear that diplomacy and sanctions are its preferred course.

The foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan and the United States held separate phone calls and agreed to step up strategic deterrence against the North and push for a stronger UN Security Council sanctions resolution, the South and Japan said.

South Korea has also said it will proceed with the deployment of four additional units of the US THAAD anti-missile defence system that President Moon Jae-in has earlier delayed for an environmental assessment.

Moon, who has pledged to engage the north in dialogue but was snubbed by Pyongyang recently over his proposal to hold cross-border military talks, said Seoul will also seek to expand its missile capabilities.

China's Foreign Ministry expressed serious concern about the announced move on THAAD, saying it will only make things more complex. Beijing opposes the missile defence system because its power radars can look deep into China.

"We strongly urge South Korea and the United States to face squarely China's concerns about its interests, stop the relevant deployment process and withdraw the related equipment," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The missile test came a day after the US Senate approved a package of sanctions on North Korea, Russia and Iran. Trump is ready to sign the bill, the White House said on Friday.

The sanctions are likely to include measures aimed at Chinese financial institutions that do business with North Korea. Washington has also proposed a new round of UN sanctions on North Korea following its July 4 ICBM test.

‘Reliable ICBM
by year-end’

In Friday's test, North Korea's Hwasong-14 missile, named after the Korean word for Mars, reached an altitude of 3,724.9km and flew 998km for 47 minutes and 12 seconds before landing in the waters off the Korean peninsula's east coast, KCNA said.

Western experts said the flight was an improvement on North Korea's first test of an ICBM.

The flight demonstrated successful stage separation, reliability of the vehicle's control and guidance to allow the warhead to make an atmospheric reentry under conditions harsher than under a normal long-range trajectory, KCNA said.

The trajectory was in line with the estimates given by the South Korean, US and Japanese militaries, which said the missile was believed to be an ICBM-class rocket.

Independent weapons experts said the launch demonstrated many parts of the United States were within range if the missile had been launched at a flattened trajectory.

The US-based Union of Concerned Scientists said its calculations showed the missile could have been capable of going as far into the United States as Denver and Chicago.

David Wright of the Union of Concerned Scientists wrote in a blog post that if it had flown on a standard trajectory, the missile would have had a range of 10,400 km.

Michael Elleman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated a range of at least 9,500km and said the window for a diplomatic solution with North Korea "is closing rapidly."

"The key here is that North Korea has a second successful test in less than one month," he said. "If this trend holds, they could establish an acceptably reliable ICBM before year's end."

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump could veto pending legislation that would slap new sanctions on Russia in order to push for a tougher deal than the one winding through Congress, a top White House aide said on Thursday. 

“He may sign the sanctions exactly the way they are or he may veto the sanctions and negotiate an even tougher deal against the Russians,” White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci told CNN.

His comments came after lawmakers on Wednesday reached an agreement that paves the way for the Senate to pass a bill as soon as this week to impose new sanctions on Russia and bar Trump from easing sanctions on Moscow without congressional approval.

Russia has warned it could retaliate against Washington, while the European Union said the move might affect its energy security and prompt it to act, too. 

The House of Representatives has already approved the sanctions. If the bill passes the Senate as expected, it would be sent to the White House for Trump to sign into law or veto. 

If Trump vetos it, however, the measure is expected to garner enough bipartisan support to override it. 

Scaramucci, who was appointed on Friday, cast the president’s consideration of a possible veto in light of his core supporters in an interview on CNN’s “New Day” programme.

“He is a counterintuitive, counterpunching personality,” citing the president’s recent “fan base” at a recent rally. “The American people get it. The American people like what he is doing. The establishment does not like what he is doing. He’s going to disrupt the establishment.”

Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday Russia would be forced to retaliate at some point if Washington pressed ahead with new sanctions against Moscow, but said his response would depend on the final text of the proposed law.

Putin, on a visit to Finland, said the proposed US sanctions were “extremely cynical” and an attempt by Washington to safeguard its own geopolitical interests at the expense of its allies in Europe. Investigations into Russia’s alleged meddling in the US presidential elections were merely a symptom of growing anti-Russian hysteria in the United States, Putin said.

The  European Union fears the new restrictions could be an obstacle to its companies doing business with Russia and threaten the bloc’s energy supply lines, but the 28-country bloc is divided over how to respond.

The head of the German Committee on East European Economic Relations said potential damage to European energy sector companies with business interests in Russia could justify counter-sanctions.

“It’s the last thing we want, but we must keep the option open,” Michael Harms told a news conference in Berlin.

“The sanctions they want against pipeline projects seem designed to boost energy exports to Europe, create jobs and strengthenforeign policy.”

Unlike the United States, whose growing production of shale gas has slashed its reliance on energy imports, much of Central Europe depends on imports of Russian gas through a vast latticework of pipelines.

“Imposing sanctions that hit a third party, namely Europe, and at the same time promoting the American economy with the slogan ‘buy American gas’ — that’s pretty striking,” said Kurt Bock, chief executive of Germans chemicals giant BASF , which drills for gas in Russia.

The EU has imposed its own sanctions against Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis, and Germany has taken a particularly tough stance towards Moscow.

Last week Reuters reported that Germany was urging Brussels to add four more Russian nationals and companies to its blacklist over Siemens gas turbines delivered to Ukraine’s Crimea region, annexed by Moscow in 2014.

German economy minister Brigitte Zyries complained on Thursday that Washington had abandoned the “common line” it has maintained with Europe over Russia.

But despite the EU sanctions and Europe’s criticism of Moscow on other fronts as well as Ukraine — including allegations that Russian spies are meddling in Western elections — Russia remains a crucial business partner for Germany.

On Thursday, the Committee raised to 20 per cent its forecast for growth in German exports to Russia in 2017, compared to 10 per cent in its previous forecast.

UNITED NATIONS — The United States is making progress in talks with North Korean ally China on imposing new United Nations sanctions on Pyongyang over its latest missile test, but Russia's engagement will be the "true test", US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said.

The United States gave China a draft resolution nearly three weeks ago to impose stronger sanctions on North Korea over the July 4 missile launch. Haley had been aiming for a vote by the 15-member Security Council within weeks, senior diplomats said.

"We're constantly in touch with China... Things are moving but it's still too early to tell how far they'll move," Haley said on Tuesday, adding that she was pleased with China's initial response to the US proposal because it showed "seriousness". 

"We know that China's been sharing and negotiating with Russia, so as long as they are doing that, we're going to continue to watch this closely to make sure it is a strong resolution," she told reporters.

China's UN Ambassador Liu Jieyi told reporters: "We are making progress, it requires time, but we're working very hard."

Speaking in Beijing on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said any United Nations' moves should help ensure peace, stability and denuclearisation.

"All sides need to maintain pressure, and also work hard to ease the tense situation on the peninsula as soon as possible, creating a beneficial environment and atmosphere for resuming contacts and talks," Lu told a daily news briefing. 

Traditionally, the United States and China have negotiated sanctions on North Korea before formally involving other council members, though diplomats said Washington informally keeps Britain and France in the loop. Along with Russia, those five countries are veto-wielding Security Council members.

"The true test will be what [the Chinese] have worked out with Russia [and whether] Russia comes and tries to pull out of that," said Haley.

The United States and Russia have waged rival campaigns at the Security Council over the type of ballistic missile fired by North Korea. Western powers have said it was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), while Russia said the missile fired was only medium-range.

Diplomats say China and Russia only view a long-range missile test or nuclear weapon test as a trigger for further possible UN sanctions.

"Everyone that we have dealt with acknowledges that it's an ICBM. Whether they are willing to put it in writing or not is going to be the real question," Haley said.

North Korea has been under UN sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes and the Security Council has ratcheted up the measures in response to five nuclear weapons tests and two long-range missile launches.

President Donald Trump's administration has been frustrated that China has not done more to rein in North Korea and senior officials have said Washington could impose new sanctions on Chinese firms doing business with Pyongyang.

When asked how long Washington was willing to negotiate with China at the United Nations before deciding to impose its own secondary sanctions, Haley said: "We're making progress... We're going to see what the situation is."

 "We want China and every other country to see it as serious and we're going to keep moving forward that way," she said. 

China's Ambassador to Washington Cui Tiankai said on Tuesday that Beijing objected to secondary sanctions. In June, the United States blacklisted two Chinese citizens and a shipping company for helping North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes.

"Such actions are unacceptable. They have severely impaired China-US cooperation on the Korean nuclear issue, and give rise to more questions about the true intention of the US," he told the Institute for China-America Studies in Washington.

WASHINGTON — Two Chinese fighter jets intercepted a US Navy surveillance plane over the East China Sea at the weekend, with one jet coming within about 91 metres of the American aircraft, US officials said on Monday.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said initial reports showed one of the Chinese J-10 aircraft came close enough to the US EP-3 plane on Sunday to cause the American aircraft to change direction. 

One of the officials said the Chinese jet was armed and the interception happened 148km from the Chinese city of Qingdao.

The Pentagon said the encounter between the aircraft was unsafe, but added that the vast majority of interactions were safe.

China's Defence Ministry said the actions of its pilots were "legal, necessary and professional" and performed "in accordance with the law and the rules".

"Close-in reconnaissance by US aircraft threatens China's national security, harms Sino-US maritime and air military safety, endangers the personal safety of both sides' pilots and is the root cause of unexpected incidents," it said.

The United States should immediately stop these military activities, which are unsafe, unprofessional and unfriendly, it added.

Incidents such as Sunday's intercept are relatively common.

In May, two Chinese SU-30 aircraft intercepted a US aircraft designed to detect radiation while it was flying in international air space over the East China Sea.

China closely monitors any US military activity around its coastline.

In 2001, an intercept of a US spy plane by a Chinese fighter jet resulted in a collision that killed the Chinese pilot and forced the American plane to make an emergency landing at a base on Hainan.

The 24 US air crew members were held for 11 days until Washington apologised for the incident. That encounter soured US-Chinese relations in the early days of President George W. Bush's first term in office.

Separately, the Pentagon said the US military would soon carry out another test of it's Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system.

"These tests are done as a routine measure to ensure that the system is ready and... they are scheduled well in advance of any other real world geopolitical events going on," Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis told reporters. 

The director of the Missile Defence Agency, Lieutenant General Sam Greaves, said in a statement that a test would be carried out at the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Alaska. 

Last month the United States shot down a simulated, incoming intermediate-range ballistic missile similar to the ones being developed by countries like North Korea, in a test of the nation's THAAD missile defences.

The United States deployed THAAD to South Korea this year to guard against North Korea's shorter-range missiles. That has drawn fierce criticism from China, which says the system's powerful radar can penetrate deep into its territory.

LAHORE — An explosion claimed by the Pakistani Taliban killed at least 25 people and injured dozens in a busy vegetable market in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Monday, officials said, but the cause of the blast was not immediately clear. 

The powerful explosion hit a bustling main road in the south of Lahore and blew out windows in nearby buildings.

"A suicide bomber of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) used a motorcycle bomb to kill dozens of policemen," TTP spokesman Muhammad Khurasani said in a statement e-mailed to local media.

"Our message to frontline allies of enemies of Islam is to get out of our way or be ready to suffer this fate," Khurasani added.

Initial police investigations suggested it might be a suicide bomb attack.

"Apparently, according to our initial findings, he was a suicide bomber, who used a motorcycle," deputy chief of police operations branch, Haider Ashraf told reporters in Lahore.

The city's commissioner Abdullah Khan Sumbul said the blast targeted police.

Lahore police spokesman Syed Hammad Shah put the toll at 25 dead with 40 injured. Senior local administration official Sumair Ahmad Syed confirmed the death toll, though he put the number of injured at 35.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told a press conference held minutes after the blast that most of the casualties were police officers, but was unable to confirm the nature of the explosion.

Haider Ashraf told AFP that at least 10 police officers were among the dead.

The area was busy with police at the time because officers had been sent to the market to clear stalls that had illegally spilt onto the road.

Provincial law minister Rana Sanaullah said the blast had appeared to target the vegetable market, which was crowded with shoppers.

Eyewitness Sher Dil, who works at an office close to the site of the explosion, said it blew out the windows of his office building.

"I was in my office when it all happened. It was a deafening blast, which shook the entire Arfa Karim Towers," Dil told AFP.

Pakistan's president, prime minister and army chief all issued statements expressing condolences for the loss of life.

Lahore has been hit by significant militant attacks in Pakistan's more than decade-long war on extremism, but they have been less frequent in recent years.

PYONGYANG — The Westerners lined up on Sunday before giant statues of North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung and his son and successor Kim Jong-il and, on command from their guide, bowed deeply.

It is a ritual that the Trump administration intends to stop US tourists performing, with Washington due to impose a ban this week on its citizens holidaying in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), as the North is officially known.

The move comes amid heightened tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile ambitions — it launched a rocket earlier this month which specialists say could reach Alaska or Hawaii — and after the death of US student Otto Warmbier, who had been imprisoned for more than a year by Pyongyang.

Warmbier was convicted of crimes against the state and sentenced to 15 years' hard labour for trying to steal a propaganda poster from a Pyongyang hotel. He was sent home in June in a mysterious coma that proved fatal soon afterwards.

Most tourists to North Korea are motivated by curiosity and the desire to experience a different destination.

The iconic 20-metre-high statues at Mansu hill look out over Pyongyang and groups of North Koreans in suits and ties arrive regularly to pay their respects. Passing traffic is obliged to slow down.

As the tourists reached the platform speakers played "We miss our general", about Kim Jong-il, the father of current leader Kim Jong-un.

"President Kim Il-sung liberated our country and built a people's paradise on this land," they were told.

Call centre manager Kyle Myers, 28, from Ireland, said he wanted "to go somewhere very different from what I'm used to" for his first trip to Asia, "to see something that not a lot of people from back home have seen".

The mounting tensions in the year since he booked the tour had made him nervous, he said, but he added: "I don't see the threat here for tourists as long as they behave themselves and they follow the rules of the country."

'A little disquieting' 

Some of the visitors — who paid from 1,850 euros ($2,157) for the tour — expressed enthusiasm. Australian IT manager Pallavi Phadke, 43, was among those who placed a bouquet before the statues.

It was "a sign of respect", she told AFP. "It's the same as covering your head when you go to a mosque or removing your shoes when you go to a temple.

"The people seem happy, they certainly don't appear to be oppressed or anything," she said. "They're very proud of their country, they're proud of their history and it's nice to watch them be patriotic."

Many disagree, with the United Nations, multiple Western governments and independent groups accusing Pyongyang of widespread human rights violations.

Other tourists were more sceptical. Mark Hill, a writer and editor from Calgary in Canada, compared the statues to "a very grim Mount Rushmore".

"It's all very impressive and also a little disquieting," he said.

For years the US State Department has warned its citizens against travelling to North Korea, telling them that they are “at serious risk of arrest and long-term detention under North Korea's system of law enforcement", which "imposes unduly harsh sentences for actions that would not be considered crimes in the United States", including showing disrespect to the country's leaders and proselytising.

It is "entirely possible that money spent by tourists in the DPRK" goes to fund its weapons programmes, it adds.

The ban will go into force 30 days after it is formally declared, said department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, and "US passports will be invalid for travel to, through and in North Korea".

'Monolithic evil force' 

The vast majority of tourists to North Korea are from China, its sole major ally and key provider of trade and aid.

Americans make up around 20 per cent of the 4,000 to 5,000 Western tourists who go to the country each year, according to Simon Cockerell of Koryo Tours, the leader in the niche market, which brought Sunday's visitors to Pyongyang.

Warmbier's death had already hammered the market, he said, with bookings down 50 per cent since then.

"It's would-be customers' perceptions that anybody can make a mistake," he told AFP. "And almost everyone in their lives has made some mistake and of course they don't want the consequences of that mistake to be so devastating."

But Washington's move, he said, was self-defeating. As well as the potential ramifications for North Koreans who earn their living from tourism, he said, it would "completely eliminate any human interaction between United States citizens and North Korean citizens".

Pyongyang's state propaganda about the US was "100 per cent negative", he said, but contacts between tourists and locals "work against the idea that foreigners are some kind of monolithic evil force out to undermine the North Koreans".

"The idea that tourism is somehow sustaining the government is absurd," he added. "The numbers are very low, the revenues are very low."

Young Pioneer Tours, the firm which brought Warmbier to the North, had already said it would no longer take US citizens to the country.

Among Sunday's tour group was comedy writer Evan Symon, from Los Angeles, who as a result of Washington's ban is likely to be one of the last American tourists to the country for several years.

"It's just what happened," he said. "Kind of cool in a way, I guess."