World

MARAWI, Philippines — The Philippines military said on Monday it was close to retaking a southern city held for a seventh day by extremist militants, as helicopters unleashed more rockets on positions held by the rebels aligned with the Daesh terror group.

The clashes in Marawi city with the Maute militia, a group hardly known a year ago, has become the biggest security challenge of Rodrigo Duterte's 11-month presidency, with gunmen resisting air and ground assaults and still in control of central parts of a city of 200,000 people.

The military said the rebels may be getting help from "sympathetic elements" and fighters they had freed from jail during the rampage that started on Tuesday and caught the military by surprise.

"Our ground commanders have assured that the end is almost there," military spokesman, Restituto Padilla told reporters.

"We can control who comes in and who comes out, who moves around and who doesn't. And we're trying to isolate all these pockets of resistance."

 More than 100 people have been killed, most of them militants, according to the military, and most of the city's residents have fled.

The military said the Maute group was still present in nine of the city's 96 Barangays, or communities.

The Maute group's ability to fight off the military for so long will add to fears that Daesh radical ideology is spreading in the southern Philippines and it could become a haven for militants from Indonesia, Malaysia and beyond.

The government believes the Maute carried out their assault before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to capture the attention of Daesh and earn recognition as a Southeast Asian affiliate.

The military's estimates of the size of the rebel force and the extent of its occupation have fluctuated each day. It has maintained throughout that it is in full control of the situation and says supporters of the Maute were making exaggerated claims on social media. 

According to witnesses, men with black headbands typical of Daesh were seen on city streets in recent days. A photograph taken by a resident shows 10 men carrying assault rifles and dressed entirely in black.

A Reuters photographer saw a Daesh flag in an oil drum in an abandoned street on Monday, where chickens roamed in front of damaged shops and homes.

Lockdown

Iligan City, 38 km away, was overflowing with evacuees and was on lockdown over fears that fighters had sneaked out of Marawi by blending in with civilians.

"We don't want what's happening in Marawi to spill over in Iligan," said Colonel Alex Aduca, chief of the Fourth Mechanised Infantry Battalion.

Sixty-one militants, 20 members of the security forces and 19 civilians have been killed since Tuesday, when Maute rebels went on the rampage after a botched military operation to arrest Isnilon Hapilon, who the government believes is a point man for Daesh in the Philippines.

Some troops tried to eliminate Maute snipers on Monday as others guarded deserted streets, taken back block-by-block.

Helicopters circled the lakeside city and smoke poured out of some buildings. Artillery explosions echoed.

Though most people have left, thousands are stranded, worried they could be intercepted by militants at checkpoints on routes out of the city.

There were still bodies of civilians in Marawi and residents urged the military to halt air strikes, said Zia Alonto Adiong, a politician involved in evacuation efforts.

"The anticipation of death is worse than death itself," he told news channel ANC. "We appeal to our military forces to do a different approach."

The military said air strikes were taken on "known and verified enemy positions".

"We are using precision ammunition in our surgical air strikes," said another army spokesman, Colonal Edgard Arevalo. "We have highly skilled and trained pilots delivering the payload." 

Bodies of what appeared to be executed civilians were found in a ravine outside Marawi on Sunday as the crisis took a more sinister turn. Most of the eight men were shot in the head and some had bound hands.

Duterte imposed martial law last week on Mindanao, an island of 22 million people where both Marawi and Iligan are located, to quell the unrest and wipe out militancy.

He made an unconventional offer on Saturday to Muslim separatists and Communist rebels to join his fight against extremists, and said he would give them the same pay and benefits as government troops. 

SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has supervised the test of a new anti-aircraft weapon system and ordered its mass production and deployment throughout the country, the state news agency reported on Sunday, after weeks of defiant ballistic missile tests.

The North's KCNA news agency did not report the exact nature of the weapon or the time of the test but said it was organised by the Academy of National Defence Science, a blacklisted agency that is believed to be developing missiles and nuclear weapons.

The North has been pushing to develop a wide range of weapon systems since early last year at an unprecedented pace including a long-range missile capable of striking the mainland United States and has in recent weeks tested its intermediate-range ballistic missile, making some technical advances.

The reclusive state rejects UN and unilateral sanctions by other states against its weapons programme as an infringement of its right to self defense and says the programme is necessary to counter US aggression.

It last conducted a ballistic missile test a week ago.

The United States denies any intention to attack the North.

"Kim Jong-un... watched the test of a new type of anti-aircraft guided weapon system organised by the Academy of National Defence Science," KCNA said on Sunday.

"This weapon system, whose operation capability has been thoroughly verified, should be mass-produced to deploy all over the country ... so as to completely spoil the enemy's wild dream to command the air, boasting of air supremacy and weapon almighty," it said.

KCNA said Kim was accompanied by his military aides and listed the three men believed to be the top officials in the country's rapidly accelerating missile programme.

They are Ri Pyongchol, a former top air force general; Kim Jongsik, a veteran rocket scientist; and Jang Chang-ha, the head of the Academy of National Defence Science, a weapons development and procurement centre.

North Korea said on Monday it had successfully tested what it called an intermediate-range ballistic missile that met all technical requirements and could now be mass-produced, although outside officials and experts questioned the extent of its progress.

On Tuesday, the head of the US Defence Intelligence Agency said that if left unchecked, North Korea is on an "inevitable" path to obtaining a nuclear-armed missile capable of striking the United States.

Appearing at a Senate hearing, Defence Intelligence Agency Director Vincent Stewart declined to offer a time estimate but Western experts believe the North still needed several years to develop such a weapon.

TAORMINA, Italy — G-7 leaders on Saturday wrapped up their annual summit with an unprecedented display of division over climate change as US President Donald Trump rebuffed pressure to toe the collective line in the club of powerful democracies.

Trump tweeted that he would reveal his hand only next week as to whether he will keep the United States in the Paris accord, a global pact on curbing carbon emissions that he vowed to jettison when campaigning for the White House.

The G-7 leading economies, in an extraordinary summit statement, acknowledged that six members were committed to upholding the 2015 accord while the United States stood apart.

“The United States of America is in the process of reviewing its policies on climate change and on the Paris Agreement and thus is not in a position to join the consensus on these topics,” the statement said in highly-unusual language.

Despite the discord, Trump concluded his first overseas trip on a typically bullish note, telling US service families at the Sigonella base in Sicily he had “hit a home run” shortly before taking off to fly back home.

Condemning this week’s deadly terror attacks in Manchester and Egypt, Trump said such atrocities “steel our resolve”.

“Together civilised nations will crush the terrorists, block their funding, strip them of their territory and drive them out of this earth,” he said.

A short time later, scuffles broke out among protesters near the ancient hilltop town of Taormina where the summit had taken place under high security.

‘Six against one’ 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who also crossed swords with Trump on free trade at the G-7, complained that the US president was keeping his colleagues in the dark.

“The whole discussion on the topic of climate was very difficult, not to say very unsatisfactory”, she told reporters, labelling the G-7 deadlock as “six against one”.

On trade, the G-7 vowed “to keep our markets open and to fight protectionism”, but also to combat “unfair trade practices” and help those left behind by globalisation, after Trump came to power vowing “America First”.

On other fronts, the G-7: 

- Noted that the global economy remains patchy with downside risks, pledging “to use all policy tools” to sustain growth;

- Threatened stronger sanctions against Russia over its annexation of Crimea if Moscow’s actions warrant it;

- Condemned nuclear-armed North Korea’s recent missile tests and said they were ready to take new measures as necessary after various rounds of UN sanctions;

- Demanded support from Russia and Iran for a peace process in Syria, and similarly called for an inclusive dialogue in Libya.

All change

After starting his first presidential trip abroad wreathed in smiles, Trump ended it with rebukes, upbraiding America’s European partners over military spending, trade and global warming.

An enduring motif of the G-7, which represents the lion’s share of global economic output, has been to champion free trade. 

At last year’s summit in Japan, leaders issued a lengthy communique in support of resisting protectionism, as well as helping refugees and fighting climate change.

But that was then, when Barack Obama still occupied the White House. Today, his successor is defiant about defying the G-7 line after accusing China, Germany and others of cheating in international trade.

Trump reportedly described the Germans as “bad, very bad” in their trade practices while visiting Brussels this past week. 

“We had very hard deliberations and discussions about trade but we found a reasonable solution,” Merkel said, stressing the G-7 statement’s commitment to open markets.

‘Migrants’ plight

The G-7’s Italian presidency held this year’s summit in the Mediterranean island of Sicily to underline the proximity of the migrant crisis.

But even that prompted discord among participants as Trump resisted the hosts’ desire to issue a declaration underlining the benefits as well as pitfalls of migration.

That sort of language is anathema to a White House that wants to impose a ban on travellers from six Muslim-majority countries.

The G-7 statement recognised the human rights of migrants and refugees.

But with Trump promising to build a “beautiful” wall on the US-Mexico border, it also said: “We reaffirm the sovereign rights of states, individually and collectively, to control their own borders”.

No questions

In a telling sign of the divisions now plaguing the G-7, this year’s statement came in at a meagre six pages — down from 32 pages last year.

The summit did find common ground on Friday in endorsing a British call urging internet service providers and social media companies to crack down on jihadist content online after 22 people were killed by a suicide bomber in the northwestern English city of Manchester this week. 

But while Trump did battle on an array of summit fronts, he also found himself dogged by new allegations as investigations proceed in Washington into whether Russian meddling helped his election victory last year.

The Washington Post reported that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, made a pre-inauguration proposal to the Russian ambassador to set up a secret, bug-proof communications line with the Kremlin.

There was no immediate comment from the White House, but Trump has angrily rejected allegations of such collusion.

KHOST, Afghanistan — A Taliban car bomber killed 13 people in Afghanistan's Khost city on Saturday, in the first major attack at the start of the holy month of Ramadan that targeted a CIA-funded militia group.

The powerful explosion in the eastern Afghan city, which also wounded six people including children, left the area littered with charred debris, shattered glass and mangled vehicles.

It is the latest in a series of assaults on Western-backed forces as the Taliban step up their annual spring offensive and the insurgency expands more than 15 years after they were ousted from power in a US-led invasion.

"A suicide car bomb in Khost province has killed 13 people," said Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish. "The target was a public bus station which was hit by the bombing. The victims were in civilian clothes and it is difficult to verify their identities."

 But provincial police chief Faizullah Ghairat said members of the elite Khost Provincial Force (KPF) — known to be paid and equipped by the American CIA —were the target of the attack.

"The bombing took place early morning when KPF members were heading to work," Ghairat told AFP. "But most of the victims are civilians."

 The KPF, estimated to have around 4,000 fighters, are believed to operate a shadow war against the Taliban in a province that borders Pakistan and are accused of torture and extrajudicial killings.

The brazen attack, claimed by the Taliban on their website, comes just a day after at least 15 Afghan soldiers were killed when insurgents attacked their base in Kandahar, in the third major assault this week on the military in the southern province.

The attack in Shah Wali Kot district followed insurgent raids earlier this week on military bases in the same area and Maiwand district, bringing the death toll among Afghan troops in Kandahar to around 60.

 Unforgivable crime' 

The battlefield losses mark a stinging blow for NATO-backed Afghan forces and have raised concerns about their capacity to beat back the resurgent Taliban. 

Afghan forces are beset by unprecedented casualties and blamed for corruption, desertion and "ghost soldiers" who exist on the payroll but whose salaries are usurped by fraudulent commanders.

During another deadly Taliban attack on security outposts in southern Zabul province on Sunday, local officials made desperate calls to Afghan television stations to seek attention because they were unable to contact senior authorities for help.

The pleas for attention, a major embarrassment for the Western-backed government, highlighted the disarray in security ranks.

The United Nations this week called on all parties of the conflict for a halt in fighting during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

That has prompted no response from the Taliban, who launched their annual spring offensive in late April, heralding a surge in fighting as the US tries to craft a new Afghan strategy.

"Terrorists, on the first day of Ramadan, conducted an attack in Khost that martyred a number of countrymen," the Afghan presidential office said in a statement.

"The terrorists do not value any religious and holy days, committing a war crime and an unforgivable crime."

 US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis last month warned of "another tough year" for security forces in Afghanistan.

The United States and several NATO allies are considering sending thousands more troops to break the stalemate against the resurgent militants.

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom — Britain pressed a manhunt on Thursday for a Libya-linked extremist network thought to be behind the deadly Manchester bombing as US President Donald Trump threatened to prosecute those responsible for leaking investigation details to the US media.

London reacted furiously after sensitive details about the investigation into Monday night's suicide attack which targeted young concert goers, killing 22 people, appeared in the US press.

With the row over intelligence-sharing escalating, a shellshocked Britain held a minute of silence to remember the victims of the latest Islamic State-claimed atrocity to hit Europe.

As more children were named as victims of the massacre, Libyan authorities detained the bomber's father and his brother while police in Britain carried out fresh arrests and raids.

After bowing their heads for the minute's silence, the grieving crowd in Manchester's St Ann's Square broke into a spontaneous rendition of "Don't Look Back in Anger" by the city's own Britpop band Oasis.

It was a message of defiance three days after Manchester-born Salman Abedi's attack on young fans attending a concert by US pop star Ariana Grande.

"It's like your own family just passed away, it's just so, so sad," 69-year-old Carmel McLaughlan told AFP, standing next to the sea of flowers filling the square. 

'Very wicked' 

As the nation mourned, Queen Elizabeth II visited children injured in the attack at a hospital in the northwestern city. 

"It's dreadful. Very wicked to target that sort of thing," she told Evie Mills, 14, and her parents.

Three days after the attack, some 75 people are still being treated in hospital, including 23 in critical condition, medical officials said. 

Twelve of the injured are under 16. 

Wednesday night's triumph by Manchester United at European football's Europa League final brought some much-needed smiles to a city in pain.

The club dedicated the trophy to those killed, while manager Jose Mourinho said they would gladly exchange it if it could bring their lives back.

Leaks 'deeply troubling' 

As investigators pushed ahead with the probe into the attack, British authorities were left "furious" by repeated leaks of material shared with their US counterparts that they said undermined the investigation.

In Brussels for a NATO summit on Thursday, Prime Minister Theresa May confronted Trump over the issue.

"She expressed the view that the intelligence sharing relationship we have with the US is hugely important and valuable, but that the information that we share should be kept secure," May's spokesman said.

Trump, who led NATO allies in paying respects to the victims, slammed the alleged leaks as "deeply troubling" warning that those responsible could face prosecution.

"The alleged leaks coming out of government agencies are deeply troubling," Trump said in a statement issued by the White House.

"If appropriate, the culprit should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

 Images obtained by The New York Times newspaper showed a detonator Abedi was said to have carried in his left hand, shrapnel including nuts and screws and the shredded remains of a blue backpack.

"We are furious. This is completely unacceptable," a government ministry source said of the images.

Brothers in arms 

University dropout Abedi, 22, grew up in a Libyan family that reportedly fled to Manchester to escape the now-fallen regime of Libyan dictator Muamer Qadhafi.

His father Ramadan and younger brother Hashem have been detained in Libya, with officials there saying the brother was aware of the planned attack.

They said both brothers belonged to the Daesh terror group, while the father once belonged to a now-disbanded militant group with alleged ties to Al Qaeda. 

Libya said it was working closely with Britain to identify possible "terrorist networks" involved. 

The bombing was the latest in a series of Daesh-claimed attacks in Europe that have coincided with an offensive on the extremist group in Syria and Iraq by US, British and other Western forces.

Libyan officials said Abedi's brother Hashem had been under surveillance for six weeks and said investigators had information he was planning "a terrorist attack" in Tripoli.

A relative told AFP that Abedi had travelled to Manchester from Libya four days before the bombing.

German police said Abedi made a brief stopover at Duesseldorf Airport, while a Turkish official said he had transited through Istanbul airport without saying where he was travelling from.

A source close to the family said Abedi wanted to avenge the murder in Manchester last year of a friend of Libyan descent, with his sister Jomana Abedi also telling the Wall Street Journal he was driven by a desire for revenge.

"I think he saw children — Muslim children — dying everywhere, and wanted revenge. He saw the explosives America drops on children in Syria, and he wanted revenge," she said.

Eight in British custody 

British officials said Abedi had been on the intelligence radar before the massacre.

Police announced two new arrests on Thursday, bringing the total to eight people in custody in Britain. A woman detained on Wednesday was released without charge.

Britain's terror threat assessment has been hiked to "critical", the highest level, meaning an attack is considered imminent.

Armed troops have also been sent to guard key sites, a rare sight in mainland Britain.

British Transport Police also said they were deploying armed officers on trains for the first time ever.

The attack was the deadliest in Britain since 2005 when four extremist suicide bombers attacked London's transport system, killing 52 people.

The bombing occurred just over two weeks before a snap election set for June 8.

MANCHESTER — The Manchester suicide bomber who killed 22 people at a concert venue packed with children was part of a network, the city's chief of police said on Wednesday as troops deployed across Britain to help prevent further attacks.

Police made four new arrests and searched an address in central Manchester. A source said investigators were hunting for accomplices who may have helped build the suicide bomb and who could be ready to kill again.

"I think it's very clear that this is a network that we are investigating," police chief Ian Hopkins said outside Manchester police headquarters.

"And as I've said, it continues at a pace. There's extensive investigations going on and activity taking place across Greater Manchester as we speak."

 Earlier, Interior Minister Amber Rudd said the bomber, Salman Abedi, had recently returned from Libya. Her French counterpart Gerard Collomb said he had links with Daesh and had probably visited Syria as well.

Rudd scolded US officials for leaking details about the investigation into the Manchester attack before British authorities were prepared to go public.

The Manchester bombing has raised concern across Europe. Cities including Paris, Nice, Brussels, St Petersburg, Berlin and London have suffered militant attacks in the last two years.

British-born Abedi, 22, blew himself up on Monday night at the Manchester Arena indoor venue at the end of a concert by US pop singer Ariana Grande attended by thousands of children and teenagers.

His 22 victims included an eight-year-old girl, several teenage girls, a 28-year-old man and a Polish couple who had come to collect their daughters.

Britain's official terror threat level was raised to "critical", the highest level, late on Tuesday, meaning an attack was expected imminently.

But, just over two weeks away from a national election, Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives and political parties said they would resume campaigning in the coming days.

Soldiers on the streets

The Manchester bombing was the deadliest attack in Britain since July 2005, when four British Muslim suicide bombers killed 52 people in coordinated attacks on London's transport network.

Rudd said up to 3,800 soldiers could be deployed on Britain's streets, taking on guard duties to free up police to focus on patrols and investigation. An initial deployment of 984 had been ordered, first in London and then elsewhere.

Soldiers were seen at the Houses of Parliament, Prime Minister Theresa May's Downing Street residence and at London police headquarters at New Scotland Yard.

A source close to the investigation into the bombing told Reuters that the focus was on whether Abedi had received help in putting together the bomb and on where it had been done.

The BBC reported that security services thought the bomb was too sophisticated for Abedi to have built by himself.

Police arrested three people in South Manchester and another in Wigan, a town 27km to the west of the city on Wednesday, bringing the total number of arrests related to the attack to five. Police said they were assessing a package carried by the man in Wigan.

A man arrested on Tuesday was reported by British and US media to be Abedi's brother. A different brother was also arrested in Tripoli on suspicion of links to Daesh, local counter-terrorism police said.

Police also said that they had searched an address in central Manchester as part of the investigation.

In London, the Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace, a draw for tourists, was cancelled because it requires support from police officers, which authorities decided was not a good use of police resources given the threat level.

Chelsea soccer club said it had cancelled a victory parade that had been scheduled to take place on Sunday to celebrate its Premier League title.

Several high-profile sporting events are coming up in Britain, including the soccer FA Cup final at London's Wembley Stadium and the English rugby club competition final at Twickenham on Saturday and the UEFA Champions League final at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on June 3.

US leaks ‘irritating’

Britain also has a national election scheduled for June 8. 

All campaigning was suspended after the attack, although major parties said they would resume some activities on Thursday and national-level campaigning on Friday.

The government said a minute's silence would be held at all official buildings at 1000 GMT on Thursday.

Greater Manchester Police said they were now confident they knew the identity of all the people who lost their lives and had made contact with all the families. They said they would formally name the victims after forensic post-mortems, which would take four or five days.

The bombing also left 64 people wounded, of whom 20 were receiving critical care for highly traumatic injuries to major organs and to limbs, a health official said.

Rudd was asked by the BBC about the fact that information about Abedi, including his name, had come out of the United States before it was cleared by British authorities.

"The British police have been very clear that they want to control the flow of information in order to protect operational integrity, the element of surprise, so it is irritating if it gets released from other sources, and I have been very clear with our friends that should not happen again."

France, which has repeatedly been hit by devastating militant attacks since 2015, extended emergency powers.

MANCHESTER, England — A suicide bomber killed at least 22 people and wounded 59 at a packed concert hall in the English city of Manchester in what Prime Minister Theresa May called a sickening act targeting children and young people.

The Daesh terror group, now being driven from territories in Syria and Iraq by Western-backed armed forces, said it carried out the attack. Some experts discounted this, noting there was no evidence of direct involvement and that details of the Daesh claim — in two contradictory postings — contrasted with the British police account.

Police announced a 23-year-old man had been arrested in connection with the attack, carried out late on Monday evening as people began leaving a concert given by Ariana Grande, a US singer who attracts a large number of young and teenage fans. 

In a statement made outside her Downing Street offices after a meeting with security and intelligence chiefs, May said police believed they knew the identity of the bomber.

"All acts of terrorism are cowardly," she said. "But this attack stands out for its appalling sickening cowardice, deliberately targeting innocent, defenceless children and young people who should have been enjoying one of the most memorable nights of their lives." 

The attack came less than three weeks before a national election.

The northern English city remained on high alert, with additional armed police drafted in. London Mayor Sadiq Khan said more police had been ordered onto the streets of the British capital. 

Monday’s attack was the deadliest in Britain since four British Muslims killed 52 people in suicide bombings on London’s transport system in 2005. But it will have reverberations far beyond British shores.

Attacks in cities including Paris, Nice, Brussels, St Petersburg, Berlin and London have shocked Europeans already anxious over security challenges from mass immigration and pockets of domestic radicalism. Daesh has repeatedly called for attacks as retaliation for Western involvement in the conflicts in Syria and Iraq. 

Witnesses related the horror of the Manchester blast, which unleashed a stampede just as the concert ended at what is Europe’s largest indoor arena, full to a capacity of 21,000. 

“We ran and people were screaming around us and pushing on the stairs to go outside and people were falling down, girls were crying, and we saw these women being treated by paramedics having open wounds on their legs ... it was just chaos,” said Sebastian Diaz, 19. “It was literally just a minute after it ended, the lights came on and the bomb went off.” 

A source with knowledge of the situation said the bomber’s explosives were packed with metal and bolts. 

A video posted on Twitter showed fans, many of them young, screaming and running from the venue. Dozens of parents frantically searched for their children, posting photos and pleading for information on social media.

“We were making our way out and when we were right by the door there was a massive explosion and everybody was screaming,” Catherine Macfarlane told Reuters.

“It was a huge explosion — you could feel it in your chest.”

World leaders expressed solidarity with Britain.

US President Donald Trump spoke with May by telephone and agreed the attack was “particularly wanton and depraved”, the White House said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it “will only strengthen our resolve to... work with our British friends against those who plan and carry out such inhumane deeds”.

Singer Ariana Grande, 23, said on Twitter: “broken. from the bottom of my heart, i am so so sorry. i don’t have words.” 

May, who faces an election on June 8, said her thoughts were with the victims and their families. She and Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, agreed to suspend campaigning ahead of the election.

Suicide bomber?

Daesh, while claiming responsibility on its Telegram account, appeared to contradict British police’s description of a suicide bomber. It suggested explosive devices were placed “in the midst of the gatherings of the Crusaders”.

“What comes next will be more severe on the worshippers of the cross,” the Telegram posting said.

It appeared also to contradict in part a posting on another Daesh account, Amaq, which spoke of “a group of attackers”. That reference, however, was later removed.

“It clearly bears the hallmark of Daesh,” said former French intelligence agent Claude Moniquet, now a Brussels-based security consultant, “because Ariana Grande is a young singer who attracts a very young audience, teenagers. 

“So very clearly the aim was to do as much harm as possible, to shock British society as much as possible.” 

Daesh supporters took to social media to celebrate the blast and some encouraged similar attacks elsewhere.

In March, a British-born convert to Islam ploughed a car into pedestrians on London’s Westminster Bridge, killing four people before stabbing to death a police officer who was on the grounds of parliament. The man was shot dead at the scene.

In 2015, Pakistani student Abid Naseer was convicted in a US court of conspiring with Al Qaeda to blow up the Arndale shopping centre in the centre of Manchester in April 2009. 

Parents’ anguish

Desperate parents and friends used social media to search for loved ones who attended Monday’s concert while the wounded were being treated at six hospitals across Manchester.

“Everyone pls share this, my little sister Emma was at the Ari concert tonight in #Manchester and she isn’t answering her phone, pls help me,” said one message posted alongside a picture of a blonde girl with flowers in her hair.

Paula Robinson, 48, from West Dalton about 65 kilometres east of Manchester, said she was at the train station next to the arena with her husband when she felt the explosion and saw dozens of teenage girls screaming and running away from arena. 

“We ran out,” Robinson told Reuters. “It was literally seconds after the explosion. I got the teens to run with me.”

Robinson took dozens of teenage girls to the nearby Holiday Inn Express hotel and tweeted out her phone number to worried parents, telling them to meet her there. She said her phone had not stopped ringing since her tweet.

“Parents were frantic running about trying to get to their children. There were lots of lots of children at the Holiday Inn.”

UNITED NATIONS, United States — The UN Security Council on Monday vowed to push all countries to tighten sanctions against North Korea as it prepared for a closed-door meeting called in response to the latest missile launch.

In a unanimous statement backed by the North's ally China, the council strongly condemned the test-firing on Sunday and instructed the UN sanctions committee to redouble efforts to implement a series of tough measures adopted last year.

The council also agreed to "take further significant measures including sanctions" to force North Korea to change course and end its "highly destabilising behaviour".

The US-drafted statement was agreed on the eve of the emergency meeting requested by the United States, Japan and South Korea to discuss a course of action on North Korea. 

The United States has for weeks been negotiating a new Security Council sanctions resolution with China, but US ambassador Nikki Haley said last week that no final draft text had been clinched.

"This is the same movie that keeps playing. He continues to test. We've got to do action," Haley told MSNBC television.

"You know, some say, 'Oh, but sanctions haven't worked'. First of all, when the entire international community speaks with one voice, it does work," she countered.

"It lets them know that they are on an island and we're all against them and that they need to correct their behaviour."

North Korea on Sunday launched the Pukguksong-2, described by Washington as a medium-range missile, from Pukchang in South Pyongan province.

It travelled about 500 kilometres before landing in the Sea of Japan, according to South Korea's armed forces.

UN urges halt to tests 

The launch was the latest in a series this year as Pyongyang steps up its efforts to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the United States.

"These actions threaten regional and international security," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

"We call on the DPRK [North Korea] to stop further testing and allow space to explore the resumption of meaningful dialogue."

The North, which says it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against the threat of invasion, later said it "flatly rejected" the UN statement, which had been drawn up by "the US and its followers".

The United States says it is willing to enter into talks with North Korea if it halts its nuclear and missile tests.

Sunday's missile test came as US President Donald Trump was on his first trip abroad, visiting Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Vatican, Brussels and Italy.

The latest missile tested uses solid fuel that allows for immediate firing, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said.

So far almost all the North's missiles have been liquid-fuelled, meaning they must be time-consumingly filled with propellant before launch.

Solid-fuel missiles can be fired far more rapidly, dramatically shortening the time available for any attempt to intervene and prevent a launch.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said "with pride" that the Pukguksong-2 was a "very accurate" missile and a "successful strategic weapon", KCNA reported, adding he "approved the deployment of this weapon system for action".

The launch "completely verified" the reliability and accuracy of the device and its late-stage warhead guidance system, KCNA said, adding the test results were "perfect".

The test-firing came just one week after the North launched a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range missile, which according to Pyongyang was capable of carrying a "heavy" nuclear warhead.

After that launch, the Security Council met to discuss tightening sanctions but there was no immediate concrete action.

During last week's closed-door meeting, China insisted that there be no mention of a resolution in remarks read by the council president at the end of the meeting, diplomats said.

North Korea has carried out two atomic tests and dozens of missile launches since the beginning of last year.

The Security Council adopted two sanctions resolutions last year to ramp up pressure on Pyongyang and deny leader Kim the hard currency needed to fund his military programmes.

CARACAS — Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro excoriated opposition protesters on Sunday for setting a man on fire during a demonstration, accusing them of targeting him for being pro-government.

"A person was set on fire, beaten up, stabbed... They nearly lynched him, just because he shouted out that he was a 'Chavista'," Maduro said, referring to the ruling socialist movement set up by his predecessor Hugo Chavez.

Witnesses to the incident on Saturday afternoon, including a Reuters photographer, said the crowd had accused the man of being a thief. 

About 100 people, who had been participating in anti-Maduro protests, surrounded him, doused him in gasoline and set him alight in Plaza Altamira in east Caracas, the witnesses said. 

Though some in the crowd said he should die, others helped him and the man survive.

Showing a video of the incident on state TV, Maduro identified the man as Orlando Figuera, 21, saying he was being treated in hospital for severe burns. 

Images from the scene showed him running near-naked with flames on his back. 

"Burning a person because he seems as a Chavista is a hate crime and a crime against humanity," Maduro said on his weekly TV programme, also showing another video of someone being beaten up, as well as images of protesters throwing Molotov cocktails.

The 54-year-old president says protesters are seeking a violent coup against him with US help, and are increasingly persecuting "Chavistas" at home and abroad. 

Earlier this week, he compared it to the Nazi treatment of Jews.

"Venezuela is facing... a coup movement that has turned into hatred and intolerance, very similar to Nazi fascism," he reiterated on Sunday.

Venezuela's opposition says Maduro has become a dictator, wrecked the OPEC nation's economy, caused desperation by thwarting an electoral exit to the political crisis, and unleashed repression and torture on protesters. 

"Maduro, Murderer!" can be seen daubed on roads and walls in many parts of Caracas. 

The main demand of opponents, who now have majority support after years in the shadow of the ruling Socialist Party, is for a national vote. 

But authorities blocked an opposition push for a referendum last year, delayed state elections, and are resisting calls to bring forward the next presidential election scheduled for late 2019. 

Attacks abroad

Most opposition marches are now turning violent when security forces block their way, with masked youths from a self-styled "Resistance" movement hurling stones and petrol bombs at lines of national guard troops who use teargas and water cannons to turn them back. 

Even before the latest spasm of political unrest, Venezuela was already one of the world's most violent countries, with an average last year of 60 homicides per day, according to the government. 

Lynchings have become commonplace, killing about one person every three days.

In six weeks of anti-Maduro unrest, at least 47 people have died, including supporters of both sides, some bystanders, and members of the security forces. 

Both sides quickly publicise and condemn violence from the other side, while often underplaying wrongdoing within their own ranks.

The government is particularly upset at harassment of officials and their relatives, accused by foes of enjoying the fruits of corruption.

One recent video showed the daughter of Jorge Rodriguez, a powerful government mayor who is a hate figure for the opposition, walking along an Australian beach being screamed at by two bystanders: "Thanks to your father, people are dying in Venezuela."

Another video appears to show a former minister sitting at a bakery in Doral, Florida — heavily populated with anti-government Venezuelan emigrants — being harangued by other customers, who chant "Get Out!" and force him to leave. 

A Twitter feed is even available that lists government supporters abroad, with photos of them and their friends, places of employment and study.

Many in the opposition accuse members of government of illegally enriching themselves and their families, allowing them to travel the world and enjoy luxury hotels while Venezuelans suffer a crippling recession at home, having to skip meals and queue in hours-long lines at shops. 

The issue has divided opposition supporters, many delighting in seeing "Chavistas" squirm while others say it is wrong. 

"It's not morally or politically correct to harass the children of officials," opposition leader Freddy Guevara, a hardline proponent of street resistance, said recently, adding that it would discourage children from criticising their parents as several have done recently. 

BERLIN — Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) raised pressure on conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday, saying if she could not resolve a row with Turkey over access to the Incirlik Airbase, German troops should move.

Merkel’s defence minister, tacitly admitting the possibility said she had been looking for other locations and hinted that Jordan could be one. 

Turkey, which has refused permission for German lawmakers to visit their troops at Incirlik, has said Berlin is free to move its soldiers from the base. That would, however, be a significant snub to a NATO ally.

Already strained bilateral ties have deteriorated further over Incirlik where roughly 250 German soldiers are stationed as part of the coalition against the Daesh terror group militants.

“If Mrs Merkel doesn’t succeed at the NATO summit on Thursday to get Turkey to change course, we need alternative bases,” Thomas Oppermann, head of the SPD parliamentary group told Bild am Sonntag.

The SPD, or Social Democrats, trail Merkel’s conservatives in polls four months before the national election. It is desperate to score points with voters on issues other than social justice, its main focus in the last couple of months which has so far failed to resonate.

Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen is looking at alternatives, including Jordan and Cyprus, and said on Saturday she had been impressed with a possible base in Jordan but stressed the government had not yet made a decision.

Merkel is vulnerable on relations with Turkey as critics accuse her of cosying up to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who last month won sweeping new powers in a referendum, as she needs his help to control the flow of migrants to western Europe.

The SPD, junior partner in Merkel’s right-left coalition, also tried at the weekend to raise its profile on European issues.

Leader Martin Schulz, a former president of the European Parliament, has tried to ally himself with new pro-EU French President Emmanuel Macron and on Saturday said he would model his campaign on the Frenchman’s. 

On Sunday, he told a rally in Bavaria it was time for a “new German-French initiative for a socially fair Europe of growth”. 

A week after a disastrous election defeat in Germany’s most populous state, an Emnid poll showed the gap widening between Merkel’s conservatives, up 1 percentage point at 38 per cent, and the SPD, down 1 point at 26 per cent.