World

MOSCOW — Russia on Thursday laid to rest its envoy Andrei Karlov after a packed memorial ceremony in Moscow for the diplomat who was assassinated by an off-duty policeman in Ankara this week.

Dozens of colleagues and relatives attended the ceremony for Karlov, the ambassador to Turkey whose death Moscow labelled an act of terror.

Russian President Vladimir Putin laid red roses at the foot of Karlov's coffin and spoke with his relatives but left the ceremony without making a statement.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov praised the deceased envoy, who was 62, and paid his respects to his mother Maria, widow Marina and son Gennady, also a diplomat, as the ambassador's body lay in state in a flower-decked coffin.

"We are saying goodbye to our friend Andrei Karlov who became a victim of a malicious, vile terrorist attack while in the line of duty," Lavrov said at the ceremony held in the foreign ministry headquarters.

"We will never forget Andrei."

A religious service was then held at Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour led by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill before the ambassador was laid to rest at cemetery north of the city with full military honours.

In terrifying scenes captured on photo and video, 22-year-old policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas shot the ambassador nine times in the back on Monday while he was delivering a speech at an exhibition of photographs of Russia in Ankara.

The envoy fell to the ground and later died in hospital.

The assailant, who was off-duty and managed to circumvent the metal detectors by flashing his police credentials, shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) and "Don't forget Aleppo" after targeting Karlov and was himself killed in a subsequent shootout with Turkish guards.

Killer's relatives released 

Altintas had no prior criminal record but Turkish authorities have moved to link the murder with Fethullah Gulen, a preacher living in self-imposed exile in the United States whom Ankara previously blamed for orchestrating the attempted coup in July.

Pro-government press had reported that police discovered pro-Gulen literature belonging to Altintas and sympathisers of the preacher in his circle.

Erdogan went as far as to say that the killer "was a member of the FETO [Fethullah Terror Organisation]".

Gulen has denied involvement in both the coup and the envoy's assassination, and Moscow has also refrained from assigning blame, with Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov warning against "rushing to conclusions" before the investigation is complete.

A group of Russian investigators has been working on the probe in Turkey since Tuesday.

Turkish prosecutors on Thursday said they have released six relatives of Altintas who were detained for questioning in the wake of the attack.

Thirteen people were arrested in the murder probe and police were looking for 120 people, authorities said.

Russia has bestowed a prestigious Hero of Russia honour on Karlov posthumously, while his alma mater MGIMO Institute of International Relations has initiated a scholarship in his name.

Karlov studied Korean and Japanese as he trained for his diplomatic career and worked for many years in North Korea, including as ambassador between 2001 and 2007. He has served as envoy to Turkey since 2013. 

SHIJIAZHUANG, China — China's smoggiest city closed schools Wednesday as much of the country suffered its sixth day under an oppressive haze, sparking public anger about the slow response to the threat to children's health.

Since Friday, a choking miasma has covered a large swathe of northeastern China, leaving more than 460 million gasping for breath.

Shijiazhuang, the capital of the Hebei province, was one of more than 20 cities which went on red alert Friday evening, triggering an emergency plan to reduce pollution by shutting polluting factories and taking cars off the road, among other measures.

Nowhere has been hit as hard as Shijiazhuang, which has seen a huge rise in pollution.

But the city's education department waited until Tuesday evening to announce it was closing elementary schools and kindergartens, following similar moves in nearby Beijing and Tianjin.

The announcement said middle and high schools could close on a voluntary basis.

The statement on the education department's official social media account provoked anger.

"Are middle school students' bodies' air purifiers?" one incredulous commentator asked, adding: "Are you going to wait for us all to become sick before you step up to fix this?"

 A picture from Linzhou City in the neighbouring Henan province, showing more than 400 students sitting an exam on a football pitch after their school was forced to close, was widely circulated on social media and further fuelled discontent.

The city education and sports bureau has suspended the school principal for organising the outdoor exams, the state news agency Xinhua reported.

'I have to work' 

The streets of Shijiazhuang, population 10.7 million, reeked of coal smoke Wednesday as pedestrians and cyclists flitted through a thick grey haze that reduced buildings to gauzy silhouettes.

Only a handful wore the white disposable masks that have become increasingly common in Beijing since the government issued its first-ever red alert last December.

"I don't like this pollution but I have to work," street sweeper Dong Xiai, 44, told AFP, adding that his workmates do not wear masks because the city does not provide them.

Shijiazhuang has seen 10 bouts of serious air pollution so far this winter, according to the China Daily newspaper, putting it top of the environment ministry's list of cities with the worst air quality.

Over the last 48 hours, levels of PM 10 — a measure of particulates in the atmosphere — have been literally off the charts in the city, repeatedly maxing out at 999.

Levels of the smaller PM 2.5 particles, tiny enough to be absorbed into the bloodstream and thought to be a major contributor to respiratory and cardiovascular disease, reached as high as 733, more than 29 times the World Health Organisation's daily recommended maximum of 25.

The industrial city is known for its pharmaceutical and textiles industries. 

But the likely explanation for the choking haze are steel mills and coal mines in the surrounding province of Hebei.

Last month, the environment ministry said pollution had worsened in October over the same period last year, despite a generally positive trend in air quality. 

And the problem may continue to worsen, according to a paper issued over the weekend by Greenpeace, which said that data and forecasts suggest that "December will continue the trend of stagnating or worsening air quality".

An article in the China Daily linked the increasing haze to rising steel prices.

Government attempts to curb pollution by closing steel mills and imposing emission restrictions have driven up steel prices, the article quoted an expert on the industry as saying.

Ironically, that has incentivised the remaining steelmakers to produce more.

Shijiazhuang's smog and its government's reticence to act have tested the patience of not just the public but even state media.

On Tuesday, Xinhua published an article scolding officials in the city for waiting to cancel schools even though smog was "off the charts".

"If [officials] turn a deaf ear or act indifferent, and the people, especially minors, are exposed to potential health risks, this is undoubtedly a dereliction of duty," it said.

But one father at least said he was glad of the smog because it gave him the chance to take his 10-year-old son to work.

Afterwards, he said, "we went to the mall to buy some toys".

BERLIN — The Daesh terror group claimed responsibility Tuesday for a truck attack on a crowded Berlin Christmas market that left 12 people dead and nearly 50 injured, as German security forces hunted for the perpetrator after releasing a man from custody for lack of evidence.

Daesh said in a statement from its Amaq news agency that the attacker “in Berlin is a soldier of the Islamic State [Daesh]and carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition”.

 Germany is not involved in anti-Daesh combat operations, but has Tornado jets and a refuelling plane stationed in Turkey in support of the coalition fighting militants in Syria, as well as a frigate protecting a French aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean, among other assets.

The claim of responsibility came not long after German prosecutors said they had released a man picked up on Monday night near the scene of the attack, initially suspected of driving the truck. The man, a Pakistani citizen who came to Germany last year, had been picked up based on a description of a suspect who jumped out of the truck and fled.

But federal prosecutors said late Tuesday that he denied any involvement and they had found no forensic evidence proving he was in the cab during the rampage.

Federal Criminal Police Office Chief Holger Muench and other officials had expressed doubt earlier that the man in custody was driving the truck at the time of the attack. Muench also said police have not yet found a pistol authorities believe was used to kill a Polish truck driver who was supposed to be delivering the steel beams the truck was carrying.

Berlin police, meanwhile, urged people to remain “particularly vigilant” and report “suspicious movements” to a special hotline.

“We may still have a dangerous criminal out there,” Berlin police chief Klaus Kandt said.

Before Daesh claimed responsibility, Germany’s top prosecutor, Peter Frank, told reporters the attack on the market outside the landmark Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was reminiscent of July’s deadly truck attack in Nice and appeared to follow instructions published by the militant group.

“There is also the prominent and symbolic target of a Christmas market, and the modus operandi that mirrors at least past calls by extremist terror organisations,” Frank said.

Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted the attack cannot change Germans’ way of life.

“Twelve people who were still among us yesterday, who were looking forward to Christmas, who had plans for the holidays, aren’t among us anymore,” she said in an emotional, nationally televised statement before heading to the scene of the attack in downtown Berlin. “A gruesome and ultimately incomprehensible act has robbed them of their lives.”

 Later Merkel and German President Joachim Gauck attended a memorial service at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and laid white roses outside the church.

Witnesses saw only one man flee from the truck after it rammed into the crowd at the Christmas market, smashing wooden stalls and travelling 60 to 80 metres before coming to a halt.

Six of those killed have been identified as Germans, and a man found shot and killed in the truck’s passenger seat was Polish. The other five people killed have not yet been identified. Twenty-five people remained hospitalised, 14 with serious injuries.

Inaki Ellakuria, a 21-year-old student from Spain, knew immediately that this was no accident.

“I heard the truck crashing against the first stall,” he tweeted Monday, only minutes after the vehicle ran over dozens of shoppers at a Christmas market in Berlin.

“It came fast, too fast to be driving off the road accidentally,” he posted.

His next tweet was chilling: “It has swept me and ran over both of my legs.”

 Ellakuria on Tuesday underwent surgery at a hospital in Berlin for the broken tibia and fibula on his left leg. He also has broken bones in his right ankle and instep, as well as damage to his hip, but he is recovering well, according to his relatives.

Merkel, who has been criticised for allowing in huge numbers of migrants last year, addressed head-on the possibility that an asylum-seeker was responsible for the carnage.

“I know that it would be particularly hard for us all to bear if it were confirmed that a person committed this act who asked for protection and asylum in Germany,” Merkel said. “This would be particularly sickening for the many, many Germans who work to help refugees every day and for the many people who really need our help and are making an effort to integrate in our country.”

 A spokesman for Berlin’s office for refugee affairs said police conducted a broad search overnight at a large shelter for asylum-seekers at the city’s now-defunct Tempelhof airport. Four men in their late 20s were questioned but no one was arrested, Sascha Langenbach told The Associated Press.

The Polish owner of the truck said he feared the vehicle had been hijacked. Ariel Zurawski said he last spoke with the driver, his cousin, around noon on Monday and the driver told him he was in Berlin and scheduled to unload Tuesday morning.

“They must have done something to my driver,” he told TVN24.

Germans have been increasingly wary since two attacks by asylum-seekers last summer that were claimed by the Daesh terror group. Five people were wounded in an ax rampage on a train near Wuerzburg and 15 wounded in a bombing outside a bar in Ansbach, both in the southern state of Bavaria. Both attackers were killed.

Those attacks and two others unrelated to radical extremism in the same weeklong period, contributed to tensions in Germany over the arrival last year of 890,000 migrants.

Far-right groups and a nationalist party seized on Monday night’s attack, blaming Merkel for what happened.

“Under the cloak of helping people Merkel has completely surrendered our domestic security,” Frauke Petry, the co-chairwoman of the Alternative for Germany Party, wrote.

The German government said Merkel spoke Tuesday with US President Barack Obama, who expressed his condolences. In Washington, White House National Security Council Spokesman Ned Price said the United States was ready to help in the investigation and response.

US President-elect Donald Trump said Islamic extremists must be “eradicated from the face of the Earth” and pledged to carry out that mission with all “freedom-loving partners”.

 The attack came less than a month after the US State Department warned that extremist groups, including Daesh and Al Qaeda, were focusing “on the upcoming holiday season and associated events” in Europe.

BERLIN — A lorry ploughed into a busy Christmas market in Berlin on Monday, killing at least nine people and wounding 50 more in what police said was a possible terror attack.

Ambulances and police rushed to the area after the driver drove up the pavement of the market in a central square popular with tourists, in scenes reminiscent of the deadly truck attack in the French city of Nice in July.

"There are at least 50 injured... some seriously. Some are dead," a police spokesperson told AFP.

Police subsequently said nine had been killed and that one person has been detained over the incident — which comes less than a week before Christmas.

"We are investigating whether it was a terror attack but do not yet know what was behind it," another police spokesperson said.

Germany has been shaken this year by several assaults claimed by Daesh and carried out by asylum-seekers.

An axe rampage on a train in the southern state of Bavaria in July injured five people, and a suicide bombing wounded 15 people in the same state six days later.

In another case, a 16-year-old German-Moroccan girl in February stabbed a police officer in the neck with a kitchen knife, wounding him badly.

The arrival of 890,000 refugees last year has polarised Germany and misgivings run particularly deep in the ex-communist east, even more so since Daesh-linked attacks in July carried out by Syrian asylum-seekers.

The attack in Berlin also comes five months after Tunisian extremist Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel ploughed a 19-tonne truck into a crowd on the Nice seafront, killing 86 people.

The bloodshed — as people were watching a fireworks display on the Bastille Day public holiday on July 14 — further traumatised a France already reeling from a series of jihadist attacks.

Six people have been charged so far over alleged links to the 31-year-old killer but investigators have yet to prove that any of them knew what he was planning.

Daesh moved quickly after the attack to claim Bouhlel as one of its followers. Investigators said he suffered from depression and appeared to have become radicalised very quickly.

The massacre on the palm-fringed Promenade des Anglais was the latest in a series of attacks that have rocked France over the past two years.

The violence began with the January 2015 attacks on a satirical newspaper and a Jewish supermarket in Paris and continued 10 months later with coordinated strikes on the capital's Bataclan concert hall, national stadium and cafe terraces.

The attacks have hardened attitudes on security and immigration, fuelling the rise of the far-right ahead of next year's presidential election

Another 11 people were arrested last week in France suspected of helping to arm Bouhlel.

WARSAW — Polish protesters staged a third day of mass anti-government demonstrations on Sunday as President Andrzej Duda embarked on mediation talks to try to end the seething political crisis.

Opposition lawmakers were also continuing to occupy parliament in a defiant show of anger against the rightwing Law and Justice Party (Pis) over the budget plans to introduce new restrictions on the media.

Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets since Friday in Warsaw and other parts of the country in the latest popular action against moves deemed anti-democratic by the PiS since it took office after October 2015 elections.

In an unprecedented night of unrest on Friday, dozens of opposition MPs seized parliament's main chamber and protesters blocked the exits to the building.

Prime Minister Beata Szydlo and influential PiS party chief Jaroslaw Kaczynski only managed to leave the building by forcing their vehicles through the crowd with the help of police.

Since taking office, the PiS has come under fire over a string of controversial measures including tightening the abortion law, a crackdown on the media and changes to the constitutional court which led to a stand-off with the European Union.

Demonstrators were back out on Sunday, gathering outside the court in a show of support for its outgoing president Andrzej Rzeplinski, a symbol of resistance to the government.

The controversial changes to the court's decision-making rules alarmed the EU, which demanded the government reverse the measures or face sanctions.

Rzeplinski's mandate ends on Monday and the question of his successor has become another bone of contention between the court and the PiS-dominated parliament.

The opposition has also voiced objections to the adoption of the 2017 budget which it claims was done illegally when the vote was held in another area of parliament after the opposition takeover of the main chamber.

Duda's spokesman Marek Magierowski said the president began meetings Sunday with opposition party chiefs to try to ease the escalating tensions.

Emerging from a long silence, Duda had on Saturday called for calm, expressing his "worry" over the turmoil and offering to mediate.

"I think a deal of some kind is necessary because it is impossible to function in a system where the parliament cannot debate," his spokesman told news channel TVN24.

The prime minister's spokeswoman has denounced the occupation of parliament as a "a violation of the law".

Duda is due to meet Kaczynski on Monday, according to PiS spokeswoman Beata Mazurek, quoted by the PAP news agency.

The latest opposition outcry was triggered by PiS plans to grant access to the parliament's press gallery to only two journalists for every media outlet, and ban them from shooting still pictures or video.

The moves prevent the media from recording images of lawmakers when they break the rules, for example by voting for an absent colleague. 

The PiS has defended the measure, saying it was seeking to ensure a comfortable working environment for both lawmakers and journalists.

ANKARA, Turkey — A car bomb killed 13 soldiers and wounded 56 when it ripped through a bus carrying off-duty military personnel in the central Turkish city of Kayseri on Saturday, an attack President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed on Kurdish militants.

The blast near a university campus comes a week after deadly twin bombings targeted police in Istanbul and may further infuriate a public smarting from multiple attacks by Islamic and Kurdish militants this year, and a failed coup in July.

It could also increase tension in the mainly Kurdish southeast, where militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have waged a three-decade violent insurgency that has seen some of the worst fighting in the last year.

“The style and goals of the attacks clearly show the aim of the separatist terrorist organisation is to trip up Turkey, cut its strength and have it focus its energy and forces elsewhere,” Erdogan said in a statement.

“We know that these attacks we are being subjected to are not independent from the developments in our region, especially in Iraq and Syria.”

 Erdogan frequently refers to the PKK as “the separatist terrorist organisation”. The PKK, which wants autonomy for the Kurdish minority, is considered a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union and Turkey.

Turkey, a NATO member and part of the US coalition against the Daesh terror group, has also been angered by Washington’s backing of Syrian Kurdish fighters against the hardline group.

Ankara sees the Washington-backed Syrian Kurdish militia as an extension of the PKK and is worried the advance of Kurdish fighters across its borders in Syria and Iraq could inflame Kurdish militants at home.

Besiktas attack

Erdogan confirmed that 13 people had been killed and 55 wounded in Saturday’s blast. Officials later raised the number of injured to 56, including four in critical condition.

All of those killed and 48 of the wounded were off-duty military personnel, the military said. The bus was mainly carrying privates and corporals, it said.

The bus was stopped at a red light near the campus of Erciyes University in Kayseri when a car approached it and then detonated, broadcaster NTV said. Militants have previously targeted buses carrying military or security forces.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but government officials likened the attack to last Saturday’s dual bombings outside the stadium of Istanbul football team Besiktas, later claimed by a PKK offshoot. Forty-four people died and more than 150 were wounded in that incident.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said similar materials were used in both attacks. In comments probably aimed at Washington, he called on Turkey’s allies to stop support for militants.

“This is what we expect from our friends: Not just a few messages of condemnation, but for them to fight on an equal ground against these terrorist organisations with us,” Kurtulmus said in a television interview.

The United States condemned the attack. Russian President Vladimir Putin told Erdogan in a telegram that Russia was ready to increase cooperation against terrorism, Russian news agencies reported.

Authorities had detained seven people so far and were seeking another five in relation to the attack, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said.

Turkey faces multiple security threats including spillover from the fight against Daesh in northern Syria. It has faced attacks from Daesh, Kurdish and leftist militants.

Party office stormed

Deputy Prime Minister Kurtulmus said the attack had deliberately targeted Kayseri because the city is known for its strong nationalist sentiment.

Later on Saturday, a crowd stormed the local headquarters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), parliament’s second-largest opposition party. The office was vandalised and some documents set on fire, a party spokesman said.

The HDP condemned the bus bombing and called for an end to politics and language that creates polarisation, hostility and violence.

Thousands of Kurdish politicians, including the two leaders of the HDP, have been detained in recent months on suspicion having links to the PKK.

The crackdown has coincided with widespread purges of state institutions after July’s failed coup, which the government blames on followers of a US-based Muslim cleric.

Turkey says the measures are necessary to defend its security, while human rights groups and some Western allies accuse it of skirting the rule of law and trampling on freedoms.

BRUSSELS — European Union leaders grappled with Russia and Brexit at a "minefield" summit in Brussels on Thursday at the end of one of the most turbulent years in the bloc's history.

The 28 leaders are dealing with the migration crisis, sanctions against Moscow over the wars in Ukraine and Syria, and a troublesome pact with Kiev that the Netherlands threatens to veto.

British Prime Minister Theresa May will later be left out in the cold while the other 27 have dinner without her in a bid to present a united front over how they handle Britain's departure.

May however dismissed any suggestion that it amounted to a snub and called for as "smooth and orderly a process as possible".

"It is right that the other leaders prepare for those negotiations as we have been preparing," said May, who has promised to trigger the two-year divorce process by the end of March.

Lithuania's "iron lady" President Dalia Grybauskaite meanwhile played down a report that Britain's ambassador to the EU had warned the government that a full post-Brexit trade deal could take 10 years.

"10 years? I hope it will be a lot less," she told reporters.

'Treading on a minefield' 

The one-day summit, cut back from the usual two days, wraps up an “annus horribilis” for the bloc that has seen it face a wave of eurosceptic populism including the shock Brexit referendum vote in June.

"We are treading on a minefield, there are so many issues on the agenda that still can go wrong," warned a senior EU official.

The fate of civilians in Aleppo as Syrian and Russian forces drive out rebels is also on the agenda, although EU leaders will stop short of threatening any new sanctions against Moscow.

EU President Donald Tusk is set to meet Aleppo mayor Brita Hagi Hasan who is in Brussels to push the bloc to support the opening of a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians.

The leaders will issue a statement that the EU "strongly condemns" the assault by the "Syrian regime and its allies, notably Russia", but will only say that "the EU is considering all available options," according to a draft seen by AFP.

EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini said the leaders were not set to consider sanctions, insisting instead that the bloc would try to use its "influence" with Iran and Russia.

Mogherini is also expected to push plans for increased European defence cooperation in the wake of Brexit and amid fears about US President-elect Donald Trump's commitment to NATO allies.

Russia sanctions 

Agreement will be easier on the EU's stiff economic sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine, which were imposed in 2014 after the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande will debrief leaders, after which "I expect that there will be a consensus" on a six-month rollover, a German government official said.

The rollover is expected despite little appetite among some countries and worries that Trump is showing signs of a rapprochement with Vladimir Putin.

The thorniest issue on Thursday could be Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's efforts to negotiate a way past a referendum in April in which his country voted against a key EU-Ukraine pact.

The Netherlands is the only one of the 28 EU states that has not ratified the deal so far, and Rutte wants vows that the pact is not a first step towards EU membership for Ukraine, and that it will not provide defence guarantees to Kiev.

"Failure of the ratification would be a huge defeat for the EU, Ukraine, a victory for Russia," the senior EU official said.

In the evening, Brexit but not May will return to the table, with the EU 27 expected to highlight their unity in a statement saying they agree to launch talks as quickly as possible after she does so.

But nothing is simple with the EU and the issue has already sparked a turf war in Brussels.

The European Commission, the EU's executive, is set to lead the talks but European Parliament chief Martin Schulz warned bluntly of "grave consequences" for any deal, which could even be rejected if MEPs are not included in the process.

SYDNEY — The United States will keep challenging Beijing's "assertive, aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea", the US Pacific commander said on Wednesday, as tensions between two powers rise over comments by Donald Trump.

Admiral Harry Harris, head of the US Pacific Command, warned Washington would not accept Chinese control of the region, despite Beijing's rapid development of artificial islands capable of hosting military planes.

His remarks come as Beijing reacted angrily after Trump, the US President-elect, broke convention by speaking directly to Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen — and suggested Washington could jettison Washington's decades-old "One China policy".

The "One China policy" is a diplomatic compromise allowing the US to do business with both China and Taiwan while only recognising Beijing diplomatically.

"We will not allow the shared domains to be closed down unilaterally, no matter how many bases are built on artificial features in the South China Sea," Harris said.

"We will cooperate where we can but we will be ready to confront where we must."

 China insists on sovereignty over virtually all the resource-endowed South China Sea, despite rival claims from its Southeast Asian neighbours.

But Washington has repeatedly said it does not recognise the claims, and has regularly sent warships into the strategically vital area to assert the right to freedom of navigation.

"Should others [countries] signal in this way in freedom of navigation operations? I think so, but that is again up to each individual country to make that decision," the admiral told Australian think tank the Lowy Institute in Sydney.

"The US fought its first war following our independence to ensure freedom of navigation, and we did that when we were weak and small," he added.

"This is an enduring principle, and one of the reasons our forces remain ready to fight tonight."

 Harris added that Washington would not make Australia choose between its traditional ally, the United States, and rising world power China.

"Australia is more than capable of chewing gum and walking at the same time, and so we're not asking you to make a choice," he said.

A UN-backed tribunal ruled in July in a case brought by the Philippines that any extensive claims to the sea had no legal basis and that China's construction of artificial islands in disputed waters was illegal.

Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said last month that Canberra and Jakarta were considering joint patrols in the disputed region. The Australian navy has already conducted joint exercises in the South China Sea with India and the US.

ANKARA — Turkish police detained two female pro-Kurdish lawmakers on Tuesday, as Ankara intensifies its crackdown after twin bombings in Istanbul that killed 44 people.

Saturday's bombings, which left 37 police officers among the dead and hundreds more injured, were claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), seen as a radical offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which is itself considered a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.

Police launched a vast operation on Monday rounding up people accused of PKK links or of producing propaganda for the group, whose three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state has claimed more than 40,000 lives.

A total of 568 people have been detained in 28 cities in less than 48 hours, the interior ministry said on Tuesday.

The leftwing pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said late Monday that at least 291 of its members had been rounded up — and on Tuesday announced that two female MPs had been detained.

"[The] head of the party's parliamentary group Caglar Demirel and Siirt MP Besime Konca were unlawfully detained in front of our [Ankara] headquarters," the party said on Twitter.

Konca was taken to court in the southeastern province of Batman, Dogan news agency said.

She was released under "judicial control", the equivalent of being freed under supervision, but Dogan said she was detained again in the evening while watching Demirel's court hearing in Turkey's largest Kurdish-majority city, Diyarbakir, which Demirel represents.

Konca became the target of an investigation after she allegedly spoke at the funeral of a man killed during security operations against Kurdish rebels in the city, Dogan said.

'Full-speed' crackdown 

Last month, 10 HDP MPs — including co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag — were arrested, sparking international condemnation. They are currently in pre-trial detention over alleged links to the PKK.

In May this year, the Turkish parliament adopted a bill that lifted immunity for dozens of MPs, which government critics feared would see HDP MPs face criminal prosecution and lose parliamentary seats.

Natalie Martin, an expert on Turkish politics at Nottingham Trent University, said she suspected the crackdown and arrests would continue.

"It is a continuation of a pattern that has been going full-speed since July," she told AFP, referring to widespread purges after the July 15 failed coup.

Over 100,000 people have been detained, suspended or sacked from the judiciary, media and civil service over suspected links to Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, blamed for the attempted putsch. He denies the charges.

But among those suspended are thousands accused of PKK links and this latest crackdown on the HDP is about "muting the opposition", Martin said.

'We want democracy
to win' 

The Kurdish conflict surged last year after the collapse of a two-and-a-half-year ceasefire, sparking almost daily clashes between the PKK and Turkish security forces, mainly in the southeast.

The Turkish air force hit PKK targets again in the Zap region of northern Iraq on Monday where the group has bases, state news agency Anadolu reported.

The government accuses the HDP of links to the PKK, a charge the party denies.

Cabbar Leygara, the party's co-president in Diyarbakir, said Kurdish people wanted to be a part of peaceful parliamentary politics.

"We want democracy to win in Turkey," he said.

German MPs demonstrated in Berlin in support of the HDP on Tuesday, holding photographs of the detained lawmakers and urging Turkey to release them.

ANKARA — Turkey detained over 200 people including dozens of officials from pro-Kurdish parties and struck Kurdish militants in Iraq on Monday in response to this weekend’s twin bombings claimed by a radical Kurd separatist group.

The toll from Saturday’s attacks near an Istanbul football stadium and an adjacent park rose to 44 Monday, Health Minister Recep Akdag said. Most of the dead were police officers.

Turkish jets meanwhile pounded targets in northern Iraq, with the military saying it had hit “separatist terrorist organisation members”, referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The targets were in Iraq’s Zap region and militant headquarters as well as nearby shelters and gun positions were destroyed, it said.

In total, 235 people were detained in operations in 11 Turkish cities accused of acting on behalf of the PKK or producing propaganda for the group, some via social media, the interior ministry said.

The ministry did not give specific numbers of how many pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) officials and its sister Democratic Regions Party were held in the early morning raids.

But a HDP official told AFP that 291 of its members had been detained since Sunday night.

The actions are likely to raise fears Ankara is going further in its crackdown and acting out of revenge against pro-Kurdish politicians who stand accused of links to the PKK — a charge that the HDP denies.

After the news of the arrests, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Turkey to ensure it acted within “the rule of law and to respect the principle of proportionality” in comments likely to annoy the Turkish government.

The weekend’s bloodshed was claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), seen as a radical offshoot of the PKK which is itself regarded as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States.

TAK has claimed three major strikes this year in Istanbul and Ankara, killing a total of at least 73 people.

Police targeted 

In the aftermath of the attacks, a defiant President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to fight terror “to the end”.

Since the collapse of a ceasefire in July last year, Ankara has vowed to wipe out the PKK and conducted several military operations against the group.

There have also been frequent attacks on security forces by PKK militants in the southeast.

On Monday, Erdogan attended the funerals of some of the slain police officers.

Earlier, senior diplomats from several European countries paid their respects outside the Besiktas stadium, laying wreaths that added to the sea of flowers left by mourners. 

Most of those killed by the car bomb outside the stadium were officers who had been policing a top flight Besiktas game against Bursaspor.

Minutes after the car bomb, a suicide bomber blew himself up by a group of police at a nearby park. 

Along with the 44 dead, 166 people were wounded in the two blasts.

As a tribute, Besiktas Munipality Chief Murat Hazinedar said Beles Hill where the attacks took place would be renamed “Martyr’s Hill”.

And Besiktas General Secretary Ahmet Urkmezgil said ticket proceeds from what is likely to be an emotionally-charged match at the club’s stadium against Kayserispor on Wednesday would go to the families of terror victims.

Crackdown fears 

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu vowed Sunday Turkey would have its revenge in remarks which drew criticism.

Murat Yetkin, editor-in-chief of Hurriyet Daily News, penned an editorial in which he hit out at Ankara’s lack of “deep strategy... other than fiercely reacting”.

Jean Marcou, professor at Sciences Po Grenoble and research director at the French Institute for Anatolian Studies, said the government’s attempts to calm public opinion after the attack “risks promoting increased repression against the HDP”.

Last month 10 HDP lawmakers — including co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag — were arrested and are currently being held in pre-trial detention. 

HDP spokesman Ayhan Bilgen said Demirtas had suffered a heart spasm while imprisoned on Saturday, according to the party’s official Twitter account.

“Despite Demirtas suffering previous reported heart problems, he is deprived of the necessary healthcare,” Bilgen said.

The party claimed that during Monday’s police operations, “we came, you weren’t here” was sprayed on the wall of its Istanbul headquarters, along with the Turkish flag’s crescent and star in black.

Bilgen also shared a picture on Twitter of a room in the headquarters with papers, books and boxes strewn everywhere and a desk on its side.