World

NEW DELHI —Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged fresh fire across their border on Saturday as UN chief Ban Ki-moon offered to mediate between the nuclear-armed neighbours following an alarming spike in tensions.

Two days after Indian troops carried out a series of strikes across the Pakistani side of their dividing line in disputed Kashmir, officials said there had been cross-border skirmishes further south. 

Although there were no casualties, the pre-dawn exchanges heightened the fear among villagers living along the border, tens of thousands of whom have already been ordered to leave home.

"There was small arms fire and mortar shells fire from across the border in Akhnoor sector which lasted for around two hours," Pawan Kotwal, a top civilian official in India's Jammu and Kashmir state, told AFP.

A Pakistan military statement said its troops had "befittingly responded to Indian unprovoked firing" in the Bhimber sector on the Pakistani side.

The exchanges came shortly before Indian army chief Dalbir Singh travelled to Northern Command headquarters, which are in Jammu and Kashmir, to meet soldiers involved in Thursday's strikes.

Singh was able to "personally compliment officers & men who successfully executed surgical strikes" during his visit, the army said on Twitter.

The two countries, who were separated at birth at the end of British colonial rule in 1947, have fought three full-blown wars in the last seven decades — including two over Kashmir.

The Himalayan region, the Indian side of which forms the bulk of the country's only Muslim majority state, is at the heart of the latest tensions which have been mounting in the last three months.

Since a charismatic Kashmiri separatist was shot dead by Indian soldiers in early July, more than 80 civilians have been killed in the region, many of whom had joined street protests in defiance of a curfew order.

A Pakistan-based militant group then carried out a raid on an Indian army base in mid-September which killed 19 soldiers, the deadliest such attack in over a decade.

Amid massive public anger over the raid, India has sought to isolate Pakistan — whom it accuses of sponsoring militant groups — and has managed to persuade nearly all its other neighbours to boycott a regional summit which was to have been held in Islamabad in November.

India's announcement that it had carried out "surgical strikes" in the early hours of Thursday on militant posts on the Pakistani side of the Kashmiri frontier in turn provoked fury in Islamabad whose prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, denounced what he called "naked aggression". 

A Pakistani envoy, Maleeha Lodhi, met Ban at UN headquarters in New York overnight to ask the veteran diplomat to intervene personally.

Ban called on "both sides to exercise maximum restraint and take immediate steps to de-escalate the situation", a statement from his spokesman said after the meeting.

Mediation offer

 
The UN chief said India and Pakistan should address differences through diplomacy and dialogue, and offered to mediate.

"His good offices are available, if accepted by both sides," the UN spokesman said.

Lodhi told AFP "the time has come for bold intervention" by Ban while India's UN mission said there was "no desire to aggravate the situation".

But aware things could yet escalate, India has evacuated thousands of people from near the northern border in Punjab state as well as in Jammu.

An AFP correspondent in the Punjab village of Naushera Dhalla said most of its 4,500 residents had moved out, leaving only a small number of men to guard their land. 

The village was also evacuated in 1971, the last time the pair fought an all-out war.

"We take turns to patrol the main road to make sure no thieves or robbers come into the village," said Jamshed Singh, one of those remaining.

"I haven't had a drop of alcohol for the last four nights because if there is an emergency and any of us are drunk, we may not be able to react as fast as we need."

 Meanwhile in the Battal sector of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, normal life has also come to a halt. 

"Our market is closed as no one dares to venture outside," said shopkeeper Shujaat Kazi.

HOBOKEN, United States — A packed commuter train crashed into a station in New Jersey during the morning rush hour Thursday, with three people reported killed and more than 100 injured, many of them in critical condition.

The train failed to stop as it pulled into Hoboken station, causing major damage to the transit hub just over the Hudson River from Manhattan.

Michael Larson, a New Jersey transit employee, told CNN the train hit a concrete block at the end of the line with such force that it went airborne — hitting the roof and causing it to partly collapse.

“We have 100 plus injuries,” Jennifer Nelson, a New Jersey transit spokeswoman, told reporters at the scene, adding that there were “multiple critical injuries”.

 NBC and CBS reported three fatalities from the early morning accident. No official toll was immediately available.

Nelson said there were around 250 passengers on the train at the time of the crash, which occurred at around 9:00am (1300 GMT), and that it was not known if there were still people trapped on board.

Passengers quoted by US media described the train ramming at full speed into the bumper at the end of the track.

“We never slowed down,” Jim Finan, a commuter from New Jersey, told Fox. “We ploughed, I mean, right through the bumper.”

“Afterwards there was some panic. People were trying to smash some windows out.”

Finan said it was an unusually crowded morning.

“Everyone who was standing kind of went flying,” he said. “I saw a lot of head injuries and kind of people with cuts.”

 ‘Pretty chaotic’ 

Nelson told reporters it was not known how fast the train was travelling as it entered the station, and that an investigation was ongoing.

“We’re looking at all things that could have caused this accident,” she said.

Emergency vehicles converged on the scene in response to the crash.

Pancho Bernasconi, Getty’s director of photography for news who arrived at the station just after the crash, told AFP he saw people running as he arrived on the scene.

There was “a lot of damage” to the station. “Part of the roof has collapsed.”

 Video on social media showed the station in shambles with the train tangled in wires and debris from what appeared to be collapsed portions of the roof.

Other passengers described a scene of chaos with dazed and bloodied people making their way to safety.

“We crashed, and the lights went out. A few people screamed,” Leon Offengenden told CNN.

“It was pretty chaotic. And people just in shock and everybody has photos and cameras out and iPads. It was pretty intense. I took a few snaps and video posted online,” he said.

The last major train crash in the United States was in May 2015, when an Amtrak train linking Washington to New York derailed in Philadelphia, leaving eight dead and 200 injured.

NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD — India said on Thursday it had conducted "surgical strikes" on suspected militants preparing to infiltrate from Pakistan-ruled Kashmir, making its first direct military response to an attack on an army base it blames on Pakistan.

Pakistan said two of its soldiers had been killed in exchanges of fire and in repulsing an Indian "raid", but denied India had made any targeted strikes across the de facto frontier that runs through the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

The cross-border action inflicted significant casualties, the Indian army's head of operations told reporters in New Delhi, while a senior government official said Indian soldiers had crossed the border to target militant camps.

The announcement followed through on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's warning that those India held responsible "would not go unpunished" for a September 18 attack on an Indian army base at Uri, near the Line of Control, that killed 18 soldiers.

The strikes also raised the possibility of a military escalation between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan that would wreck a 2003 Kashmir ceasefire.

Lt General Ranbir Singh, the Indian army's director general of military operations (DGMO), said the strikes were launched on Wednesday based on "very specific and credible information that some terrorist units had positioned themselves... with an aim to carry out infiltration and terrorist strikes".

Singh said he had called his Pakistani counterpart to inform him of the operation, which had ended. India later briefed opposition parties and foreign ambassadors in New Delhi but stopped short of disclosing operational details.

"It would indicate that this was all pretty well organised," said one diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity because the briefing by Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was confidential.

Pakistan's military spokesman slammed the Indian account as "totally baseless and completely a lie", saying the contact between DGMOs only included communication regarding cross-border firing, which was within existing rules of engagement.

"We deny it. There is no such thing on the ground. There is just the incident of the firing last night, which we responded to," Lt General Asim Bajwa told news channel Geo TV.

"We have fired in accordance with the rules of engagement We are acting in a responsible way."

 Pakistan said nine of its soldiers had also been wounded. Neither side's account could be independently verified.

India's disclosure of such strikes was unprecedented, said Ajai Sahni of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi, and sent a message not only to his own people but to the international community.

"India expects global support to launch more focused action against Pakistan," Sahni told Reuters. "There was tremendous pressure on the Indian prime minister to prove that he is ready to take serious action."

No more strategic restraint

The border clash also comes at a delicate time for Pakistan, with powerful Army Chief of Staff General Raheel Sharif due to retire shortly and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif still to decide on a successor.

The Pakistani premier condemned what he called India's "unprovoked and naked aggression" and called a Cabinet meeting on Friday to discuss further steps.

Share markets in India and Pakistan fell on India's announcement. India's NSE index closed down 1.6 per cent after falling as much 2.1 per cent to its lowest since August 29, while Pakistan's benchmark 100-share index was down 0.15 per cent.

India announced its retaliation at a news conference in New Delhi that was hurriedly called, only to be delayed, as Modi chaired a meeting of his Cabinet committee on security to be briefed on the operation.

"The prime minister is clear that this is exactly what we should have done," a senior government official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "Informing the world about the surgical strike was important today."

US National Security Adviser Susan Rice spoke with her Indian counterpart, Ajit Doval, before news of the Indian cross-border operation broke, the White House said.

Rice discussed deepening collaboration between the United States and India on counter-terrorism and urged Pakistan to combat and delegitimise individuals and entities designated by the United Nations as terrorists.

Six-hour exchange

Exchanges of fire took place in the Bhimber, Hot Spring, Kel and Lipa sectors in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and lasted about six hours, the Pakistani military said earlier.

An Indian army officer in Kashmir said there had been shelling from the Pakistani side of the border into the Nowgam district, near the Line of Control, and the exchange of fire continued during the day.

There were no casualties or damage reported on the Indian side of the frontier. An Indian military source told Reuters that the operation was carried out on the Pakistani side of the Line of Control where there were between five and seven infiltration "launchpads".

"It was a shallow strike. The operation began at around midnight and it was over before sunrise," this source, who had been briefed by his superiors on the operation, said. "All our men our back. Significant casualties inflicted. Damage assessment still going on."

 Both India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in full, but govern separate parts, and have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.

Tension between the South Asian rivals has been high since an Indian crackdown on dissent in Kashmir following the killing by security forces of Burhan Wani, a young separatist leader, in July.

NEW DELHI — A key South Asian summit was in doubt on Wednesday after India and three other countries pulled out following a deadly attack on an army base that New Delhi blames on a Pakistan-based group.

India has sought to isolate Pakistan in the wake of the raid on its base in the disputed region of Kashmir, which killed 18 soldiers and triggered public fury.

On Tuesday it said Prime Minister Narendra Modi would not attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in Islamabad in November, in a major snub to its neighbour.

Without naming Pakistan, India’s foreign ministry said “increasing cross-border terrorist attacks in the region and growing interference in the internal affairs of member states by one country” had created an environment that was not conducive for a meeting.

Hours later, Bangladesh said it was also pulling out. Afghanistan and Bhutan — both close India allies — have since followed suit, according to a SAARC official who asked not to be named.

“Pakistan has been interfering in our internal affairs for some time,” a senior Bangladesh foreign ministry official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

“That’s why we have pulled out of the SAARC summit.”

 Under pressure to act after the Kashmir raid, Modi warned Pakistan in a major speech on Saturday that India would push to make it a pariah state.

Pakistan denies any involvement in the attack, the worst of its kind in over a decade.

But India’s army has blamed Jaish-e-Mohammad, a Pakistan-based militant group that was also implicated in an audacious assault on an Indian air force base in the northern town of Pathankot in January.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since partition in 1947, two of them over Kashmir, where the two countries regularly exchange fire across the disputed border.

At the last SAARC summit in 2014 a newly-elected Modi shook hands with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif, raising hopes of warmer ties.

Just over a year later Modi made a surprise Christmas Day visit to Pakistan for a meeting with Sharif.

But those hopes were dashed by the Pathankot attack in which seven Indian soldiers died, and peace talks have been on ice ever since.

Closer to China

Current SAARC chair Nepal would not comment on speculation the summit would be cancelled, but said it would issue a statement later in the day.

The leaders of the eight SAARC countries — which also include Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Maldives — expressed frustration after the last summit in Kathmandu with the slow pace of progress towards greater regional integration.

Analysts say this is down to the mutual mistrust between Pakistan and powerhouse India.

Cyril Almeida, a columnist in Pakistan’s English-language daily Dawn, said India’s move to exclude Pakistan from regional discussions was not unexpected.

“Diplomatically, [it’s]maybe not a big deal for Pakistan given that SAARC is widely perceived as ineffective,” he said.

“But [it’s] a fresh sign of Pakistan not being in a comfortable place in its own region.”

 South Asia analyst Ashok Malik said the withdrawals would have little practical impact on Pakistan, but could push it closer to rival regional power China.

“It basically scores a symbolic and a political victory. As for Pakistan, this will push it even closer to China,” said Malik, head of the Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation’s regional studies initiative.

Pakistan meanwhile said it remained “committed to peace and regional cooperation” and accused New Delhi of perpetrating “terrorism” on its soil.

“As for the excuse used by India, the world knows that it is India that has been perpetrating and financing terrorism in Pakistan,” tweeted foreign ministry spokesman Nafees Zakariya late Tuesday, citing the capture of an Indian intelligence officer in Baluchistan earlier this year.

Pakistan has repeatedly accused India of interference in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan and is afflicted by Islamist militancy and a separatist insurgency.

HEMPSTEAD, New York — Republican Donald Trump vowed on Tuesday to hit rival Democrat Hillary Clinton harder in the next US presidential debate after she put him on the defensive by accusing him of being racist, sexist and a tax dodger during their first matchup.

Trump, a real estate mogul making his first run for public office, praised himself for not attacking Clinton about the marital infidelity of her husband, former president Bill Clinton, but said in a Tuesday morning interview with Fox News that he may take up the attack line going forward.

"I may hit her harder in certain ways," Trump said in a telephone interview with "Fox & Friends". Trump added that when Clinton criticised him for his treatment of women, he resisted. "I was going to hit her with her husband's women. And I decided I shouldn't do it because her daughter was in the room."

 Clinton was under pressure to perform well on Monday night after a recent bout with pneumonia and an erosion in recent weeks in her lead over Trump in opinion polls. One line of attack was Trump's past remarks about women, a message designed to resonate with women who have not yet decided who to vote for and who could prove pivotal in deciding the November 8 White House election.

Trump, a former reality TV star who eschewed a lot of debate practice, was assertive and focused early on, interrupting Clinton repeatedly. As the night wore on, he became testy and less disciplined in front of the crowd at host Hofstra University and a televised audience that may have reached upwards of a record 100 million people.

Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, said on CNN on Tuesday that Trump wanted to steer the political debate away from the policy issues that Clinton is better prepared to discuss.

"Trump wants to talk about anything but the actual issues that people care about and that's because he didn't prepare. He didn't show up ready to talk about the things that matter in people's lives," Mook said.

A CNN/ORC snap poll said 62 per cent of respondents felt Clinton won and 27 per cent believed Trump was the winner.

Trump complained on Tuesday that issues from Clinton's 2009-2013 tenure as secretary of state were not addressed on Monday night, including topics he has assailed her on such as her use of a private computer server for government e-mails, a deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya, and the Clinton Foundation charity.

In signs that investors awarded the debate to Clinton, Asian shares recovered after an early bout of nerves while the Mexican peso jumped on Tuesday. US equity markets kicked off their session with a modest gain but the advance was restrained by weakness in energy stocks as oil prices fell 2.5 per cent. Clinton's chances in the election also improved in online betting markets.

'Hanging around' beauty contests

Clinton, the first woman to win the presidential nomination of a major US political party, seemed to pique Trump when she brought up how Trump has insulted women. She pointed to Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe, saying Trump had repeatedly insulted her.

"He loves beauty contests, supporting them and hanging around them and he called this one 'Miss Piggy' and then he called her 'Miss Housekeeping'," she said.

Trump, former owner of the Miss Universe pageants, was asked on Tuesday morning about Clinton's comments. He said he knew Machado and defended his insults of the woman.

"She was the winner and she gained a massive amount of weight," Trump said of Machado. "And it was a real problem. We had a real problem. Not only that — her attitude — and we had a real problem with her." Venezuelan-born Machado was Miss Universe in 1996.

'Great debate'

"You feel good tonight?" Clinton asked supporters afterward. "I sure do. We had a great debate."

Trump, 70, declared himself the winner to reporters at the debate site.

The 68-year-old Clinton relentlessly sought to raise questions about her opponent's temperament, business acumen and knowledge.

Trump used much of his time to argue the former first lady and US senator had achieved little in public life and wanted to pursue policies begun by President Barack Obama that he said have failed to repair a shattered middle class, with jobs lost to outsourcing and excessive government regulation.

Trump suggested her disavowal of a trade deal with Asian countries was insincere. Her handling of a nuclear deal with Iran and the Daesh terror group’s militancy were disasters, he argued. Trump said Clinton had spent her "entire adult life" fighting Daesh, a group that has existed for less than a decade.

In one of their more heated exchanges, Clinton accused Trump of promulgating a "racist lie" by suggesting Obama, the first African-American US president, was not born in the United States.

The president, who was born in Hawaii, released a long-form birth certificate in 2011 to put the issue to rest. It was not until this month that Trump said publicly that he believed Obama was US-born.

"He has really started his political activity based on this racist lie that our first black president was not an American citizen. There was absolutely no evidence for it. But he persisted. He persisted year after year," Clinton said.

Trump repeated his false accusation that Clinton's failed 2008 presidential campaign against Obama started the so-called "birther" issue.

"Nobody was pressing it, nobody was caring much about it... I was the one that got him to produce the birth certificate and I think I did a good job," Trump said.

'Trying to hide'

Trying to get under Trump's skin, Clinton suggested her opponent was refusing to release his tax returns to avoid showing Americans he paid next to nothing in federal taxes or that he is not as wealthy as he says he is.

"It must be something really important, even terrible, that he's trying to hide," she said.

Trump fought back, saying that as a businessman, paying low taxes was important.

"That makes me smart," Trump said.

"I have a tremendous income," he said, adding that it was about time that someone running the country knew something about money. He said he would release his tax documents after a government audit.

Trump sniffed loudly at times — although he said on Tuesday that he did not have a cold — attracting a sideshow in social media attention.

‘Normal questions’

Trump sought to deflect criticism of his debate performance on Tuesday morning, arguing that some of the questions asked by moderator Lester Holt were unfair.

"I think I really did well when we were asked normal questions," Trump said.

During the debate, Trump darkly hinted at wanting to say something but stopped short. Afterwards, he told reporters he had held back from raising Bill Clinton's sex scandals.

"I was going to say something extremely tough to Hillary and her family and I said I can't do it. I just can't do it. It's inappropriate. It's not nice," he said.

Trump himself had a high-profile affair with Marla Maples, the woman who would be his second wife while he was still married to his first wife, Ivanka Trump. He eventually divorced Maples and married his third and current wife, Melania Trump.

There was much speculation before the debate about how much debate moderator Holt would intervene to correct facts. The NBC News anchorman largely left the candidates to fight it out, interjecting a few times to set the record straight.

Trump repeated his campaign assertion that he opposed the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, despite having voiced support for it in a 2002 interview. "The record shows otherwise," Holt challenged him. "The record does not show that," Trump shot back.

ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI — Pakistan would treat it as "an act of war" if India revoked the Indus Water Treaty regulating river flows between the two nations, Pakistan's top foreign official said on Tuesday.

Tension has been mounting between the nuclear-armed neighbours since at least 18 Indian soldiers in the disputed Kashmir region were killed this month in an attack that New Delhi blames on Pakistan.

India on Tuesday summoned Pakistan's high commissioner in New Delhi to inform him about two men from Pakistan now in Indian custody who it alleges helped gunmen cross the disputed Kashmir border before the attack. Pakistan denies involvement in the raid and has urged India to conduct a proper investigation.

One retaliatory move being considered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is for India to "maximise" the amount of water it uses including by accelerating building of new hydropower plants, along three rivers that flow into Pakistan, a source with knowledge of a meeting attended by Modi on Monday told Reuters.

The source said India does not plan to abrogate the decades-old Indus Water Treaty. But using more of the rivers' water is still likely to hurt Pakistan as the Islamic Republic depends on snow-fed Himalayan rivers for everything from drinking water to agriculture.

Sartaj Aziz, foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said Islamabad would seek arbitration with the Indus Water Commission which monitors the treaty if India increased the use of water from the Chenab, Jhelum and Indus rivers.

However, if India revoked the treaty, Aziz said Pakistan would treat that as "an act of war or a hostile act against Pakistan”.

 "It's highly irresponsible on part of India to even consider revocation of the Indus Water Treaty," Aziz told the national assembly.

The treaty was signed in 1960 in a bid to resolve disputes, but India's ambitious irrigation plans and construction of thousands of upstream dams has continued to annoy Pakistan. India says its use of upstream water is strictly in line with the agreement.

India currently generates about 3,000 megawatts of energy from hydropower plants along rivers in its portion of Kashmir, but believes the region has the potential to produce 18,000 megawatts and says it can use more water and still remain within the terms of the treaty.

Aziz said India's provocative posturing constitutes a breach of the Indus Water Treaty and "threats of a water war are part of a military, economic and diplomatic campaign to build pressure on Pakistan", and deflect attention from civil unrest by the Muslim population in the Indian-ruled side of Kashmir.

Detained by villagers

The attack on the Indian brigade headquarters in the Kashmir town of Uri before dawn on September 18 was the deadliest in 14 years in the disputed Himalayan region and has sharply raised tensions between the arch-rivals.

India on Tuesday told Pakistan's high commissioner that security forces had in their custody two men — a 19-year old and a 20-year old — who helped a group of gunmen cross the de facto border dividing Kashmir before launching the September 18 raid, and that they were from Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

In a statement, India's foreign ministry said the two men were apprehended by local villagers on September 21, and that one of them had since admitted their role as guides and also identified one of the gunmen as a Pakistani from Muzaffarabad.

Reuters could not independently verify these claims.

A Pakistan foreign ministry spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

HOUSTON — A quiet Monday morning in a Houston neighbourhood turned violent, as authorities said a lawyer who had issues with his law firm randomly shot at drivers, hitting six people, one critically, before he was shot and killed by police. Another three people had injuries from glass or debris.

The first report of the shootings came in at about 6:30am, Police Chief Martha Montalvo said at a news conference, and when officers arrived, the suspect began firing at them. Montalvo did not identify the man.

Numerous weapons were found at the scene, a bomb-squad robot examined a Porsche that's believed to be the shooter's and bomb squad officers also were scouring the suspect's residence, Montalvo said.

The street in front of the condo complex, which is near the affluent enclave of West University Place, was still blocked off with police tape late Monday morning. Several cars with bullet holes and shattered windows were at a strip mall parking lot near the condo complex.

Jennifer Molleda's husband was among those hurt by glass. They live in the same condo complex as the shooter, who Molleda said a few weeks ago brandished an assault-style weapon at roofers in the complex. She said she didn't know the suspect very well but described him as quiet.

"He's a normal, average Joe," she said.

One witness, 30-year-old Antwon Wilson, inadvertently drove into the shooting scene after dropping off his girlfriend at work and could "literally hear the gunfire flying". He managed to flee and escape injury.

Of the nine people hurt, Houston Fire Department spokesman Ruy Lozano said six were shot and three had minor injuries related to glass. Montalvo said one person was hospitalised in critical condition and another in serious condition.

Mayor Sylvester Turner, who is in Cuba for a trade mission, told KTRK-TV that the lawyer was "disgruntled" and "either fired or had a bad relationship with this law firm", Turner said.

"The investigation is active. It's very, very early. We want to make sure there is no other gunman. We are checking every angle, I can assure you," Turner told the TV station.

BEIJING — China has sent fighter planes for the first time over a strait near Japan, the two governments said Monday, after Tokyo announced it may patrol alongside the US in the disputed South China Sea.

More than 40 Chinese military aircraft on Sunday traversed the Miyako Strait between Japan's Miyako and Okinawa Islands, to carry out training in the West Pacific, according to a statement on China's defence ministry website.

The Sukhoi Su-30 fighters, bombers and refuelling aircraft did not violate Japanese airspace.

Japan's defence ministry said it was the first time Chinese fighters had passed over the strait.

The drill is aimed at "testing far sea combat capabilities", the Chinese statement said. It follows China's first military flight, carried out by spy planes, over the Miyako Strait last year.

The move comes after Japanese Defence Minister Tomomi Inada said earlier this month that Tokyo would increase its engagement in the South China Sea through joint training cruises with the US navy, exercises with regional navies and capacity-building assistance to coastal nations.

Beijing asserts sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea, dismissing rival partial claims from its Southeast Asian neighbours. It rejects any intervention by Japan in the waterway.

In recent months Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has criticised China for rejecting a July ruling by an international tribunal, which said Beijing's extensive claims to the waters had no legal basis.

Tokyo, a key US ally, is also strengthening defence ties with other countries in the disputed region. Japan and China are already at loggerheads over a longstanding territorial row in the East China Sea.

That dispute relates to uninhabited islets controlled by Japan known as the Senkakus in Japanese and the Diaoyus in Chinese.

Abe said on Monday Japan would "never tolerate attempts to unilaterally change the status quo" in the disputed waters, or "wherever else in the world", in an apparent response to the Chinese move.

"We pledge to protect Japan's territory, and in the sea and air," he said in a speech to open a new parliamentary session.

Japan and China "share a mutual understanding that we're significantly responsible for regional peace and prosperity", he added.

In its statement the Chinese defence ministry said it had also mobilised an unspecified number of bombers and fighters to patrol the East China Sea Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ).

Beijing sparked alarm after it unilaterally established the ADIZ in 2013. It demanded all aircraft submit flight plans when traversing the zone, which covers the islands disputed with Tokyo and also claimed by Taipei.

"Normalising far sea drills out in the West Pacific and patrols in the East China Sea ADIZ is based on the need for China's Air Force to protect national sovereignty and security and ensure peaceful development," air force spokesperson Shen Jinke said in the statement.

The Chinese military has been monitoring and identifying foreign military planes that entered the ADIZ and "took measures according to different air threats" since it was set up three years ago, the statement added. 

BURLINGTON, Washington — The 20-year-old suspect in the deadly Washington state mall shooting said nothing and appeared "zombie-like" when he was arrested by authorities nearly 24 hours into an intense manhunt, authorities said.

As the small city absorbed the news, critical questions remained, including the shooter's motive.

Island County Sheriff's Lt. Mike Hawley said he spotted Arcan Cetin from a patrol car Saturday evening in Oak Harbour, Washington, and immediately recognised him as the suspect who killed five people at the Cascade Mall in nearby Burlington.

Hawley said at a news conference they had received information that Cetin, of Oak Harbour, was in the area. Cetin, who immigrated to the US from Turkey, is a legal permanent resident who has been living in Oak Harbour, authorities said. He had been arrested once before in the county for assault, Hawley said.

"I literally hit my brakes, did a quick turn, I jumped out," Hawley said. "We both jumped out with our guns, and he just froze."

 Cetin was unarmed and was carrying a satchel with a computer in it.

"He was kind of zombie-like," Hawley said.

The suspect's arrest capped a frantic search following the slayings of five people the day before.

The first 911 call came in just before 7pm on a busy Friday at the Cascade Mall: A man with a rifle was shooting at people in the Macy's department store.

By the time police arrived moments later, the carnage at the Macy's makeup counter was complete. Four people were dead, and the shooter was gone, last seen walking towards Interstate 5. The fifth victim, a man, died in the early morning hours Saturday as police finished sweeping the 434,000-square-foot building.

"There are people waking up this morning, and their world has changed forever. The city of Burlington has probably changed forever, but I don't think our way of life needs to change," Burlington Mayor Steve Sexton said Saturday at a news conference.

Authorities said it now appears the rifle was brought into the mall from the suspect's vehicle that was there, Mount Vernon Police Lt. Chris Cammock said Saturday night.

Cetin has not been charged, Cammock said. He will be booked into the Skagit County Jail and is expected to appear in Skagit County District Court on Monday.

The Seattle Times reports that Skagit County court records show three domestic-violence assault charges against Cetin. The victim was identified as Cetin's stepfather.

The newspaper reports Cetin also was arrested for drunken driving.

Cetin was told by an Island County District Court judge on December 29 that he was not to possess a firearm, the newspaper reported.

However, the stepfather urged the judge not to impose a no-contact order, saying his stepson was "going through a hard time".

 Attempts to reach suspect's family and friends for comment by phone and social media late Saturday night weren't immediately successful.

Initially the suspect in the mall shooting was described as Hispanic, but Hawley said that was based on initial witness statements to the shooting at the mall.

Surveillance video captured the suspect entering the mall unarmed and then recorded him about 10 minutes later entering the Macy's with a "hunting type" rifle in his hand, Cammock said.

The identities of the victims — four women who ranged in age from a teenager to a senior citizen — were withheld pending autopsies and notification of family. The identity of the man who was fatally shot was also withheld and may not be released until Monday.

Earlier Saturday as police scrambled to find the shooter, the small city about 97 kilometres north of Seattle waited and worried.

The community of 8,600 people is too far from Seattle to be a commuter town, but its population swells to 55,000 during the day because of a popular outlet mall and other stores and businesses. Burlington is the only major retail centre within 48 kilometres in a region where agriculture is king.

"It's too scary. It's too close to home," said Maria Elena Vasquez, who attended a gathering in a city park Saturday with her husband and two young children.

Those who survived were still trying to process what happened as their community became the latest entry on a list of places known by the rest of world for mass shootings.

Joanne Burkholder, 19, of nearby Mount Vernon, was watching the movie "The Magnificent Seven" in the mall's theatre when security guards came in and told them to evacuate immediately. Dozens of panicked moviegoers gathered in the hallway, and Burkholder heard screaming as the officers escorted them to safety in a parking lot.

As she drove home later, she had to pull over because she was shaking so hard, she told The Associated Press.

"I'm just very thankful for my life this morning. I've never been so terrified in my life," she said Saturday, trying to hold back tears as she attended the community vigil.

People who believed they may have lost loved ones were being sequestered at a church three blocks from the mall, where counsellors and a golden retriever therapy dog were present.

The Seattle Times reported that one of the victims in the deadly Washington state mall shooting is a 16-year-old girl.

Sarai Lara's mother said she had survived cancer as a young girl and was a happy student.

Evangelina Lara told the newspaper through a translator that she was shopping Friday night at the Cascade Mall in Burlington, Washington, with Sarai and her younger sister, but they split up.

Evangelina Lara says it was confirmed at 2am on Saturday that her daughter was among the five people killed.

Dozens of people attended a Saturday evening prayer service for the victims. The gathering was held at Central United Methodist Church in nearby Sedro-Woolley, Washington.

The Rev. Cody Natland lit five candles on a table in front of the church, one for each victim.

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — Newly released police video of a black man's fatal shooting, sought by protesters for days, isn't settling questions about whether the man threatened police with a gun before he was felled by a black officer.

Police said Keith Lamont Scott had a gun, though residents have said he was unarmed. It's not apparent in the video if he's holding anything shortly before he was shot. The dramatic video released by Charlotte police shows officers with guns drawn surrounding the man just before the shooting.

In the dashboard camera video released Saturday night, Scott could be seen slowly backing away from his SUV with his hands down. Four shots are heard in quick succession, and he crumples to the ground mortally wounded.

After the police vehicle dashboard camera and police body-cam videos were released, a fifth day of protests against Scott's fatal shooting was largely peaceful. Police blocked off downtown streets late into the night as they had throughout the day, allowing demonstrators to take over roadways without confrontations with vehicles.

Police also released photos on Saturday of what they said was a loaded handgun found at the scene, adding it bore Scott's DNA and fingerprints. They also said Scott had marijuana.

Relatives and their attorney said their questions aren't answered by the release of partial police video footage.

"There is no definitive evidence in this video as to whether or not there is an object in his hand, and if there is, what that object is," said Justin Bamberg, an attorney for Scott's family. "But what we do know is that the moment Mr. Scott is shot, it appears as though he's not aggressively moving towards law enforcement; he's actually doing the opposite. He's passively stepping back."

 Ray Dotch, Scott's brother-in-law, said some reporters had been looking into Scott's background but added that background shouldn't matter.

"What we know and what you should know about him is that he was an American citizen who deserved better," he said.

The dashboard camera footage opens with a police car pulling up as two officers point their guns at Scott, who is inside the SUV with the doors closed and windows rolled up. Scott gets out and begins walking backward before shots are fired.