World

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama urged parties on all sides of the crisis in Turkey on Saturday to avoid destabilising behaviour and follow the rule of law, a day after a coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rocked US efforts to combat Daesh.

Turkey closed its airspace to military aircraft following the coup attempt and power was cut off to Incirlik Air Base, which US forces use to launch air attacks against the Daesh. US officials were working with Turkish officials to resume air operations quickly, the Pentagon said.

Obama conferred with his national security and foreign policy advisers by conference call on Saturday morning and reiterated his support for the “democratically-elected, civilian” government of Turkey.

“While we have no indications as of yet that Americans were killed or injured in the violence, the president and his team lamented the loss of life and registered the vital need for all parties in Turkey to act within the rule of law and to avoid actions that would lead to further violence or instability,” the White House said in a statement.

Obama noted the United States needed continued cooperation from Turkey in the fight against terrorism.

Forces loyal to Erdogan sought to crush the last remnants of the coup on Saturday as he launched a purge of the armed forces to tighten his grip on power.

Turkey scrambled jets throughout Friday night to resist the coup launched by a faction within Turkey’s military that saw rebels piloting military aircraft.

The Incirlik Air Base near Adana in the southeast of the country was running on internal power sources after a loss of commercial power to the base, the Pentagon said.

“US officials are working with the Turks to resume air operations there as soon as possible,” said Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook. “In the meantime, US Central Command is adjusting flight operations in the counter-Daesh campaign to minimise any effects on the campaign.” 

Erdogan has cooperated with Washington in the fight against Daesh, but relations have been rocky with US officials criticising his increasing authoritarianism, Turkey’s support for Islamist opposition groups fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad and the slow pace in sealing Turkey’s border with Syria to foreign fighters.

The closing of the airspace over Incirlik effectively grounds US aircraft and drones that have been instrumental in the campaign to crush the Daesh terror group in Syria, including supporting drives by Syrian Kurds and moderate Arabs, who are being advised by US special forces, to seize the militant-held city of Manbij and Raqqa, the “capital” of the caliphate declared by Daesh.

“Clearly the variable here is how long the closure will last,” said Jeffrey White, a former senior Defence Intelligence Agency analyst with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “If we’re unable to fly from Incirlik, it will have a significant impact on the air campaign.” 

A prolonged closure of Incirlik’s airspace could force the United States to divert aircraft based in the Persian Gulf to the Manbij and Raqqa offensives, constraining the air power available to support Iraqi and US forces involved in operations against Daesh. It could also complicate the Pentagon’s ability to resupply and aid the US special forces inside Syria.

A lengthy halt also could constrain the operations of US drones, now flying out of Incirlik, to gather intelligence and strike Daesh leaders in Raqqa and militants based there who plot and coordinate extremist attacks in Western Europe, White said.

If Incirlik remains closed for a extended period, US manned and remotely piloted aircraft will be forced to make much longer flights to targets in northern Syria and Iraq from aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf and air bases in Qatar and Kuwait, US defence officials said.

ANKARA  – Turkish authorities said they had regained control of the country on Saturday after thwarting a coup attempt by discontented soldiers to seize power from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that claimed more than 250 lives.

After the bloodiest challenge to his 13-year autocratic rule, Erdogan urged his backers to stay on the streets to prevent a possible "flare-up" of Friday's chaos in the strategic NATO member of 80 million people.

With at least 2,839 soldiers already detained in a relentless round-up over the coup plot, the authorities blamed the conspiracy on Erdogan's arch enemy, the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Turks woke up early Saturday to television pictures showing dozens of soldiers surrendering after the apparent failure of the coup, some with their hands above their head, others forced to the ground in the streets.

"The situation is completely under control," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said outside his Ankara offices, flanked by Turkey's top general who had himself been taken hostage by the plotters.

Describing the attempted coup as a "black stain" on Turkey's democracy, Yildirim said 161 people had been killed in the night of violence and 1,440 wounded.

This toll did not appear to include 104 rebel soldiers killed overnight, bringing the overall death toll from the bloodshed to 265.

During a night where power was in the balance, large crowds of flag-waving supporters of Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) defied orders of a curfew and marching out onto the streets to block the attempt to overthrow the regime.

And Erdogan used his Twitter feed to urge people onto the streets to ensure no further challenges to his power.

"We should keep on owning the streets tonight no matter at what stage (the coup attempt is) because a new flare-up could take place at any moment," he said.

As the dust settled on a dramatic and chaotic night, TV pictures Saturday showed extensive damage to the parliament building in Ankara that was bombed by rebel jets.

'People are afraid'

Friday's putsch bid began with rebel F-16 jets screaming low over rooftops in Ankara, soldiers and tanks taking to the streets and multiple explosions throughout the night in the capital as well as the biggest city Istanbul.

Rebel troops also moved to block the two bridges across the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, culminating in a stand-off with an angry crowd.

As protesters poured onto the streets, an AFP photographer saw troops open fire on people gathered near one of the bridges, leaving dozens wounded.

Soldiers also shot at protesters angrily denouncing the coup bid at Istanbul's Taksim Square, injuring several.

There was chaos in Istanbul as angry crowds jeered the passing tanks, with smaller numbers welcoming the troops.

"The people are afraid of a military government," a 38-year-old man who gave his name as Dogan told AFP. "Most of them have been in military service, they know what a military government would mean."

Turkish army F-16s launched air strikes against tanks stationed by coup backers outside the presidential palace in Ankara. Regular explosions could be heard from the AFP office situated near the complex.

'Treason and rebellion'      

Erdogan, who flew back from the holiday resort of Marmaris to a triumphant welcome from supporters at Ataturk Airport, denounced the coup attempt as "treachery".

"They will pay a heavy price for this act of treason," Erdogan said. "We will not leave our country to occupiers."

The president's critics have long accused him of undermining modern Turkey's secular roots and of sliding into authoritarianism -- but he was believed to have won control of the military after purging elements who opposed him.

Turkey's once-powerful military has long considered itself the guardian of the secular state founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923.

It has staged three coups since 1960 and forced out an Islamic government in 1997.

Erdogan immediately pinned the blame on "the parallel state" and "Pennsylvania" -- a reference to Gulen, his arch-enemy whom he has always accused of seeking to overthrow him.

But the president's former ally "categorically" denied any involvement in the plot, calling the accusation "insulting".

Yildirim took aim at the United States for hosting what he called "the leader of a terrorist organisation."

"Whichever country is behind him is not a friend of Turkey and in a serious war against Turkey," he added.

Speaking in Luxembourg, US Secretary of State John Kerry invited Turkey to hand over any evidence it had against Gulen.

Meanwhile, Turkey demanded the extradition of eight people thought to have been involved in the putsch who landed in a Black Hawk military helicopter in Greece.

And Istanbul authorities sought to get life back to normal with the bridges reopening to traffic and Ataturk International Airport -  shut down by the plotters - gradually reopening.

But the US government said it has suspended all flights to Turkey, and banned all airlines from flying to the United States from Turkey due to uncertainty after the coup bid.

World leaders concerned      

The attempted coup brought new instability to the Middle East region, with Turkey a key powerbroker in the ongoing Syria conflict.

And world leaders appealed for calm, with US President Barack Obama and other Western countries urging support for the government they said had been democratically elected.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg welcomed what he called the "strong support shown by the people and all political parties to democracy and to the democratically elected government of Turkey," a key member of the alliance.

"Everything must be done to protect human lives," said a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, while French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said he hoped Turkish democracy will "emerge stronger."

LONDON — Boris Johnson, Britain’s most colourful politician with a long record of gaffes and scandals, was appointed as foreign secretary on Wednesday in a surprise move by new Prime Minister Theresa May that could shake up world diplomacy.

The former London mayor, who has never previously held a Cabinet post and is known for his undiplomatic language, was the most prominent figure in the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union that culminated in a vote for “Brexit” on June 23.

The appointment of a man who in the run-up to the referendum compared the goals of the EU with those of Adolf Hitler and Napoleon is likely to cause consternation in European capitals.

Johnson also drew accusations of racism during the campaign by suggesting in a newspaper article that US President Barack Obama, whom he described as “part-Kenyan”, was biased against Britain because of an “ancestral dislike of the British empire”.

The US State Department was quick to say it looked forward to working with Johnson. But he may face awkward moments in Washington over the Obama comments, as well as a 2007 article in which he likened Hillary Clinton to “a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital” and a more recent quip that he feared going to New York because of “the real risk of meeting Donald Trump”.

The rise to one of the four great offices of state was the latest twist in an eventful career for the man invariably referred to simply as “Boris”, known in Britain and beyond for his clownish persona and dishevelled mop of platinum hair.

Johnson originally made his name as an EU-bashing journalist in Brussels, then entered politics in the Conservative Party while also raising his profile through a series of appearances on a hit comedy TV show.

Downing street ambition thwarted

His ability to charm people with his quick wit and eccentric style helped him shrug off a series of scandals, including getting sacked from the party’s policy team while in opposition for lying about an extra-marital affair.

That and other episodes earned him the tabloid nickname “Bonking Boris”. But where others would have floundered, Johnson became increasingly popular, culminating in his two victories in usually left-leaning London’s mayoral contests in 2008 and 2012.

His decision to defy then-prime minister David Cameron, who was campaigning for Britain to remain in the European Union, by leading the push for Brexit, was widely seen as a bold gamble to replace Cameron should the “Leave” side win the referendum.

After that came to pass, he was seen as the favourite for the top job, but in his hour of triumph his ambition was thwarted in dramatic fashion when his close ally Michael Gove abruptly deserted him and announced his own candidacy.

The betrayal by Gove, whose parting shot was to say that “Boris cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead”, stopped Johnson’s march on Downing Street before it had even started.

His prospects appeared bleak as he was widely ridiculed for playing a major role in pushing Britain towards Brexit, only to duck out of the daunting task of actually steering that process. A joke that circulated widely on social media was “Cometh the hour, run awayeth the man”.

His appointment as foreign secretary was unexpected. In her previous role as interior minister, May had humiliated Johnson by refusing to allow the use of water cannons in England after, as mayor of London, he had bought three of the devices second-hand from Germany.

In a speech launching her own leadership bid on June 30, May made fun of Johnson by contrasting her own experience of negotiating with European counterparts with his.

“Last time he did a deal with the Germans he came back with three nearly-new water cannon,” she said to laughter.

With May having also appointed David Davis to the newly created post of secretary of state for exiting the European Union, Johnson’s role in detailed negotiations over the terms of Brexit is likely to be limited.

Offensive poetry competition

However, he will have to handle some of the most complex and explosive diplomatic crises around the world, from Syria to Ukraine.

“At this incredibly important time... it is extraordinary that the new prime minister has chosen someone whose career is built on making jokes,” said Tim Farron, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats.

Despite recent efforts to project a more serious image, Johnson may well find that old and not-so-old jokes come back to haunt him in his new job.

It could be hard for him to work his charm in Turkey, a NATO member and key player in the Middle East as well as in the refugee crisis on Europe’s borders, after he was declared the winner of The Spectator magazine’s “President Erdogan Offensive Poetry Competition” in May.

The magazine ran the contest to protest against what it described as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s abuse of blasphemy laws to block criticism of himself.

Johnson’s winning entry was as follows: “There was a young fellow from Ankara, Who was a terrific wankerer, Till he sowed his wild oats with the help of a goat, But he didn’t even stop to thankera”.

LONDON — Leaving the European Union “does not mean leaving Europe”, Britain’s new foreign minister and leading Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson said on Thursday.

“On Europe, clearly we have to give effect to the will of the people in the referendum, but that does not mean in any sense leaving Europe,” he told reporters outside the Foreign Office.

“There is a massive difference between leaving the EU and our relations with Europe, which if anything are going to be intensified.” 

In one of her first acts as prime minister Wednesday, Theresa May named Johnson the country’s top diplomat, stunning observers who had written off the gaffe-prone former London mayor after he pulled out of the race to succeed May’s predecessor David Cameron two weeks ago.

Johnson said he had had a “very, very busy” first day on the job, with US counterpart John Kerry among the first to call with congratulations.

“His view was that post-Brexit, and after the negotiations, what he really wants to see — and I think this is the right thing for the UK — is more Britain abroad, a greater global profile. And I think we now have the opportunity to achieve that,” Johnson said.

He shrugged off criticism from his European peers, including French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who accused him of having “lied a lot” during the Brexit campaign.

“After a vote like the referendum result on June 23, it’s inevitable that there is going to be a certain amount of plaster coming off the ceilings in the chancelleries of Europe,” Johnson said.

But, he added: “I have to say, the French foreign minister in fact has sent me a charming letter just a couple of hours ago saying how much he looked forward to working together and to deepening Anglo-French cooperation in all sorts of areas.”

BEIJING — China warned Thursday of a "decisive response" to provocations in the South China Sea, as it faced mounting pressure to accept an international tribunal's ruling against its claims to most of the strategically vital waters.

The Philippines, which launched the legal challenge, called for Beijing to respect the decision but sought to defuse tensions saying it would send a former president to China for talks. 

China, which had already vowed to ignore Tuesday's verdict by the UN-backed tribunal in The Hague, responded with another firm warning that it was in no mood to back down. 

"If anyone wants to take any provocative action against China's security interests based on the award, China will make a decisive response," Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said.

China claims nearly all of the sea — which is of immense military importance and through which about $5 trillion worth of shipping trade passes annually — even waters approaching the coasts of the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations.

China justifies its claims by saying it was the first to have discovered, named and exploited the sea, and outlines its territory using a vague map made up of nine dashes that emerged in the 1940s.

Unlawful' China 

However the tribunal sided with the Philippines in ruling China's claimed historic rights to resources within the nine-dash map had no legal basis.

It also declared that China had acted unlawfully by violating the Philippines' sovereign rights within its exclusive economic zone — waters extending 200 nautical miles from the Filipino coast.

China had done so by interfering with Philippine fishing and petroleum exploration within the exclusive zone, as well as by building artificial islands there.

China has in recent years undertaken giant land reclamation works in the Spratlys Archipelago, one of the biggest island groups in the sea which partly falls within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone.

The United States and Australia were among Philippine allies this week to quickly call on China to respect the ruling, pointing out it was legally binding. 

The Philippines initially refrained from asking China to abide by the verdict — in line with new President Rodrigo Duterte's directive to achieve a "soft landing" with Beijing on the issue.

On Thursday Duterte asked former president, 88-year-old Fidel Ramos, to go to China for talks. 

"War... is not an option. So what is the other side? Peaceful talks," Duterte said without providing a timeframe. 

"I have to consult many people, including president Ramos. I would like to respectfully ask him to go to China and start the talks." 

Ramos, who forged close relations with China when he was in office from 1992 to 1998, hinted he might not accept the offer because of his age and other commitments. 

Duterte, who took office on June 30, has said he wants better relations with China and to attract Chinese investment for major infrastructure projects. 

Beijing has said previously it wants to negotiate, but at the same time insists it will never concede on sovereignty.

Tougher stance 

The Philippines filed the legal challenge against China in 2013 under Duterte's predecessor, Benigno Aquino. Relations between Beijing and Manila plummeted over the row.

Earlier Thursday, the Philippines offered a hardened stance with a statement detailing Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay's priorities when he attends a two-day Asia-Europe summit, known as ASEM, in Mongolia along with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang starting on Friday.

"Secretary Yasay will discuss within the context of ASEM's agenda the Philippines' peaceful and rules-based approach on the South China Sea and the need for parties to respect the recent decision," the foreign affairs department said in a statement.

Even just raising the issue at the summit would anger China, which has long bridled at Philippine efforts to have the dispute discussed at multilateral events.

Chinese assistant foreign minister Kong Xuanyou insisted on Monday the ASEM meeting was "not an appropriate venue" to discuss the South China Sea.

But Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also said Thursday as he left for Mongolia that he wanted the sea to be discussed at the summit.

Vietnam, another claimant in the sea, added to the pressure on Beijing.

"Vietnam asks China to immediately end moves that violate Vietnam's sovereignty," Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh told reporters in Hanoi.

China and the United States, which insists it must help ensure freedom of navigation in the sea, had already deployed significant naval firepower into the disputed waters ahead of the verdict. 

Taiwan, which has a very similar claim to the waters as China, sent a warship into the waters on Wednesday to protect its interests.

LONDON — Theresa May became Britain’s new prime minister on Wednesday, promising to carve out a bold new future in the world as she embarks on the monumental task of leading the country out of the European Union.

May, 59 assumed office after an audience with Queen Elizabeth and drove straight to her new home of 10 Downing Street, vacated hours earlier by David Cameron.

“We will rise to the challenge. As we leave the European Union we will forge a bold new positive role for ourselves in the world, and we will make Britain a country that works not for a privileged few, but for every one of us,” she said.

Cameron stepped down after Britons rejected his entreaties and voted to leave the EU in a referendum last month, severely undermining European efforts to forge greater unity and creating economic uncertainty across the 28-nation bloc.

May must try to limit the damage to British trade and investment as she renegotiates the country’s ties with its 27 EU partners. She will also attempt to unite a divided ruling Conservative Party and a fractured nation in which many, on the evidence of the vote, feel angry with the political elite and left behind by the forces of globalisation.

Acknowledging the struggles faced by many Britons, May declared: “The government I lead will be driven not be the interests of the privileged few, but by yours. We will do everything we can to give you more control over your lives”.

“When we take the big calls we’ll think not of the powerful but you, when we pass new laws we’ll listen not to the mighty but to you, when it comes to taxes we’ll prioritise not the wealthy but you.”

The United States congratulated May and said it was confident in her ability to steer Britain through the Brexit negotiations.

“Based on the public comments we’ve seen from the incoming prime minister, she intends to pursue a course that’s consistent with the prescription that President Obama has offered,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

An official photograph showed May curtseying to a smiling Queen Elizabeth, for whom she is the 13th prime minister in a line that started with Winston Churchill.

She is also Britain’s second female head of government after Margaret Thatcher.

Divorce talks

EU leaders, keen to move forward after the shock of “Brexit”, want May to launch formal divorce proceedings as soon as possible to help resolve the uncertainty.

But she has said the process should not be launched before the end of year, to give time for Britain to draw up its negotiating strategy.

Although she favoured Britain remaining in Europe, May has repeatedly declared that “Brexit means Brexit” and that there can be no attempt to reverse the referendum outcome.

The shock vote partly reflected discontent with EU rules on freedom of movement that have contributed to record-high immigration — an issue on which May, as interior minister for the past six years, is politically vulnerable.

But EU leaders have made clear that free movement is a fundamental principle that goes hand-in-hand with access to the bloc’s tariff-free single market, a stance that will hugely complicate May’s task in hammering out new terms of trade.

“My advice to my successor, who is a brilliant negotiator, is that we should try to be as close to the European Union as we can be for the benefits of trade, cooperation and of security,” Cameron told parliament in his last appearance before resigning.

Appearing later in Downing Street with his wife Samantha and their three children, he delivered his parting remarks to the nation after six years dominated by the Europe question and the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

“It’s not been an easy journey and of course we’ve not got every decision right,” he said, “but I do believe that today our country is much stronger”.

In parliament, Cameron took the opportunity to trumpet his government’s achievements in generating one of the fastest growth rates among western economies, chopping the budget deficit, creating 2.5 million jobs and legalising gay marriage.

Yet his legacy will be overshadowed by his failed referendum gamble, which he had hoped would keep Britain at the heart of a reformed EU.

Our Angela Merkel

May is seen by her supporters as a safe pair of hands to steer the country through the disruptive Brexit process. Colleagues describe her as cautious, unflappable and intensely private.

“I think around the Cabinet table yesterday the feeling was that we have our Angela Merkel,” said Jeremy Hunt, health secretary in Cameron’s team which met for the last time on Tuesday.

“We have an incredibly tough, shrewd, determined and principled person to lead those negotiations for Britain,” Hunt told Sky News television.

German Chancellor Merkel will be May’s most important counterpart on the continent as the process unfolds. Both women are renowned for their firmness, pragmatism and discipline.

The new British leader is expected to immediately start putting together a new Cabinet, a complex political balancing act in which she will try to satisfy opposing camps in her party.

She has said she plans to set up a new government department to lead the process of quitting the EU which would be headed by someone who had campaigned on the Leave side.

Financial markets, which had been extremely volatile since the referendum, reacted positively to news on Monday that May would become prime minister earlier than expected.

Stock markets traded within sight of their highest levels of the year as the prospect of stimulative economic policy across the developed world eased immediate concerns over the impact of the Brexit vote.

Economists predicted in a Reuters poll that the Bank of England would halve its main interest rate to 0.25 per cent on Thursday in a pre-emptive strike to try to ward off a recession and reassure markets.

BEIJING — An international tribunal ruling against Beijing’s extensive claims in the South China Sea is the Asian giant’s biggest diplomatic setback in years, leaving it facing a difficult choice between pragmatism and nationalism, analysts say.

Beijing has unleashed a deluge of vitriol against the ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, but at the same time the permanent UN Security Council member is trying to position itself as a key player in the global community.

Beijing’s claims to almost the whole of the strategically vital South China Sea are embodied in a nine-dash line dating from 1940s maps, and it has built up a series of artificial islands capable of supporting military operations.

But when the Philippines, a rival claimant, asked the UN-backed tribunal to rule on 15 issues relating to the dispute, it ruled there was no legal foundation for China’s ambitions to control the area’s bounty.

The announcement unleashed a flood of condemnation from the Chinese government and state media, which for months had been preparing for an unfavourable outcome with attacks on the tribunal’s integrity, calling the group everything from a “fraud” to a “mutant”. 

Angry Chinese citizens vented their spleen online but authorities reportedly censored the most aggressive comments, and imposed tight security around the Philippine embassy amid fears of protests.

Beijing reiterated its right to declare an air defence identification zone in the area Wednesday, but did not explicitly threaten action in the water.

Its wrath was undercut by the fact that by boycotting the proceedings, insisting that the tribunal had no jurisdiction, Beijing had repeatedly rejected the opportunity to defend its position, analysts said.

Yanmei Xie, a China analyst for the International Crisis Group, said its ambitions for a bigger place on the global diplomatic stage put it in a quandary. 

“China is at a point where it wants to participate more in the shaping of international institutions and in some cases has taken up a role as a leader,” she told AFP.

Last year China set up a new multilateral lender, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, in September it will host the annual G-20 summit, and it contributes more blue helmets to UN peacekeeping missions than any other country in the world.

But its hard won credibility could be at stake if it is seen as setting itself “against international law and international institutions” or “cherry picking” rules for its own convenience, she said.

True test

China’s ruling Communist Party has long used nationalism to bolster its legitimacy, but the rhetoric has escalated under President Xi Jinping, who has responded to weakened economic growth with calls to resist the kind of pernicious Western influences that led to the country’s exploitation and weakness in the 19th century. 

At the same time it has also asserted its territorial claims more aggressively, with Xi regularly exhorting the military to improve its ability to win battles.

“This really will be the first true test of Xi Jinping’s leadership because he’s ridden the tiger of nationalist sentiment and wrapped himself in the flag I think very successfully,” said Euan Graham, of Australia’s Lowy Institute think tank.

But at the same time, “China does take its membership of the United Nations and the Security Council very seriously,” he said, adding “it’s not easy to reject an approved tribunal that is drawing on a United Nations treaty”.

Jay Batongbacal, a maritime affairs expert at the University of the Philippines, said the judgement was “a foreign policy disaster for the Party”.

“It’s going to take a lot of great statesmanship to move China from its very hardline public position without looking like it’s conceding,” he told AFP.

Although China’s foreign ministry issued a hardline response to the ruling, full of denunciations, it also offered an olive branch. The country is “ready to make every effort with the states directly concerned to enter into provisional arrangements of a practical nature”, it said at the end of a lengthy statement reasserting its claims of sovereignty.

Beijing has warned that it will meet force with force if necessary, but Hu Xingdou, a foreign policy expert at Beijing University of Technology, said a military reaction to the ruling was unlikely.

“It would lead to the interruption of China’s modernisation and lead China to become more and more closed,” he said.

Ultimately, he said, China’s response “must not be too exaggerated, and must not be too outraged”.

PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire — Democrat Bernie Sanders endorsed former rival Hillary Clinton for president in a show of party unity on Tuesday, saying she was the best candidate to fix the country's problems and beat Republican Donald Trump in the November 8 election.

With Clinton nodding in agreement beside him, Sanders put their bitter primary campaign behind them and said Clinton would take up the fight to ease economic inequality, make college more affordable and expand healthcare coverage for all Americans.

"This campaign is about the needs of the American people and addressing the very serious crises that we face, and there is no doubt in my mind that, as we head into November, Hillary Clinton is far and away the best candidate to do that," he told a raucous crowd in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, that included plenty of vocal Sanders supporters.

"I intend to do everything I can to make certain she will be the next president of the United States," the US senator from Vermont said.

His endorsement, coming five weeks after Clinton became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, brought the most prominent holdout in the party's liberal wing into Clinton's camp. Sanders threw his support to Clinton less than two weeks before the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, where she is expected to be formally nominated.

"I can't help but reflect on how much more enjoyable this election will be now that we are on the same side," Clinton said of Sanders. "Thank you Bernie for your endorsement, but more than that, thank you for your lifetime of fighting injustice."

In a statement, the Trump campaign said Sanders was now officially part of the rigged system he had criticised during the long primary battle with Clinton.

“Bernie’s endorsement becomes Exhibit A in our rigged system — the Democrat Party is disenfranchising its voters to benefit the select and privileged few,” said Stephen Miller, a senior policy adviser to Trump.

Clinton hopes the joint appearance will help her win over Sanders supporters, some of whom carried Sanders signs into the rally and frequently drowned out her backers. In recent Reuters/Ipsos polling, only about 40 per cent of Sanders backers said they would back Clinton, and the crowd at Tuesday’s rally made it clear she still had work to do.

“I am absolutely certain I will not vote for Hillary Clinton,” said Gale Bailey, a Sanders supporter and an unemployed graphic designer from Rochester, New Hampshire, who attended the rally in a Sanders T-shirt.

“She’s a crook, and I’m not going to vote for a crook,” Bailey said, adding that she would write in Sanders’ name on the November ballot.

The appearance in Portsmouth concluded weeks of negotiations between the two camps as Sanders pressed for concessions from Clinton on his liberal policy agenda.

It came after Clinton last week adopted elements of Sanders’ plans for free in-state college tuition and expanded affordable healthcare coverage. Sanders also successfully pushed to include an array of liberal policy positions in the Democratic platform, which a committee approved on Saturday.

Sanders did not win all of his policy fights, most notably failing to win support for blocking a vote in Congress on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

But he told the rally in Portsmouth that “our job now is to see that platform implemented by a Democratically controlled senate, a Democratically controlled house and a Hillary Clinton presidency — and I am going to do everything I can to make that happen”.

Top Democrats, including President Barack Obama and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a favourite of the party’s liberal wing, have already announced their support for Clinton, leaving Sanders at risk of being left behind in the Democratic battle against Trump.

“I think all signs point to the fact that we’re going to have a very united party going into Philadelphia,” Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said on CNN earlier on Tuesday, “and when you compare it to the Republicans, we’re going to be miles ahead of them”.

Trump has struggled to unify the Republican Party after alienating many establishment figures with his stances on immigration, Muslims and women. A number of prominent Republicans are skipping the party’s convention in Cleveland next week.

In another sign of the Democrats’ growing unity, two prominent liberal groups that had backed Sanders, the Communications Workers of America labour union and the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, announced their support for Clinton on Monday.

AMSTERDAM/BEIJING — China said it will ignore a ruling expected on Tuesday by an arbitration court in The Hague in a case in which the Philippines is challenging Beijing's right to exploit resources across the South China Sea.

China has boycotted the hearings at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, saying it does not have jurisdiction over the dispute.

Foreign ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, asked how China would be getting the ruling, said it would have nothing to do with the court.

"We won't accept any of their so-called materials, no matter what they are," Lu told reporters.

China's state-run Xinhua news agency said the "law-abusing tribunal" had issued an "ill-founded award". In a dispatch from Manila, it said the award was made "amid a global chorus that as the panel has no jurisdiction, its decision is naturally null and void".

The ruling stands to ramp up tensions in the region, where China's increased military assertiveness has worried its smaller neighbours and is a point of confrontation with the United States.

China claims most of the energy-rich waters through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. Neighbours Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.

The United States and China often conduct military exercises in the area and regularly accuse each other of militarising the region.

"No matter what kind of ruling is to be made, Chinese armed forces will firmly safeguard national sovereignty, security and maritime interests and rights, firmly uphold regional peace and stability, and deal with all kinds of threats and challenges," China's defence ministry said in a bilingual Chinese and English statement.

US diplomatic, military and intelligence officers said China's reaction to the court's decision will largely determine how other claimants, as well as the United States, responded.

If, for example, China accelerates or escalates its military activities in the disputed area, the US and other nations will have little choice but to respond with new and possibly enlarged and multinational maritime freedom of navigation and aerial missions, the US officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Contingency planning for such exercises is already completed or in its final stages, said one of the officials, who quickly added: "We hope it doesn't come to that." Even if Beijing ignores the decision, it is significant as it will be the first time that a legal challenge has been brought in the dispute, which covers some of the world's most promising oil and gas fields and vital fishing grounds. 

Around 100 members of a Philippine nationalist group demonstrated outside the Chinese consulate in Manila on Tuesday, calling on Beijing to accept the decision and leave the Scarborough Shoal, a popular fishing zone off limits to Filipinos since 2012.

Will judges go big

The case, brought by the Philippines in 2013, hinges on the legal status of reefs, rocks and artificial islands in the Scarborough Shoal and Spratly Island group.

Manila's 15-point case critically asks the tribunal to rule on the status of China's so-called "nine-dash line", a boundary that is the basis for its 69-year-old claim to roughly 85 per cent of the South China Sea.

The tribunal will not decide on matters of territorial sovereignty, but will apply the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in determining which countries can claim economic exploitation rights, based on geographic features.

Under the 1982 UNCLOS, islands grant their owners a 12 nautical mile radius of sovereign territorial waters.

Manila argued in closed court hearings that none of the islands, shoals and reefs in the Spratlys are large enough to grant an additional 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) for fishing and extracting seabed resources.

Manila also contests China's effective control of the Scarborough Shoal, a scattering of rocks off the coast of the Philippines' Luzon Island, seeking a ruling that would show it sits within the Philippines' EEZ.

A decision on the nine-dash line's legality would signal that the court's judges had "decided to go big", said Julian Ku, law professor at Hofstra University. "If the nine-dash line were declared invalid, then in theory all the other countries would be emboldened." 

The court has no power of enforcement, but a victory for the Philippines could spur Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei to file similar cases.

Japan, which is involved in a separate territorial dispute with China in the East China Sea, said its military would closely monitor Chinese activity after the ruling.

"We urge all parties concerned to react in a way that does not raise tensions," Defence Minister Gen. Nakatani told a briefing in Tokyo. "We will keep a close watch on the situation in the East China Sea."

LONDON — Britain will not rush to trigger divorce proceedings with the European Union, a leading ally of incoming Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday as David Cameron bowed out at his final Cabinet meeting.

May, 59, will on Wednesday replace Cameron, who is resigning after Britons rejected his advice and voted on June 23 to quit the EU, plunging the country into political and economic uncertainty.

Arriving for the brief Cabinet meeting, she waved to reporters from the doorstep of 10 Downing Street, shortly to become her home. She will face the enormous task of disentangling Britain from a forest of EU laws, accumulated over more than four decades, and negotiating new terms of trade while limiting potential damage to the economy.

Her ally Chris Grayling, the Leader of the House of Commons, said there was no hurry to invoke Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, which will formally launch the process of separation and start the clock ticking on a two-year countdown to Britain’s actual departure.

“I think Article 50 should be triggered when we’re ready. The most important thing right now is we do what’s in our national interest,” Grayling told Sky News.

“We get ourselves ready for the negotiation, we decide what kind of relationship we want to negotiate, and then we move ahead and trigger Article 50. We’ll do it right, we’ll do it in a proper way, we’ll do it when we’re ready.” His comments may dampen hopes among Britain’s EU partners that May’s surprisingly rapid ascent might accelerate the process of moving ahead with the split and resolving the uncertainty hanging over the entire 28-nation bloc.

Her last rival, Andrea Leadsom, dropped out of the leadership race on Monday, removing the need for a nine-week contest to decide who would be leader of the ruling Conservative Party and prime minister.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday that Britain should clarify quickly how it wants to shape its future relationship with the EU, adding she wanted London to remain an important partner.

“But of course the EU and the remaining 27 member states also have to protect their interests,” Merkel said. “For example, whoever would like to have free access to the European internal market will also have to accept all basic freedoms in return, including the free movement of people.” 

Last woman standing

May, who had favoured a vote to stay in the EU, was left as the last woman standing after three leading rivals from the referendum’s winning Leave campaign self-destructed in the course of a short-lived leadership race.

She has served for the past six years as interior minister, regarded as one of the toughest jobs in government, and cultivated a reputation as a tough and competent pragmatist.

Apart from the task of leading Brexit, she must try to unite a fractured party and a nation in which many, on the evidence of the referendum, feel angry with the political elite and left behind by the forces of globalisation and economic change.

Among her first acts will be to name a new cabinet which will need to find space for some of those who campaigned successfully on the opposite side of the referendum.

That could mean significant roles for Grayling and former defence secretary Liam Fox, two Leave advocates who threw their support behind her leadership bid.

May has adopted the mantra “Brexit means Brexit”, declaring on Monday there could be no second referendum and no attempt to rejoin the EU by the back door.

“As prime minister, I will make sure that we leave the European Union,” she said.

She also made a pitch for the political centre ground, calling for “a country that works for everyone, not just the privileged few”.

She promised to prioritise more house-building, a crackdown on tax evasion by individuals and companies, lower energy costs and a narrowing of the “unhealthy” gap between the pay of corporate bosses and their employees.

“Under my leadership, the Conservative Party will put itself completely, absolutely, unequivocally, at the service of ordinary working people... we will make Britain a country that works for everyone,” she said.