World

BEIJING — A top North Korean official made a rare visit to China on Tuesday in an apparent attempt by Pyongyang to mend frayed ties with its powerful neighbour.

China is North Korea's largest trading partner and has been its key diplomatic protector for decades. But relations have soured following Pyongyang's internationally condemned nuclear tests, with Beijing supporting UN sanctions against its isolated neighbour.

The visit by Ri Su-yong, vice chairman of the North's ruling Workers' Party and former foreign minister, came even as South Korea said Tuesday the North had tried and failed to launch a powerful new medium-range missile.

The attempted launch is the latest in a series of setbacks for a ballistic weapons programme that aspires to threaten the US mainland.

UN resolutions ban North Korea from any use of ballistic missile technology, although it regularly fires short-range missiles into the sea off its east coast.

Ri Su-yong met Chinese official Song Tao, head of the international department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee, to brief him on the North's once-in-a-generation party congress, according to the CCP. 

North Korea held its first party congress for nearly 40 years in early May, formally endorsing leader Kim Jong-un's policy of expanding the country's nuclear arsenal.

The lack of any official Chinese representation at the congress was viewed as a sign of friction between the two traditional allies.

"Both sides pledged to cherish the traditional friendship, strengthen exchanges and cooperation," the website of the CCP's international department said of Tuesday's visit.

Kim has not visited China since coming to power and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping has not visited Pyongyang.

But the North Korean leader watched the local Sobaeksu basketball team beat China's Olympic squad in three matches on Monday, Pyongyang's official news agency reported.

Kim "expressed great satisfaction over the successful game", it said.

China's official Xinhua news agency said Ri would visit for three days as part of a delegation.

He is the highest-ranking North Korean official to visit China since last year, when Kim Jong-un's close aide Choe Ryong-hae attended a military parade in Beijing to mark the 70th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II.

South Korea's foreign ministry said Tuesday it "hopes relations between North Korea and China will advance in a way that could contribute to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula [and] get the North to give up its nuclear weapons".

TOKYO/SEOUL — Japan put its military on alert on Monday for a possible North Korean ballistic missile firing, while South Korea also said it had detected evidence of launch preparations, officials from Japan and South Korea said.

Tension in the region has been high since North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and followed that with a satellite launch and test launches of various missiles.

Japan ordered naval destroyers and anti-ballistic missile Patriot batteries to be ready to shoot down any projectile heading for Japan, Japan's NHK state broadcaster said.

A Japanese official, who declined to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to the media, confirmed the order. A spokesmen for Japan's defence ministry declined to comment.

A Patriot missile battery on the grounds of Japan's Ministry of Defence had its missile tubes elevated to a firing position.

The South Korean defence official declined to comment on what type of missile might be launched but South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said officials believe it would be an intermediate-range Musudan missile.

"We've detected a sign and are tracking that. We are fully prepared," said the South Korean official, who also declined to be identified.

North Korea tried unsuccessfully to test launch the Musudan three times in April, according to US and South Korean officials.

Japan has put its anti-ballistic missile forces on alert at least twice this year after detecting signs of launches by North Korea.

North Korea's nuclear and missile tests this year triggered new UN sanctions but it seems determined to press ahead with its weapons programmes, despite the sanctions and the disapproval of its sole main ally, China.

Last Friday, leaders of the Group of Seven industrialised nations, including Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US President Barack Obama, met in Japan and demanded that North Korea comply with a UN Security Council resolution to stop all nuclear and missile tests and refrain from provocative action.

On the same day, North Korea threatened to retaliate against South Korea after it fired what it said were warning shots when boats from the North crossed the disputed sea border off the west coast of the Korean peninsula.

Japan has advanced Aegis vessels in the Sea of Japan that are able to track multiple targets and are armed with SM-3 missiles designed to destroy incoming warheads in space before they re-enter the atmosphere and fall to there targets.

Patriot PAC-3 missile batteries, designed to hit warheads near the ground, are deployed around Tokyo and other sites as a second and final line of defence. 

PARIS — Air France pilots voted on Monday to go on strike and oil storage workers extended a job walkout, compounding the French government's woes as it scrambled to calm rolling protests against labour reforms ahead of the Euro soccer tournament.

After more than three months of tense talks, often violent street protests, and waves of strikes in the transport and energy industries, the Socialist government is under pressure to find a solution before the Euro 2016 kick-off on June 10.

As France braced for further nationwide rail strikes on Tuesday, people involved in the talks said the government's strategy was to push for deals with individual firms such as the state-run SNCF rail operator to try and blunt the momentum behind protests.

"The government is pushing for deals to be found," said one union official familiar with the negotiations, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche quoted a person close to President Francois Hollande confirming the government approach, as did a Socialist lawmaker speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

"The government absolutely needs this to find a way out," said another source close to the talks.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who insists the government will not scrap the law, spoke to trade union leaders by phone on Saturday. He told them he might be open to some changes, but not on any key elements.

Labour Minister Myriam El Khomri insisted on Monday that the government was standing by the bill that she drafted and which has already been watered down.

She said negotiations with the SNCF and the Paris metro operator, RATP, on work conditions marked an opportunity for unions "to stand up to their responsibilities". 

Negotiations with the SNCF made progress at the weekend, said Luc Berille, the secretary general of pro-reform UNSA union, the second largest union in the company, told Reuters.

Guy Groux, a researcher at the Cevipof political institute said: "If there were deals at the SNCF or RATP [Paris metro operator], that could put an end to the protests or at least weaken them." 

Meanwhile, workers at the CIM, an oil storage and supply services company which handles about 40 per cent of French crude imports, voted to extend their strike at Le Havre Port until 1000 GMT on Wednesday, a CGT union official told Reuters.

Pilots at Air France also voted to go on strike over pay conditions but have not set a date yet, the head of the SNPL union said on Monday.

Only two French refineries out of eight are operating but the situation at depots has improved from last week with only one now blocked.

The labour reform strikes are being spearheaded by the hardline CGT Union, France's largest union since 1945 but which is now being overtaken by the moderate CFDT that backs the labour bill. Groux said CGT leaders were under huge pressure from grass-roots activists to dig their heels in.

"Trying to find a deal with the government and call for an end to the protests would be, for [CGT chief Philippe] Martinez to take the risk not to be followed [by union members]", said Groux.

A majority of French expect the government to make some small amendments to the bill, due for a final reading in the lower house of parliament in July, but not withdraw it altogether as the CGT wants, said Frederic Dabi at Ifop pollsters.

"There is no easy way out," Dabi said. "We have two sides, both of whom are relatively fragile and who have irreconcilable differences." 

ROME — At least 700 migrants may have died at sea this past week in the busiest week of migrant crossings from Libya towards Italy this year, Medecins San Frontieres and the UN Refugee agency said on Sunday.

About 14,000 have been rescued since Monday amid calm seas, and there have been at least three confirmed instances of boats sinking. But the number of dead can only be estimated based on survivor testimony, which is still being collected.

“We will never know exact numbers,” Medecins San Frontieres said in a Tweet after estimating that 900 had died during the week. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said more than 700 had drowned.

Migrants interviewed on Saturday in the Sicilian Port of Pozzallo told of a large fishing boat that overturned and sank on Thursday with many women and children on board.

Initial estimates were that 400 people died, but the UN Refugee agency said on Sunday there may have been about 670 passengers on board.

According to testimony collected by EU border agency Frontex, when the motorless fishing boat capsized, 25 swam to the boat that had been towing it, while 79-89 others were saved by rescuers and 15 bodies were recovered. This meant more than 550 died, the UNHCR said.

The migrants — fleeing wars, oppression and poverty — often do not know how to swim and do not have life jackets. They pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to make the crossing from Libya to Italy, by far the most dangerous border passage for migrants in the world.

This week’s arrivals included Eritreans, Sudanese, Nigerians and many other West Africans, humanitarian groups say. Despite the surge this week, as of Friday 40,660 arrivals had been counted, 2 per cent fewer than the same period of last year, the Interior Ministry said.

Most of the boats this week appear to have left from Sabratha, Libya, where many said smugglers had beaten them and women said they had been raped, said MSF, which has three rescue boats in the area.

The migrants are piled onto flimsy rubber boats or old fishing vessels which can toss their occupants into the sea in a matter of seconds.

About 100 are thought to have either been trapped in the hull or to have drowned after tumbling into the sea on Wednesday.

On Friday, the Italian Navy ship Vega collected 45 bodies and rescued 135 from a “half submerged” rubber boat. It is not yet known exactly how many were on board, but the rubber boats normally carry about 300.

“Some were more shaken than others because they had lost their loved ones,” Raffaele Martino, commander of the Vega, told Reuters on Sunday in the southern Port of Reggio Calabria, where the Vega docked with the survivors and corpses, including those of three infants.

“It’s time that Europe had the courage to offer safe alternatives that allow these people to come without putting their own lives or those of their children in danger,” Tommaso Fabri of MSF Italy said.

SHINDAND, Afghanistan — A breakaway Taliban faction is willing to hold peace talks with the Afghan government but will demand the imposition of Islamic law and the departure of all foreign forces, a senior leader of the group said Sunday.

Mullah Abdul Manan Niazi told a group of around 200 followers in eastern Afghanistan that his faction had no faith in the government but was willing to negotiate without preconditions.

Niazi is deputy to Mullah Mohammad Rasool, who split from the Taliban last summer after Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was chosen to succeed the group’s late founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar.

Mansoor was killed earlier this month in a US drone strike in Pakistan and was replaced days later by a little known conservative cleric, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada.

The main Taliban faction has expressed similar demands, but says it will only enter peace talks after they have been met. The US and NATO officially ended their combat mission more than a year ago, but thousands of foreign soldiers remain in the country, mainly carrying out training, support and counterterrorism operations.

Mansoor had refused to participate in a peace process initiated by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that included Pakistan, the United States and China.

Representatives of the four countries have held five meetings, without inviting the Taliban. Their aim is to chart a roadmap toward talks between the Afghan government and the insurgents to end the 15-year war, but the disarray within the Taliban has complicated those efforts.

The Taliban’s spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, has branded Rasool’s faction “a government army in the shape of the Taliban”. Speaking to the AP on Sunday, he claimed that Rasool was supported by Kabul and Washington.

“For us he is nothing more than a local policeman or a puppet of Afghan intelligence,” he said.

Rasool’s followers met in the mountainous Shindand district, near the border with Iran. Snipers on hilltops surveyed dirt roads leading to the area, which serves as the main base for the mobile fighters. The encampment where the meeting was held is only accessible by motorbike or horse.

The turbaned followers of Rasool — who is believed to have been detained in Pakistan — appeared to be armed with new weapons, including automatic rifles and grenade launchers.

The Taliban have continued to launch major attacks on government forces despite the internal conflict, and the war has shown no sign of abating over the past year.

The Taliban attacked checkpoints in the southern Helmand province late Saturday, killing four police, according to the provincial governor’s spokesman, Omar Zawaq.

Among those killed was local police commander Safar Mohammad, who in recent years had successfully kept highways in the area open to traffic. Zawaq said another nine police officers and one soldier were wounded in the attack.

PARIS — The French government maintained a hard line Saturday ahead of a fresh wave of protest over a bitterly-disputed labour law that has seen demonstrators blockading oil refineries and strikes paralysing the transport network.

The escalating unrest, which has gathered pace over the last week sparking petrol shortages that forced the government to dip into strategic fuel reserves, comes just weeks before football fans flood into the country for the Euro 2016 championships. 

At issue is a controversial labour law which the government forced through parliament without a vote aimed at freeing up France's famously-rigid labour market and bringing down high unemployment, which unions say favours companies at the expense of workers' rights. 

They are demanding it be scrapped. 

Despite the protests, the government has remained defiant, with riot police on Friday moving in to clear blockades outside 15 petrol depots, and President Francois Hollande vowing not to give in to union demands. 

His tough line was echoed Saturday by Prime Minister Manuel Valls ahead of talks with bosses in the oil and transport industries, the two sectors worst hit by the protests. 

"My responsibility as head of government is to ensure that people can buy petrol and that businesses won't be penalised by the blockages," he said, pledging to defend the law "to the end". 

"We will continue clearing these sites with determination," he said as hoteliers and restaurateurs reported "major cancellations" in Paris and in the west over the strikes and petrol shortages. 

Saturday's talks were aimed at taking stock of the petrol shortages following the partial or total closure of six of the country's eight refineries. Several of the sites have been operating at reduced capacity due to the ongoing union action.

Petrol situation improving

With most of the blockades cleared by police on Friday, the situation was much improved although the government said around 20 per cent of petrol stations were still suffering shortages. 

"The situation is improving this morning," Transport Minister Alain Vidalies said after the talks, while cautioning that it was too early to say the petrol crisis had been resolved. 

"We cannot yet say the crisis is over." 

Further protests are expected next week with strikes expected to hit the rail network, the Paris Metro and civil aviation on Tuesday. 

With petrol in short supply, many disgruntled motorists were forced to wait in long queues at service stations. Despite the disruption, polls suggest two out of three people — or 66 per cent — are in favour of a withdrawal of the text "to avoid the country grinding to a halt". 

After a day of major protests on Thursday which authorities said brought 153,000 people on to the streets — organisers put the figure at 300,000 — the eight unions opposing to the law urged demonstrators to "step up the mobilisation". 

The stoppages are part of a wave of strikes and mass demonstrations that have seriously disrupted France, sparking sometimes violent confrontations with the police. 

Earlier this week, France's civil aviation body appealed to airlines to fuel up abroad before arriving in Paris from European destinations to ensure they could make the return flight, in a move that Air France insisted was merely precautionary.

Strikes also continued at nuclear power stations — which provide three-quarters of the country's electricity — but have so far failed to affect supply, authorities said.

Union 'blackmail' 

The employers' federation, Medef, expressed anger over the effect the strikes are having on France's fragile economic growth, urging the government to resist the unions' "blackmail".

Tourist bookings were also hit, with hoteliers nervous that Euro 2016 visitors may be put off by the industrial action.

But all the main unions were in no mood to back down, urging workers to "multiply and support" the strikes and slamming the government's "stubbornness" in refusing to withdraw the contested law.

The strikes come a year ahead of an election in which Hollande is considering standing again despite poll ratings that are among the lowest for a French leader in modern history.

The CGT union that has led the protests has called for rolling strikes on the Paris Metro network to start on June 10, the day Euro 2016 begins, giving the organisers new headaches on top of security concerns sparked by last November's terrorist attacks in Paris.

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday condemned the United States' support of Kurdish fighters in Syria after AFP pictures revealed US commandos wearing the insignia of a militia branded a terror group by Ankara. 

"The support they give to... the YPG [militia]... I condemn it," said Erdogan. "Those who are our friends, who are with us in NATO... cannot, must not send their soldiers to Syria wearing YPG insignia." 

Erdogan's comments came after an AFP photographer captured images of US troops in Syria wearing insignia of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

Ankara regards the YPG as a terror group, accusing it of carrying out attacks inside Turkey and being the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has fought an insurgency against the Turkish state for over three decades.

"The PKK, the PYD, the YPG, Daesh, there is no difference. They are all terrorists," Erdogan said.

It had long been public knowledge that around 200 US commandos are in northern Syria helping local militia target the Daesh extremist group's de facto capital Raqa and guiding in coalition air strikes.

Erdogan, speaking in the majority Kurdish city Diyarbakir, accused the US of being dishonest because of its support for the militia and its political wing the Democratic Union Party (PYD).

"I believe that politics should be exercised with honesty," he said. 

The US seeking to avoid a rift with ally Turkey, swiftly announced Friday that special operations troops in northern Syria would henceforth stop wearing the badge of the YPG guerrillas.

However the State Department played down the spat, insisting that Washington and Ankara remain close partners in the broader fight against Daesh, despite disagreements about the role of the YPG.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu accused the United States of "hypocrisy" and "double standards" and said the American soldiers might just as well have worn the logo of Al Qaeda, Daesh or Boko Haram.

The United States has blacklisted the PKK as a "foreign terrorist organisation" but regards its Syrian-based sister group the PYG as a useful ally in the face of the Daesh threat.

US military officials say they will continue to work with the YPG, which provides the bulk of the so-called "Syrian Democratic Forces" fighting the Daesh group.

SEOUL — North Korea on Saturday warned South Korea of "merciless retaliatory strikes", a day after the South fired warning shots at North Korean boats near their disputed sea border.

The North's military general staff said from now on it would open fire without warning at any South Korean ships if they intrude "even 0.001 millimetres" into disputed waters in the Yellow Sea.

It called for the South to apologise for the "reckless military provocation", which it said aimed to "drive the situation in the volatile hotspot to the brink of explosion".

"From now on, we will open direct fire on any warship of the South Korean puppet forces without warning, if it intrudes... even 0.001 mm in the hotspot of the West Sea," it was quoted as saying in a statement carried by Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"They should be mindful that they would face our merciless retaliatory strikes anytime and at any place and in any way", it added.

It accused the South of responding to its efforts to create dialogue with "reckless military provocation".

In recent weeks, Pyongyang has been urging Seoul to accept leader Kim Jong-un's proposal for military talks aimed at easing cross-border tensions.

Seoul has flatly rejected the offer, insisting that the North should first take a tangible step towards ending its nuclear weapons programmes.

A South Korean naval vessel fired warning shots Friday after a patrol boat from the North and a fishing boat crossed the disputed sea border. The North's boats swiftly retreated.

"This reckless military provocation was evidently prompted by a premeditated sinister plot to bedevil the north-south relations and further aggravate the tension on the Korean peninsula," KCNA said.

Both sides complain of frequent incursions by the other and there were minor naval clashes in 1999, 2002 and 2009.

PARIS — Masked youths clashed with police in Paris and striking workers blockaded refineries and disrupted nuclear power stations on Thursday as an escalating wave of industrial action against labour reforms rocked France.

Police fired tear gas at around 100 protesters who broke away from a march through the capital to smash windows of shops and parked cars, an AFP reporter said, in the latest outburst of anger at the controversial legislation.

With just two weeks to go before France hosts the Euro 2016 football championship, union activists blocked roads and bridges, and train drivers and air traffic controllers staged walkouts.

Unions called for rolling strikes on the Paris Metro to start on the day of the opening match on June 10.

Union leaders said 100,000 people marched through Paris, but police put the number at only around 19,000.

Reports said 31 demonstrators were arrested.

Although some blockades on fuel depots and refineries in the north of the country were called off, many motorists were still stuck in long queues at petrol stations around France.

A man in his 50s had to be airlifted to hospital after he was seriously injured when a motorist rammed a roadblock set up by activists outside a petrol refinery at Fos-sur-Mer on the Mediterranean coast.

At the Tricastin nuclear plant in southern France, workers set fire to piles of tyres, sending out clouds of black smoke.

Unions are furious about the legislation forced through parliament by the deeply unpopular Socialist government which is aiming to reform France’s famously rigid labour laws by making it easier for companies to hire and fire workers.

Protests ‘irresponsible

Under intense pressure, Prime Minister Manuel Valls insisted that the law would not be withdrawn, but said it might still be possible to make “changes” or “improvements”.

But there were signs that some in the ruling Socialist Party were buckling, with Finance Minister Michel Sapin suggesting the most contested part of the legislation should be rewritten.

Valls slapped Sapin down and ruled out revamping the clause, which gives individual companies more of a free hand in setting working conditions.

“You cannot blockade a country, you cannot attack the economic interests of France in this way,” a defiant Valls told parliament, after earlier branding the CGT union that is driving the protests “irresponsible”.

The mounting problems for the government come 12 months ahead of an election in which President Francois Hollande is considering standing again despite poll ratings that are among the lowest for a French leader in modern history.

The CGT said staff at all but three of France’s 19 nuclear power stations — which provide three-quarters of its electricity — have voted to stop work.

RTE, the body overseeing the national power network, said the stoppages were not having an immediate effect on the electricity supply, but “if it worsens, it will have an impact on the management of the network”.

A third of petrol stations were dry or dangerously low on fuel after several days of blockades at refineries by union activists.

One refinery returned to operation after the activists ended their strike, but five of the country’s eight refineries were still either halted or operating at reduced capacity.

I blame the government

Pierre Jata, a 40-year-old cable TV technician was rushing to fill up at a petrol station on the edge of the capital, minutes before supplies ran out.

He laid the blame for the disruption on the government. 

“I’m with the unions. I’m with them but I’m still annoyed,” he said.

The government has been forced to tap into its strategic reserves and Hollande has vowed to do “everything... to ensure the French people and the economy is supplied”.

Meanwhile, strikes forced Orly airport in Paris to ground 15 per cent of flights and the commuter and national train networks were hit, with one in five high-speed trains cancelled.

The CGT has called for another day of action on June 14, raising concerns for fans travelling to Euro 2016 matches being held at 10 venues around France.

Many organisations, including the International Monetary Fund, have said the labour legislation is necessary to create jobs.

But unions are demanding the reforms be scrapped altogether, arguing they are too pro-business and unlikely to bring down high unemployment.

The government forced the legislation through parliament earlier this month without a vote, further infuriating opponents.

Unions say they have popular support for the protests and they were cheered by a poll carried out on Thursday that showed nearly two-thirds of people believe the action is “justified”.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble backed the French government’s attempts to reform.

“France is obviously not unreformable,” Schaeuble told journalists. “France can live with such disputes.”

KABUL — The Afghan government is looking warily at the conservative religious scholar who has assumed leadership of the Taliban, seeing in him a rigid proponent of hardline orthodoxy who is unlikely to favour peace talks, officials said.

A day after the Afghan Taliban announced that Haibadullah Akhundzada would take over after Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan, officials on Thursday were trying to form a picture of a leader best known for relentlessly applying strict Sharia, or Islamic law.

In his former role as one of the Taliban insurgency’s senior judges, he was responsible for issuing a series of death sentences against opponents of Mansour, according to General Abdul Razeq, police chief of Akhundzada’s home city of Kandahar.

Officials said he appeared to favour a return to the austere and often harsh Islamic rule in Afghanistan before the Taliban were ousted by US-led forces in 2001, something that would be unacceptable to the Afghan government and its Western backers.

“He is a simple religious cleric,” said Haji Agha Lalai, an adviser to President Ashraf Ghani, who added that Akhundzada would rely heavily on his deputy Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of the feared Haqqani network, for battlefield decisions.

For the moment, the Afghan government and its NATO allies do not see any letup in the fighting, and are bracing for likely bomb attacks as Akhundzada consolidates his position and demonstrates his determination to fight.

“It’s all speculation at the moment as to where he will go,” said Brigadier General Charles Cleveland, spokesman for NATO’s Resolute Support mission.

“In the short term, though, we don’t expect to see any significant changes on the battlefield,” he told reporters.

Taliban officials present at the meeting where Akhundzada was made leader said his appointment was largely because he was perceived as a unifying figure who could heal the rifts that emerged during Mansour’s brief tenure.

But Lalai said he did not appear to have the kind of political skills needed to change the strategic direction of the Taliban, which has ruled out joining peace talks, even if he wanted to.

“People in the Taliban only respect him because he is a pious man,” he said. “We don’t see any hope that he would agree [to] or... convince the Taliban to accept a peace deal.” 

Conservative

Akhundzada, from a deeply religious family in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province, also attracted harsh criticism from factional rivals within the Taliban, who previously opposed Mansour.

“He is a very conservative, narrow-minded, inefficient kind of person who will never be able to unite the Taliban or gather support,” said Mullah Abdul Manan Niazi, the deputy and spokesman of Mullah Mohammad Rasool, leader of the most prominent anti-Mansour faction in the Taliban.

He said Akhundzada was responsible for the execution of several senior Taliban commanders.

“His fatwa was to execute whoever rejected Mullah Mansour as a leader,” he said.

Pakistan, which has faced fresh accusations of harbouring the Taliban after Mansour’s death on its soil, said the drone strike had undermined the so-called quadrilateral peace process involving Pakistan, Afghanistan, the United States and China.

But foreign policy chief Sartaj Aziz, who said the United States informed Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif of the strike against Mansour three-and-a-half hours before Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said contacts would resume.

“As the new [Taliban] leadership settles down, the four members will make their own contacts and then there will be a collective assessment of how to move this process forward.”