World

BEIJING — China hopes all parties on the Korean peninsula will remain calm and exercise restraint, President Xi Jinping told a senior visiting North Korean envoy on Wednesday, after the isolated state rattled nerves with a failed missile test.

The rare meeting in Beijing between Xi and one of North Korea's highest-profile officials, career diplomat Ri Su-yong, follows a flurry of weapons tests in the run-up to the first congress in 36 years of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party in May, when young leader Kim Jong-un consolidated his control.

China is reclusive North Korea's only major ally but has been angered by its nuclear and missile programmes.

China signed up to harsh new UN sanctions against North Korea in March in response to its fourth nuclear test in January and a satellite launch in February.

Xi told Ri that China attached great store to the friendly relationship between the two countries, and was willing to work with North Korea to consolidate that friendship, China's Foreign Ministry said.

"China's position on the peninsula issue is clear and consistent. We hope all sides remain calm and exercise restraint, increase communication and dialogue and maintain regional peace and stability," the ministry cited Xi as saying.

There was no direct mention of Tuesday's failed missile test, the latest in a string of unsuccessful ballistic missile tests by North Korea.

Ri passed on a verbal message to Xi from Kim, the ministry said, in which Kim expressed a desire to work hard with China to maintain peace and stability on the peninsula and across northeast Asia.

Xi welcomed Ri's visit to report on the North Korean party congress, which Xi said showed the importance Kim attached to ties with China, the ministry added.

Xi said he hoped North Korea could achieve even greater achievements in improving its economy and people's livelihoods, the ministry said.

Kim has yet to visit China since assuming office after his father died in 2011.

Chinese state television showed pictures of the two men meeting in Beijing's Great Hall of the People.

The United States plans to use high-level Sino-US talks in Beijing next week to discuss ways to bring greater pressure to bear on North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions, a senior US official said on Tuesday.

But China has been reluctant to take tougher action, such as completely shutting its border with North Korea, for fear that North Korea could collapse in chaos.

ANKARA — A proposed German law to label the 1915 mass killings of Armenians a genocide would damage ties between Ankara and Berlin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday, comments that could further inflame his European critics.

German lawmakers are expected to vote in June to back a planned resolution to call the killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman forces a century ago a “genocide”. Turkey denies that the massacres constituted genocide.

The vote coincides with deepening public wariness in Germany towards Turkey, and Erdogan in particular. Critics accuse German Chancellor Angela Merkel of going soft on Ankara over human rights because she wants to ensure continued Turkish cooperation in stemming the flow of illegal migrants to Europe.

Merkel drew fire from critics for allowing a German court to go ahead with investigations against a comedian for mocking Erdogan in a sexually crude poem.

In comments to reporters before he left for an official visit to Africa, Erdogan lashed out at those who he said were trying to “deceive” Germany over the 1915 events, without accusing anyone in particular.

“If Germany is to be deceived by this, then bilateral diplomatic, economic, trade, political, and military ties — we are both NATO countries — will be damaged,” he said.

The comments came after he spoke over the telephone with Merkel to express concern about the draft law, Turkish presidential sources said.

A German government spokesman confirmed the call took place and said the two also discussed the implementation of the EU-Turkey migrant deal.

Turkey argues that the there was no organised campaign to wipe out the Armenians, who are Christian, and no evidence of any such orders from the Ottoman authorities.

There are also fears that the resolution could stir tensions with some 3.5 million people of Turkish origin who live in Germany.

Last year, German President Joachim Gauck condemned the killings of Armenians as genocide in a speech to mark the 100th anniversary of the massacres. Germany had previously avoided using the word “genocide” to describe the killings.

BEIJING — China will "pressure" the United States on maritime issues at talks in Beijing next week because of Chinese concern about an increased US military presence in the disputed South China Sea, a major state-run newspaper said on Tuesday.

China has been angered by what it views as provocative US military patrols close to islands China controls in the South China Sea. The United States says the patrols are to protect freedom of navigation.

"Beijing will pressure Washington over maritime issues during the upcoming Strategic and Economic Dialogue, as the United States' increasing military presence in the South China Sea is among China's major concerns," the official China Daily said, citing unidentified officials.

China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.

This month, Beijing demanded an end to US surveillance near China after two Chinese fighter jets carried out what the Pentagon said was an "unsafe" intercept of a US military reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea.

The South China Sea is also likely to feature at a June 3-5 security forum in Singapore known as the Shangri-La Dialogue.

China's defence ministry said on Tuesday that Admiral Sun Jianguo, a deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission, would lead China's delegation at the Singapore talks.

At the Beijing talks with the United States, which US Secretary of State John Kerry will attend, other issues will also be on the table.

China will bring up the issue of self-ruled Taiwan — claimed by Beijing but which elected a pro-independence party to power in January — as well as the situation on the Korean peninsula, the China Daily added.

"The two countries have differing pursuits on major issues at the strategic level. However, the two still have many common interests," the paper said.

"Whether it is on the South China Sea issue or on the Korean Peninsula issue, the two countries have a shared security goal to maintain regional stability," it added.

The newspaper did not elaborate.

China is reclusive North Korea's only major ally but has been angered by Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests and signed up to tough UN sanctions against it in March.

WASHINGTON— American ships and fighter jets maneuvering across the South China Sea and the Sea of Japan represent the "new normal" in US-Pacific relations despite rising tensions with China and Moscow.

US moves in recent months have led to angry protests from China and Russia, which contend the Obama administration is fueling unrest in the Asia Pacific and conducting illegal and unsafe transit in the region. US military leaders defend the operations and say they will continue to exercise freedom of navigation, and may do so more frequently as time goes on.

The escalating rhetoric reflects efforts by China and Russia to show military superiority in an increasingly crowded and competitive part of the world. And it sets up a tense game of political brinksmanship as leaders from the two countries and the US thrust and parry across the military and diplomatic fields of play.

The military maneuvers have shadowed President Barack Obama's "pivot to Asia", a decision early in his tenure to try to focus the relationship with Pacific partners on economics and trade.

"We're at a moment when China, Iran and Russia are all testing us, engaging in reckless behaviour and forcing policymakers with the question of how far we push and when," said Derek Chollet, a former assistant defence secretary for international affairs and now a senior adviser at the German Marshall Fund. "We're for freedom of navigation and following the rules, and to an extent we are pushing back against changing the rules." 

Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations, said that for the first time in 25 years, the US is facing competition for maritime superiority as China and Russia build up their navies.

China's island development in the South China Sea has inflamed regional tensions, including with nations that have competing claims to the land formations. Most fear that Beijing, which has built airfields and placed weapons systems on the man-made islands, will use the construction to extend its military reach and perhaps try to restrict navigation.

Three times in the past seven months, US warships deliberately have sailed close to one of those islands to exercise freedom of navigation and challenge the claims.

In response, China has deployed fighter jets and ships to track and warn off the American ships, and accused the US of provocative action.

Twice this year, Defence Secretary Ash Carter has flown to US aircraft carriers in the South China Sea with reporters, sending a message that the US will not cede navigational rights. He plans to return to the area next week for an annual Asian national security conference.

"China has taken some expansive and unprecedented actions in the South China Sea, pressing excessive maritime claims contrary to international law," Carter said Friday during a speech to graduates at the US Naval Academy. "The result is that China's actions could erect a Great Wall of self-isolation, as countries across the region — allies, partners, and the unaligned — are voicing concerns publicly and privately, at the highest levels." 

Similarly, Russian attack planes buzzed a US Navy warship in international waters in the Baltic Sea last month, and last week Moscow lodged a formal protest about a US reconnaissance flight over the Sea of Japan.

The US says its missions are meant to underscore the rights of the US and others to traverse the region freely and to block efforts by any nation to unlawfully extend their boundaries or territorial rights.

"To the degree that we could advocate more strongly, we need to do enough of these things so that advocacy is well understood," Richardson said in an Associated Press interview. "Certainly if you wanted to dial those up in frequency, well I think that we can support that." The US is establishing "a new normal level of activity or interaction" that comes with Russia's and China's "return to great power competition", he said.

Richardson noted that freedom of navigation operations happen hundreds of times a year in the backyards of friends and foes.

"Even though there's a tremendous amount of visibility on the South China Sea right now, it is important to keep those in context," he said. "We do these around the world against a lot of these excessive claims." 

Under the Law of the Sea, a country can claim up to 12 nautical miles beyond its coastline. In some cases countries try to claim more than that.

In other cases, countries try to restrict what others can do within the 320-kilometre exclusive economic zone that's allowed under international law. For example, they may require advance notice of a flight or ship passage within that zone or prohibit certain military activities there.

The Pentagon releases an annual report that lists the countries where the US has conducted freedom of navigation operations, but includes no details.

US military officials said that at least 80 per cent are done by ships, but US aircraft also conduct flights to challenge excessive airspace claims.

The most frequent US operations are in the narrow Strait of Hormuz, where hundreds of times a year ships pass through territorial waters claimed by Iran and Oman. Both countries try to restrict movement through the strait, but international law allows innocent passage.

The Iranian military often hails US ships and tells them to leave. The two sides essentially follow a script, as the US ship continues on its way.

In other places around the globe, including portions of India or large swaths of the South American coast, US ships routinely sail within claimed territorial waters or refuse to provide advance requests for transit. Often the operations go unnoticed or trigger no reaction or protest.

In some cases, US officials said, countries are only aware of the operation after the Pentagon releases the annual report.

According to the 2015 report, the US formally conducted freedom of navigation operations as a way of challenging excessive claims made by 13 countries during the budget year ending September 30.

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.