World

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump inched closer to the US Republican presidential nomination as his odds shot to a record high on global betting websites on Wednesday and he won his first endorsement from a member of Congress.

The outspoken businessman easily won the Nevada caucuses on Tuesday, giving him his third win in four early nominating contests and pressuring Republican rivals to come up with a way to stop a candidate who only last year was not seen as a serious contender for the November 8 presidential election.

The real estate billionaire swept Nevada by a margin of 22 percentage points, winning 45.9 per cent of the vote.

It was the high point so far of an unorthodox campaign during which Trump has fought with Pope Francis, called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States and promised to build a wall on the US-Mexican border to prevent illegal immigration.

Trump's Nevada win is likely to further frustrate Republican establishment figures who, less than a month ago, were hoping his campaign as a political outsider was stalled after he lost the opening nominating contest in Iowa to Ted Cruz, a US senator from Texas.

In his victory speech in Nevada, the former reality TV show host courted his base of blue-collar workers.

"I love the poorly educated," he said, mentioning several demographic groups among whom he said he was winning.

By Wednesday, that phrase was being widely discussed online, with some finding it funny and others arguing it was a welcome, nonjudgemental embrace of a constituency that other politicians might speak of only as a problem to be fixed.

Trump's nearest rivals, Cruz and Marco Rubio, a US senator from Florida, have frequently attacked each other, clearing a path for Trump to the Republican nomination that includes primary elections in a slew of southern states on March 1, known as Super Tuesday.

"These guys have to figure out how to turn their fire on Trump," said Ford O'Connell, a Republican strategist in Washington. Absent that, he said: "Which one is going to get out of this field?"

Rubio and Cruz have struggled to match the popularity of Trump, who is more ready than the two senators to deviate from the tenets of the Republican Party's brand of conservatism, including free trade and supply-side economics.

Congressional endorsement

On Wednesday, Chris Collins, a Republican congressman from Trump's home state of New York, became the first national lawmaker to endorse Trump, saying in a statement "it's time to say no to professional politicians and yes to someone who has created jobs and grown a business".

Speaking earlier on Wednesday, Trump called endorsements a "waste of time" that "mean very little" in an ABC interview.

Betting venues in Britain, Ireland and New Zealand show the online wagering community coalescing around Trump, once considered an interloper, attracting long-shot odds of 200/1.

Odds for Trump becoming the Republican candidate for November have tightened all the way to a-half in some cases.

While more than 1,200 delegates are needed to secure the Republican presidential nomination, Trump has built a formidable head start over Rubio, who came in second in Nevada with 23.9 per cent, and Cruz with 21.4 per cent.

Opinion polls show Trump ahead in most Super Tuesday states, placing further pressure on Cruz and Rubio, who will have what may be their last chance to change course when the Republican candidates meet for a televised debate on Thursday night.

The primary election next Tuesday in Cruz's home state of Texas is looming as a make-or-break moment for him after Trump's growing success among the senator's core base of evangelicals and other conservative supporters. 

FRANKFURT/LONDON — Mars Inc has recalled chocolate bars and other products in 55 countries, mainly in Europe, after a piece of plastic was found in a Snickers bar in Germany, the US confectionery maker said on Tuesday.

All of the recalled products, which include Mars, Snickers and Milky Way bars, were manufactured at a Dutch factory in Veghel, according to a Mars spokeswoman. They were sold in European countries including Germany, France and Britain, and in certain countries in Asia.

The recall, in effect since Monday, follows a January 8 complaint from a consumer in Germany, she said, who found red plastic in a Snickers bar and sent it back to the company.

"We cannot be sure that this plastic was only in that particular Snickers," a spokeswoman from Mars Netherlands said. "We do not want any products on the market that may not meet our quality requirements, so we decided to take them all back."

It was not immediately clear how much the complex recall would cost the company, which is unlisted and therefore does not disclose detailed financial information. The spokeswoman declined to comment on financial implications of the recall, which is the first to affect the factory employing about 1,200 people.

Consumer product recalls can have big reputational and financial effects, as Nestle learned last year when it recalled its Maggi noodles from India after a package was found to have unsafe levels of lead.

A statement posted earlier on the website of the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority said Mars was recalling Snickers, Mars, Milky Way, Celebrations and Mini Mix after a piece of plastic was found in one of its products that in certain circumstances could cause choking.

Mars Netherlands said it was working closely with the Dutch food safety authority on the matter, according to the statement.

The privately held company earlier said it had recalled products in Germany.

"We want to avoid having consumers who bought one of the [affected] products consume them," Mars said in a statement on its German website.

It said the recall affected all Mars and Snickers products, Milky Way Minis and Miniatures as well as certain kinds of Celebrations confectionery boxes with best-before dates ranging from June 19, 2016 to Jan. 8, 2017. Those dates may not be the same in other countries, the spokeswoman said.

Mars, based in Mount Olive, New Jersey, is one of the world's biggest food companies, with 29 chocolate brands including M&M's, Galaxy, Twix, Bounty and Maltesers. Aside from chocolate, Mars makes Wrigley gum, Uncle Ben's Rice, Dolmio pasta sauce and Pedigree pet food. 

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama launched a final push on Tuesday to persuade Congress to close the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but lawmakers, opposed to rehousing detainees in the United States, declared his plan a non-starter.

In White House remarks, Obama, a Democrat, pleaded with the Republican-led Congress to give his proposal a "fair hearing." He said he did not want to pass along the issue to his successor next January.

The Pentagon plan proposes 13 potential sites on US soil for the transfer of remaining detainees but does not identify the facilities or endorse a specific one.

"We'll review President Obama's plan," Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said. "But since it includes bringing dangerous terrorists to facilities in US communities, he should know that the bipartisan will of Congress has already been expressed against that proposal."

Paul Ryan, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, said Obama had yet to convince Americans that moving the prisoners to the United States was smart or safe.

Obama pledged to close the prison as a candidate for the White House in 2008. The prisoners were rounded up overseas when the United States became embroiled in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. The facility in years past came to symbolise aggressive detention practices that opened the United States to allegations of torture.

"Let us go ahead and close this chapter," Obama said.

"Keeping this facility open is contrary to our values ... It is viewed as a stain on our broader record of upholding the highest standards of rule of law," he said.

Executive action?

Obama is considering taking unilateral executive action to close the facility, situated in a US naval station in southeast Cuba, if Congress does not vote to allow transfers to the United States. Republicans oppose any executive order.

The White House has sought to buttress its argument for closing the prison by focusing on its high cost. Obama said nearly $450 million was spent last year alone to keep it running. The new plan would be cheaper, officials said.

The transfer and closure costs would be $290 million to $475 million, an administration official told reporters, while housing remaining detainees in the United States would be $65 million to $85 million less expensive than at the Cuba facility, meaning the transfer bill would be offset in three to five years.

The prison, which Obama said once held nearly 800 detainees, now houses 91 detainees. Some 35 prisoners will be transferred to other countries this year, leaving the final number below 60, officials said.

Obama noted that his predecessor, Republican President George W. Bush, transferred hundreds of prisoners out of Guantanamo and wanted to close it. Republican Senator John McCain, Obama's 2008 presidential opponent and a former prisoner of war during US involvement in Vietnam, also wanted it shut.

The plan would send detainees who have been cleared for transfer to their homelands or third countries and transfer remaining prisoners to US soil to be held in maximum-security prisons. Congress has banned such transfers to the United States since 2011.

Though the Pentagon has previously noted some of the sites it surveyed for use as potential US facilities, the administration wants to avoid fueling any political outcry in important swing states before the November 8 presidential election.

LONDON — With its red, white and blue banners, patriotic slogans and ubiquitous country songs, the presidential campaign marching through South Carolina and Nevada seems like an all-American affair. But it holds familiar overtones for Europeans watching anxiously from abroad.

Donald Trump — his bombast distinctly American — sometimes takes a nationalist stance that sounds a lot like the "blame the immigrant" approach used by a growing cadre of European politicians as the continent deals with unprecedented waves of immigration and extremism.

On the left, Bernie Sanders espouses Scandinavian-style "democratic socialism" that sounds radical to some American ears. But it has long been part of the political mainstream in Europe, where socialist governments come and go without particular fanfare.

The sentiment fueling the unexpected ascent of Trump and Sanders seems the same as the mood powering trends in Europe: a flat-out, let's-make-a-change rejection of the political elite.

Jacek Kucharczyk, president of the Institute of Public Affairs in Warsaw, says despite huge differences between politics in Europe and the United States, the same sense of grievance and helplessness is driving people to extremes on the left and the right.

He cites the Polish election in October that brought the anti-immigrant Law and Justice Party led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski to power. "There is the same mistrust of the political mainstream. There is this lethal combination of social economic uncertainties and identity wars that are imposed on them," he says.

Fear of mass immigration is a common denominator that was exploited by Kaczynski in the final stages of his campaign — when he warned that the migrants arriving on Europe's shores were carrying dangerous infectious diseases — and Trump is stoking somewhat similar fears in the United States.

"When we hear Trump, it really sounds like Kaczynski," says Kucharczyk.

In both Europe and the US, extremist attacks also have undermined the sense of security, heightening fears of outsiders.

Attacks have been far more frequent and lethal in Europe, which is relatively close to the Daesh terror group's bases in Syria and Iraq. And Europe has been rattled by the arrival last year of more than 1 million immigrants, many fleeing Middle East conflict.

But the December attacks that killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, had a noticeable impact on the American psyche. It may have caused a bump in support for Trump, just as backing for anti-Islamic European lawmakers like the Netherlands' Geert Wilders appears to have grown since the extremist attacks in Paris and elsewhere.

Trump alarmed many overseas observers, by classifying some Mexican immigrants as rapists and suggesting a temporary ban to keep Muslims from entering the United States.

Josef Braml, a specialist with the German Council of Foreign Relations, says the venomous attack style surfacing in the US primary campaign is calculated to capitalise on anger with a political class that can no longer be counted on to provide security, job growth and economic expansion.

"They are saying, 'To hell with political correctness, I'm telling you the truth,'" he says. "That tells me they see political correctness as the code of the elite.

He sees resurgent nationalism, fed by fear of outsiders, in both the United States and in Europe, where many felt it had faded as a political force. Trump's disparagement of Mexicans is similar to the anti-Semitic views expressed by the National Front in France, he says.

While Trump's rise is surprising to many Europeans, the strong early performance by Sanders in his bid to snatch the Democratic Party nomination from Hillary Clinton is not setting off alarm bells because his views are similar to those expressed by left-wing politicians in Europe for generations.

Indeed, some trace the roots of his socialism to the world his Jewish father inhabited in Poland before he left for the United States and settled in Brooklyn in 1921.

Sanders' call for free college tuition at public colleges and universities, for example, puts him squarely in line with policies already in effect in a number of prosperous European countries including Sweden and Norway.

His attacks on Wall Street and its bankers would also get a careful hearing in Europe, where even the rightist Law and Justice Party in Poland has complained about inequality and imposed new taxes on banks, with the same medicine planned for large supermarkets.

There are parallels between Sanders' bid for supremacy in the Democratic Party and Jeremy Corbyn's ultimately successful campaign for the top spot in Britain's Labour Party even though mainstream party leaders found him too far to the left for their taste.

Sanders' rise has been cheered by European leftists including many in Scandinavia with deeply held anti-American views, says Mads Fuglede, a Danish historian and political commentator.

He says, "They see the US as a capitalist nightmare, so when someone says they want to make a revolution against free market capitalism, they embrace that, so he has a lot of fans."

What does all this say about Trump and Sanders?

"The two are really significantly different but you can unite them by saying anti-elite sentiment coming from the left and from the right is gaining ground," said Dominique Moisi, senior adviser to the French Institute of International Relations. "We have not seen that in American elections before."

IDOMENI,  Greece — Thousands of migrants were left stranded in Greece Monday after the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia abruptly closed it border to Afghans, creating a fresh bottleneck as European countries scramble to respond to the continent's worst refugee crisis since World War II.

Overall, some 8,000 people were trapped on Greece's northern frontier and at the port of Piraeus after the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia introduced the measure on Sunday in a bid to stem an unrelenting influx of migrants.

Desperate to get through, hundreds of Afghans staged a sit-down protest in an area of no-man's land and occupied the railway line connecting the two countries, holding makeshift signs that read: "We can't go back" and "Why racism?"

Dozens of Afghan children also carried signs with the words: "Help us cross border."

Greece said it would provide emergency shelter for the blocked migrants while working to find a solution with non-European Union member the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Since November, countries on the Balkan route have allowed only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans to continue their journey up towards Germany, Sweden and other European nations where they plan to apply for asylum.

The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’s decision to stop letting Afghans through came just two days after Austria controversially introduced a daily limit on asylum applications.

'Die or go on' 

"We cannot go back. We will either die here or go on," said 20-year-old Afghan Mohamed Asif on the Greek side of the border.

"We have paid so much money to get this far. Germany said it would accept refugees, what has changed now?"

Greece's Junior Interior Minister for Migration Yiannis Mouzalas said Athens was racing to negotiate an end the deadlock.

"We have begun diplomatic moves... we believe the problem will be resolved," Mouzalas told parliamentary television.

In an interview with Vima radio he added that Athens was trying to exert pressure at the "European and bilateral level", without giving further details.

However, another government source said it was unlikely the situation would be resolved on Monday.

"We do not expect a solution today," the source told AFP, adding: "We will accommodate the Afghans whilst trying to prevent overcrowding at any of the facilities available."

Officials said they would open a newly-completed relocation camp near Piraeus to handle the emergency.

The arrival last year of more than one million refugees and migrants in Europe, many fleeing war, poverty and persecution, has caused a chain reaction of border clampdowns, in a blow to the European Union's border-free Schengen zone.

As the main gateway into the bloc, Greece has been struggling to cope with the inflow and fears new restrictions by other members will leave tens of thousands stranded on its territory.

Austrian move 'unacceptable' 

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere on Sunday hit out at the asylum cap imposed by neighbouring Austria, which is now planning its own mini-summit with western Balkan leaders on Wednesday.

De Maiziere told ARD public television that Vienna's move to accept only 80 asylum seekers a day while waving through another 3,200 migrants, many of whom were headed for Germany, was "unacceptable".

De Maiziere said he intended bringing up the issue at the next gathering of EU interior ministers in Brussels on Thursday.

Greece thought it had secured an open-borders pledge from fellow EU members at a summit in Brussels on Friday.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had pushed for a commitment from member states to refrain from unilateral border closures until an EU summit on the crisis with Turkey being planned for early March.

The European Council on Friday said the bloc's response — which also includes NATO assistance against people smugglers in the Aegean Sea — "will only bring results if all its elements are pursued jointly, and if the institutions and the member states act together, and in full coordination".

NEW DELHI — Much of New Delhi's water supply was cut off Monday after members of an influential Indian caste sabotaged a canal as part of protests seeking preferential treatment that have killed at least 19 people.

A representative of the Jat caste said they had called off their week-long protests which saw thousands of troops deployed in Haryana, after the government of the northern state accepted their demands.

But the capital's water board was still striving to restore full supplies to the city of 17 million.

India sent troops to secure the canal in Haryana after Jat protesters — demanding a quota for their caste in public service jobs and higher education — seized it on Saturday and diverted the water flow away from the capital.

By Monday morning the army had regained control and was assessing the damage.

But with the water flow into the capital reduced by more than two-thirds, schools and many businesses remained shut and authorities urged people to ration water.

Delhi's water board said it had been forced to limit supplies to the city, which receives little rain and has long struggled to provide enough water for its rapidly growing population.

Just 240 million gallons was being produced after the attack compared to the usual 820 million gallons a day, it said.

"There is extensive damage to the canal and it will take some time to fully restore the supply to Delhi," said water board spokeswoman Sanjam Cheema.

"Engineers are working and hopefully the work will be completed by evening."

Thousands of troops had been deployed to Haryana on Saturday with orders to shoot on sight after week-long protests by members of the caste turned violent, with rioters setting fire to homes and railway stations and blocking highways.

The protests eased on Sunday after Haryana's government agreed to the Jats' demand for preferential access to sought-after government jobs and university places under India's caste-based quota system.

Rationing water 

A representative of the Jats, traditional farmers who make up the single largest community in the state with nearly eight million members, told AFP they had accepted the offer and would call off the protests completely.

"We have called off the agitation since the government agreed to all our demands. We are satisfied now and have faith the government will do its part," said Yashpal Malik, head of a group of Jat organisations.

India sets aside a proportion of jobs and university places for Dalits, known as "untouchables", and for other so-called "backward castes", under measures intended to remedy centuries of discrimination.

But the policy causes resentment among other communities such as the Jats, who say it freezes them out.

The latest protests echo caste violence that swept the western state of Gujarat last August, leaving several dead.

That state saw weeks of protests by the Patidar or Patel caste, who demanded the same benefits offered to lower castes.

Haryana additional chief secretary, P. K. Das, said at least 19 people had died in the Haryana violence, which also forced the cancellation or diversion of hundreds of trains in the state after stations were set on fire.

One of India's largest carmakers, Maruti Suzuki, suspended operations at its two Haryana plants after the supplies of components were disrupted.

Das said most roads had now been reopened after being blocked by protesters and state authorities hoped to regain full control by the end of the day, although police reported some minor clashes on Monday.

Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted that the retaking of the canal was a "great relief" to the city. Around 80 per cent of its 17 million residents normally receive piped water, according to the water board.

Many said they had been forced to limit their use of water or buy bottled supplies.

"We have been rationing water and have ordered additional bottles of water from the market to take care of our essential needs like drinking and cooking," bank worker Rajesh Mohan Bindlish told AFP.

"We are also using buckets instead of regular showers."

ATHENS — In its new mission in the Aegean to help Europe tackle its worst migration crisis in 60 years, NATO is wading into one of the world's most contested seas.

The Aegean has claimed the lives of hundreds of migrants in the past year, including scores of children. It has also been a habitual source of tension between NATO members Greece and Turkey for decades.

Ever since the two countries nearly went to war over an uninhabited islet in 1996, Ankara has stepped up challenges to Greece's dominance in the area.

Greece claims a 16-kilometre air space limit around its coastline and islands, but Turkey only recognises 9.6km, arguing that under international rules 9.6km airspace should be the same as its territorial waters.

As a result, there are often mock dogfights when Turkish warplanes enter airspace that Greece claims as its own.

Turkey also says there are a number of Greek islets and islands such as Agathonissi and Farmakonissi, whose sovereignty remains unclear.

But the migration challenge has forced Athens and Ankara to work together, despite their long-standing differences.

After repeated calls from Berlin for closer cooperation between Greek and Turkish coastguards fell on deaf ears, Germany and Turkey earlier in February asked NATO to help police the latter's shores.

"The EU wanted a safe and indisputable means of informing the Turkish coastguard on the movement of migrant smugglers," says Angelos Syrigos, assistant professor of international law and foreign policy at Athens' Panteion University.

"[EU border agency] Frontex has no authority to survey the Turkish coasts where the smugglers are active."

He adds: "If the Turkish coastguard cooperates, there will be results without loss of human life."

'Critical information' 

Though the precise details of the operation are still being worked out with Brussels, a five-ship NATO flotilla deployed to the Aegean last weekend, a NATO source said.

"NATO's standing maritime group 2, which currently consists of five ships — from Germany, Canada, Italy, Greece and Turkey — has already deployed in the international waters of the Aegean Sea," a NATO official told AFP. 

"They are currently conducting reconnaissance, monitoring and surveillance activities, which will provide critical information," the official said, adding that the alliance would also "intensify" intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance at the Turkish-Syrian border.

"We are currently working on the details, including the framework of cooperation with the EU, and we'll finalise them in the coming days," the NATO official said. 

Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos this week said organisers had been careful to keep Greek-Turkish differences from hampering the operation.

Under the terms of the plan, the two country's units will be confined to their respective waters.

"We asked this to be specifically included in the deal, so that NATO and the operation are not embroiled in differences we were sure Turkey would seek to raise," Kammenos told a news conference.

"We never said we resolved Turkey's absurd demands in the Aegean [with this operation]."

No sign of slowing influx 

The flow of refugees and migrants, which last year reached levels unseen since the end of World War II at over a million people, shows no signs of slowing.

Fabrice Leggeri, head of EU border agency Frontex, this week warned the bloc should brace for another charged year in 2016.

"We have to expect a very high number of irregular border crossings," he told AFP.

"Last year we had 1.8 million. This year the trend in January is increasing again — 140,000 irregular border crossings at the EU level," Leggeri said.

With large warships now plying the sea lanes, there are also concerns regarding the safety of migrants who are coming in densely packed flimsy boats and dinghies.

In October, a wooden boat carrying dozens of migrants sank near the island of Lesbos after colliding with a Greek coastguard vessel during a rescue operation. Eight people, including four children, died in the accident.

Greece's Junior Interior Minister for Migration Yiannis Mouzalas highlighted the danger of possible errors, even at the hands of experienced NATO crews.

"We must be very careful during such a massive operation to avoid mistakes. Mistakes at sea are dangerous," said Mouzalas, a former senior Doctors of the World physician.

COLUMBIA, United States — In the end, a famous name, political pedigree and deep-pocketed donors were not enough to rescue the lackluster presidential campaign of Jeb Bush.

Bush withdrew from the presidential race on Saturday after another humiliating primary defeat, this time in South Carolina.

"Tonight, I am suspending my campaign," an emotional Bush, who at times appeared on the verge of tears, said after the disappointing result. 

"I'm proud of the campaign that we have run to unify our country."

The former Florida governor — son of one president and brother of another — started his campaign as the odds-on favorite to win the Republican presidential nomination, backed by a prodigious political brain trust and millions of dollars in donations from private and corporate supporters.

Although the 62-year-old Bush led some opinion some polls very early in the campaign, his support had dwindled by Saturday to single digits nationally, and his White House aspirations were on life support.

The coup de grace came after he earned less than 8 per cent of the vote in the primary in South Carolina, a state where his family had always made strong primary showings.

Donald Trump was the big winner in South Carolina — a particularly bitter pill to swallow for Bush, who throughout the campaign was bullied and demeaned by the billionaire businessman.

Bush's campaign logo sported a jaunty exclamation mark after his first name — Jeb! — a jarring juxtaposition to the candidate himself, who came across as plodding and unexciting. 

Bush and his Right to Rise super PAC — vastly outraised his competitors, garnering some $118 million but the money — largely spent on television ads — failed to help generate excitement about his campaign.

A super PAC is an independent body that can raise unlimited amounts of money to support a candidate, but cannot coordinate their efforts with the party or candidate, or make direct campaign contributions.

'Low energy' 

Bush was mercilessly pilloried by Trump, who lampooned him as "low energy" and lacking the requisite resolve and the fire-in-the-belly to lead the nation — a catchphrase that stuck in the popular imagination.

In recent weeks, Jeb's famous mother, former first lady Barbara Bush, went out on the campaign trail for him, as did his brother, two-term former president George W. Bush.

Trump only intensified his barbs, lampooning Bush as a mama's boy dependent on riding his family coattails for his past success.

George W. Bush had consoling words after his brother's humbling exit from the race for the White House.

"Tonight I talked to my brother and congratulated him on his campaign for the presidency. I told Jeb how proud I am of him and his staff for running a campaign that looked to the future, presented serious policy proposals  and elevated the tone of the race," he said in a statement.

For some, the prospect of yet another Bush presidency — particularly when weighed against the possibility that Hillary Clinton, the wife of a former president, could become the Democratic nominee — was more than some voters were willing to stomach.

At debates, Bush seemed tongue-tied; on the campaign trail, he was flat-footed. He had promised to campaign "joyfully", but seemed tepid and at times even testy as he travelled the country.

Some experts said however that the genteel, patrician, soft-spoken Bush simply failed to connect with the spirit of the times and an irascible electorate — especially with white, lower middle class voters disgruntled after seven years under Democratic President Barack Obama.

As his campaign foundered in recent weeks, it became increasingly clear that Bush would not follow his father and brother in the White House, after Trump and Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio vaulted him in the polls.

He failed to get a coveted endorsement from the popular governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, who instead backed his former protege Rubio.

Rubio, a first-term senator from Florida, was in second place over Cruz in South Carolina and behind Trump. Bush, the mentor, finished in an unimpressive fourth place.

ANKARA — Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Saturday called on the United States to give unconditional support in the fight against Syrian Kurdish militants, illustrating growing tension between Ankara and Washington over policy in northern Syria.

Davutoglu also said Turkey would tighten security across the country, especially the capital, after a car laden with explosives was detonated near military buses in Ankara on Wednesday, killing 28 people.

Turkey says the Syrian Kurdish YPG, which the United States is backing in the fight against Daesh in Syria, was involved in the bombing, working with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Washington, which does not consider the YPG a terrorist organisation, has said it is not in a position to confirm or deny Ankara's charge that the militia was behind the bombing.

"The only thing we expect from our US ally is to support Turkey with no ifs or buts," Davutoglu told a news conference following a five-hour security meeting with members of his cabinet and other officials.

"If 28 Turkish lives have been claimed through a terrorist attack we can only expect them to say any threat against Turkey is a threat against them."

The disagreement over the YPG risks driving a wedge between the NATO allies at a critical point in Syria's civil war, as the United States pursues intensive talks with Syrian ally Russia to bring about a "cessation of hostilities".

The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), a group that once had links to the PKK, on Friday claimed responsibility for the bombing. However, Davutoglu said that he did not rule out the responsibility of the YPG, calling the TAK a “proxy” that claimed the bombing to shield the international reputation of the Syrian Kurdish fighters.

US President Barack Obama on Friday spoke to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in an 80-minute telephone call, sharing his concerns over the Syrian conflict and promising his support.

On Friday, a State Department spokesman told reporters Washington would continue to support organisations in Syria that it could count on in the fight against Daesh — an apparent reference to the YPG.

LONDON — Britain will vote on its membership of the European Union on June 23, Prime Minister David Cameron said Saturday as he began the daunting challenge of persuading the country to stay.

He announced the date for the referendum after a two-hour Cabinet meeting where he briefed ministers on the deal he struck in Brussels on Friday, that he said will give Britain "special status" in the EU.

"We are approaching one of the biggest decisions this country will face in our lifetimes," Cameron said, addressing the nation outside his 10 Downing Street residence.

"The choice goes to the kind of country we want to be," he said, warning that proponents of leaving were offering "a risk at a time of uncertainty, a leap in the dark".

Britain would be "safer, stronger and better off" in the 28-member bloc, he said, calling the concessions negotiated with other EU leaders "the best of both worlds".

The referendum campaign will be bitterly contested in a country with a long tradition of euroscepticism and a hostile right-wing press, with opinion polls showing Britons are almost evenly divided.

"The starting gun has been fired," the UK Independence Party (UKIP) said in a statement.

"The 23rd is our golden opportunity, let battle be joined," Nigel Farage, the party's leader, said, branding the EU deal "pathetic".

"We must look forward to work with everybody who cares about our future, a future where the people of Britain controls her own borders, where we can make our own trade deals and make our own laws.

"We want our country back," he said.

Cameron's Conservative Party in particular is split over Europe, and no sooner had Saturday's Cabinet meeting ended than five of its 22 ministers announced they would be campaigning to leave.

Among them are justice minister Michael Gove, who said "this chance may never come again in our lifetimes".

The biggest prize for the eurosceptic camp, which has so far been plagued by in-fighting and has no clear leader, would be Boris Johnson, the popular Conservative mayor of London. 

Johnson, who has ambitions to succeed Cameron as leader of the Conservative party, has yet to declare his position.

'Let battle be joined' 

Cameron announced his intention to hold a referendum three years ago, under pressure from Conservative eurosceptics and the rise of UKIP.

He said he would only campaign to stay in if he could secure reforms to address key concerns about EU migration, loss of sovereignty, economic competitiveness and the protection of non-eurozone Britain's financial sector.

Declaring success in his negotiations on Friday, with what German Chancellor Angela Merkel was a "fair compromise", Cameron said he would campaign "with all my heart and soul" to stay.

But critics say the deal, which contained restrictions on welfare payments for EU migrants and an opt-out for Britain from the EU's goal towards ever closer union, falls far short of what was originally promised.

"Call that a Deal, Dave?" headlined the mass-market Daily Mail, while The Daily Telegraph said Cameron had made "puny gains" and The Times called it "Thin Gruel".

'Depressingly negative campaign' 

Analysts say the nitty gritty of the EU deal will likely be only a small part of the referendum campaign, which is already focused on the big issues of immigration, security, prosperity and Britain's place in the world.

"Voters are not going to decide by this deal," said John Springford, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform.

Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn dismissed Cameron's deal as a "sideshow" but said he would be campaign to stay because the EU "brings investment, jobs and protection for British workers and consumers".

Anand Menon, professor of European politics at King's College London, said he expected both sides to emphasise the risks of either leaving or sticking with the status quo.

"This is going to be a depressingly negative campaign," he told AFP.

The date for the referendum, which clashes with the Glastonbury music festival, an EU summit in Brussels and comes in the middle of the Euro 2016 football tournament, has to be approved in parliament and Cameron will address the House of Commons on Monday.

It will be Britain's second referendum on European membership in just over 40 years. In June 1975, voters backed membership of the then European Economic Community (EEC) by just over 67 per cent.

The question on June 23 will be: "Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?"