World

GENEVA — The World Health Organisation authorised the use of experimental drugs in the fight against Ebola on Tuesday as the death toll topped 1,000 and a Spanish priest became the first European to succumb to the latest outbreak of the virus.

The declaration by the UN’s health agency came after a US company that makes an experimental serum said it had sent all its available supplies to hard-hit west Africa.

“In the particular circumstances of this outbreak, and provided certain conditions are met... it is ethical to offer unproven interventions with as yet unknown efficacy and adverse effects,” the WHO said in a statement following a teleconference between medical experts.

The current outbreak, described as the worst since Ebola was first discovered four decades ago, has now killed 1,013 people since early this year, the WHO said.

Cases have so far been limited to Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, all in west Africa where ill-equipped and fragile health systems are struggling to cope.

Elderly Spanish priest Miguel Pajares, who became infected while helping patients in Liberia died in a Madrid hospital on Tuesday, five days after being evacuated.

Monrovia said it had requested samples of an experimental drug, ZMapp, that has shown some positive effects on two US aid workers but failed to save the Spanish priest.

Supplies would be brought in by a representative of the US government later this week, the Liberian government said.

There is currently no available cure or vaccine for Ebola, which the WHO has declared a global public health emergency, and the use of experimental drugs has stoked an ethical debate.

Early phase 

Despite promising results for the ZMapp treatment, made by private US company Mapp Biopharmaceutical, it is still in an early phase of development and had only been tested previously on monkeys.

ZMapp is in very short supply, but its use on the Western aid workers evacuated to the United States last week triggered controversy and demands that it be made available in Africa.

Mapp said it had sent all its available supplies to West Africa.

“In responding to the request received this weekend from a West African nation, the available supply of ZMapp is exhausted,” it said in a statement.

“Any decision to use ZMapp must be made by the patients’ medical team,” it said, adding that the drug was “provided at no cost in all cases”.

The company did not reveal which nation received the doses, or how many were sent.

But the Liberian presidency said: “The White House and the United States Food and Drug Administration have approved the request for sample doses of experimental serum to treat Liberian doctors who are currently infected with the deadly Ebola virus disease.”

Price hikes and 

food shortages 

Panic is stalking the impoverished countries ravaged by the disease in west Africa, where drastic containment measures are causing transport chaos, price hikes and food shortages, and stoking fears that people could die of hunger.

Numerous countries around the globe have imposed emergency measures, including flight bans and improved health screenings.

In Liberia — where Ebola has already claimed almost 370 lives — a third province was placed under quarantine on Monday.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf also banned state officials from travelling abroad for a month and ordered those outside the country to return home within a week.

Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone account for the bulk of the cases, but Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has also counted two deaths.

And Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma expressed his “utter dismay” at the “slow pace” of the international community in responding to the outbreak, during a hospital visit on Monday.

Eight Chinese medical workers who treated patients with Ebola have been placed in quarantine in Sierra Leone, Beijing’s ambassador said Monday, but would not be drawn on whether they were displaying symptoms of the disease.

In addition, 24 nurses have been quarantined, health officials said, while a senior physician had contracted Ebola but was responding well to treatment.

The nation’s sole virologist, who was at the forefront of its battle against the epidemic, died from Ebola last month.

As countries around the world were on alert, Japan said it was evacuating two dozen staff from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The Ivory Coast announced on Monday it was banning all flights from the three nations and said it had turned back around 100 Liberians trying to flee across the border.

Niger, which also has yet to confirm any cases, has put in place an “emergency plan” to train health workers and boost checks at borders, airports and stations.

Togo has also strengthened health screenings.

In Senegal, a newspaper editor was detained by police for spreading “false information” after his paper claimed there were five Ebola cases in the country, which authorities have denied.

MOSCOW — Ukraine set terms Tuesday for allowing in Russian aid after Moscow sent a 280-truck convoy to the conflict-torn east and fueled fears the mission could be used to aid rebels.

The authorities in Kiev said they would stop the Russian lorries at the border but allow the aid to be unloaded and shipped into eastern Ukraine with the help of the Red Cross.

“We will not allow [the aid] to be accompanied by the Russian ministry for emergency situations or by Russian troops,” said Valeriy Chalyy, deputy head of the presidential administration.

Russia has stepped up calls for a humanitarian mission to the east where Ukrainian troops have tightened their grip following four months of fierce battles with pro-Moscow rebels that have left cities without power, running water or fuel.

There are also food shortages.

A convoy of 280 lorries left Moscow Tuesday for eastern Ukraine carrying 2,000 tonnes of “humanitarian supplies”, including medical equipment, baby food and sleeping bags, Russian media reported.

Sources told Russian news agencies the convoy would arrive at the border on Wednesday.

‘Catastrophic consequences’ 

President Vladimir Putin announced late Monday that Moscow was sending a humanitarian mission to deal with the “catastrophic consequences” of Kiev’s offensive against insurgents.

Moscow insisted it was working in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross and that the convoy would not include military personnel.

But the international aid agency said Tuesday there was still no agreement on the issue and France insisted such convoys should not be allowed to cross the border unless they met strict conditions, including Red Cross approval.

As rebel strongholds warn of a looming humanitarian disaster in the east, Kiev has said it will only accept aid as part of a broader international mission involving Europe and the US under the supervision of the Red Cross.

The United States and other western powers accuse Moscow of fanning the insurgency by supplying arms to the rebels.

And at a time when Ukrainian forces are gaining ground against the rebels, they have also warned Russia against sending troops into Ukraine in the guise of a humanitarian mission.

NATO says Moscow has massed 20,000 troops along the Ukrainian border, while Kiev has put the number at 45,000.

Moscow however has denied the allegations.

As fierce fighting continued in the industrial east, Ukraine’s military said six servicemen had been killed and 31 were wounded in the past 24 hours.

Seven civilians were also injured in shelling overnight in the besieged main insurgent bastion of Donetsk, local authorities said, while Ukraine’s military said it was ready to surround the rebels’ second city of Lugansk.

Kiev’s forces hope to cut off rebel access to the porous Russian border, from where Ukraine believes the separatists are getting their weapons.

‘Fait accompli’ fears 

Over 1,300 people have been killed in four months of what the Red Cross has already deemed a civil war, while 285,000 have fled their homes, according to the United Nations.

Heavily shelled rebel-held cities say they have been without power, running water or fuel for days, while medicine and food supplies are also running low.

With the mammoth convoy under way on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius warned that it “could be a cover by the Russians to set themselves up near Donetsk and Lugansk, and declare a fait accompli”.

He added that the aid mission would be “only justifiable if the Red Cross gives its consent, if there are no military forces around [the mission], if there are not just Russians but other countries and if Ukraine agrees”.

“At this precise moment, this is not the case,” he said.

French President Francois Hollande also voiced “grave concerns” about a possible unilateral Russian mission into Ukraine.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed that no green light had been given for an aid mission.

“We still need to get some more information before we can move ahead,” ICRC spokeswoman Anastasia Isyuk said in Geneva.

Former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma meanwhile told Interfax Ukraine news agency that Moscow, Kiev and the European security monitor OSCE agreed that aid should head for Lugansk through the government-held Kharkiv region.

He said OSCE monitors would accompany the convoy, but the organisation told AFP that they were still in talks to detail their involvement in an aid mission.

ANKARA — Turkey’s ruling party begins deliberations on the shape of the next government on Monday after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan secured his place in history by winning the nation’s first direct presidential election.

Erdogan’s victory in Sunday’s vote takes him a step closer to the executive presidency he has long coveted for Turkey. But it is an outcome which his opponents fear will herald an increasingly authoritarian rule.

In the coming weeks, Erdogan will for the last time chair meetings of the ruling AK Party he founded and oversee the selection of a new party leader, likely to be a staunch loyalist and his future prime minister.

He will be inaugurated on August 28.

“Today is a new day, a milestone for Turkey, the birthday of Turkey, of its rebirth from the ashes,” Erdogan, 60, told thousands of supporters in a victory speech from the balcony of the AK Party headquarters in Ankara late on Sunday.

Supporters honking car horns and waving flags took to the streets in Ankara after results on Turkish television said Erdogan, the prime minister for more than a decade, had won 52 per cent of the vote.

The celebratory mood filled the front pages of pro-government newspapers.

“The People’s Revolution”, said a banner headline in the Aksam daily above a picture of Erdogan waving to the crowds overnight. Other headlines spelled out: “Erdogan’s historic triumph”, “The People’s President”.

Investors initially welcomed the result on hopes that it would ensure political stability, after nearly 12 years of AK Party rule. The lira rallied to 2.1385 against the dollar from 2.1601 late on Friday.

However, some said the market reaction could be short-lived.

“We expect the market will refocus on the composition of the Cabinet,” said Phoenix Kalen, a London-based strategist at Societe Generale, warning there could be “investor concern over the future trajectory of economic policy making”.

It was a narrower margin of victory than polls had suggested but still 13 points more than Erdogan’s closest rival, and comfortable enough to avoid the need for a second round runoff.

The chairman of the high election board confirmed Erdogan had a majority, with more than 99 per cent of votes counted, and said full provisional figures would be released later on Monday.

Erdogan has vowed to exercise the full powers granted to the presidency under current laws, unlike predecessors who played a mainly ceremonial role. But he has made no secret of his plans to change the constitution and forge an executive presidency.

“I want to underline that I will be the president of all 77 million people, not only those who voted for me. I will be a president who works for the flag, for the country, for the people,” he said in his victory speech.

The electoral map suggested that might not be easy.

While the expanses of the conservative Anatolian heartlands voted overwhelmingly for Erdogan, the more liberal western Aegean and Mediterranean coastal fringe was dominated by main opposition candidate Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, and the southeastern corner by Kurdish candidate Selahattin Demirtas.

‘Coronation’

Turkey has emerged as a regional economic force under Erdogan, who has ridden a wave of religiously conservative support to transform the secular republic founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk on the ruins of the Ottoman empire in 1923.

But his critics warn that a President Erdogan, with his roots in political Islam and intolerance of dissent, would lead the NATO member and European Union candidate further away from Ataturk’s secular ideals.

Few investors had doubted the outcome.

“This was more of a coronation than an election, with the result preordained quite some time ago,” said Nicholas Spiro, managing director of London-based Spiro Sovereign Strategy.

But in the long term, there are concerns about concentration of power in the hands of a sometimes impulsive leader.

“Mr Erdogan continues to dominate Turkey’s political scene and is eager to turn the presidency into an executive, hands-on role. He called the shots as premier and he will keep calling the shots as president,” Spiro said.

“Turkey’s next premier will govern in Mr Erdogan’s shadow.”

Ihsanoglu, a former diplomat and academic who won 38.5 per cent of the vote according to broadcasters CNN Turk and NTV, congratulated Erdogan on the result in a brief statement.

Demirtas took 9.7 per cent, according to the TV stations — a result for an ethnic Kurd that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago as Turkey battled a Kurdish rebellion and sought to quell demands from the ethnic minority.

Political intrigue

It will be vital for Erdogan to have a loyal prime minister. Under the constitution, he will have to break with the AK Party before he is inaugurated in a little over two weeks’ time.

Should his influence over the party wane, Erdogan could struggle to force through the constitutional changes he wants to create an executive presidency, a reform which requires either a two-thirds majority in parliament or a popular vote.

“In a few days when the official results are announced, the prime minister’s relationship with the party and the parliament will be over,” Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told reporters in Ankara late on Sunday.

“You will of course ask who will be prime minister and the leader of the party. Starting from tonight, I know that there will be work done on this front,” he said.

Senior AK officials say foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who has strong support within the party bureaucracy and has been Erdogan’s right-hand man internationally, is the top choice to succeed him, although former transport minister Binali Yildirim is also trying to position himself for the job.

Erdogan’s critics fear a supine prime minister will leave him too powerful, and erode the presidency’s traditional role as a check on the powers of the executive. His backers dismiss such concerns, arguing Turkey needs strong leadership.

GENEVA — As the world scrambles to stem the rapid spread of the killer Ebola virus, the World Health Organisation hosted a meeting on Monday to discuss the ethics of using experimental drugs.

The talks come as countries ravaged by the tropical disease in west Africa were gripped by panic, with drastic containment measures causing transport chaos, price hikes and food shortages, and stoking fears that people could die of hunger.

Liberia, where Ebola has already claimed over almost 370 lives, placed a third province, Lofa, under quarantine on Monday after similar measures in Bomba and Grand Cape Mount.

“From now on, no one will be allowed to go to Lofa, no one will come out of there,” President Ellen Johnson Sirfleaf said. “We want to protect areas that have not been yet affected.”

There is currently no available cure or vaccine for Ebola, one of the deadliest viruses known to man, and with the death toll fast approaching 1,000, the WHO has declared the latest outbreak a global public health emergency.

But the use of experimental drugs has opened up an intense ethical debate, and medical experts from around the world joined WHO-hosted discussions on Monday to draft guidelines for using non-authorised medicines in emergencies such as Ebola.

Two Americans and a Spanish priest infected with the virus while working with the sick in Africa are being treated with an untested drug called ZMapp, which has reportedly shown promising results.

But the drug, made by private US company Mapp Pharmaceuticals, is still in an extremely early phase of development and had only been tested previously on monkeys.

Ethical thing to do? 

ZMapp is in extremely short supply, but its use on Western aid workers has sparked controversy and demands that it be made available in Africa, where Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are the hardest hit nations.

“Is it ethical to use unregistered medicines to treat people, and if so, what criteria should they meet and what conditions, and who should be treated?” said WHO assistant director-general Marie-Paule Kieny ahead of Monday’s meeting.

“What is the ethical thing to do?”

While impoverished Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone account for the bulk of the cases, the latest outbreak has spread further afield. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has so far counted two deaths.

Numerous countries have imposed a raft of emergency measures, including flight bans or screening of passengers.

In the latest such move, the Ivory Coast announced on Monday it was banning all flights from the three hardest-hit nations.

And it said in the past few days it had turned back around 100 Liberians trying to flee across the border into Ivory Coast, which not reported any Ebola cases.

Togo, which also has yet to confirm any cases, said it had strengthened health screenings, but people in the capital Lome are far from reassured.

‘Everyone is afraid’ 

“It’s a general psychosis. Everyone is afraid. For the past three days, I haven’t said greet anyone,” student Paul Magnissou told AFP.

Ebola causes fever and, in the worst cases, unstoppable bleeding and can be fatal in 25 to 90 per cent of cases, according to the WHO.

The virus spreads by close contact with an infected person through bodily fluids such as sweat, blood and tissue.

The latest outbreak — which the WHO says is by far the worst since Ebola was discovered four decades ago — has killed around 55-60 per cent of those infected.

On Saturday, the WHO said clinical trials of Ebola vaccines could begin within weeks and be ready for widespread use by early next year.

In the meantime, there is only a handful of available treatments and it remains unclear how quickly production could be ramped up.

As WHO engages with pharmaceutical companies and governments to try to speed up the development process of vaccines and drugs, it is faced with a range of pressing ethical questions.

Should anyone infected with the virus be given experimental treatments? And what about those who have been exposed, or who could easily become exposed due to their work, such as healthcare workers?

Monday’s meeting, whose conclusions are due for release on Tuesday, will also look at how far testing should progress before an experimental drug can be provided, said Kieny.

Kieny said the session would only address the principles and provide urgent guidance to the WHO, and that another meeting would be held to go into further detail.

ANKARA — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won an outright victory in the first round of presidential election on Sunday.

Erdogan won 51.8 per cent of the vote, way ahead of his main opposition rival Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu on 38.6 per cent, according to official results based on a 99 per cent vote count.

The third contender, Kurdish candidate Selahattin Demirtas, won 9.6 per cent of the vote.

Erdogan's inauguration is set for August 28.

The result marked a personal triumph for Erdogan, 60, who has served as premier since 2003 and could potentially now be president for two mandates until 2024.

He has promised to be a powerful president with a beefed-up mandate, in contrast to the ceremonial role played by his recent predecessors.

The polls are the first time Turkey — a member of NATO and longtime hopeful to join the EU — has directly elected its president, who was previously chosen by parliament, and Erdogan hoped for a massive show of popular support.

As the results came out, Erdogan briefly addressed hundreds of supporters in Istanbul before praying at the historic Eyup Sultan Mosque built after the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans.

"As long as I am alive, I will continue our struggle to sustain a more advanced democracy," said Erdogan.

The president-elect has said he plans to revamp the post to give the presidency greater executive powers, which could see Turkey shift towards a system more like that of France if his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) succeeds in changing the constitution.

But Erdogan's opponents accuse him of undermining the secular legacy of Turkey's founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who established a strict separation between religion and politics.

“A ballot paper with only one name does not represent the democracy, it does not suit Turkey,” said Ihsanoglu, 70, as he cast his ballot in Istanbul.

He complained that the campaign had been “unfair, disproportionate”, nonetheless predicting that the votes of the “silent masses” would help him to victory.

While many secular Turks oppose Erdogan, he can still count on a huge base of support from religiously conservative middle-income voters, particularly in central Turkey and poorer districts of Istanbul, who have prospered under his rule.

“He has helped feed the poor and reached out to a larger section of our society,” Zahide, 52, a retired nurse, after voting in Istanbul for Erdogan.

But Ozlem, 24, a university student, said she voted for Ihsanoglu. “Our country is at a turning point. It’s either democracy or dictatorship. Everyone should come to their senses.”

Regional breakdowns of the results showed a clear geographical polarisation of the country, with Ihsanoglu taking the strongly secular western coast, Demirtas the Kurdish southeast but Erdogan the Black Sea coast, Istanbul and the entire heart of the country.

Erdogan endured the toughest year of his rule in 2013, shaken by deadly mass protests sparked by plans to build a shopping mall on Gezi Park in Istanbul that grew into a general cry of anger by secular Turks who felt ignored by the AKP.

The future of outgoing president Abdullah Gul, a co-founder of the AKP who appears to have distanced himself from Erdogan, is unclear. 

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is tipped as a possible choice to be premier.

Recalling that he was the last Turkish president to be elected by parliament, Gul said after voting that he wished Turkey proceeds “on its path by keeping its democracy and law stronger and consolidating its economy”.

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — West African countries Sunday lamented the knock-on effects of their fight against the Ebola epidemic as restrictions snarled transport, causing food shortages and price hikes.

“We are trying to cope,” said Joseph Kelfalah, the mayor of Kenema, an eastern district of Sierra Leone that is under strict quarantine along with nearby Kailahun, complaining of “escalating food prices”.

Under the country’s “Operation Octopus”, some 1,500 soldiers and police have been deployed to enforce the quarantines, turning people away at checkpoints and accompanying health workers searching for people who may have contracted the virus.

“Only essential officials and food items are being allowed in after intensive searches,” deputy police chief Karrow Kamara told AFP.

Tribal authorities are imposing huge fines for failure to report cases of Ebola, which has claimed nearly 1,000 lives in west Africa in the worst outbreak in four decades.

Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea are the countries hardest hit by the epidemic, which the UN World Health Organisation has called an international health emergency.

In Sierra Leone and especially in neighbouring Liberia, the restrictions are curtailing trade and causing food shortages as well as price hikes.

Liberia declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, also deploying soldiers to restrict movement, notably from the worst-affected northern provinces to the capital Monrovia.

‘People will die 

of hunger’ 

Sando Johnson, a senator in the province of Bomi, northwest of Monrovia, said the restrictions were “severe” and warned people would die of starvation if they are not relaxed.

“My county has been completely quarantined because soldiers don’t allow anyone to get out of the area and they don’t allow anyone to go there,” he told AFP by telephone.

“A bag of rice that sold for 1,300 LD [$14, 11 euros] is now selling for 1,800 LD. The poor people will die of hunger for God’s sake.”

Health workers are also tasked with raising awareness about the disease, which is spread by close contact with an infected person through bodily fluids such as sweat, blood and tissue.

In Sierra Leone, 10 motorcycle taxi drivers have been infected after unknowingly carrying Ebola patients, according to the president of the National Bike Riders Association, David Sesay.

The two-wheeled taxis are a popular and indispensable form of transport in remote areas of west Africa where most roads are unpaved.

Efforts to halt the epidemic have been stymied by ignorance, distrust of Westerners and false rumours.

Nigerian media reported Saturday that two people had died and about 20 have been hospitalised there after ingesting excessive amounts of salt which they believed could prevent Ebola, which causes fever and, in the worst cases, unstoppable bleeding.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan warned against spreading false information about Ebola “which can lead to mass hysteria, panic and misdirection, including unverified suggestions about prevention, treatment, cure and spread of the virus”.

Elsewhere, a Romanian man was admitted to a Bucharest hospital specialising in infectious diseases on suspicion of having contracted Ebola in Nigeria.

The 51-year-old patient who returned from Nigeria on July 25 exhibited symptoms of the virus but they could also indicate malaria or typhoid fever, a hospital source said Sunday.

Nigeria has reported 13 confirmed, probable or suspected cases of Ebola, whose incubation period ranges from two to 21 days.

Meanwhile the Spanish government said a Spanish priest infected with Ebola will be treated with an experimental drug that has been used on two Americans.

The drug called ZMapp arrived at Madrid’s La Paz-Carlos III hospital where the 75-year-old missionary was being treated in isolation, the health ministry said in a statement Saturday.

The Roman Catholic priest, Miguel Pajares, was one of three people who tested positive for Ebola at the Saint Joseph Hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia where he worked.

The World Health Organisation said Saturday that clinical trials of vaccines against Ebola should begin soon and will likely be ready for widespread use by early next year.

DONETSK, Ukraine — Ukraine’s army shelled the main rebel bastion of Donetsk Sunday as Russia called for a humanitarian ceasefire, which the West warned could be a pretext by Moscow to send in troops.

Shelling started early in the morning and continued throughout the day in the one-million strong eastern city, which pro-Russian rebels said was now surrounded by Ukrainian forces.

Ukraine’s government reported four dead as troops and insurgents continued to clash for control of the industrial east.

Kiev also complained that Russian aircraft and drones were violating its airspace.

Amid a looming humanitarian crisis in rebel-held cities — where residents were without water, power and with little food — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made a renewed push for a truce to be able to bring aid to eastern Ukraine.

The West fears however that Moscow, accused of supporting the insurgents, may want to use an aid mission as cover to send troops into its ex-Soviet neighbour.

US President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron have warned that any unilateral move by Moscow into Ukrainian territory would be “illegal” and “unacceptable”.

Donetsk under fire 

In the renewed shelling of Donetsk Sunday, city authorities reported that a home and a clinic north of the centre had been hit, injuring at least one person.

AFP journalists on the ground heard more than 20 explosions in the early morning and witnessed the assault continuing during the day.

A maternity hospital had its windows shattered while mothers and babies huddled in the cellar for safety, one AFP journalist reported. Several women said they gave birth in the belowground area.

Ukrainian forces have been forging on with an operation to wrest back control of the main rebel-held cities in the east, cutting them off from the Russian border.

Central Donetsk has been repeatedly targeted in recent days. On Sunday, Ukraine’s military said it was “tightening its grip” on the city.

The head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, admitted earlier that the city was surrounded and urged a ceasefire to avert a humanitarian crisis there.

But on Sunday he made it clear that a truce would require a complete withdrawal by Ukraine’s military from the east.

“As long as the Ukrainian army continues fighting, there cannot be a ceasefire,” he said.

Heavy fire also continued in the second largest rebel-held city of Lugansk.

Ukraine’s military reported three servicemen killed and 27 injured in the past 24 hours. Later, the interior ministry added another death and five more wounded to the toll.

National Security and Defence Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said Ukrainian positions were under mortar fire from Russian territory, and two Russian helicopters and two drones had entered Ukrainian airspace overnight.

As the conflict worsened the humanitarian situation on the ground in the east, Russia’s foreign minister said a ceasefire was “not only possible but indispensable”.

Lavrov said Moscow was in talks with Ukraine, the Red Cross and UN aid organisations “on the need to send emergency humanitarian aid to the regions of Lugansk and Donetsk”, adding that President Vladimir Putin was following the matter closely.

The West however suspects that Moscow wants to use a humanitarian mission as a pretext to send troops into Ukraine.

NATO says Russia currently has some 20,000 troops on the border.

Kiev already said late Friday that it had scuppered a Russian “humanitarian convoy” moving towards the border accompanied by troops and military hardware — an allegation that Moscow denied.

In a round of telephone calls late Saturday, Obama, Merkel and Cameron agreed that any Russian intervention in Ukraine without Kiev’s authorisation and even under the guise of a humanitarian mission would be “unacceptable” and “unjustified and illegal”.

In a phone conversation with Merkel late Saturday, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko said he was ready to accept humanitarian aid for Lugansk and was already in talks with the Red Cross to organise a mission, but only if it is “an international one without any military escort”.

More than 285,000 people have fled their homes in the east and over 1,300 have been killed in four months of what the Red Cross has already deemed a civil war.

In Lugansk, local authorities said residents were without power and running water for an eighth day, while fuel had dried up and food supplies were running short.

Pensions, salaries and social benefits were also not being paid as many banks in the region were closed.

ANKARA — Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to secure his place in history as Turkey’s first popularly elected president on Sunday, but his tightening grip on power has polarised the nation, worried Western allies and raised fears of creeping authoritarianism.

Erdogan’s core supporters, religious conservatives, see his likely rise to the presidency as the crowning achievement of his drive to reshape Turkey. In a decade as prime minister, he has broken the hold of a secular elite that had dominated since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded the modern republic on the ruins of an Ottoman theocracy in 1923.

Opponents see him as a modern-day sultan whose roots in Islamist politics and intolerance of dissent are taking Turkey, a member of the NATO military alliance and European Union candidate, ever further from Ataturk’s secular ideals.

Erdogan could, aides have said, serve two presidential terms and rule to 2023, the 100th anniversary of the secular republic. Such symbolism is not lost on a leader whose passionate speeches are frequently laced with references to Ottoman history.

“On the assumption that Erdogan wins, what we’re going to have is the beginning of a new era,” said Marc Pierini, a former EU ambassador to Turkey and visiting scholar at the Carnegie Europe think tank.

Until now, Turkish presidents have been chosen by parliament but under a new law, the three candidates will face the national electorate as they compete for a five-year term.

Electoral rules ban the publication of opinion polls in the immediate run-up to the vote, but two surveys last month put Erdogan’s support on 55-56 per cent. This is 20 points ahead of the main opposition candidate, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, and enough to secure the simple majority needed to win in the first round.

Selahattin Demirtas, head of the pro-Kurdish left-wing People’s Democratic Party, was running a distant third.

Erdogan has made no secret of his ambition to change the constitution and establish an executive presidency; he has also made clear that in the meantime he will exercise the full powers of the post under Turkey’s existing laws.

They give him the authority to convene Cabinet meetings, as well as appoint the prime minister and members of Turkey’s top judicial bodies, including the constitutional court and supreme council of judges.

“When a man like Erdogan becomes the first popularly -elected president, even if the constitution remains unchanged, it will mean Turkey has switched to a semi-presidential system,” said a senior official from his ruling AK Party. “Starting this Sunday, there will be a new system.”

Ihsanoglu, a diplomat and academic who ran the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation for nine years, is campaigning for a different style of presidency, avoiding the kind of bombastic podium speeches that Erdogan has been delivering at mass rallies around the country.

“The people are fed up with this divisive rhetoric and mistakes. They are looking for a calm, dignified way of ruling,” Ihsanoglu told Reuters in an interview.

“Supremacy of law and justice have taken a big blow in Turkey. The new president should work very hard to help restore the independence and impartiality of the judiciary,” he said.

Impulsive

A strong Erdogan victory would mark an extraordinary recovery from one of his most difficult years in office. He has bounced back from anti-government demonstrations last summer, a corruption scandal months later and a power struggle with his former ally, US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Erdogan accuses Gulen, whose network of followers wield influence in the police and judiciary, of unleashing the graft scandal in a plot to oust him and has responded by purging institutions of those thought to be loyal to the cleric.

It is a battle he has vowed to pursue as president.

Timothy Ash, head of emerging markets research at Standard Bank in London, compares his tactical skills with those of past US and British leaders.

“Never bet against Erdogan, as he is simply a brilliant political operator — a Turkish version of Bill Clinton or Tony Blair in terms of their ability to feel and shape the mood of a majority of the nation,” Ash said in a recent note.

Turkish financial markets would, he said, welcome a first round win as a sign of continuity. Since founding the AK Party in 2001, Erdogan has overseen unprecedented growth and stability after a long period of economic chaos and political drift.

But there are longer-term concerns about too sharp a concentration of power in the hands of a man whose views on the economy can be unorthodox — such as his conviction that high interest rates cause high inflation.

Erdogan’s reactions when threatened can appear impulsive and autocratic. From a heavy-handed police crackdown on the protests last summer, to bans on YouTube and Twitter or comments in recent weeks likening Israel’s offensive in Gaza to the actions of Hitler, Erdogan has drawn growing criticism in Western capitals and looked isolated internationally.

“His heart and his tongue are very closely connected. That has its costs sometimes, but nobody can accuse him of not saying what he believes,” said one official in Ankara.

Turkey ranked second to Russia last year in the number of judgments against it at the European Court of Human Rights. More than a quarter of the 108 rulings concerned violations of the right to liberty and security.

“An almighty presidency implies polarising discourse, implies keeping the rule of law back... All of this is not EU- compatible,” Pierini said in a telephone briefing with journalists. “Despite all this, you have a Turkey which is heavily reliant on NATO for its security. It’s going to be a very difficult relationship.”

Turbulence ahead

In the weeks following his likely victory, Erdogan will chair AK Party meetings for the last time and oversee selection of a new party leader, likely to be his future prime minister.

Under the constitution, Erdogan would have to break with the party once he is inaugurated on August 28. It is therefore vital for him that a staunch loyalist heads the party he founded.

Should his influence over the party wane, Erdogan could struggle to force through the constitutional changes he wants to create an executive presidency, a reform which requires either a two thirds majority in parliament or a popular vote.

“Removing Erdogan from the post of prime minister and putting him in the position of president with a constitution he is unhappy with seems to be a recipe for instability,” said Sinan Ulgen, head of the Istanbul-based Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies.

Senior AK officials say foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who has strong support within the party bureaucracy and has been Erdogan’s right-hand man internationally, is the top choice to succeed him, although former transport minister Binali Yildirim is also trying to position himself for the job.

Davutoglu has declined to be drawn on his future but dismisses any concerns about Turkey’s stability.

“Democracy is the backbone of our success,” he told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. “A popularly elected president, a strong base of support for our party and a strong prime ministry, all these will motivate us... There shouldn’t be any worry about the future of Turkey.”

GENEVA — Nigeria became the latest country to declare a national emergency over the deadly Ebola virus on Friday, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) called the epidemic that has claimed nearly 1,000 lives a global health crisis.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan ordered the immediate release of 1.9 billion naira ($11.7 million, 8.7 million euros) to fund the fight against the disease as Africa’s most populous nation confirmed two more Ebola cases, bringing the total number of infections to nine — including two deaths.

The WHO appealed for international aid to help afflicted countries after a rare meeting of the UN health body’s emergency committee, which urged screening of all people flying out of affected countries in west Africa.

It stopped short of calling for global travel restrictions, urging airlines to take strict precautions but to continue flying to the west African countries hit by the outbreak.

And it called on countries around the globe to be prepared to “detect, investigate and manage” Ebola cases if they should arise.

WHO director-general Margaret Chan appealed for greater help for those worst hit by the “largest, most severe and most complex outbreak in the nearly four-decade history of this disease”.

“I am declaring the current outbreak a public health emergency of international concern,” Chan said, warning of the “serious and unusual nature of the outbreak, and the potential for further international spread”.

States of emergency had already been declared in the hardest hit countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Nigeria became the latest on Friday.

The Ivory Coast, which neighbours Guinea and Liberia, said it was declaring a “very high” level of alert, while Benin is also investigating a suspect patient.

ArcelorMittal said it had halted work to expand its iron ore mines in Liberia after staff were evacuated due to concerns over the epidemic.

In the first European case, Spain is treating an elderly priest who contracted the disease while helping patients in Liberia.

 ‘Out of control’ 

Defining the epidemic a public health emergency of international concern — a label only used twice before, during the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009 and last May for the reemergence of polio — “alerts the world to the need for high vigilance”, Chan said.

The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity, which has warned the virus is “out of control”, hailed the move, but said there needed to be immediate action on the ground.

“Lives are being lost because the response is too slow,” said head of operations Bart Janssens.

Ebola had by Wednesday claimed at least 961 lives and infected nearly 1,800 people since breaking out in Guinea earlier this year, with 29 people dying in just two days, the WHO said.

“The likelihood is that it will get worse before it gets better,” WHO health security chief Keiji Fukuda said, with the outbreak likely to last for months.

In Liberia, soldiers in Grand Cape Mount province — one of the worst-affected areas — have set up road blocks to limit travel to the capital Monrovia, as bodies reportedly lay unburied in the streets.

In Sierra Leone, which has the most confirmed infections, 800 troops were sent to guard hospitals treating Ebola patients. Two towns in the east were put under quarantine.

US health authorities said they would be sending extra personnel and resources to Nigeria, where doctors suspended a nearly five-week strike to help prevent the virus taking hold in sub-Saharan Africa’s most populous country.

‘Africans should 

get new drug’ 

As African nations struggled with the scale of the epidemic, the scientists who discovered the virus in 1976 have called for an experimental drug being used on two infected Americans to be made available to Africans.

The two Americans, who worked for aid agencies in Liberia, have shown signs of improvement since being given ZMapp, made by US company Mapp Pharmaceuticals.

There is no proven treatment or cure for Ebola and the use of the experimental drug has sparked an ethical debate. The WHO is planning a special meeting next week to discuss the issue.

US regulators meanwhile loosened restrictions on another experimental drug which may allow it to be tried on infected patients in Africa.

In Canada, a hospital put a patient in isolation after he arrived in the country from Nigeria, local media said.

A doctor at the Brampton, Ontario hospital, near Toronto, said the patient had a fever and other symptoms similar to those seen in Ebola cases, the news channel CP24 said.

Ebola causes severe fever and, in the worst cases, unstoppable bleeding. It is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids, and people living with or caring for patients are most at risk.

Fatality rates can approach 90 per cent, but the latest outbreak has killed around 55-60 per cent of those infected.

The earlier the virus is discovered, the better the chances are of survival. Although air travel means Ebola cases could appear far beyond the epicentre of the crisis, Fukuda told AFP that large outbreaks further afield were unlikely.

“If you have health systems, you have awareness, you are ready for it, this is something that you can stop,” he said.

The strength of the current outbreak can largely be attributed to the dismal state of health services in the affected countries, which have far from enough doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians and equipment to face the onslaught.

Charity Save the Children warned that people carrying the virus, particularly children, were slipping through the cracks.

Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention signalled particular concern over Ebola’s spread to Nigeria.

“We are really concerned about Lagos, and the potential for spreading there given the fact that Lagos and Nigeria for that matter have never seen Ebola,” he said.

PHNOM PENH — Two Khmer Rouge leaders were jailed for life on Thursday after being found guilty of crimes against humanity, in the first sentences against top figures of a regime responsible for the deaths of up to two million Cambodians.

Neither “Brother Number Two” Nuon Chea, 88, nor former head of state Khieu Samphan, 83, betrayed any hint of emotion as the sentences were handed down.

But outside the UN-backed court, regime survivors applauded, many weeping after a 35-year wait for justice.

Judge Nil Nonn said the defendants, who are the most senior surviving Khmer Rouge leaders, were “guilty of the crimes against humanity, of extermination... political persecution and other inhumane acts”.

Their lawyers swiftly announced an intention to appeal the verdict, but the judge said the gravity of the crimes meant the pair “shall remain in detention until this judgment becomes final”.

Prosecutors had sought the maximum life terms for the men, who played key roles in a regime that left around a quarter of the country’s population dead during the “Killing Fields” era from 1975-1979.

Led by “Brother Number One” Pol Pot, who died in 1998 without ever facing justice, the Khmer Rouge dismantled modern society in their quest for an agrarian utopia.

Regime atrocities affected virtually every family in Cambodia as Pol Pot’s peasant army — infamous for their red chequered scarves and dark clothing — slaughtered perceived enemies of their revolution, and emptied towns and cities at gunpoint to work in the fields.

The plan spectacularly backfired, leading to the collapse of the economy and mass starvation.

Nuon Chea, wearing his trademark sunglasses, sat in a wheelchair in the dock as the verdict was read, while Khieu Samphan stood impassive next to him.

Late in their two-year trial both men expressed remorse for the suffering the Khmer Rouge inflicted on Cambodia, but remained staunch in denying knowledge of its crimes at the time.

Justice at last 

The ruling is likely to bring a level of relief to those who survived the Khmer Rouge years, which saw much of Cambodia’s population wiped out by starvation, overwork, torture or execution by ruthless Khmer Rouge cadres.

“This is the justice that I have been waiting for these last 35 years,” said 70-year-old survivor Khieu Pheatarak, one of a few dozen survivors at the Phnom Penh-based court to hear the verdict.

“I will never forget the suffering but this is a great relief for me. It is a victory and an historic day for all Cambodians,” she said.

She was among tens of thousands forced from their homes in the capital in 1975 by gun-toting regime cadres.

Amnesty International called the verdict a “crucial step towards justice” more than three decades after the regime crumbled at the hands of Vietnamese invading forces.

But in spite of the verdict, many observers and victims fear the ageing Khmer Rouge leaders may not live to serve much time in jail — if their sentences are upheld.

Former foreign minister Ieng Sary died aged 87 last year while still on trial. His wife Ieng Thirith was released in 2012 after being ruled unfit for trial due to poor health.

The complex case against Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan was split into a series of smaller trials in 2011 for reasons including their advanced age and the large number of accusations.

Considered one of the regime’s chief architects, Nuon Chea “planned, ordered, instigated, aided and abetted” extermination, and forced evacuations according to the trial judge.

He was Pol Pot’s deputy but after the fall of the regime he joined rebels in the forested Thai-border area but defected to the government along with Khieu Samphan in 1998.

After Thursday’s verdict the men were returned to their cells in a purpose-built detention centre next to the court.

In its breakthrough first trial, the court in 2010 sentenced former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, to 30 years in prison — later increased to life on appeal — for overseeing the deaths of 15,000 people.