World

JAKARTA — The reform-minded governor of Jakarta, Joko Widodo, was Tuesday declared the winner of Indonesia’s presidential election after a closely fought race against a controversial ex-general with deep roots in the era of strongman Suharto.

Dressed in a traditional patterned shirt, grinned broadly as election officials in the capital announced that he had beaten Prabowo Subianto by about six percentage points in the fight to lead the world’s third-biggest democracy.

The news came after a dramatic final day to the tense election period, with Prabowo angrily accusing Widodo’s team of cheating and announcing his withdrawal from the presidential race.

Both candidates claimed victory on the day of the July 9 election, despite reliable pollsters predicting a win for Widodo, who is the first Indonesian leader to come from outside the military and political elites.

After the results were announced, Widodo said his victory was “for all the Indonesian people” and urged the country to unite following the most divisive election since the downfall of Suharto in 1998.

“Let’s become a united Indonesia again, a great Indonesia. We are strong because we are one, we are one because we are strong,” he said in a speech delivered from a traditional wooden boat in a historic Jakarta port.

He also made a point of thanking Prabowo.

From slum to palace 

Widodo’s victory caps a meteoric rise for the former furniture exporter who was born in a riverbank slum, and won legions of fans with his common touch during his time as Jakarta governor.

It will be welcomed by investors who hope the 53-year-old can breathe new life into Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, which is beset by slowing growth, creaking infrastructure and a corrupt bureaucracy.

Markets had been jittery about a potential win for Prabowo, due to the ex-general’s fiercely nationalistic rhetoric on the campaign trail.

Prabowo, who has admitted the abduction of democracy activists back in the 1990s and used to be married to one of Suharto’s daughters, made a last-ditch attempt earlier Tuesday to get the vote announcement delayed.

He claimed Widodo’s team had committed massive fraud and said he was withdrawing from the election process. However the election commission did not stop their count.

Despite widespread expectations Prabowo would challenge the election results in the constitutional court if he lost, his team said he would not do so.

The decision removes the prospect of prolonged political deadlock because the court would not have ruled until the end of August.

Despite Prabowo’s claims of cheating, independent analysts in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation have said that the poll has been largely free and fair.

It was not clear what his next step might be following his defeat.

His coalition appeared to be falling apart in recent days, with several key members reportedly conceding defeat, and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono even hinted that he should concede defeat.

Polarising election campaign 

Tensions rose sharply after election day as each side accused the other of seeking to tamper with the votes during the lengthy counting process across the world’s biggest archipelago nation.

There were fears the tension could spark unrest in a country that was hit by repeated outbreaks of violence before Suharto’s downfall, and more than 250,000 police were deployed across the country on Tuesday.

However only a few small demonstrations were reported, and the day passed off peacefully.

Widodo was the long-time favourite to become president. But a huge poll lead he held for months dwindled to single digits during the most polarising election campaign.

Nevertheless unofficial tallies released by reliable polling agencies on election day showed him with a decisive lead, and the final results were in line with these counts.

The official results showed Widodo had received 53.15 per cent of the vote, with almost 71 million votes. This compared to 46.85 per cent for Prabowo, who received more than 62 million votes.

During his time as Jakarta governor, Widodo regularly made visits to the city’s slums in casual clothes and introduced a series of policies aimed at helping the poor.

However, some observers point out that running the sprawling archipelago will be a far from easy task for the slightly built, softly spoken man who has no experience in national politics.

Widodo will be inaugurated as president in October, when Yudhoyono steps down after a decade in power.

THE HAGUE  — With evidence mounting that a surface-to-air missile brought down Flight MH17 in Ukraine, experts warned Tuesday that proof remains a long way off and only satellite images can identify who pushed the button.

Recently published photographs show a piece of fuselage from the Malaysian Airlines plane peppered with “a fairly dense but also widespread shrapnel pattern” typical for the blast from an SA-11 surface-to-air missile, said defence analyst Justin Bronk.

Evidence already points to an SA-11 surface-to-air missile having shot down the Boeing 777 over rebel-held Ukrainian territory.

“The shrapnel damage on the airframe parts that’s been seen so far is consistent with what you would expect to see from an SA-11 warhead exploding in close proximity,” said Bronk, analyst in Military Science at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

“But to get a conclusive answer you would have to take the aircraft away and completely reconstruct it as best as you could,” he told AFP, as happened with the wreckage of Pan-Am Flight 103 after it was blown up over Scotland in 1988.

The Malaysian plane came down in a war zone on Thursday, killing all 298 people on board, 193 of them Dutch.

While forensics experts tasked with identifying the bodies have arrived at the scene, those probing the cause of the crash are still in Kiev “for security reasons”, the Dutch Safety Board leading the probe said.

Rebels, civilians and journalists have been walking all over the crash scene, handling objects, while observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe have said some pieces of wreckage have been sawn in half.

Separatists on Tuesday promised to give investigators free access to the site and a ceasefire has been declared in the immediate area.

Huge crash site

Adding to the mammoth task, crash debris is spread over an area of around 35 square kilometres after the plane disintegrated at an altitude of 10,000 metres.

The Dutch Safety Board refused to say if or where the plane fuselage might be reconstructed.

“People tend to reduce air accident investigations to the black boxes. But while they’re essential, they are not enough,” said former test pilot and air crash investigator Robert Galan.

“For instance, in the case of a missile, examining the wreckage allows you to determine whether the impact came from in front or behind the plane,” he told AFP.

But, he warned, it is essential for investigators to gain swift access to the site.

“If people have been walking over essential evidence for three days, you will never find it,” Galan said.

Traces of explosives 

Investigators will also be looking for pieces of shrapnel or traces of explosives from the missile, which likely exploded a few metres away from the plane to maximise damage.

“However, it is worth remembering, that this crash site does sit in an active war zone. So, there’s potential for contamination by explosive residue from other munition sources in the area,” said Bronk.

Pro-Russian separatists have been accused of firing a Russian-supplied missile, while Moscow says Kiev shot down the Boeing 777.

Alleged conversations between rebels discussing the shooting down, intercepted by intelligence agencies, as well as satellite images around the time of the crash will be key to identifying who ordered the attack and who pushed the button.

But, said Bronk, “the Russian and the separatist side will always just claim that it is a fake.”

“The really conclusive thing will be if eventually satellite imagery is released, showing exactly where the missile launcher was and fired. And also, crucially, where it went after that.”

Washington, one of the first to suggest a surface-to-air missile was used, has said it has satellite imagery of the missile launch.

Ben Moores, aeronautical expert at IHS Jane’s, said the sound recordings on the black boxes, now in the hands of Malaysian authorities, could help prove what kind of missile was used.

“An air-to-air missile makes a small blast, while a ground-to-air missile makes a much bigger one,” he said.

WASHINGTON — The sudden rise in the number of families and unaccompanied minors from Central America crossing the border has dramatically redefined America’s yearlong debate on immigration.

Once a debate over how to fix a broken system and provide a path to citizenship for millions, it has now become a race to decide how to increase border patrols and send people back quickly to their country of origin.

While latest developments have refocused attention on immigration, it’s hardly under the terms that President Barack Obama and immigrant advocates once envisioned.

Obama had demanded action on a broad change in the law that would have given millions of immigrants illegally in the United States a way to citizenship while spending more on border security. When Republicans balked, he threatened to act on his own. But now the White House says it’s focused on addressing the influx of border-crossers and returning as many as quickly as the government can.

Republican lawmakers had decided to scuttle any votes on a comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws this year. Now, they are urging prompt legislative action to stem the flow of Central Americans into the United States. Some Republicans even want Obama to take decisive action himself, a shift from their usual criticism that he has abused his executive powers.

The divisions fall mostly along partisan lines, but the circumstances also have caused some splits among Democrats and led immigration advocates to question Obama’s focus on detention and deportation.

Some questions and answers about how we got to this upended state of affairs.

Q: Haven’t illegal border crossings been dropping?

A: Yes. From 1990 to 2007, apprehensions by the border patrol of people crossing illegally averaged nearly 1.17 million a year; some of the highest were from 1998 to 2000. By 2012, they had dropped to nearly 365,000. According to the Pew Hispanic Centre, the number of unauthorised immigrants in the US rose from an estimated 3.5 million in 1990 to a peak of 12.2 million in 2007. The number then fell to 11.3 million in 2009 and has remained statistically stable since despite some indications it might be slightly rising.

The lower numbers have been attributed variously to stricter enforcement on the border, the US economic downturn and improved economic conditions in Mexico.

Q: Where is the increase occurring?

A: The influx is largely by families with children or by minors travelling alone. From October 2012 through the end of last September, the border patrol apprehended about 24,000 unaccompanied children at the border. But between October and the end of this June, the number shot up to 57,000. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told Congress the number is accelerating so fast that it could reach 90,000 by the end of September. Most are coming from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

Q: Why the focus on children?

A: In 2008, in the waning days of president George W. Bush’s administration, Congress passed a law designed to protect children from trafficking by gangs and other criminals. It set up a system to help provide humanitarian relief and possible asylum for children who are victims of trafficking and who face continuing threats back home. The system provides a quicker process for children from Mexico and Canada. Under the law, they can be interviewed by a border patrol officer, who makes an initial determination whether the child deserves to have his case heard by an immigration judge. If the officer determines the minor is not a victim of trafficking or does not face a credible fear of persecution, the child can be immediately sent back across the border.

The process is different for minors from other countries. They are allowed to make their case directly to an immigration judge; that process can take years amid a backlog of cases. In the meantime, those children remain in the US with family members or with sponsors while they await hearings in the clogged system.

Q: But why such a sudden jump in numbers?

A: Crime, gang violence, poverty across Central America, a desire to reunite with parents or other relatives. White House officials also say smugglers have persuaded families to pay them to bring children to the US by lying to them about their fate in this country.

Republicans are blaming Obama for deciding in 2012 that certain immigrants who came to the United States illegally before 2007 and before they turned 16 could defer their immigration proceedings and be eligible for work authorisation. GOP critics say that decision encouraged minors to rush to the US in the belief that they would be allowed to stay, even though they wouldn’t qualify.

Q: How does Obama want to deal with the crisis?

A: Obama sent Congress a request for $3.7 billion in emergency spending to increase the number of Health and Human Services facilities for the minors and to tighten border enforcement. Some money would be used to help Central American countries repatriate border-crossers and expand the number of US immigration judges. Obama has asked for unspecified broader authorities for the Homeland Security Department to more quickly process and deport border-crossers. Johnson, the department’s head, has said he would like the border patrol to deal with Central American minors the same way it deals with Mexican unaccompanied minors. The Obama administration is processing the recent arrivals ahead of others in the overwhelmed immigration system in hopes of discouraging more minors from coming.

THE HAGUE — It is no longer only grief and mourning sweeping across the Netherlands in the aftermath of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. It is now anger.

The Dutch have widely condemned the way the bodies of loved ones have been treated in Ukraine and the fact they have not yet been returned home, four days after Thursday’s tragedy.

In an unusual move that underscored the severity of the national trauma, a somber King Willem-Alexander gave a brief televised address to his country after meeting grieving relatives near the central city of Utrecht.

“This terrible disaster has left a deep wound in our society,” the king said. “The scar will be visible and tangible for years to come.”

Speaking after the same private meeting with hundreds of friends and relatives of the dead, Prime Minister Mark Rutte acknowledged the nation’s discontent.

“All of the Netherlands feels their anger,” Rutte said. “All of the Netherlands feels their deep grief. All of the Netherlands is standing with the next of kin.”

“No words can describe it,” said Silene Fredriksz-Hoogzand, whose son Bryce and his girlfriend Daisy Oehlers died on their way to a vacation in Bali. “Bodies are just lying there for three days in the hot sun. There are people who have this on their conscience. There are families who can never hold the body of a child or a mother.”

The downing of the Boeing 777 over eastern Ukraine on Thursday killed 298 passengers and crew, including 193 Dutch citizens.

Prosecutors in the Netherlands said they have begun a criminal investigation, though it remains unclear exactly where any suspects might be brought to justice.

A group of lawmakers hurried back from their summer recess for a meeting Monday with Rutte, who told them that getting the bodies home as soon as possible was his government’s top priority. He said a Dutch military transport plane is ready to repatriate the remains, which are now being stored in a refrigerated train in a rebel-held town.

“If the train finally gets going and the bodies get to Ukraine-controlled territory then we would prefer — and a Hercules is ready at Kharkiv airport — to get the bodies back to the Netherlands as soon as possible,” Rutte said.

One lawmaker, Gert-Jan Segers of the Christian Union, voiced the growing nationwide frustration.

“The Netherlands is grieving,” he said. “And angry.”

Right-wing lawmaker Louis Bontes urged the government to send special Dutch forces to secure the crash site.

“This messing around with our people can go on no longer,” he said. “Our people must be brought home now.”

Rutte said he has made it “crystal clear” to Russian President Vladimir Putin that he must use his influence with rebels to ensure unhindered access to the crash scene for international investigators. He says sanctions could be slapped on “those directly or indirectly responsible” for hindering the probe.

“All political, economic and financial options are on the table,” he said.

He also said he wants to ensure the perpetrators of the attack are brought to justice.

The Dutch national prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the downing of the flight, spokesman Wim de Bruin told The Associated Press.

“We are looking into allegations of murder, war crimes and downing a civilian passenger plane,” he said. The charges carry a maximum life sentence if proven in Dutch courts.

De Bruin said one Dutch prosecutor is already in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, to work with prosecutors there on the case.

There is no formal day of national mourning yet for the victims, but across the country local commemorations are being held.

A silent march was planned for Monday night in Rotterdam for a couple who ran a popular Chinese restaurant there. In Amsterdam, there were calls spread via social media to gather behind the city’s iconic Rijksmuseum to hold a minute of silence.

Fredriksz-Hoogzand said her grief for her son and his girlfriend was overwhelming.

“When I am in my bed at night, I see my son lying on the ground,” she told The Associated Press. “I see Daisy. I see Bryce. I see them in my head. I see it! They have to come home, not only those two. Everybody has to come home.”

King Willem-Alexander said all he and his wife Maxima could do was listen to the stories and be there for the relatives.

“We are deeply touched by the distressing personal stories of people who lost loved ones. People whose lives are shattered,” he said. “Their grief, powerlessness and desperation cuts to our souls.”

TOREZ, Ukraine — Western powers on Monday ratcheted up the pressure on Russia over the Malaysian airline disaster, with US President Barack Obama insisting that Moscow force insurgents controlling east Ukraine to cooperate with an international probe into the crash.

Obama said the chaos at the crash site was an “insult” to families of the victims, as a train loaded with some 280 bodies was finally allowed to leave a rebel-held station four days after the Malaysia Airlines jet went down in the east Ukraine plains.

As the US levelled accusations against Russia for supplying the weapons allegedly used to shoot down the passenger jet and European leaders readied new sanctions, Moscow hit back and sought to shift the blame to Kiev.

On the ground, the animosity between Ukraine’s warring sides was underlined by intense shelling which erupted in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, a city just 60 kilometres from the station where the bodies had been held in refrigerated wagons.

Five people were killed and 12 wounded, as Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko said he was ordering his troops to hold fire within a 40-kilometre radius around the crash site, where forensic experts were heading.

Obama put the responsibility to set the situation straight squarely on Russia which has “direct influence over these separatists”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin must prove “that he supports a full and fair investigation”, Obama said, stressing “the burden now is on Russia to insist that the separatists stop tampering with evidence, grant investigators who are already on the ground immediate, full and unimpeded access to the crash site.”

Russian riposte 

Putin had appeared to adopt a conciliatory tone Sunday, saying Moscow would do “everything in its power” to resolve the three-month-old Ukrainian conflict.

But on Monday, Moscow moved to slap down US accusations that the missile system used to shoot down the aircraft was transferred from Russia to separatists.

A senior Russian defence ministry official insisted that “Russia did not give the rebels Buk missile systems or any other kinds of weapons or military hardware”.

Instead Moscow challenged Kiev, saying records show a Ukrainian military plane was flying just three to five kilometres from the Boeing 777 before it went down on Thursday, killing all 298 people on board.

“With what aim was a military plane flying along a civilian aviation route practically at the same time and at the same flight level as a passenger liner?” asked Lieutenant General Andrei Kartopolov.

Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko swiftly dismissed that claim, calling it an “irresponsible and false statement” by Russia.

Moscow’s riposte came after Kiev released fresh recordings of what it says are intercepted conversations between rebels conspiring to hide the flight’s black boxes from international monitors.

And the US embassy confirmed as authentic recordings released earlier by Kiev of an intercepted call between an insurgent commander and a Russian intelligence officer as they realised they had shot down a passenger jet.

The Washington Post said Ukraine’s counterintelligence chief had photographs and other evidence that three Buk M-1 anti-aircraft missile systems moved from rebel-held territory into Russia less than 12 hours after the crash.

And Poroshenko said the rebels were wasting their time as “it is simply impossible to remove and destroy all the evidence because the shrapnel is dispersed in the area of 20 square kilometres”.

Crash site chaos ‘insult’ 

Earlier at the Torez railway station, Dutch investigators wearing masks and headlights were finally allowed to examine the remains of over 200 recovered bodies.

As they opened each of the train wagons holding the remains, an overpowering stench filled the air.

“I think the storage of the bodies is [of] good quality,” said Peter Van Vliet, the forensic expert leading the Dutch team, as 50 armed insurgents looked on.

Patience was wearing thin over the limited access to the crash site in Grabove, where salvage workers were still combing the vast cornfields for remains of the victims.

Obama denounced the chaotic removal of bodies by rebels as “an insult to those who have lost loved ones” and Malaysia has also expressed concerns that “the sanctity of the crash site has been severely compromised”.

“As anyone who has been watching the footage will know, this is still an absolutely shambolic situation,” Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said.

As grief turned to anger, the Dutch public prosecutor’s office said it had opened a criminal probe into the downing of the plane, which had 193 Dutch on board.

The outrage was palpable in an open letter from Dutch national Hans de Borst, who lost his 17-year-old daughter Elsemiek.

“Thank you very much Mr Putin, separatist leaders or the Ukrainian government, for murdering my dear and only child,” he wrote in the letter published by Dutch media.

“I hope that you’re proud to have destroyed her young life and that you can look yourself in the mirror.”

After meeting bereaved families of the victims, an emotional Dutch King Willem Alexander said he shared national frustration over the fate of the bodies and that the disaster has left “a deep wound in our society”.

Fresh sanctions? 

The UN Security Council is expected to adopt an Australia-backed resolution demanding pro-Russian separatists grant unrestricted access to the crash site to international experts when it meets at 1900 GMT.

Canada announced new sanctions against Russia, as and European leaders have signalled they could do likewise as early as Tuesday — barely a week after the last round of toughened embargoes.

Whole sectors of the economy including goods with possible military uses could be targeted, British Prime Minister David Cameron said.

The separatists’ violent bid to join Russia is the latest chapter in a prolonged crisis sparked by Kiev’s desire for closer ties with the EU — a sentiment many in the Russian-speaking east do not share.

GRABOVE, Ukraine — Pro-Russian militiamen in Ukraine loaded almost 200 bodies from downed Flight MH17 into refrigerated train wagons on Sunday as an outraged United States pointed the finger of blame directly at Moscow and demanded it ensure full access to the crash site for international investigators.

In what is the most unequivocal statement incriminating Russia, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the missile system used to shoot down the Malaysia Airlines jet was “transferred from Russia in the hands of separatists”.

European leaders warned Moscow of further sanctions over the crash while Kiev piled on the pressure by releasing fresh recordings of what it says are intercepted conversations between rebels organising to hide the flight’s black boxes from international monitors

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was blown out of the sky on Thursday by what is believed to be a surface-to-air missile, killing 298 passengers and crew, and dramatically raising the stakes in Ukraine’s bloody three-month conflict.

Insurgents said they had in hand material resembling black boxes but promised to give them to “international investigators if they arrive”.

They were also holding the bodies in refrigerated train carriages until “the experts arrive”, said a rebel chief who explained that fighters had moved scores of bodies “out of respect for the families”.

“We couldn’t wait any longer because of the heat, and also because there are many dogs and wild animals in the zone,” said Alexander Borodai, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.

OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw described the stench at Torez station, where armed separatists were guarding the grisly cargo of corpses, as “almost unbearable”.

The bodies, some dismembered and charred, had been left rotting in cornfields amid the mangled plane wreckage at the main crash site in Grabove, with debris spread out for kilometres.

Possessions of the victims were also all over the ground: Suitcases torn open, passports, books, children’s toys.

Ukrainian deputy prime minister Voldoymyr Groysman said salvage crews on Sunday found 27 more bodies and 20 body parts, with emergency workers in surgical masks seen carrying black body bags.

 ‘Drunken gorillas’ 

Fighting continued to rage between government forces and rebels in the east, with 13 people wounded in the last 24 hours just 100 kilometres from Grabove.

And Ukrainian authorities said they could not guarantee the safety of investigators on the ground.

Kerry, whose government has condemned reported evidence-tampering and lax security at the crash site, said the missile system used to down the jet was supplied by Moscow.

“We know with confidence, with confidence that the Ukrainians did not have such a system anywhere near the vicinity at that point in time. So it obviously points a very clear finger at the separatists,” Kerry told CNN.

He also slammed as “grotesque” the manner in which “drunken separatist soldiers” were allegedly “unceremoniously piling bodies into trucks, removing both bodies, as well as evidence, from the site”.

Australia circulated a draft UN Security Council resolution demanding the rebels give “full and unfettered access” to the crash site, and for all parties to cooperate in the probe.

The suspicion of Russian intentions was also high, with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott telling ABC: “My fear is that Russia will say the right thing, but that on the ground interference with the site, interference with investigators, interference with the dignified treatment of bodies will continue.”

The leaders of France, Britain and Germany signalled they could ramp up sanctions against Russia as early as Tuesday — barely a week after the last round of toughened embargoes.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told a German newspaper that taking a plane down was an operation that would take professionals and not “drunken gorillas”.

The Washington Post said Ukraine’s counterintelligence chief had photographs and related evidence that three Buk M-1 anti-aircraft missile systems moved from rebel-held territory into Russia less than 12 hours after the crash.

The US embassy confirmed as authentic recordings released by Kiev on Thursday of an intercepted call between an insurgent commander and a Russian intelligence officer as they realised they had shot down a passenger jet.

But top Russian officials and state media have suggested that Kiev’s new leaders staged the attack to blame the rebels.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte — his shocked nation flying flags at half mast in mourning over 193 lost compatriots — has urged Putin to “take responsibility” for a credible probe, with investigators from the Netherlands set to arrive in eastern Ukraine.

Relatives wait 

around world 

Relatives in the dozen countries whose citizens were killed pleaded for them to be brought home.

“At this current moment I hope the world can assist the families to bring back the remains,” Zulkifli Abdul Rahman, brother-in-law of one of the cabin crew, told AFP in Kuala Lumpur.

The disaster has an added poignancy for Malaysia after the March disappearance of the Kuala Lumpur to Beijing Flight MH370 carrying 239 passengers and crew.

In the Netherlands, and Australia — which lost 28 citizens on Flight MH17 — churchgoers prayed for the dead at memorial services.

Dozens of bouquets of flowers had also been laid at Schiphol Airport, where the doomed flight had taken off from.

Putin has denied having any influence over the rebels, who had declared Sunday they would only accede to Western demands over the crash if Kiev agrees to a truce.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ripped up a shaky ceasefire on July 1 and has refused a new truce until the separatists who rose up against Kiev in the wake of Moscow’s controversial annexation of Crimea in March give up their arms.

Poroshenko is pressing world leaders to recognise the militias as a terrorist organisation that should be put on trial at the Hague.

“We see no difference between the events in Ukraine and what happened on September 11 in the United States or the tragedy over Scotland’s Lockerbie,” Poroshenko said.

NICOSIA — Sirens wailed in Greek Cypriot towns and villages Sunday as Cyprus marked the 40th anniversary of Turkey’s invasion still a divided island despite countless UN-brokered peace initiatives.

In the breakaway north, Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul joined Turkish Cypriot celebrations of the 1974 “peace operation” when mainland troops invaded with the declared aim of protecting the minority community after a Greek-engineered coup to unite the island with Greece.

But in the government-held south, both events are commemorated as “black anniversaries” that led to the presence of tens of thousands of Turkish troops on the island that continues to this day.

The coup failed but within weeks Turkish soldiers had seized 37 per cent of the Mediterranean island, leaving 160,000 Greek Cypriots displaced and hundreds more listed as missing, as well dislodging tens of thousands of Turkish Cypriots.

At a memorial service in Nicosia, the world’s last divided capital, President Nicos Anastasiades said that 40 years of division was far too long, and it was time for peace and reunification.

“Forty years is enough for everyone. Not only for us but also for Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots to realise that a solution will be to the benefit of all our people,” Anastasiades said.

He criticised Gul’s visit to the breakaway north for a military parade to celebrate the anniversary as a “provocation”.

The Cypriot president called on Ankara to show “active and substantial engagement” to help find a solution.

But in Turkish Cypriot-held northern Nicosia, Gul charged that the Greek Cypriot leadership was to blame for the slow progress of UN-backed peace negotiations.

“A comprehensive solution is possible only if it is based on the realities on the island,” the Turkish president said.

“What’s needed for a solution on Cyprus is political will. The Turkish Cypriot side has demonstrated this will.”

Gul vowed continued support for the Turkish Cypriots from Ankara, the only government in the world to recognise the breakaway Turkish Republic of North Cyprus.

“The support given to the Turkish Cypriots to proceed toward a bright future will continue. Turkey has stood by you in all circumstances and will continue to do so in the future,” he said.

The first Turkish troops landed on a beachhead on the north coast of Kyrenia at 5:30am on July 20, 1974. Sirens wailed across the Greek Cypriot side on Sunday to coincide with the timing.

Greek Cypriot authorities say the one-sided conflict against mighty Turkey cost 3,000 lives and wounded thousands more, while 1,619 people were listed as missing.

For Greek Cypriots, 1974 and the continuing presence of Turkish troops lie at the heart of the conflict.

The two sides relaunched UN-brokered talks aimed at reunifying Cyprus in February after a two-year hiatus, with the US believed to have played a major behind-the-scenes role.Rounds of talks have failed in the past, partly because of still-raw emotions on both sides of the UN-patrolled ceasefire line which cuts across the island.

SEOUL — The downing of a Malaysia Airlines jet over rebel-held eastern Ukraine has raised questions over why the company persisted in flying in conflict-zone airspace that many other Asian carriers had abandoned months ago.

The air corridor over Ukraine has always been a crowded one for flights between Europe and Asia — particularly Southeast Asia — and re-routing around the airspace would mean an increase in flight time and fuel costs.

Nevertheless, a number of major Asian airlines, including South Korea’s Korean Air and Asiana, Australia’s Qantas and Taiwan’s China Airlines, said Friday that they had started avoiding the area as much as four months ago, when Russian troops moved into Crimea.

“We stopped flying over Ukraine because of safety concerns,” Asiana spokeswoman Lee Hyo-Min said.

Korean Air moved its flight paths 250 kilometres south of Ukraine from March 3 “due to the political unrest in the region”, an official for the carrier told AFP.

A Qantas spokeswoman said its London to Dubai service used to fly over Ukraine, but the route was changed “several months ago”, while Taiwan’s China Airlines diverted its flights from April 3.

Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific and Pakistan International Airlines said their flight paths had changed “some time” ago.

‘Safe’ flight path? 

Asked why Malaysia Airlines had not taken similar precautions, Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai stressed that international air authorities had deemed the flight path secure.

“The flight path taken by MH17 was approved by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), and by the countries whose airspace the route passed through,” the minister told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

“In the hours before the incident, a number of other passenger aircraft from different carriers used the same route,” he noted.

But ICAO spokesman Anthony Philbin said the UN agency, which is headquartered in Montreal, “does not establish routes” for airlines to follow.

Tyler said an airline’s choice of flight route was “very similar to driving a car — if the road is open, you assume it is safe. If it’s closed, you find an alternate route”.

According to the European flight safety body Eurocontrol, the doomed plane was flying at a level known as “330”, or approximately 10,000 metres or 33,000 feet.

The route had been closed to level “320” but was cleared for those flying at the Malaysian plane’s altitude.

In a statement late Friday, the airline said MH17 had filed a flight plan requesting to fly at 35,000 feet which was “close to the ‘optimum’ altitude”.

“However, an aircraft’s altitude in flight is determined by air traffic control on the ground. Upon entering Ukrainian airspace, MH17 was instructed by Ukrainian air traffic control to fly at 33,000ft,” it said.

European and US airlines re-routed their flights as Kiev said flight MH17 was shot down in a “terrorist” attack, and a US official said intelligence analysts “strongly believe” it was downed by a surface-to-air missile.

Analysts were divided on whether carriers like Malaysia Airlines had been negligent in opting to continue flying over Ukraine.

“I just find it astonishing. I am absolutely flabbergasted,” said Geoff Dell, an air safety expert from the University of Central Queensland in Australia, told Sky News.

“If there’s trouble spots on the globe, then you take a decision to avoid that area,” Dell told Sky News.

“You don’t put your primary assets — your passengers, your crew, your airplane — at risk unnecessarily,” he added.

Assessing risk 

Malaysia Airlines was certainly not alone in persisting with the corridor over Ukraine.

A host of Asian carriers, including Singapore Airlines, Air India, Thai Airways, Air China, China Eastern Airways and Vietnam Airlines, had used the same airspace up until Thursday’s crash.

And European airlines such as Lufthansa and Air France, as well as US carrier Delta, said they were only now taking the decision to avoid Ukraine entirely.

Gerry Soejatman, a consultant with the Jakarta-based Whitesky Aviation chartered flight provider, said every airline had its own level of risk assessment.

Flying above 30,000 feet is generally considered secure given the level of training and sophisticated weaponry required to shoot down a plane at that height, Soejatman said.

“Ten years ago you’d be an idiot to fly over Iraq below 15,000 feet, but over 30,000 feet was very safe, so it’s about the level of risk.

“I think this will send a message to airlines to have a closer look at conflict zones when they choose to fly over them and gain a better understanding of what equipment is on the ground,” he said.

HRABOVE/DONETSK, Ukraine — Ukraine accused Russia and pro-Moscow rebels on Saturday of destroying evidence to cover up their guilt in the shooting down of a Malaysian airliner that has accelerated a showdown between the Kremlin and Western powers.

As militants kept international monitors away from wreckage and scores of bodies festered for a third day, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the rebels to cooperate and insisted that a UN-mandated investigation must not leap to conclusions. Moscow denies involvement and has pointed a finger at Kiev’s military.

The Dutch government, whose citizens made up more than half the 298 aboard MH17 from Amsterdam, said it was “furious” at the manhandling of corpses strewn for miles over open country and asked Ukraine’s president for help to bring “our people” home.

After US President Barack Obama said the loss of the Kuala Lumpur-bound flight showed it was time to end the conflict, Germany called it “Moscow’s last chance to cooperate”.

European powers seemed to swing behind Washington’s belief Russia’s separatist allies were to blame. That might speed new trade sanctions on Moscow, without waiting for definitive proof.

“He has one last chance to show he means to help,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said after a telephone call to Putin.

Britain, which lost 10 citizens, said Prime Minister David Cameron agreed with Rutte that the European Union, warier than Washington of hurting its own economy by imposing sanctions, should reconsider its approach due to evidence of rebel guilt. On Friday, Cameron had urged caution before an investigation.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the most powerful figure in the EU, spoke to Putin on Saturday, urging his cooperation. Merkel’s foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, told Bild am Sonntag newspaper: “Moscow may have a last chance now to show that it really is seriously interested in a solution.”

“Now is the moment for everyone to stop and think to themselves what might happen if we don’t stop the escalation.”

Germany, reliant, like other EU states, on Russian energy and more engaged in Russian trade than the United States, has been reluctant to escalate a confrontation with Moscow that has revived memories of the Cold War. But with military action not seen as an option, economic leverage is a vital instrument.

Russian retaliation

Russia said on Saturday it was retaliating against sanctions imposed by the United States last week, before the air disaster, by barring entry to unnamed Americans and warned of a “boomerang effect” on US business. But Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry did agree in a phone call to try and get both sides in Ukraine to reach a consensus on peace.

Driving home its assertion that the Boeing 777 was hit by a Russian SA-11 radar-guided missile, Ukraine’s Western-backed government said it had “compelling evidence” the battery was not just brought in from Russia but manned by three Russian citizens who had now taken the truck-mounted system back over the border.

The prime minister, denying Russian suggestions that Kiev’s forces had fired a missile, said only a “very professional” crew could have brought down the speeding jetliner from 33,000 feet — not “drunken gorillas” among the ill-trained insurgents who want the Russian-speaking east to be annexed by Moscow.

Fighting flared in eastern Ukraine on Saturday as the government said it was pressing its offensive in the east.

Observers from Europe’s OSCE security agency visited part of the crash site near the village of Hrabove for a second day on Saturday and again found their access hampered by armed men from the forces of the self-declared People’s Republic of Donetsk. An OSCE official said, however, they saw more than on Friday.

At one point, a Reuters correspondent heard a senior rebel tell the OSCE delegation they could not approach the wreckage and would simply be informed in due course of an investigation conducted by the separatists. However, fighters later let them visit an area where one of the airliner’s two engines lay.

“The terrorists, with the help of Russia, are trying to destroy evidence of international crimes,” the Ukrainian government said in a statement. “The terrorists have taken 38 bodies to the morgue in Donetsk,” it said, accusing people with “strong Russian accents” of threatening to conduct autopsies.

Ukraine’s prime minister said armed men barred government experts from collecting evidence.

Retrieving remains

In the regional capital Donetsk, the prime minister of the separatist authorities told a news conference that Kiev was holding up the arrival of international experts whose mission to probe the cause — and potentially blame — for the disaster was authorised on Friday by the United Nations Security Council.

And contrary to earlier statements by the rebels, Alexander Borodai said they had not found the black box flight recorders. He said rebels were avoiding disturbing the area.

“There’s a grandmother. A body landed right in her bed. She says ‘please take this body away’. But we cannot tamper with the site,” Borodai said. “Bodies of innocent people are lying out in the heat. We reserve the right, if the delay continues... to begin the process of taking away the bodies. We ask the Russian Federation to help us with this problem and send their experts.”

Midday temperatures are around 30^oC.

At Hrabove, one armed man from the separatist forces told Reuters that bodies had already been taken away in trucks. Another said that immediately after the crash people had looted valuables. But fighters and local people say they have been doing their best to collect evidence and preserve human remains.

As the stench of death began to pervade the area after Thursday’s crash, correspondents watched rescue workers carry bodies across the fields and gather remains in black sacks.

Meeting Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev, Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said: “We are already shocked by the news we got today of bodies being dragged around, of the site not being treated properly... People are angry, furious.”

The Ukrainian security council in Kiev said staff of the emergencies ministry had found 186 bodies and had checked some 18 sq.km of the scattered 25 square kilometres crash site. But the workers were not free to conduct a normal investigation.

“The fighters have let the emergencies ministry workers in but they are not allowing them to take anything from the area,” security council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said. “The fighters are taking away all that has been found.”

Malaysia, whose national airline has been battered by its second major disaster this year, said it was “inhumane” to bar access to the site around the village of Hrabove, near the city Donetsk, but said Russia was doing its “level best” to help.

A team of Malaysian experts flew in to Kiev on Saturday and experts from Interpol are due there on Sunday to help with the identification of victims. Dutch, US and a host of other specialists are being lined up to help in the investigation.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said before flying to Kiev it would be “inhumane” not to have access and said Moscow was helping: “They are trying their level best to assist Malaysia to ensure we have a safe site,” Liow said.

As tales of personal grief unfolded, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak revealed his own family was involved — his 83-year-old step-grandmother had been aboard the flight.

The United Nations said 80 children were aboard. The deadliest attack on a commercial airliner follows the disappearance of Flight MH370 in March with 239 passengers.

The company has defended its use of the route, 1,000 feet above the area close by Ukraine due to the hostilities. Some airlines had been avoiding the area, though many others were flying over. The issue has raised questions of liability for the deaths and damage and about international supervisors’ roles.

The scale of the disaster could prove a turning point for international pressure to resolve the crisis in Ukraine, which has killed hundreds since pro-Western protests toppled the Moscow-backed president in Kiev in February and Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula a month later.

KABUL — Afghanistan on Thursday began a massive audit of 8.1 million ballots cast in the run-off round of its controversial presidential vote, hours after a brazen Taliban raid on Kabul’s airport. The audit is aimed at reversing a destabilising political crisis that has threatened to widen the country’s ethnic fissures as foreign troops prepare to withdraw after more than a decade of war.

Some 23,000 ballot boxes are being transported by the Afghan army and NATO forces to the capital, where they will be examined at 100 verification stations.

“The audit will take two to three weeks, we are planning to form hundreds of teams for this audit,” Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani, chief of the Independent Election Commission told a press conference.

“I hope both candidates accept the results this time after the overall audit,” he added.

The move was agreed upon by the two rival presidential contenders, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani, following a deal brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

US President Barack Obama on Thursday hailed the “courage” of the two candidates, as well as Kerry’s efforts in breaking the deadlock.

“This progress will honour both candidates who have put the interests of a united Afghanistan first, the millions of Afghans who defied threats in order to vote, and the service of our troops and civilians who have sacrificed so much,” he said in a statement from the White House.

Former foreign minister Abdullah, who blamed fraud for putting him behind Ghani in preliminary results, added his team would be following the process carefully.

“Both teams have agreed for the thorough and serious audit of the votes, and we firmly stand on our commitment to the people that the clean votes will be separated from the unclean ones,” he said.

The impasse over the vote to succeed President Hamid Karzai has raised fears of a return to the ethnic violence of the 1990s.

Abdullah — who says he already suffered one stolen election at Karzai’s hands in 2009 — is half-Tajik while Ghani is from the majority Pashtun community, as are the Taliban.

Every one of the 8.1 million votes cast in the run-off election will be checked for signs of fraud in a painstaking process in Kabul.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) — whose main Kabul compound lies next to the civilian airport — is providing air transport for some 40 per cent of the votes.

The deal followed weeks of fruitless diplomatic efforts and paves the way for a government of national unity, including a role for the losing side.

Brazen raid 

Auditing began just hours after Afghan security officials put an end to a Taliban siege of Kabul’s airport in the militants’ latest attempt to steal the initiative amid the power struggle.

Four insurgents seized a building under construction at around 4:30am (0000 GMT) before opening fire with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades as explosions rang out.

The attack ended more than four hours later, according to the authorities.

Gul Agha Hashimi, a senior police official, said: “The attack is over and the area is cleared from the insurgents. All the insurgents who were holed up in an under-construction building were killed.”

Civilian flights from the airport north of Kabul meanwhile were suspended.

ISAF and Afghan military helicopters were seen hovering over the area during the attack, which came after a devastating suicide bombing at a busy market in southeastern Paktika province on Tuesday that killed at least 42 people.

ISAF later confirmed in a statement it had provided “close air support, a quick reaction force and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance” to Afghan forces, who led the response.

Taliban militants claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attack.

“A number of our mujahedeen armed with heavy and light weapons have launched an attack on Kabul International Airport,” the insurgents’ spokesman Zabiuhallah Mujahid said in a statement.

The Kabul airport is a prime target for insurgents. Militants destroyed Karzai’s parked helicopter and damaged three other choppers after firing rockets into the airport on July 3.