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Turkish Police Arrest 235 People With Links To PKK

Turkish police have detained 235 people for acting on behalf of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the interior ministry says.

Those detained include officials from the main Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP). The arrests come two days after twin bomb attacks near a football stadium in Istanbul which killed 44 people.

Meanwhile, Austria says that talks with Turkey over membership of the European Union should be suspended.

A statement from the interior ministry says the operation covered 11 provinces across Turkey from the northwest to the southeast, and targeted people suspected of “spreading terror group propaganda”. It is not clear whether Monday’s arrests were directly related to the bomb attacks.

Speaking in parliament, Turkish Health Minister Recep Akdag said most of the 44 people killed on Saturday were policemen. “It is very painful that we lost 36 of our police officers and eight civilians in a bloody attack,” he said, according to Dogan news agency.

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Funeral Held For Victims Of Cairo Cathedral Bombing

Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has attended a state funeral for victims of an attack at Cairo’s Coptic Christian cathedral, naming the suicide bomber he said was responsible.

Mr Sisi, who has declared three days of national mourning, named Shafik Mahmoud Mohamed Mostafa, 22, as the attacker.

The bombing on Sunday killed 24 people, many of them women and children.

Mr Sisi said that three men and a woman had been arrested in connection with the attack. Dozens more were injured in the blast in a chapel adjoining St Mark’s cathedral during a Sunday service, which Mr Sisi said caused “pain to all Egyptians”. He used his address to urge the government to amend the country’s terrorism laws, which he said were “restricting the judicial system” in its battle to prevent such attacks in Egypt.

Mourners earlier packed the Virgin Mary and St Athanasius Church for a service led by the spiritual head of Egypt’s Orthodox Christians, Pope Tawadros II. However, hundreds of mourners were angry at being denied entry, the Reuters news agency reports, with a number of youths detained. Inside the church, banners bearing the names of the dead were hung on the walls. Pope Tawadros II prayed over the victims’ coffins and called them martyrs.

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Neo-Nazi Group To Be Banned Under Terrorism Laws

A British neo-Nazi movement is to become the first far-right group to be banned under terrorism laws in the UK.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said National Action was “a racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic organisation”.

An order laid in Parliament to proscribe the group – making it a criminal offence to join or support it – is due to come into effect on Friday. It will be the first time a group engaged in extreme right-wing activities has been proscribed.

Under the Terrorism Act 2000, the home secretary can proscribe an organisation if it is believed to be “concerned in terrorism”.

Vile Ideology

National Action describes itself as a “National Socialist youth organisation” and says its movement is aimed at the “broken right-wing”.

Ms Rudd said the group had “no place” in Britain. She said: “National Action is a racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic organisation which stirs up hatred, glorifies violence and promotes a vile ideology, and I will not stand for it.”

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Six People Arrested On Suspicion Of Terrorism

Six people have been arrested on suspicion of offences under the Terrorism Act.

Four men from Derby, a man from Burton upon Trent and a woman from London were arrested on suspicion of engaging in the preparation of an act of terrorism.

Six properties in Derby, Burton upon Trent and London are all being searched as part of the operation. Counter-terrorism sources described the operation as “significant” and the result of an ongoing investigation. The sources said the investigation was into a group believed to be working towards an attack – though a strike was not thought to be imminent.

The four suspects from Derby are aged 22, 27, 35 and 36. The suspect from Burton upon Trent is aged 27 and the woman from London is 32.

Under terrorism legislation laws, officers have 48 hours to charge, release or apply for a warrant for further detention of the suspects.

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50,000 IS Militants Killed In The Last Two Years

At least 50,000 militants from so-called Islamic State have been killed since the US-led coalition started fighting in Iraq and Syria two years ago, a US military official has said. The senior official described the figure as a “conservative estimate”.

The figure showed air power and a small number of US figures supporting local forces were having an impact, the official said.

The US has, however, repeatedly warned that IS can replace fighters rapidly.

The official on Thursday said that coalition air strikes could be intensified in places like Mosul, which Iraqi troops are now battling to recapture, but that had to be offset against the risk of civilian casualties. The campaign was beginning to damage IS, the official said. “I am not into morbid counts but that kind of volume matters, that kind of impact on the enemy.”

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