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Thousands mourn Turkish bomb victims

ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) — Thousands of mourners were joined Monday by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the funerals of victims killed in Sunday’s double bombing in Istanbul.

Seventeen people were killed and at least 154 injured, according to the Anadolu news agency, when the bombs went off close to each other and only minutes apart.

Erdogan and other government figures have pointed the finger at the PKK — a Kurdish group fighting for its own autonomous region in the southeast — but the group has denied responsibility.

Terrorism is a phenomenon that does not have a religion, people, homeland or race, Erdogan said.

Tensions between Turkey and Kurdish rebels have been rising as Istanbul stepped up its campaign against the PKK.

Another source of tension in Turkey is between secular Turks suspicious of the government, led by the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party, or AKP.

Less than two weeks ago, 86 people — mostly critics of the government — were indicted on charges of being involved with an alleged terror group called Ergenekon, which aims to topple the Turkish government.

Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler called the blasts an act of terror, and said the devices were placed 15 meters (49 feet) from each other.

The first was a stun grenade that was detonated to draw attention before the second blast went off, he said. One bomb had been placed in a trash can.

Guler said police had launched an investigation into who is responsible for the blasts. Watch the blast

The blasts happened within 10 minutes of each other in Istanbul’s crowded Gungoren community about 10 p.m. (3 p.m. ET), said Zafer Karakoc, who witnessed the explosions, told CNN Turk. Karakoc is a journalist with Turkish news agency DHA.

Dozens of firefighters and paramedics were on the scene, and several bloodied people were driven off in ambulances afterward. Glass and debris were strewn all over the brick sidewalks, and shop windows were blown out.

A few bodies were still covered in blankets as ambulances arrived. Journalists on the scene reported seeing body parts around the square, which is closed to vehicle traffic and a central place where tourists and residents gather in the evenings.

More than 150 people were taken to hospitals, said Hayati Yazici, assistant to Erdogan. The first blast drew people to the scene before the second explosion, increasing the number of casualties, he said.

Authorities asked residents to evacuate the heavily pedestrian, working class Gungoren neighborhood within an hour of the blast, reporters told CNN.

This is just the type of neighborhood that ordinary people live in, journalist Andrew Finkel told CNN, adding later: They’re shocked, they’re angry. They can’t believe they were targeted.

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Taser death case heads to grand jury

(CNN) — A Louisiana grand jury will decide whether a fired police officer should face criminal charges in the January death of a man who was Tasered nine times while handcuffed, the parish’s district attorney announced Monday.

Baron Scooter Pikes, a 21-year-old sawmill worker, had tried to run from police in Winnfield, Louisiana, when they tried to arrest him on an outstanding warrant for cocaine possession.

But a coroner’s report found Pikes had been handcuffed and on the ground when first hit with the Taser and might have been dead before the last two shocks from the 50,000-volt device were delivered.

I know there are strong feelings on both sides of this matter, Winn Parish District Attorney Christopher Nevils said in a written statement. But my obligation and that of the grand jury is to objectively sort through the facts and make a decision that is in the best interests of justice.

Nevils’ announcement follows a Louisiana State Police investigation into Pikes’ death.

Investigators delivered the results of that probe to the district attorney’s office last week, and the grand jury will convene August 12, he said. The results of the state police investigation remain sealed. See how Tasers work

The officer who arrested Pikes, Scott Nugent, was suspended after the fatal incident and was fired in May. His attorney, Phillip Terrell, was unavailable for comment on the announcement, but told CNN earlier that his client had followed proper police procedure.

A lawyer for the Pikes family, Carol Powell-Lexing, called news of the grand jury a welcome development.

Nugent is white; Pikes was black. His death led to demonstrations that drew several dozen people in Winnfield, where the population of about 15,000 is roughly half African-American.

In the year since Winnfield police received Tasers, officers have used them 14 times, according to police records — with 12 of the instances involving black suspects. Ten of the 14 incidents involved Nugent, who had no public disciplinary record.

Police said Pikes told officers he suffered from asthma and had been using PCP and crack cocaine.

But Dr. Randolph Williams, the Winn Parish medical examiner, said he found no sign of drug use in the autopsy and no record of asthma in Pikes’ medical history. Watch coroner describe how Pikes might’ve been dead after 7 shocks

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U.S. issues angry trade rebuke to China, India

GENEVA (AP) — The United States accused China and India on Monday of threatening seven years of work on a new global commerce pact, using some of the strongest language yet at a crucial set of talks at the World Trade Organization.

David Shark, a U.S. trade official, told the WTO’s 153 members that the U.S. had swallowed hard and accepted a compromise proposal to open up trade in manufactured goods and agriculture.

But he criticized India for rejecting the package laid out by WTO chief Pascal Lamy, and China for backing out of terms it agreed to last week.

Their actions have thrown the entire Doha round into the gravest jeopardy of its nearly seven-year life, Shark said, according to a copy of his statement obtained by The Associated Press.

Rich and poor countries have clashed repeatedly since the round was launched in Qatar’s capital in 2001. The trade body is hoping for agreement this week on a deal that would lower tariffs and subsidies on agriculture and manufactured goods, setting the stage for an overall trade accord by the end of the year. Signs of a breakthrough last Friday were followed by more entrenchment over the weekend.

India said the standoff was the result of unreasonable demands from the U.S. and other rich nations.

If blocking means not accepting whatever the developed countries say, so be it, Kamal Nath, India’s trade minister, told reporters. It’s not only India. We have 100 countries saying the same thing. It’s the large economies that are isolated.

Shark said the two emerging powers are insisting on allowances to raise farm tariffs above even their current levels. That violates the spirit of the trade round, the U.S. and other agricultural exporters argue, because it is supposed to help poorer countries develop their economies by boosting their exports of farm produce.

But China and India are not alone. Faced with rising food prices, a number of developing nations have sought wide loopholes against opening up their farm markets — either by blocking certain strategic products such as rice or grains or through rules that would allow them to spike tariffs if faced with a sudden flood of imports.

Shark accused China of trying to carve out cotton, sugar, rice and other commodities from any tariff cuts under a WTO deal. He said Beijing and Delhi were working to protect their own interests by controlling a large group of even poorer nations.

Ironically, these policies would have their most serious detrimental effects on precisely those poorer developing countries that already have such limited agricultural export capabilities, he said.

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Typhoon shuts down Taiwan

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A typhoon lashed Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rains Monday, triggering landslides and floods that disrupted air traffic and closed schools and businesses.

Typhoon Fung Wong made landfall on the east central coast just before daybreak, packing winds of 105 miles per hour. No casualties had been reported four hours later.

Television images showed rescue personnel wading through waist-deep waters to extricate people from their homes in Hualien in eastern Taiwan.

Officials evacuated more than 500 isolated villagers and barred traffic at low-lying bridges, Taiwan’s disaster relief center said. An unidentified village chief in Nantou County in central Taiwan told Sanlih Television that rampaging flood waters had reached a mountain village, prompting some 1,000 people to prepare to evacuate.

In normally bustling Taipei, streets were deserted after authorities ordered businesses, banks and the local stock exchange to close.

The city’s domestic airport was shut down, but at the international airport in suburban Taoyuan county some long-haul and regional flights using larger aircraft were still taking off and landing normally, according to the Taoyuan airport’s Web site.

The state-run Taiwan Power company said more than 43,000 homes had lost power and several roads were blocked by landslides.

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Thai court delay for alleged arms dealer

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — A Thai court delayed reputed Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout’s extradition hearing to the U.S. for a second time after his new defense attorney failed to show up for the high-profile case Monday.

Bout, dubbed The Merchant of Death, has been indicted in the U.S. on four terrorism charges. Though he denies any involvement in illicit activities, he is regarded as one of the world’s most-wanted arms traffickers and was purportedly the model for the arms dealer portrayed by Nicolas Cage in the 2005 movie Lord of War.

Barefoot and shackled, Bout was led into Bangkok’s Criminal Court for a hearing that ended abruptly because his defense lawyer, whose name was not immediately available, was not present.

The lawyer says he has another case. The court deems that it is necessary to postpone, Judge Jitakorn Patanasiri told the court. The judge initially set the new date as Aug. 22 but then corrected himself to say Sept. 22.

The hearing was delayed June 9 for the first time because Bout’s other attorney, Lak Nitiwatanavichan, said he had heart problems. Lak, who is now serving as a legal adviser in the case, said Bout plans to fight the extradition.

He’s innocent. There are no grounds for his extradition, the lawyer told The Associated Press.

The 41-year-old Russian faces charges of conspiring to kill Americans, conspiring to kill U.S. officers or employees, conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and conspiring to acquire and use an anti-aircraft missile, according to a U.S. indictment made public May 6. He faces a life sentence.

American prosecutors say Bout was offering a deadly arsenal of weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, including more than 700 surface-to-air missiles, thousands of guns, high-tech helicopters, and airplanes outfitted with grenade launchers and missiles. The U.S. classifies FARC as a terrorist organization.

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