MOSCOW (AP) — Russia on Friday accused the West of triggering the Ukrainian crisis by its "megalomania," as fighting continued in Ukraine's east between pro-Russia insurgents and government forces two days before a presidential election.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov urged the West to reach a settlement based on mutual interests.

"If we sincerely want to help the Ukrainian people overcome this crisis, it's necessary to abandon the notorious zero-sum games, stop encouraging xenophobic and neo-Nazi sentiments and get rid of dangerous megalomania," Lavrov said in a speech at a security conference in Moscow organized by the Russian Defense Ministry.

Speaking at the same conference, the head of the General Staff of the Russian military, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, blamed the West for encouraging massive protests that chased Ukraine's pro-Russian president from power in February.

Russia annexed Ukraine's region of Crimea in March, triggering the worst crisis in relations with the West since the Cold War. Pro-Russian insurgents also have seized government buildings in eastern Ukraine and fought government troops for more than a month.

Gerasimov criticized the Ukrainian authorities for using artillery and other heavy weapons against civilians, and charged that radical paramilitary forces and private security companies were spearheading the offensive.

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Fighting in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russia insurgents raided a military checkpoint and killed 16 soldiers in the deadliest attack yet, has cast a shadow over the nation's presidential vote set for Sunday.

Ukraine's interim government and the West hope that the vote will help stabilize the country, but the authorities in Kiev acknowledged it will be impossible to hold the vote in some areas in the east, where insurgents have declared independence and pledged to derail the vote. Election workers and activists have reported threats and interference from gunmen.

Many in the east resent the government in Kiev, seeing it as a group of nationalists bent on repressing Russian speakers in the east. But many in the rebellious regions also have grown increasingly exasperated with the insurgents, whom they blame for putting civilians in the crossfire.

The village of Semenovka on the outskirts of Slovyansk, a city which has been the epicenter of clashes for weeks, has seen continuous shelling by the Ukrainian government forces, who have retaliated to the rebel fire.

On Friday, a private house was destroyed by mortar fire that came from the Ukrainian side. There were no casualties, as the family living there had left the previous day, according to local residents.

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Alexander Zemlianichenko contributed to this report from Slovyansk, Ukraine.

By Michael Martina

URUMQI, China (Reuters) - Five suicide bombers carried out the attack which killed 31 people in the capital of China's troubled Xinjiang region, state media reported a day after the deadliest terrorist attack to date in the region.

The incident, which occurred in Urumqi on Thursday morning, was the second suicide attack in the capital in just over three weeks. A bomb and knife attack at an Urumqi train station in late April killed one bystander and wounded 79.

The government recently launched a campaign to strike hard against terrorism in Xinjiang, blaming Islamists and separatists for the worsening violence in the resource-rich western region bordering central Asia. At least 180 people have been killed in attacks across China over the past year.

The attackers ploughed two vehicles into an open market in Urumqi and hurled explosives. Many of the 94 people wounded were elderly shoppers, according to witnesses.

"Five suspects who participated in the violent terrorist attack blew themselves up," the Global Times, a tabloid run by the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, reported on Friday.

Deadliest attack in years kills 31 in China's …Play Video

The newspaper said authorities "are investigating whether there were other accomplices".

"Judging from the many terrorist attacks that have taken place and the relevant perpetrators, they have received support from terrorist groups outside China's borders as well as religious extremist propaganda spread via the internet," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a daily news briefing.

No group has claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack.

Pan Zhiping, a retired expert on Central Asia at Xinjiang's Academy of Social Science, said Thursday's attack was the deadliest ever in the region.

He said the "terrorists" received training overseas from groups like the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and gained combat experience in Syria.

Dozens die in China market attackPlay Video

"They are now definitely organized and these small organizations are very tight," Pan said. "If it's not possible to crack a small organization, then I think this kind of thing will continue to happen."

SPREADING "TERRORISM PROBLEM"

Exiles and many rights groups say the real cause of the unrest in Xinjiang is China's heavy-handed policies, including curbs on Islam and the culture and language of ethnic Uighurs, Turkic speaking Muslim people.

The Uighurs have long complained of official discrimination in favor of the Han people, China's majority ethnic group.

Residents said the morning market, where the attack occurred, was predominantly frequented by Han Chinese customers, though many of the vendors were Uighurs.

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A Han Chinese man, surnamed Zheng, said he had left the market just 20 minutes before the attack occurred. He said after he heard the blast, he rushed back to see plumes of black smoke rising into the sky and people running away.

"How are people supposed to live life when you can't even go to buy vegetables? It's so terrible," he told Reuters.

"I just got here, but if I had the means, I'd consider leaving Urumqi for someplace safer," Zheng said, adding that other morning markets were also closed.

China has been grappling with a rise in suicide attacks. A car burst into flames at the edge of Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October, killing five people.

Chinese police blamed the ETIM for the Urumqi train station attack last month, state news agency Xinhua said on Sunday, the first time the separatists have been directly linked to the assault.

The ETIM has been accused by the United States and China of having ties to al Qaeda, but there is disagreement among security experts over the nature of the group and whether ties with al Qaeda and other militant organizations really exist.

"It looks like (the Chinese authorities) have a metastasizing domestic terrorism problem," Kenneth Lieberthal, a China expert with the Brookings Institution, told Reuters.

"I think the evidence suggests to date that if anything, the rethink (on Xinjiang policy) will be to get tougher."

(Additional reporting by Li Hui, Sui-Lee Wee and Megha Rajagopalan in BEIJING and James Pomfret in HONG KONG, Writing by Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

BANGKOK (AP) — Ousted members of Thailand's former government turned themselves in to the country's new military junta Friday, as soldiers forcefully dispersed hundreds of anti-coup activists who defied a ban on large-scale gatherings to protest the army's seizure of power.

At least two activists were detained by troops during the protest in downtown Bangkok, which descended into scuffles but ended without injury and marked one of the first open challenges to the military since Thursday's coup.

The junta, though, remained firmly in charge, summoning more than 100 top political figures — the entire ousted government, their associates and a handful of their opponents. It also banned those on its wanted list from leaving the country.

Among the officials who showed up at an army compound in Bangkok by midday were former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, sacked earlier this month for nepotism by the Constitutional Court, and her temporary replacement Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan, according to Yingluck's aide Wim Rungwattanachinda.

After about 30 minutes, Yingluck left the facility and was taken to another army location by soldiers, said Wim, who later added that it appeared she would not be immediately released.

It was unclear what the military's intentions beyond the summons, which it said had been issued "to keep peace and order and solve the country's problems."

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By nightfall, dozens of the VIPs who turned themselves in were still being held, although at least eight ex-Cabinet ministers had been released.

One, Education Minister Chaturon Chaisang, an outspoken critic of the military's intervention in politics, remained in hiding. Chaturon said in a Facebook post that the coup would only worsen the country's political atmosphere. He vowed not to turn himself in, but said he would not resist arrest.

Most of the country was calm, and there was little military presence on Bangkok's streets. Although life had largely returned to normal during the day, an overnight curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. was still in effect.

There were no reports of any unrest, including the former government's political strongholds in the north. In the northeast city of Chiang Mai, about 100 anti-coup demonstrators also took to the streets, but no violence was reported and the protesters dispersed on their own.

The army staged the coup Thursday just after a military-hosted meeting of political rivals to resolve the country's political deadlock.

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After two hours and no resolution, armed soldiers detained the participants, including four Cabinet ministers, and army chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha appeared on national television to announce the takeover. Hours later, the junta suspended the constitution and banned gatherings of more than five people.

Prayuth justified the coup as a necessary move to restore stability amid increasing spasms of violence that together with controversial court rulings had rendered the government powerless.

But there are fears the power grab will only lead to more violence and simply deepen the nation's crisis.

Thursday's dramatic events were the latest response to a societal schism laid bare after the 2006 coup deposed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the older brother of Yingluck and a billionaire tycoon whose populist movement has won every national election since 2001. Thaksin lives in self-imposed exile to avoid corruption charges, but he still wields enormous influence over Thailand's political affairs and remains at the heart of the ongoing crisis.

It is a divide that has led to upheaval multiple times in recent years. The latest crisis alone has left 28 people dead and more than 800 wounded since November.

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Thailand's Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra gives a traditional greeting as she arrives at the Con …

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry condemned the takeover and warned it would "have negative implications for the U.S.-Thai relationship," but did not announce immediate punitive steps. The State Department said it was reviewing millions of dollars in aid.

"There is no justification for this military coup," Kerry said in a statement that also called for the release of detained political leaders and a return of press freedom.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said his country looked to Thai authorites "to set out a quick clear timetable for elections to help re-establish the democratic framework of governance.

"There should never be recourse to violence: only by openly discussing the full range of issues can Thailand move forward and reach a more stable position, he said in a statement issued by the Foreign Office.

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Associated Press writers Grant Peck and Jocelyn Gecker, and video journalists Raul Gallego and Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul contributed to this report.

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