“The court decided that the proposal from the defendants’ lawyer to release the defendants…has been rejected,” judge Ye Lwin told a courtroom in the commercial capital Yangon packed with supporters, family and media.

Reuters reporters Wa Lone, 32 and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27 were arrested in December and accused of violating the country’s Official Secrets Act for possessing material relating to security operations in conflict-hit Rakhine state.

Myanmar has faced global condemnation and accusations of extrajudicial killings, ethnic cleansing and genocide as some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Rakhine to Bangladesh following a military crackdown on insurgents.

The government rejects the allegations and says it was defending itself against attacks from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which occurred on August 25.

The Reuters pair had been investigating a massacre of 10 Rohingya men on September 2 in the Rakhine village of Inn Din that was carried out by security forces and local villagers.

Seven Myanmar soldiers have been sentenced to jail with hard labour for their part in the killings, according to a Facebook post by the army chief late Tuesday.

The case against the journalists has proceeded despite international calls for their release. Last month Reuters announced that prominent rights attorney Amal Clooney had joined the legal team.//AFP

In his first formal congressional appearance, the Facebook founder and chief executive answered questions for nearly five hours as he sought to quell the storm over privacy and security lapses at the social media giant that have angered lawmakers and the network’s two billion users.

CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg (R) takes his seat to testify before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee joint hearing on ‘Facebook, Social Media Privacy, and the Use and Abuse of Data’ on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA, 10 April 2018. Zuckerberg is testifying before two Congressional hearings this week regarding Facebook allowing third-party applications to collect the data of its users without their permission and for the company’s response to Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. // EPA-EFE PHOTO

Under mounting pressure over the hijacking of its user data by a British political consultant, Zuckerberg reiterated his apology for the historic breach, before being grilled over how Facebook collects and protects people’s personal information.

“It was my mistake, and I’m sorry,” Zuckerberg said about the improper sharing of 87 million people’s information by Cambridge Analytica, a firm working for Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Image was created as an Equirectangular Panorama. Import image into a panoramic player to create an interactive 360 degree view.) Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives to testify before a combined Senate Judiciary and Commerce committee hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill April 10, 2018 in Washington, DC. Zuckerberg, 33, was called to testify after it was reported that 87 million Facebook users had their personal information harvested by Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm linked to the Trump campaign. Chip Somodevilla//Getty Images/AFP PHOTO

“I started Facebook, I run it and I’m responsible for what happens here.”

He added that Facebook fell short in protecting the platform, noting: “That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy.”

The 33-year-old CEO spoke of a constant struggle to guard against Russian manipulation of the Facebook platform to influence elections in the US and elsewhere.

“There are people in Russia whose job it is to try to exploit our systems and other internet systems and other systems as well,” he said.

“So this is an arms race. They’re going to keep getting better and we need to invest in getting better at this too.”

Zuckerberg has previously acknowledged the social network failed to do enough to prevent the spread of disinformation during the last US presidential race.

The Senate hearing, ahead of another appearance in the House on Wednesday, featured several tense and some friendly exchanges on Facebook’s security, hate speech and other topics.

Of the hundreds of questions he faced, none appeared to flummox him more than Senator Dick Durbin’s pointed query about where he slept the previous evening.

“Would you be comfortable sharing with us the name of the hotel you stayed in last night?” Durbin asked.

Zuckerberg paused for a full eight seconds, chuckled, grimaced and ultimately demurred.

“Um, uh, no,” he said.

And “if you’ve messaged anybody this week, would you share with us the names of the people you’ve messaged?” the Illinois Democrat persisted.

Again, a similar unwillingness to answer.

Perhaps more than any other senator during five hours of questioning, Durbin’s everyman tactic put a finger on the crux of the issue surrounding Facebook’s handling of its users’ private data.

 – Open to regulation –

Zuckerberg said he was open to regulation, but cautioned against complex rules that might impact emerging social media firms.

“I think the internet is becoming increasingly important in people’s lives and I think we need to have a full conversation about what is the right regulation,” he told the hearing.

CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee joint hearing on ‘Facebook, Social Media Privacy, and the Use and Abuse of Data’ on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA, 10 April 2018. Zuckerberg is testifying before two Congressional hearings this week regarding Facebook allowing third-party applications to collect the data of its users without their permission and for the company’s response to Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. EPA-EFE PHOTO

“You need to be careful (a new regulatory policy) doesn’t cement in the current companies that are winning.”

Zuckerberg also revealed that Facebook is cooperating with the US special prosecutor investigating Russian interference in the 2016 vote.

“Our work with the special counsel is confidential. I want to make sure in an open session I don’t reveal something that’s confidential,” he said.

Zuckerberg said he had personally not been contacted, and that he was not specifically aware of any subpoena of Facebook data.

“I believe there may be (a subpoena), but I know we’re working with them,” he said.

Swapping his customary T-shirt for a business suit and tie, the Facebook chief appeared somber as he fielded tough questions over Cambridge Analytica’s massive data breach.

“We’ve been working to understand exactly what happened with Cambridge Analytica and taking steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” he said in his prepared remarks.

But the show of contrition fell short for several lawmakers.

“We’ve seen the apology tours before,” Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut told Zuckerberg.

“And so, my reservation about your testimony today is that I don’t see how you can change your business model unless there are specific rules of the road.”

 – Paid-for Facebook? –

Dozens of protesters gathered outside Congress before the hearing wearing Zuckerberg masks and #DeleteFacebook T-shirts.

Inside the jammed hearing room, activists from the Code Pink group wore oversized glasses with the words “STOP SPYING” written on the lenses, and waved signs that read “Stop corporate lying.”

Testifying was a new step for Zuckerberg, who started Facebook as a Harvard dropout in 2004, and built it into the world’s largest social media company worth more than $450 billion.

During questioning, Zuckerberg rejected the suggestion that the social media giant, with over two billion users worldwide, has exclusive control over its market.

“The average American uses eight different apps to communicate with their friends and stay in touch with people, ranging from texting apps to e-mail,” he said.

Zuckerberg also said the company believed in an ad-supported business model, but appeared to leave open the possibility of a paid version.

“There will always be a version of Facebook that is free,” Zuckerberg told the hearing.

Chile’s National Seismological Center said the quake struck the north-central region at 7:19 am (1019 GMT), 35 kilometers (21 miles) north of Punitaqui at a depth of 75.8 kilometers.

The United States Geological Survey also reported the quake as measuring 6.2.

An initial report from Chile’s National Emergency Office said the quake did not cause injuries or “disruption of basic services.”

The quake was reportedly felt from Atacama in the north to BioBio region in the south.

The world’s most seismic country, Chile has a long Pacific Ocean coastline and a history of earthquake-linked tsunamis, but in this case authorities ruled out a tsunami risk.

In 1960 Chile was struck by the world’s most powerful earthquake, measuring 9.5, which left more than 5,700 people dead

The truck hit a roadside barrier outside Khandala, a hill resort and popular tourist destination 80 kilometres (50 miles) inland from Mumbai.

Indian villagers look at a wrecked school bus near Nurpur in Kangra District, in India’s northwest Himachal Pradesh state on April 10, 2018, a day after a bus accident that killed at least 30 people. At least 30 people, including 27 children, were killed April 9 in northern India when a school bus plunged into a deep ravine in the Himalayan foothills, police said. / AFP PHOTO 

“The truck was definitely speeding and flipped over two, three times and crashed into a highway barrier. We have recovered 18 bodies so far,” Padmakar Ghanwat, a Khandala police inspector, told AFP.

Another 15 people were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment.

The deadly crash came just a day after 30 people, including 27 children, were killed when a school bus plunged into a ravine in the Himalayan foothills.

India has some of the world’s deadliest roads, claiming the lives of more than 150,000 people each year.

Indian villagers look at a wrecked school bus near Nurpur in Kangra District, in India’s northwest Himachal Pradesh state on April 10, 2018, a day after a bus accident that killed at least 30 people. At least 30 people, including 27 children, were killed April 9 in northern India when a school bus plunged into a deep ravine in the Himalayan foothills, police said. / AFP PHOTO 

Most accidents are blamed on poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving.

Commercial drivers are largely unregulated, meaning many work long hours through the night, raising the danger of them falling asleep at the wheel, campaigners say.

The conference runs from April 8 to 11 in Boao, a town in South China’s island province of Hainan, and is themed “An Open and Innovative Asia for a World of Greater Prosperity.”

Here are the highlights of the speech.

GM Cadillac CT6 V-Sport is displayed during the 2018 New York International Auto Show. [Photo/Agencies]

Tariffs and imports

Xi said China will significantly lower the import tariffs for vehicles and reduce import tariffs for some other products this year.

“We will take the initiative to expand imports,” Xi said.

The country will work hard to import more products that are competitive and needed by the Chinese people, he said.

China will also seek faster progress toward joining the WTO Government Procurement Agreement, according to the president.

“China does not seek trade surplus; we have a genuine desire to increase imports and achieve greater balance of international payments under the current account,” he said.

Speaking of the first China International Import Expo to be held in Shanghai this November, Xi said friends from around the world are welcome to participate in the Expo.

“It is not just another expo in an ordinary sense, but a major policy initiative and commitment taken of our own accord to open up the Chinese market,” he said.

Meanwhile, China hopes developed countries will stop imposing restrictions on normal and reasonable trade of high-tech products and relax export controls on such trade with China, according to the president.

A large cruise passes by the Huangpu River in Shanghai, Nov 14, 2017. [Photo/IC]

Free trade ports with Chinese characteristics

China will adopt policies to promote high-standard liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment, and explore the opening of free trade ports with Chinese characteristics,Xi said.

“We will pay equal attention to ‘bringing in’ and ‘going global’, and break new ground in opening China further through links running eastward and westward, across land and over sea,” he said in a keynote speech at the ongoing Boao Forum for Asia annual conference.

A worker checks the side of a bullet train in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, on Feb 6. Chinese high-speed rail technology has gone global. LIU ZHENG/XINHUA

IPR protection

Xi said China will strengthen protection of intellectual property rights.

IPR protection is the centerpiece of the system for improving property rights protection, and it will provide the biggest boost to enhancing the competitiveness of the Chinese economy, the president said.

“Stronger IPR protection is the requirement of foreign enterprises, and even more so of Chinese enterprises,” he said.

China is re-instituting the State Intellectual Property Office this year to step up law enforcement, significantly raise the cost for offenders and fully unlock the deterrent effect of relevant laws, according to the president.

“We encourage normal technological exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and foreign enterprises, and protect the lawful IPR owned by foreign enterprises in China,” he said.

Meanwhile, China hopes foreign governments will also improve protection of Chinese IPR, the president said.

Travelers apply for up to 144-hour visa-free entry at Beijing Capital International Airport on Thursday. The entry also can be used to visit Tianjin and Hebei province. ZOU HONG / CHINA DAILY

Attractive investment environment

China will improve the investment environment for foreign investors, Xi said.

Likening investment environment to air, Xi said that only fresh air can attract more investment from the outside.

“China relied mainly on providing favorable policies for foreign investors in the past, but now we will have to rely more on improving the investment environment,” he said.

Xi said that China will complete the revision of the negative list on foreign investment in the first half of the year and implement across the board the management system based on pre-establishment national treatment and negative list.

“We will enhance alignment with international economic and trading rules, increase transparency, strengthen property right protection, uphold the rule of law, encourage competition and oppose monopoly,” he said.

In March, China established a host of new agencies such as the State Administration for Market Regulation as part of a major readjustment of government institutions.

The purpose of this readjustment, Xi said, was to remove the systematic and institutional obstacles that prevent the market from playing a decisive role in resources allocation, and enable the government to better play its role.

View of the Bund after a rainstorm in Shanghai, June 22 2016. [Photo/IC]

Market access

China will launch a number of landmark measures this year to significantly broaden its market access, Xi said.

Late last year, China announced that measures would be taken to raise foreign equity caps in the banking, securities and insurance industries.

“We will ensure that these measures are materialized,” Xi said.

China will accelerate the opening-up of the insurance industry, ease restrictions on the establishment of foreign financial institutions in China and expand their business scope, and open up more areas of cooperation between Chinese and foreign financial markets, he said.

On manufacturing, he said China has basically opened up this sector with a small number of exceptions on automobiles, ships and aircraft.

Photo taken on May 18, 2017 by a drone shows the Haicang port area in Xiamen, East China’s Fujian Province. [Photo/Xinhua]

Reform and opening-up

– Remarkable achievements

China began its historic journey of reform and opening-up in 1978, and the Chinese people have added a glorious chapter to the development epic of the country and the nation over the past four decades, Xi said.

Over the last four decades, the Chinese people have significantly unleashed and enhanced productivity in China through hard work with an unyielding spirit, Xi said.

Over the last four decades, the Chinese people have blazed a path of socialism with Chinese characteristics through determined exploration with a pioneering spirit, according to Xi.

Over the last four decades, the Chinese people have kept forging ahead and demonstrated the strength of the nation through keeping pace with the progress of the times, he noted.

“Over the last four decades, the Chinese people have embraced the world with open arms and actively contributed our share to the world,” Xi said.

“Today, the Chinese people can say with great pride that reform and opening-up, China’s second revolution if you like, has not only profoundly changed the country but also greatly influenced the whole world,” the president said.

– Meeting global trend

Four decades of reform and opening-up has provided many valuable inspirations, Xi said.

“The most important one is that for any country or nation to achieve rejuvenation, they must follow the logic of history and the trend of the times in their pursuit of progress and development,” Xi said.

“China’s reform and opening-up meets its people’s aspiration for development, innovation and a better life. It also meets the global trend toward development, cooperation and peace,” Xi said.

A worker checks the quality of wind turbine fans in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province.[Photo by Geng Yuhe/for China Daily]

– Reform and opening up will definitely succeed

Xi said China’s reform and opening up will definitely succeed and that a Cold War mentality, zero-sum thinking, and isolationism would hit walls.

Xi said that opening brings progress, while closure would lead to backwardness.

Xi said that in a world aspiring for peace and development, the cold-war and zero-sum mentality look even more out of place.

“Putting oneself on a pedestal or trying to immune oneself from adverse developments will get nowhere,” said Xi.

Xi said humanity has a major choice to make between openness and isolation, and between progress and retrogression.

“We must dispel the clouds to see the sun, as we say in Chinese, so as to have a keen grasp of the law of history and the trend of the world,” said Xi.

Xi said we live at a time with an overwhelming trend toward peace and cooperation as well as openness and connectivity.

Xi said we also live at a time with an overwhelming trend toward reform and innovation, adding that those who reject them will be left behind and assigned to the dustbin of history.

One of the tangible symbols of the Belt and Road Initiative is a new freight train service linking the UK and China, through the entire B&R region. Photo provided to China daily

Belt and Road Initiative

Xi said that the Belt and Road Initiative may be China’s idea, but its opportunities and outcomes are going to benefit the world.

China has no geopolitical calculations, seeks no exclusionary blocs and imposes no business deals on others, the president said.

“It must be pointed out that as the BRI is a new initiative, it is perfectly natural for there to be different views in cooperation. As long as the parties embrace the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, we can surely enhance cooperation and resolve differences,” he said.

“This way, we can make the BRI the broadest platform for international cooperation in keeping with the trend of economic globalization and to the greater benefit of all our peoples,” Xi said.

Red flags and the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Photo/VCG]

Chinese nation’s missions in new era

Xi outlined missions the Chinese people need to undertake in the new era.

“Each age and generation have their own challenges and missions. China has come a long way, but it has to overcome new challenges on its way ahead,” Xi said.

According to Xi, the nation’s missions in the new era are as follows:

— Continue to improve itself through reform;

— Take bold steps in innovation to boost development;

— Continue to increase openness and expand cooperation;

— Work together with the rest of the world and make greater contribution to humanity.

A shared future for mankind

Xi called for people around the world to work together toward a community with a shared future for mankind and make Asia and the world peaceful, tranquil, prosperous, open and beautiful.

“With the future in mind, we need to treat each other with respect and as equals,” said Xi.

With the future in mind, Xi said, we also need to promote dialogue and share responsibility, engage in cooperation for win-win results, uphold inclusiveness and seek harmony without uniformity, as well as treat nature with respect and treasure our planet.

Existing intl system

China will not threaten anyone else, attempt to overturn the existing international system, or seek spheres of influence, no matter how much progress it has made in development, Xi said.

The country will “stay as determined as ever to build world peace, contribute to global prosperity and uphold the international order,” he said in a keynote speech delivered at the opening ceremony of Boao Forum for Asia annual conference.

A technician inspects the surface of a stainless steel component at a factory of Shanxi-based Taiyuan Iron and Steel (Group) Co, which is staking its future on research and development efforts. [Photo provided to China Daily]

GDP growth

Over the past 40 years, China’s GDP has averaged an annual growth rate of around 9.5 percent in comparable prices, Xi said.

The country’s foreign trade has registered an annual growth of 14.5 percent in US dollar, Xi said.

Students attend class inside a new classroom at Mannashan Village in Bulangshan Town of Menghai County, Southwest China’s Yunnan Province. A total of 524 people of the Bulang ethnic group live at the village and most of them have built new houses with the help of government under a policy of poverty alleviation. [Photo/Xinhua]

Poverty relief

“The Chinese people have emerged from a life of shortages and poverty and are now enjoying abundant supply and a moderately prosperous life,” Xi noted.

According to current UN standards, more than 700 million Chinese people have been lifted out of poverty, accounting for more than 70 percent of the global total over the same period, he said.

Valuable ‘Boao proposals’

With a focus on Asia and a global perspective, the Boao Forum for Asia has hosted active discussions and produced many valuable “Boao proposals” since its inception, Xi said.

The “Boao proposals” have helped build consensus in Asia, encourage cooperation, promote economic globalization and advance the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, said Xi.

EC chairman Tan Sri Mohd Hashim bin Abdullah, in a broadcasted announcement on TV1, said that nominations for the 222 parliamentary and 587 state seats have been set for April 28.

Early voting for military and police personnel as well as voters living abroad has been fixed for May 5.

This gives political parties a campaign period of 11 days, four days more than the 13th General Election.

The EC on Tuesday has issued the writ of election and the next day for the notice of election.

Mohd Hashim said that a total of 14,940,627 Malaysians are eligible to vote in GE14 compared to 13,268,002 registered voters in the last general election in 2013.

The 14th General Election will see a total of 259,391 election workers on duty, with 8,898 polling centres and 28,995 polling streams.

Mohd Hashim earlier chaired an eight-men panel meeting at 10am to decide on the key dates for the election including nomination, early voting, and polls.

He said the EC had taken several factors into consideration when deciding on the dates, ensuring that none clash with any significant cultural or religious event.

The 13th Malaysian Parliament was dissolved on Saturday (April 7) to pave the way for GE14.

The dissolution was announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak after receiving consent from the 15th Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Muhammad V.

GE14, however, will not see state elections in Sarawak which has 82 state constituencies. Sarawak held its state elections on May 7, 2016.

Agents seized files relating to Cohen’s work, which included making a $130,000 payment before the 2016 election to an adult film actress who says she had a tryst with the Trump a decade earlier.

Cohen’s own attorney Stephen Ryan said agents were working in part on the request of Mueller, the independent prosecutor investigating links between Russia and the Trump campaign.

At the White House, Trump angrily denounced the raid on “good man” Cohen.

“It’s a disgraceful situation. It’s a total witch-hunt, I have been saying it for a long time,” he told reporters.

“It’s an attack on our country in a true sense. It’s an attack on what we all stand for.”

The raid came as Mueller’s probe intensifies its focus on Trump’s inner circle.

Mueller’s team is examining possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Moscow, as well as allegations of corrupt behavior by Trump campaign lieutenants and of White House efforts to obstruct the investigation.

So far, 19 people have been indicted, including the chairman of Trump’s campaign and his former national security advisor.

Trump accused Mueller of overseeing a biased investigation staffed by Democrats, “a pure and simple witch-hunt.”

But the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, said it was a Trump-appointed prosecutor who had sought the search warrant, which was in turn approved by a judge.

“That’s no witch hunt. That’s the rule of law,” Schiff tweeted.

“As Trump floats firing Mueller, all Members must speak out – or stop feigning devotion to the Constitution.”

The special counsel is also probing a $150,000 payment Ukrainian billionaire steel magnate Victor Pinchuk made during the US presidential campaign to Trump’s foundation for the American real estate developer to give a 20-minute speech via video link, according to The New York Times.

– Mueller in firing line? –

After having turned over what he called a million pages of documents, Trump said the investigation is “now getting ridiculous. They found no collusion whatsoever with Russia.”

“This is the most biased group of people, these people have the biggest conflicts of interest I’ve ever seen. Democrats all, or just about all,” the president added.

Asked if he wants to fire Mueller, Trump replied: “Many people have said you should fire him. Again they found nothing and in finding nothing that’s a big statement,” he said. “So we’ll see what happens.”

The veteran prosecutor, a former FBI director, is seeking to interview Trump, but has not said the president is a target in the investigation.

The raid on Cohen though takes the probe close to the Oval Office. Cohen has been Trump’s personal lawyer and confidant for years, helping him on real estate and personal matters, as well as informally advising him since he became president.

He is also known as a rough-and-tumble “fixer” for Trump, dedicated to protecting his boss’s interests.

– Raid tied to alleged affair –

Porn actress Stormy Daniels says that Cohen’s surreptitious payment aimed to keep her quiet about her earlier relationship with Trump.

The attorney representing the stripper — real name Stephanie Clifford — said his client had faced “death threats” over the case.

“The amt of courage and fortitude that my client @StormyDaniels and her family have shown over the last 6 weeks has been remarkable,” Michael Avenatti tweeted.

“It takes special people to withstand death threats, turmoil and personal attacks, all in the interest of a search for the truth. #gratitude #justice.”

The Washington Post reported that Cohen is under examination for possible bank fraud and campaign finance violations.

Clifford is among several women who claim to have had affairs with Trump in the past and were pressured or paid to keep quiet about them.

Last month, Clifford told 21 million TV watchers that she had unprotected sex with Trump after meeting with him at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, California in July 2006. That was shortly after Trump’s wife Melania gave birth to their son.

Trump has skirted questions about the relationship, and last week denied any knowledge of Cohen’s payment to secure Clifford’s October 2016 signature on a secret agreement to keep quiet about the affair.

But since then, media reports have made it public, and last month she sued in a California court to have the hush deal annulled. Cohen countersued, demanding some $20 million in penalties for her violating the non-disclosure pact.

Cohen has said that neither the Trump Organization, the president’s real estate group nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Daniels.

“Neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly,” Cohen said.

Cohen’s attorney accused prosecutors of seizing privileged communications between Cohen and his clients in the “completely inappropriate and unnecessary” raid.//AFP

Ri Yong Ho’s visit comes ahead of planned nuclear summits between the North’s leader Kim Jong Un and the presidents of South Korea and the United States in the coming weeks.

“Now it’s particularly important (for North Korea) to enlist support, including from Russia, to cover its back,” said Alexander Vorontsov, a specialist on the region from Moscow’s Oriental Studies Institute.

Ri visited Beijing last week for talks with his Chinese counterpart, after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a landmark trip to Beijing last month.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ri will discuss ways to resolve tensions on the Korean peninsula, among other topics, Moscow’s foreign ministry said.

The ministry hailed what it called “positive trends” in the region, in a statement ahead of the meeting.

The most recent North Korean ministerial-level visit to Russia saw the external economic relations minister visit Vladivostok in September.

Kim was expected to attend 2015 celebrations in Moscow for the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II but opted not to go at the last minute.

The leader’s secretive three-day meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in March was his first trip abroad since gaining power from his late father in 2011. China is North Korea’s main trading partner.

The visit was seen as a gesture of reconciliation after months of high tensions over the North’s missile and nuclear programmes.

Kim is due to hold a summit with South Korea’s Moon Jae-in on April 27 in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean peninsula, in only the third meeting of its kind.

A landmark meeting with US President Donald Trump is planned to follow — although no specific dates or venue have been set.

The diplomatic thaw began during the Winter Olympics in South Korea, to which Kim sent athletes, cheerleaders and his sister as an envoy.

The stunning detente with the US comes after North Korea last year fired multiple missiles and carried out its most powerful nuclear test.

Trump in turn hurled insults at Kim, calling him a “madman with nuclear weapons” and said that a military option against North Korea was “locked and loaded”.

‘Slave-like conditions’

Moscow backs “direct dialogue” between Pyongyang and the United States and “normalisation” of its relations with Seoul, the Russian foreign ministry said.

If the summits with Moon and Trump are a success, “it will be a turning point, a breakthrough,” said analyst Vorontsov.

Kim’s foreign affairs chief flew to Moscow on a scheduled flight from the central Asian republic of Turkmenistan on Monday after earlier visiting Azerbaijan, Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported.

At the airport, Ri did not react to questions from waiting journalists.

Moscow has backed United Nations Security Council resolutions over Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

But Russia still has relatively warm ties with North Korea, with which it shares a small land border, and provides it with some food aid.

North Korea currently has some 35,000 of its nationals working as labourers in far eastern Russia, particularly in timber felling, agriculture and construction.

The workers are toiling in “slave-like conditions,” then-US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the UN in December.

Russia is phasing out this programme in accordance with a United Nations Security Council resolution and began to send them home in February, although it refused to send them all at once and they are working out their contracts.

Trump agreed last month to a landmark summit with the nuclear-armed North — which would be the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader — but no specific dates or venue have been set, with questions mounting over Pyongyang’s participation.

At the meeting of party officials Monday, Kim discussed the “development of the north-south relations at present and the prospect of the DPRK-U.S. dialogue”, the official KCNA news agency said, referring to the North by its official acronym.

He delivered a report “on the development of the recent situation on the Korean peninsula”, including the separate summit with South Korea to be held later this month, it said.

In a growing rapprochement on the Korean peninsula, Kim is scheduled to meet the South’s president Moon Jae-in for a rare inter-Korean summit on April 27.

Trump has agreed to meet Kim for a historic US-North Korean summit to discuss denuclearisation as soon as next month.

But the North had remained publicly silent on the US summit since its leader’s invitation to talks was delivered to Trump by South Korean officials last month.

As officials in Washington scrambled to prepare for the prospective meeting, the weeks-long silence had reportedly made the White House nervous that Seoul had overstated the North’s willingness to negotiate over its own nuclear arsenal.

Kim’s remarks on Monday break that public silence, although he did not specifically refer to a “summit” with Trump.

Following multiple media reports of back-channel talks between the Cold War rivals, Trump said Monday he planned to meet Kim in “May or early June”.

“I think there will be great respect paid by both parties and hopefully there will be a deal on denuking,” he said.

“Hopefully it will be a relationship that will be much different than it has been for many, many years.”

Diplomatic activity

North Korea’s recent frenetic diplomatic activity marks a stunning turnaround after a year of heightened tensions which saw the North fire multiple missiles and carry out its most powerful nuclear test, further isolating the regime and triggering a fiery war of words with Trump.

Since sending a high-profile delegation along with athletes to the Winter Games in the South in February, Kim has made his international debut with a visit to Beijing — his first overseas trip since taking power in 2011.

The North’s foreign minister Ri Yong Ho arrived in Moscow on Monday after making stops in Beijing, Azerbaijan and other former Soviet republics.

Ri also paid a visit last month to Sweden, which acts as a diplomatic go-between for Washington and Pyongyang.

If the summit does take place, many remain sceptical about the whether a meeting between the two notoriously unpredictable leaders can succeed.

It is scheduled to take place without the months of groundwork that usually precedes such meetings.

No specifics have yet emerged concerning the date or venue of the proposed summit, with a third country such as Mongolia or Sweden under consideration to host the talks, according to multiple reports.

Beyond that, a detailed agenda for the talks will need to be set.

Washington’s long-held stance is that it will not accept a nuclear-armed North Korea. That means it wants to see “complete, verifiable, and irreversible” denuclearisation — a very high bar.

The North has previously demanded the withdrawal of US troops based in the South and the end of the security alliance between Seoul and Washington — an extraordinary concession that it is hard to imagine any previous US president acceding to.

Agents seized files relating to Cohen’s work, which included making a $130,000 payment before the 2016 election to an adult film actress who says she had a tryst with the Trump.

Cohen’s own attorney Stephen Ryan said agents were working in part on the request of Mueller, the independent prosecutor investigating links between Russia and the Trump campaign.

At the White House, Trump angrily denounced the raid on Cohen, whom he called “a good man.”

“It’s a disgraceful situation. It’s a total witch-hunt, I have been saying it for a long time,” he told reporters.

“It’s an attack on our country in a true sense. It’s an attack on what we all stand for,” he said.

The raid came as Mueller’s probe intensifies its focus on Trump’s inner circle. Mueller’s team is examining possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Moscow, allegations of corrupt behavior by Trump campaign lieutenants, and of White House efforts to obstruct the investigation.

So far 19 people have been indicted, including the chairman of Trump’s campaign and his former national security advisor.

Trump accused Mueller Monday of overseeing a biased investigation staffed by Democrats, “a pure and simple witch-hunt.”

– Trump attacks Mueller –

After having turned over what he called a million pages of documents, Trump said the investigation is “now getting ridiculous. They found no collusion whatsoever with Russia.”

“This is the most biased group of people, these people have the biggest conflicts of interest I’ve ever seen. Democrats all, or just about all.”

Asked if he wants to fire Mueller, Trump replied: “Many people have said you should fire him. Again they found nothing and in finding nothing that’s a big statement,” he said. “So we’ll see what happens.”

The veteran prosecutor, a former FBI director, is seeking to interview Trump, but has not said the president is a target in the investigation.

The raid on Cohen though takes the probe close to the Oval Office. Cohen has been Trump’s personal lawyer and confidant for years, helping him on real estate and personal matters, as well as informally advising him since he became president.

He is also known as a rough-and-tumble “fixer” for Trump, dedicated to protecting his boss’s interests.

– Raid tied to alleged affair –

US media said documents seized in the raid related to the surreptitious payment Cohen made to porn actress Stormy Daniels that, according to Daniels, aimed to keep her quiet about her earlier relationship with Trump.

The Washington Post reported that Cohen is under examination for possible bank fraud and campaign finance violations.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is one of several women who claim to have had affairs with Trump in the past and were pressured or paid to keep quiet about them.

Last month Daniels told 21 million TV watchers that she had unprotected sex with Trump after meeting with him at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, California in July 2006. That was shortly after Trump’s wife Melania gave birth to their son.

Trump has skirted questions about the relationship, and last week denied any knowledge of Cohen’s $130,000 payment, which was made to secure Daniels’s signature in October 2016 on a secret agreement to not talk about the affair.

But since then media reports have made it public, and last month she sued in a California court to have the hush deal annulled. Cohen countersued, demanding some $20 million in penalties for her violating the non-disclosure pact.

Cohen has said that neither the Trump Organization, the president’s real estate group, nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Daniels.

“Neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly,” Cohen said.

After the raid Monday, Cohen’s attorney Ryan accused prosecutors of seizing privileged communications between Cohen and his clients.

“The decision by the US attorney’s office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary,” Ryan said.

“It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney-client communications between a lawyer and his clients.”