No fewer than three aircraft made their way to Singapore from Pyongyang airport, a facility that frequently sees fewer than three international flights a day.

One of them was the ageing Soviet-made Ilyushin-62 that is Kim’s personal jet — officially known as “Chammae-1”, or Goshawk-1, after the North’s national bird but perhaps more memorably dubbed “Air Force Un”.

But while Singapore is well within its range, questions have been raised about its reliability and Kim, it turned out, was not on board.

Instead he flew on an Air China Boeing 747. According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, it took off using flight number CA122, a standard designation for the airline’s route from Pyongyang to Beijing.

In midair it changed its callsign to CA061 and headed south.

In Singapore its high-profile passenger was met by Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, who tweeted a picture of himself shaking hands with Kim, who wore a dark lapel-less suit.

 A handout photo made available by the Ministry of Communications and Information of Singapore shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (C) as he arrives at Changi Airport in Singapore, 10 June 2018. 

Kim was driven into the city-state in a convoy of more than 20 vehicles, including an ambulance, with North Korean television cameramen filming his progress through the sunroofs.

Hundreds of Singaporeans lined the streets to capture images of their own of his black Mercedes Benz stretch limousine with tinted windows — not normally allowed in Singapore, even for the country’s prime minister.

Journalists and onlookers watch the motorcade carrying North Koran leader Kim Jong Un (not pictured) arriving at the St. Regis hotel ahead of the US-North Korea summit in Singapore on June 10, 2018. // AFP PHOTO

Reporters and photographers packed the pavements outside the St Regis hotel where Kim was to stay. Covers had been hung over the driveway and hotel security brought out additional potted plants to obstruct the view of the lobby.

Aside from three official photographs released by the Singapore government, there had been no public sighting of Kim nearly two hours after he landed.

– Eye-wateringly expensive –

Located just off Singapore’s diplomatic district and a stone’s throw away from the Orchard Road shopping belt, the modernist St Regis is tucked between an ageing building dotted with carpet shops and a sleepy high-end neighbourhood mall.

Rooms at the establishment start at Sg$320 ($240) a night.

On the 20th floor, the ostentatiously opulent 335-square metre (3,606 square feet) Presidential Suite, where Kim was believed likely to stay, features a Marc Chagall artwork and a white baby grand piano.

Singapore police patrol along the perimeter of the St Regis hotel, where North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will stay, ahead of his expected arrival, in Singapore, 10 June 2018. // EPA-EFE PHOTO

Its rooms are “lined with gold, and accented with precious metals like brass, onyx and silver”, the hotel says on its website.

It does not give prices but the list price of a similar facility in New York is $35,000 a night.

Who will pick up the bill for the North Koreans’ stay has been the subject of much speculation — the North’s economy has suffered from years of mismanagement and is now subject to multiple sanctions over its nuclear ambitions.

Pyongyang has a history of trying to have others pay for its travel — Seoul paid for its delegates to this year’s Winter Olympics in the South.

But a Seoul presidential spokesman said it was “not considering it at all at the moment”, while the US has insisted it will not foot the bill — and is not asking anyone else to do so.

A handout photo made available by the Ministry of Communications and Information of Singapore shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (2-L) is welcomed by Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan (3-R) upon his arrival at Changi Airport in Singapore, 10 June 2018. 

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Sunday his government was spending around Sg$20 million to host the summit, around half of it on security.

“It’s a cost that we are willing to pay. It’s our contribution to an international endeavour which is in our profound interests,” he said.

He did not mention the North Koreans’ hotel bill.

Armoured vans lined the streets of the coastal city of Qingdao as world leaders arrived Friday for the 18th annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a regional security bloc led by China and Russia.

Its member states also include four ex-Soviet Central Asian republics, Pakistan and India. Iran is an observer member.

Authorities emptied an entire oceanside swathe of the city — clearing out shopkeepers, residents and day-trippers to make way for Xi, his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani.

Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also attend the meeting.

The leaders will be addressed by Xi this evening at an opening banquet from 7.45pm (1145 GMT), according to the official schedule, before taking in a fireworks display.

The SCO meeting comes after President Donald Trump controversially pulled Washington out of the 2015 international pact with Iran that placed limits on its nuclear programme in return for easing economic sanctions.

Though not officially on the agenda, analysts say that one key topic of discussion this year may focus on whether Iran will be allowed to ascend from its position as an SCO observer to become a full member state — a development it has sought since 2008 but has been unable to achieve while subject to UN sanctions.

The 2015 nuclear deal lifted that barrier.

Now in the wake of the US withdrawal from the pact, “SCO members may use granting full membership to Iran as a way to demonstrate support for (Tehran) and the nuclear agreement,” said Dawn Murphy, professor of international security studies at the US Air War College.

Speaking Saturday to AFP in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius, senior Iranian official Massoumeh Ebtekar said Iran hoped European powers, Russia and China would confirm their willingness to uphold the deal “as soon as possible because Iran cannot wait forever.”

“We have been a faithful player to this commitment, we’ve done our best, we’ve shown our good intentions. We are facing a very volatile region,” she said.

The tensions over Iran come as another nuclear issue dominates headlines, with Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un preparing for an unprecedented summit in Singapore.

Trade and security

Trade, investment and development cooperation issues will also feature prominently at the SCO, Murphy said, given the climate of “rising anti-globalisation and strains on global multilateral economic institutions”, stoked by Trump’s nationalist “America First” policy.

SCO nations may discuss the potential of a joint free trade area, she said, as China also pushes for participation in its Belt and Road global infrastructure project.

“Member states of the SCO are key to the success of the Belt and Road initiative and China’s growing influence as a Eurasian power,” said Murphy.

China may, however, be hindered from gaining robust support for its project at this summit due to India, the only SCO member that does not endorse it, she noted.

Regional security issues will also feature, because terrorism is the most severe security challenge facing the SCO, according to Liao Jinrong, head of the Chinese ministry of public security’s international cooperation department.

“No matter what country has terrorists, we must strengthen our regional cooperation and not allow them to affect regional security,” he told a press conference Friday, adding that the SCO bloc had stopped “hundreds” of terrorist acts.

The summit will boost cooperation on combating terrorism, drug trafficking, organised cross-border crimes and cybersecurity, he said.

Staff who fell ill after hearing strange sounds are being examined by doctors at a consulate in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, with several evacuated to the US and at least one diagnosed with brain trauma.

The new cases eerily echo the odd noises and subsequent illnesses suffered by 24 US diplomats evacuated from Cuba since 2016, deepening a baffling medical enigma.

But the incident also poses a diplomatic conundrum — how to respond to what some fear may be a deliberate attack against Americans by shadowy foes on Chinese soil.

According to a New York Times report, US officials have privately raised questions about whether China, or Russia, might have separately or in tandem targeted the diplomats.

Washington has so far taken care not to implicate Beijing, which has told US officials it is investigating the incident.

“Until they are certain of the cause, it seems premature to make accusations,” said Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “I don’t think the US is calling it an ‘attack’.”

It is in stark contrast to the US handling of the Cuba case, when the State Department lashed out at Havana for failing to protect its diplomats.

Washington expelled 15 Cuban diplomats, arguing the authoritarian state must have either carried out the assaults or known who was behind them. President Donald Trump said he held Cuba responsible, although Havana denied any involvement.

There are clear reasons for the US to avoid rocking the boat so readily this time.

As a rising superpower, Beijing possesses significantly greater clout than impoverished Havana, with the cases coming at a precarious moment in US-China relations.

Ongoing talks to avoid a full-blown trade war are balanced on a knife edge, and Beijing’s cooperation is likely to be key if hopes for North Korea’s denuclearisation ahead of next week’s summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un are to be realised.

Many theories, no proof

Still lacking proof to support allegations against Cuba, US officials could also be facing up to claims there were no “sonic attacks” after all.

Although the American victims heard strange noises — described as static or the sound of metal sheets waving — studies have cast doubt on the “acoustic weapon” hypothesis.

A University of Pennsylvania team examined 21 affected staff from the Cuba embassy, and found they suffered symptoms typical of concussion such as headaches and memory loss.

“There is no known mechanism for audible sound to injure the brain,” said study author Douglas Smith. “We are pretty certain that it was not the sound itself that caused the injury.”

A Canadian investigation into similar illnesses among its own diplomats in Cuba in April said a sonic attack was “now considered unlikely”, while FBI agents sent to Havana reportedly found no evidence to support the theory.

This has not stopped speculation about other possible weapons potentially using microwaves, infrasound or ultrasound, despite technical difficulties in projecting these types of energy over long distances and through structures.

A University of Michigan study in March posed an alternative theory, suggesting the illnesses could be caused by bugging or surveillance jamming devices.

The study showed ultrasonic signals from such devices could clash with each other to create the strange sounds heard by diplomats.

Importantly, this theory would suggest there was no malicious intent — and even that the US’s own equipment could be the cause.

Others have claimed the illness may simply be psychological and dismissed the whole affair as mass hysteria.

China sceptical

In China, analysts have queried the absence of a suitable motive for an attack.

“If the Chinese government did it, then why?” said Zhu Feng, a professor of international relations at Nanjing University. “Is it happy to drive the diplomats out of China? I can’t see the reason behind it.”

“The Chinese government will not express its dissatisfaction with the US in this way,” added Wu Xinbo, a US politics expert at Fudan University.

“I think the whole event is nonsense.”

The site is located a close to another where evidence of the biggest-ever sacrifice of children was found, with more than 140 youngsters were slain. But the most recent discovery may be even bigger.

“So far we have found the remains of 56 children who were sacrificed by the Chimu culture,” archaeologist Gabriel Prieto told AFP.

“At this new site, we can easily double the number of remains we found in Huanchaquito,” he said, referring to the nearby location where over 140 dead were found.

The new sacrifice site was discovered in the Pamapa La Cruz area in Huanchaco, a coastal district of Trujillo, Peru’s third-largest city.

Prieto said that the remains of the children, who were aged between six and 14, were found in early May wrapped in cotton shrouds facing the sea, a kilometer (less than a mile) north of Huanchaquito.

“The interesting thing is that they were sacrificed with a cut in the sternum and display opened ribs like in Huanchaquito,” which reinforces the idea that “Huanchaco was a place where massive sacrifices of children were made during the Chimu culture,” he said.

In Huanchaquito, the remains of over 140 children and 200 llamas slain some 550 years ago were discovered, National Geographic reported in late April.

Those excavations date back to 2011, when the remains of 42 children and 76 llamas were discovered in a 3,500-year-old temple, according to the report.

The social media company plays an outsized role in a country that has only recently come online and boasts 18 million accounts among the population of around 50 million people.

UN investigators have said that Facebook has morphed into a “beast” in the country and that hate speech and incitement to violence against the Bengalis are rampant on the site.

In response, Facebook this week has undertaken its highest-profile visit yet to Myanmar.

It banned the Buddhist nationalist movement Ma Ba Tha from its platform, as well as a pair of prominent monks known for stoking hatred towards the Bengali.

“They are not allowed a presence on Facebook, and we will remove any accounts and content which support, praise or represent these individuals or organisations,” said Content Policy Manager David Caragliano.

Extremist monks Parmaukkha and Thuseitta join their fellow firebrand clergyman Wirathu on the blacklist, after he was banned in January.

Activists have criticised the platform for responding too slowly to reports of malicious posts, with some content being shared by users for more than 48 hours before being removed.

“We can do more, and we have been slow to respond,” admitted Facebook Vice President of Public Policy in Asia-Pacific Simon Milner.

He said Facebook is increasing the number of people working on Myanmar from Singapore and Bangkok, including those who speak the language, although declined to give specific numbers.

Union Minister for Information Dr. Pe Myint received Facebook Vice President Mr. Simon Milner and party at the guest hall of the Ministry of Information in Nay Pyi Taw on June 6.

The representatives of Facebook explained the work conducted by the social media company on improving Facebook’s community norms, policies, usage of violent, vulgar and hate speech, account security of Facebook users from Myanmar and contents.

The Union Minister in return suggested monitoring and controlling content such as rude and vulgar word usage, hate speech, and comments inciting community and religious conflict.

The Union Minister also suggested that those who are good at using Myanmar language should be hired and an office be open in the country.

Soon after the Union Minister has met with Facebook officials, Hla Swe said that Facebook closed Bullet Hla Shwe account with blue mark rating.

“It is right at all. Facebook Team is not fair. Why didn’t Facebook Team close the account insulting Sitagu Sayadaw Dr Nanissara? Ro Nay San Lwin account is also the same matter. This account is posting and sharing fake news and contents. Why did Facebook close my account? I spotted an article posted by Eleven Media Group. I liked it and it is not so bad. I wrote eight words and shared Eleven’s article. About one hour after sharing the article, my account disappeared. I meant my account was not hacked. No warnings came to me. I don’t know how long is my account closed. My account becomes disabling. The answer is clear. The minister met with Facebook Team yesterday and today my account is not present. Who behind the scene makes me quite clear. I don’t want to mention who it is.  I want to mention just who closes my account is very shameful. I am nothing shameful about it.”

Ngar Min Swe Page undermining the prestige of the current government is also closed. This page owner appears online as Hsar Min Swe Page. Hsar Min Swe Page said its page was banned and it saw the government discussing with Facebook Team in the newspaper.

Investigators told the newspaper that breaches were executed in January and February by a division of the Chinese Ministry of State Security, operating out of the Chinese province of Guangdong.

The contractor, which was not named in the report, works for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, based in Newport, Rhode Island. It conducts research and development for submarines and underwater weapons systems.

According to the Post, hackers swiped 614 gigabytes of data that included information relating to sensors, submarine cryptographic systems and a little-known project called Sea Dragon.

The Pentagon has not said much about Sea Dragon, launched in 2012, except that it is aimed at adapting existing military technologies to new uses.

At the Navy’s request, the Post withheld information about the compromised new missile system, but said it was for a supersonic anti-ship missile that could be launched from submarines.

Navy spokesman Commander Bill Speaks declined to confirm the Post report, citing security reasons.

“Evolving cyber threats are serious matters and we are continuously bolstering our cybersecurity culture by focusing on awareness of the cyber threat, and the adequacy of our cyber defenses and information technology capabilities,” he told AFP.

Chinese hackers have for years targeted the US military to steal information and the Pentagon says they have previously swiped crucial data on the new F-35 stealth fighter, the advanced Patriot PAC-3 missile system and other highly sensitive projects.

News of the hack comes amid rising tensions between Beijing and Washington on a range of issues including trade and military matters.

The Pentagon last month pulled its invitation for China to join maritime exercises in the Pacific because of Beijing’s “continued militarization” of the South China Sea.

Bill C-45, or the Cannabis Act, passed the Senate with 52 votes for, 30 against and one abstention after months of debate over the ramifications of legalization.

The Cannabis Act will now go back to the House of Commons, which passed the bill in November 2017 but needs to sign off on changes made by the Senate.

Legalizing weed was a 2015 campaign promise of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has admitted having smoked a joint with friends “five or six times.”

The initial timeline for legal pot sales called for it to be available by July 1, Canada’s national day, but fall now appears more likely.

It would then be up to Canada’s provinces and territories to set up distribution networks and enforcement.

(FILES) In this file photo taken on April 20, 2016 showing a woman waving a flag with a marijuana leaf on it during a rally to celebrate National Marijuana Day on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada. // AFP PHOTO

The sale of medical marijuana has been legal in Canada since 2001.

Bill C-45 would allow individuals over the age of 18 to possess up to 30 grams of marijuana for personal use.

Sales to anyone under 18 would be banned under federal law but provinces and territories could set their own age limits.

Statistics Canada has estimated that the market will be worth Can$5.7 billion ($4.5 billion US), based on last year’s consumption data.

Uruguay approved the recreational usage of marijuana five years ago and nine US states have too but Canada will be the first G-7 country to do so.

 – ‘Canada is being daring’ –

In an interview with AFP last month, Trudeau said the world is closely following Canada’s plans and predicted several nations would follow suit.

“There is a lot of interest from our allies in what we’re doing,” he said.

“They recognize that Canada is being daring… and recognize that the current regime (of prohibition) does not work, that it’s not preventing young people from having easy access to cannabis.

“In many countries, especially in Canada, it is easier (as a minor) to buy a joint than buy a beer,” Trudeau said. “Organized crime is making huge sums of money on the illicit sale of marijuana.”

Trudeau insisted that creating a regulated market would take it out of the hands of crime groups and “better protect communities and children.”

However, he added the allies he spoke with “are interested in seeing how things go… before they try it,” without specifying which nations.

It would also allow the federal government and the provinces to levy taxes on legal weed sales amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Pot sales would be through authorized retail stores much like the current situation regulating alcohol sales in Quebec and Ontario.

A total of 105 businesses have been authorized to grow marijuana and offer pot-based products. Under the new measure, individuals could grow up to four plants at home.

The government has also set aside funds to study the impact of legalized cannabis consumption on public health.

“Unfortunately, from the reports we are getting there are no survivors. The families of the passengers and the crew have been notified and as a ministry, we truly regret this very sad outcome and send out our heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families,” said Paul Maringa, principal secretary of the transport ministry.