“Singapore has a relationship with both the United States and North Korea,” the White House’s principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah was quoted as saying by The Straits Times.

“They [Singapore] can ensure both the president’s security and Kim Jong-un’s security, as well as provide neutrality,” Shah said.

“Singaporeans have been gracious up until now and also in the past,” he said. “In fact, on a historical note, the first meeting between the leaders of China and Taiwan took place in Singapore some years back.”

In 2015, the city-state played host to a historic meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and then-Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou.

In his Twitter message, President Trump said “the highly appreciated meeting between Kim Jong-un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace,” but did not give the reasons why they chose the Southeast Asian country.

Singapore’s Foreign Ministry said it was pleased to host the meeting. “We hope this meeting will advance prospects for peace in the Korean Peninsula,” a ministry statement said.

The location for the summit has been speculated on for weeks. Many places, including Bangkok and the demilitarised zone (DMZ) on the border between North and South Korean, were mentioned as potential locations.

“The DMZ already had a historic summit. The optics a second time round would not have been so punchy. And President Trump going there would play into North Korea’s propaganda machine – that the American president is coming to us,” said Will Saetren, research associate at the Institute for China-America Studies in Washington DC.

“Singapore is a logical choice, it avoids those problems. It has diplomatic relations with North Korea and the US also has a big embassy there. And it’s a nice place, the optics will be good.”

Other experts and observers gave more reasons to explain why the country is suitable. The city-state is now holding the chairmanship of Asean. The Asean Regional Forum (ARF) is the only forum, besides the United Nations, where the US and North Korea sit together annually. Pyongyang was a member of the ARF since 2000 when Thailand chaired Asean. Asean has played a significant role in attempts to solve problems in the Korea Peninsula since then.

As the Asean chair, Singapore could take credit that it could bring the regional grouping to work out the tough security challenge in the region and the world and could make Asean sit at the core of the security architecture in the Indo-Pacific.

Geographically, Singapore is located in the Southeast Asia region connecting the Pacific and Indian oceans, known in global strategic terms as “Indo-Pacific”. Having Singapore as the location of the summit would be important symbolically for Asean centrality in the regional security arrangement.

Asean’s biggest economy, Singapore has always been a business hub and could have emerged as the favourite choice for businessman-turned-politician Trump. The Singapore could also be an inspiration for Kim if he is looking for a development model that embraces an open economy but imposes restrictions in the political arena.

The three animals, nicknamed Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and Peace, were among six found stuffed into crates during a random check of a van traveling from China over the border into northern Laos in January.

Dehydrated and lacking food, three died within days, while the survivors were taken to a sanctuary run by the non-profit Free the Bears in the hills around the tourist hotspot of Luang Prabang.

It was “very very hard” to save the three who perished, says Sengaloun Vongsay, Laos programme manager for Free the Bears.

It was the first discovery of red pandas in Laos, experts said, fueling fears the endangered species may be the latest targets of the illegal pet industry, coveted for their shiny copper fur and “cute” appearance.

“They’re eating well, they’re generally pretty relaxed,” said Michelle Walhout Tanneau, operations manager for Free the Bears.

Landlocked Laos is a key transit hub in the illegal and lucrative global trade in wildlife, sharing borders with Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and China.

In January Thai authorities arrested Boonchai Bach, a Vietnamese national with Thai citizenship and an alleged kingpin in Asia’s illegal wildlife trade, for rhino horn trafficking.

Boonchai and the Bach family are believed to have operated for years from northeast Thailand bordering Laos, where law enforcement is weak and corruption widespread.

Freeland, a counter-trafficking organisation that worked with Thai police on his case, on Friday said the 41-year-old Boonchai was this week jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Laos’ government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the red panda seizure, though Free the Bears said that one Chinese national had been arrested over the find.

With their forest habitats under threat, red panda populations in Nepal, Bhutan, India, China and Myanmar are vulnerable.

Free the Bears has provided temporary enclosures and set aside a section of tree-covered land where the red pandas could live in case they could not be released back into the wild.

The two superstar nicknames were given by staff, while “Peace” was chosen by a donor.

Rod Mabin, a spokesman for the non-profit, said the group was consulting with experts and the red pandas would live in the sanctuary for the foreseeable future.

“Ultimately we’ll try to make the decision which is best for the future health and safety of the animals and to provide them the best life possible,” he said.//AFP

    The Southeast Asian city-state, which is seen as secure and neutral territory for the unprecedented summit, said the meeting would take place on June 12, echoing Trump’s announcement of the plan in a tweet earlier Thursday.

“We hope this meeting will advance prospects for peace in the Korean Peninsula,” Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

It did not reveal further details of the preparations for the meeting.

Trump’s summit with Kim will crown months of whirlwind diplomacy aimed at curbing the North’s nuclear and ballistic missile programme.

It marks a stunning turnaround from last year, when the pair traded caustic barbs as Kim pushed on with missile launches and the North’s biggest nuclear test to date.

But the North Korean changed tack this year, embarking on his first official trips abroad as leader with two meetings in China with Xi Jinping. He also held a landmark meeting with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in in April.

Various venues had been touted for the Trump meeting, including Mongolia and the demilitarised zone between the two Koreas.

Singapore, an affluent Southeast Asian financial hub, was likely chosen due to its neutrality, security advantages and track record of hosting international summits, observers say.//AFP

It is the newest threat from the Kilauea volcano, which began erupting last Thursday on the US state’s Big Island, the National Park Service said.

Scientists say lava levels in the crater are going down, meaning it might be clogging and building up for a mighty blast.

Movement of the molten rock opened space for lava at the summit to drain underground, reducing the height of a lava lake at the summit, US Geological Survey geophysicist Ingrid Johanson told the Los Angeles Times.

But as the lava lake levels fall below the groundwater table, water can start interacting with the magma, heating it up and creating steam, said USGS scientist Donald Swanson.

And if rocks fall from the walls surrounding the magma in the volcano, the rocks can form a dam.

And then, if the steam builds pressure, “it can eventually burst out in an explosion,” Swanson said.

Scientists estimate that the lava could interact with the groundwater by the middle of this month.

Mathew Devlen, an American film maker visiting Hawaii as a tourist, said he was awed by it all.

“I just think the power of this is just an amazing thing to witness. And what the people here are going through is tragic,” he told AFP.

“I really admire them on how they deal with it, because they know that this is here for them and they respect their island and they’re dealing with it in a way I’ve never seen anyone else deal with,” he added.

Kilauea is one of the most active volcanos in the world and one of five on the island.

A magnitude 5 earthquake under its south flank preceded an initial eruption last week and several severe aftershocks followed.

A quake last Friday was measured at magnitude 6.9, the most powerful to hit the islands since 1975. No one has died, but the flowing lava has destroyed dozens of structures in an area called Leilani Estates.

Hundreds of people have been forced to evacuate their homes because of the lava and the threat of toxic fumes.

The Sleman Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) in Yogyakarta has instructed residents and visitors within a 5-kilometer radius of Merapi to evacuate the area.

The phreatic eruption occurred at 7:32 a.m. on Friday, spewing volcanic ash into the sky, according to National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

Disaster mitigation officials have yet to comment on injuries and damages caused by the eruption, which may affect residents in two provinces, Yogyakarta and Central Java.

“We are calling on residents to remain calm,” Sutopo said.

The Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Center (PVMBG) assured that Merapi’s status remains “normal”, and that the agency would continue to monitor the eruption, Sutopo said.

The eruption also caused minor tremors felt by people in surrounding cities, including in Surakarta, Boyolali and Klaten.

S Iswaran, Singapore’s Minister for information and Communications, said that digital literacy and cybersecurity were not the same, although they were related.

For cybersecurity, education is needed at every level from the individual to enterprises and government agencies, especially for those operating key infrastructure and services.

Clear protocols and tools are required to ensure cybersecurity, which is a space that is also very dynamic, he said. That is why constant education is so important, since even at the level of the individual, it would be basic to have some levels of cybersecurity in the personal use of digital devices and the Internet. It is needed to customise solutions as broad messages to everyone to ensure that people understand this is as a real risk.

“Once they understand this basic step, they can take the safe guards into their personal space. Then, we build on that because obviously cyberthreats go well beyond some basic circumstances,” said Isawaran.

Meanwhile, Asean Secretary-General Dato Lim Jock Hoi said that Asean Cybersecurity Cooperation Strategy was endorsed by the Asean Telecommunications and Information Technology Ministers because the digital economy is a key growth area for the group.

There is much work to do to strengthen cybersecurity as a key foundation for the digital economy, he said.

At the 17th Asean Telecommunications and Information Technology Ministers Meeting in November 2017, the ministers reaffirmed the importance of promoting regional cybersecurity collaborations and developing coordinated cybersecurity policies and approaches.

Iswaran said, “A recent survey on the e-economy by Google and Temasek shows that we are the world’s fastest-growing Internet region. The userbase is projected to grow from 260 million in 2016 to 480 million by 2020.”

Meanwhile, the Asean Internet economy made up 2 per cent of the region’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017. It is expected to grow three-fold to 6 per cent or $200 billion by 2025.

AMRI will play a pivotal role in leading Asean into the new digital age. Under the theme of the 14th AMRI – an ‘Inclusive and Informed Digital Asean” – there are three goals: growing the Asean digital economy, nurturing an inclusive digital society, and building a trusted digital ecosystem that will support informed people.

In addition, the ministers endorsed the Asean Communication Master Plan for 2018-25, which would be forwarded to the Asean Community Council for adoption. The masterplan will support Asean’s efforts in implementing all three Asean Community Blueprints: Asean Political-Security Community, Asean Economic Community, and Asean Socio-Cultural Community, to communicate the character of Asean as “people-oriented and people-centred”.

“The talks should be pursued as originally intended and in keeping with the policy direction, and Malaysia’s role as facilitator should not be changed,” said Jaran Maluleem, political science lecturer from Thammasat University.

There were some changes made by different Thai governments regarding pursuing the dialogue. However, Jaran did not think that Mahathir and Najib, as former and current heads of the United Malays National Organisation, would have a different approach when it comes to foreign policies.

In recent years, a dialogue aimed at resolving the long-running insurgency mainly in Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and Songkhla provinces has been pursued by the Thai military-installed government and insurgent group Mara Patani.

The Thai junta insists that talks are making “progress” although there was some conflicting information on the establishment of safety zones in the predominantly Muslim region.

Malaysia, as a country bordering the provinces, has always positioned itself as a facilitator of the dialogue, a position reluctantly conceded by Thailand.

Deputy PM and Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan said yesterday that the policy to pursue peace talks would not be altered but the road ahead should get clearer when the new Malaysian government was formed.

General Aksara Kerdphol, a lead Thai negotiator in the dialogue, also said that the policy should remain on a peaceful approach regardless of which party dominates parliament. “We should be firm on our stance and see their political direction first,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pheu Thai Party acting secretary-general Phumtham Wechayachai contrasted Mahathir’s return to power via democratic election with the Thai junta grabbing power by staging a coup.

“Throughout the four years of this administration, you can’t prove yourself to be satisfactory to people with lack of transparency, especially on corruption,” Phumtham wrote on his Facebook status

“There is no open space for people to choose, stand up or express opinions. This is a bad sign for the current ruling power. It is only waiting to explode,” he said.

He called for the ruling junta to hold the election soon to “get a true answer without having to make it up”.