Saturday, 29 June 2019

Trump says he wants to 'shake hands' with North Korea's Kim at DMZ


US President Donald Trump has invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to meet him at the fortified area that divides North and South Korea.

In what Mr Trump described as a spontaneous gesture, he said on Twitter he could "shake [Mr Kim's] hand and say hello" during his visit to South Korea.

North Korea has described it as a "very interesting suggestion".

The US president has arrived in South Korea to discuss the flagging North Korea denuclearisation talks.

If Mr Trump and Mr Kim were to see each other at the demilitarised zone (DMZ), it would be their third meeting in just over a year, and their first since a summit in Vietnam broke down in February.





Mr Trump - who is visiting South Korea after attending the G20 summit in Japan - conceded that the pair could see each other only "for two minutes", leading one analyst to dismiss the potential meeting as "pointless theatre".

However, despite the apparent lack of any diplomatic preparation, some have suggested another face-to-face meeting between the pair could help reset relations and set the scene for future talks.


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Only a few hours later, North Korea's first vice-minister for foreign affairs, Choe Son Hui, said in statement: "We see it as a very interesting suggestion, but we have not received an official proposal in this regard."

Such a meeting, it added, "would serve as another meaningful occasion in further deepening the personal relations between the two leaders and advancing the bilateral relations".

It remains unclear whether officials with Mr Trump were briefed in advance about his overture to the North Korean leader, and South Korea's presidency said nothing was yet confirmed.

But last week, a South Korean official said Mr Trump was considering a trip to the DMZ, prompting speculation a meeting with Mr Kim could be possible. Mr Trump attempted to make a surprise visit to the area in November 2017, but was forced to abandon the plans due to bad weather.

Berlin Brandenburg: The airport with half a million faults

The sweeping approach along a slick set of motorway junctions is convincing enough - although there is curiously little traffic.

Then, the main terminal building comes into view - its statement entrance with huge expanses of glass and exits from a large railway station below emerging into a piazza in front. To one side stands a smart hotel.

As a structure, it looks impressive enough.

Until you pause, look around you, and absorb the silence. This is Berlin Brandenburg or BER, the new, state-of-the-art international airport built to mark reunified Germany's re-emergence as a global destination.

It is a bold new structure, costing billions, and was supposed to be completed in 2012.

But it has never opened.

BER has become for Germany not a new source of pride but a symbol of engineering catastrophe. It's what top global infrastructure expert Bent Flyvbjerg calls a "national trauma" and an ideal way "to learn how not to do things".



No passengers have ever emerged from the railway station, which is currently running only one "ghost train" a day, to keep the air moving.


No-one has stayed at the smart airport hotel, which has a skeleton staff forlornly dusting rooms and turning on taps to keep the water supply moving.

Enter the grand terminal building itself and the spooky atmosphere intensifies.

Huge luggage carousels are being given their daily rotation to stop them from seizing up.

There are several of them, designed to process constant arrivals.

Round and round they go, smooth - but pointless. They have never processed a single piece of real luggage.

Find out more

What has gone so wrong in a place supposed to be the capital of efficient engineering? Listen to Chris Bowlby's report The Berlin Airport Fiasco

Indicator boards show flights arriving and departing. But they are using data from other airports, elsewhere in Berlin.

Some of the boards tested since the airport was supposed to have opened have now had to be replaced, worn out without ever having shown a flight landing or taking off from here.

The company running the airport promises it will finally open next year, which would make it at least eight years late as well as billions over budget.

So what on Earth has happened in Germany, meant to be one of the world's leaders in efficiency and engineering?

Baby found in plastic bag has ‘people waiting in line’ to adopt her

Media captionThe girl now known as "Baby India" was found after nearby residents heard cries
A baby girl found inside a plastic bag in the US has families across the world "waiting in line" to adopt the "miracle" child, an official says.

The baby, nicknamed India, was found on 6 June in Georgia after residents heard her crying and called the police.

Police shared heart-rending bodycam footage of an officer tearing open the plastic bag in which she was swaddled.

She was taken to hospital but doctors said she was unharmed and is now gaining weight.


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Three weeks on, baby India is said to be "smiling" and "thriving" in the custody of child services.

She will remain there until she a permanent home is found for her. Forsyth County Sheriff's Office is yet to identify the baby's mother or relatives.

In a Facebook post, it said it had "no new information to share regarding baby India".

But according to Tom Rawlings, the director of Georgia's Division of Family and Children Services, there is no shortage of families willing to adopt her.

"We have people waiting in line to provide that child with a forever home," Mr Rawlings told ABC's Good Morning America.
Image copyrightREUTERS
Image caption
Residents called the police after hearing the baby crying in an area of woodland


Since her dramatic rescue, which generated headlines internationally, hundreds of families have been in touch offering to adopt her, Mr Rawlings said.

He described her survival as one of the most "wonderful miracles I've seen in my life".

With her umbilical cord still attached, India was possibly just hours old when residents found her in an area of woodland in Forsyth County, north of Atlanta.

Forsyth County sheriff Ron Freeman said it was "divine intervention" that India was found in a good condition.