Seun Adeyeye

<h1>An Egyptian court on Saturday upheld death sentences against 75 people for participating in a 2013 sit-in protest in support of deposed  President Mohammed Morsi.</h1>

BThirty-one of the 75 defendants were tried in absentia.

The head of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie, was sentenced to 25 years in jail in the same case.

In July, the Cairo Criminal Court recommended death sentences for the 75 defendants.

The court also announced that the sentences would be referred to the country’s chief Islamic Legal Authority, the grand mufti, for a non-binding opinion, as required by Egyptian law.

The same court issued Saturday’s ruling after consultations with the mufti.

The mufti’s opinion was not released but it appears that he did not take the unusual step of opposing the death sentences.

Among the accused in the case is award-winning photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, who was on Saturday given five years in prison.

Abu Zeid, also known as Shawkan, has been in jail since August 14, 2013, when he was arrested while covering the sit-in.

Procedures will now start for releasing Shawkan, 30, because he has already served more than five years in pre-trial detention, judicial sources said.

Shawkan in April won the 2018 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano Press Freedom Prize.

On Saturday, the court also sentenced 46 others to 25 years in prison each in the same case.

Prison terms ranging from 15 to five years were given to 612 co-defendants.

Charges were dropped against five other defendants who had died since the legal proceedings began.

The court also ruled that all the rulings could be appealed.

The case is related to the sit-in protest staged in mid-2013 by Morsi’s loyalists in Rabaa al-Adawiya Square in Cairo.

In August 2013, security forces cleared the protest with force.

The operation, in which hundreds of people were killed, came more than a month after the army deposed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected but divisive president.

The defendants were charged with murder, holding an armed gathering, damaging public property, illegal possession of weapons and belonging to an outlawed group, a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Rights group Amnesty International condemned Saturday’s verdicts.

“These sentences were handed down in a disgraceful mass trial of more than 700 people, and we condemn today’s verdict in the strongest terms,” said Najia Bounaim, the watchdog’s North Africa campaigns director.

“The death penalty should never be an option under any circumstances.

“The fact that not a single police officer has been brought to account for the killing of at least 900 people in the Rabaa and Nahda protests shows what a mockery of justice this trial was,” she added, citing another pro-Morsi sit-in held in mid-2013 near Cairo.

The Egyptian government has repeatedly said that the country’s judiciary operates independently.

Months after Morsi’s ouster, Egyptian authorities declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation and rounded up thousands of its members and loyalists in the toughest crackdown on the group since it was created in 1928.

Those convicted included senior officials in Morsi’s now-banned Muslim Brotherhood group, state television reported on its website.

Court confirms death sentence on 75 in sit-in

<h1>Response to the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been going well and scaling up, the World Health Organisation WHO said Friday.</h1>

The current outbreak has hit six distinct locations in North Kivu and the surrounding Ituri provinces.

More than 80 per cent of the cases and deaths were in and around the town of Mangina in Mabalako health zone, which has remained the epic centre of the outbreak.

He said the vast majority of cases were scattered around 20 to 30 km radius around Mangina.

In its latest record, the WHO has received a case in the town of Oicha in North Kivu, about 30 km east of Beni, which, after further investigation, showed there are additional probable and suspected cases in Oicha.

Salama said it’s the first time that a confirmed case and contacts have been identified in the area of high insecurity concern, which is really a problem that the WHO has been anticipating and at the same time dreading.

As the town of Oicha is almost entirely surrounded by ADF Ugandan Islamist militia, there are “extremely serious security concerns” and the medical team has to use armed escorts to reach Oicha.

The WHO has so far documented 97 contacts after the Oicha case was confirmed and vaccination has ensued.

Salama also said so far 14 health workers had been confirmed or probable cases, including one death, so part of the WHO work now is to ensure protection for the health workers, including vaccinating all of them in relevant health zones, as well as training and education in infection prevention control, provision of personal protective equipment, and disinfection of facilities.

Overall, he said, the response actions to Ebola is scaling up and progressing quite well.

The WHO has about 150 people on the ground, including epidemiologists, clinicians, logisticians, communicators, planners and support staff.

Contacts finding and tracing are also working well, with 2,200 contacts currently being followed in the six locations, and more 2,900 people have been vaccinated, including 21 rings around all of the 40 most recent cases.

Among the vaccinated were more than 500 health workers and over 600 children.

According to the WHO expert, the current outbreak is moving to a crossroad in terms of the epidemiological evolution and the response.

As of Thursday, the case count had reached more than 100, with 103 confirmed cases including 63 deaths, according to Dr. Peter Salama, deputy director general of emergency preparedness and response at the WHO.

Response to DRC outbreak going well – WHO

<h1>The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said no fewer than 103 cases of Ebola have been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).</h1>

Suspected new cases continued to emerge in Mabalako and Oicha areas of North Kivu, according to the UN relief wing.

It said new alerts were under investigation in three more provinces: Mongala, Haut-Uele and Haut Katanga.

A joint United Nations-Ministry of Health team is implementing activities to combat the Ebola outbreak including alerts investigation; vaccination; water, sanitation and hygiene education; epidemiological surveillance; and psychological assistance to the affected families.

Since Aug. 8, more than 2,000 people have been vaccinated, OCHA said.

A joint response plan by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Ministry of Health was finalised with funds secured from donors and humanitarian partners.

The UN office, however, said the country-wide Humanitarian Response Plan, which required $1.67 billion to respond to the needs of 10.5 million people, was only 24 per cent funded.

OCHA said the figures includes 76 confirmed and 27 probable, including 61 deaths, as at Tuesday this week.

103 cases reported in DRC – UN

<h1>The flag at UN headquarters in New York is flying at half-mast on Saturday as the intergovernmental organisation marks the death of its former Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.</h1>

He was Secretary-General during what has been described as one of the darkest days in the UN history: the Aug. 19, 2003 bombing of the UN premises in Baghdad, Iraq.

For Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Annan is simply “irreplaceable”.

“Kofi was humanity’s best example, the epitome, of human decency and grace.

“In a world now filled with leaders who are anything but that, our loss, the world’s loss becomes even more painful,” Zeid said in a statement.

Annan was the seventh of nine men appointed Secretary-General since the UN was established in 1945.

He was the first to emerge from the ranks of UN staff and the second to come from the African continent, after his predecessor, Egyptian diplomat Boutrous Boutrous-Ghali.

Before taking the reins of the UN, he held various senior level positions at the headquarters and in the field, and at one point he was Zeid’s immediate boss.

The UN rights chief recalled a man who was ever courageous and though direct in speech, never discourteous.

Zeid added: “Later, when I was an ambassador at the UN he inspired us, by being a dynamic and charismatic leader in his capacity as Secretary-General.

“And most of all, he was a friend and counsel – to me and to so many others.  Whenever – as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, I felt isolated and alone politically (which, in the last four years, was often) I would go for long walks with him around Geneva – and listen.”

Annan and the UN were jointly awarded the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize.

Miroslav Lajčák, President of the UN General Assembly, remembered the Nobel laureate as “a strong believer in dialogue” and staunch defender of peace, development and human rights.

“He dedicated his life to making the world a better, more peaceful, and just place for all people.  And in many ways, he is a symbol for the shared values of the United Nations” Lajčák said.

Inga Rhonda King, the newly appointed President of the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), offered her condolences to his family, and to all those who had worked with or known the former leader.

“His contribution to the world was immense. His leadership was compassionate and his legacy consequential,” she said.

Kofi Annan was committed to, in his own words, “bringing the United Nations closer to the people”; forging partnerships with civil society, the business sector and others.

UN agencies and their chiefs are using technology to further this goal, taking to social media to express their sadness over his death.

In a post on Twitter, William Lacy Swing, Director General of the International Organisation for Migration, lamented the loss of “one of the greatest leaders of our times.”

Swing described Annan as a dear friend and “champion of justice and peace who, even at the moment of death, was engaged in the search for solutions to conflicts in many parts of the world.”

Also on Twitter, David Beasley, head of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said Annan had strongly supported the agency’s mission and was an ally in the fight against hunger.

“We all must keep his legacy alive, working to break the cycle of hunger and conflict so people can live in peace,” Beasley said.

Officials from across the UN system have been paying tribute to the man who led the global body for a decade, starting in January 1997.

UN flag at half-mast to mark the death of its former Secretary-General

<h1>Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, has declared a state of emergency covering the region around Genoa, after a bridge collapse killed at least 39 people and severed the port city’s main land corridor with southern France.</h1>

He also took aim at operator Autostrade, a unit of Milan-listed Atlantia group, which operated the bridge as part of a stretch of the A10 motorway it manages.

Conte said the firm had been responsible for ensuring safety on the bridge and the government would not await the outcome of a current criminal investigation into the disaster before taking action.

“A cabinet meeting took place in which we have decreed a 12-month state of emergency and made available a first allocation worth 5 million Euros for the national emergencies fund,” Conte said in a news conference.

The announcement comes as rescuers are continuing to search for survivors among huge chunks of debris after the bridge in Genoa collapsed on Monday.

Furious government ministers have rounded on the viaduct’s operator, saying it should pay fines and compensation and lose its concession.

The 50-year-old bridge, part of a toll motorway linking the port city of Genoa with southern France, collapsed during torrential rain yesterday, sending dozens of vehicles crashing onto a riverbed, a railway and two warehouses.

Italian Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli, visiting the disaster scene, said bridge operator Autostrade would have to contribute to the cost of its reconstruction as well as pay heavy fines.

Conte said “all infrastructure” across the country needed to be double-checked.

“We must not allow another tragedy like this to happen again”.

Rescuers searching through the wreckage, strewn among shrubland and train tracks, said there were “dozens” of victims, as rescue helicopters winched survivors on stretchers from the ruined bridge.

Cars and trucks were tangled in the rubble and nearby buildings damaged by vast chunks of concrete.

But Autostrade, a unit of Milan-listed Atlantia group, said it had done regular, sophisticated checks on the structure before the disaster, relying on “companies and institutions which are world leaders in testing and inspections” and that these had provided reassuring results.

“These outcomes have formed the basis for maintenance work approved by the Transport Ministry in accordance with the law and the terms of the concession agreement,” it said.

However, the bridge’s condition, and its ability to sustain large increases in both the intensity and weight of traffic over the years, have been a focus of public debate since the collapse, when an 80-metre span gave way as cars packed with holidaymakers as well as trucks streamed across it.

“We’re not giving up hope, we’ve already saved a dozen people from under the rubble,” said fire official Emanuele Giffi.“We’re going to work round the clock until the last victim is secured.”

The incident – the deadliest of its kind in Europe since 2001 – is the latest in a string of bridge collapses in Italy, a country prone to damage from seismic activity but where infrastructure generally is showing the effects of a faltering economy.

Aerial footage showed more than 200 metres of the viaduct, known locally as the Morandi bridge, completely destroyed.

Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said the private sector manager of the bridge had earned “billions” from tolls but “did not spend the money they were supposed to” and its concession should be revoked.He was apparently referring to Autostrade.

“Imposing the highest penalties possible and making sure that those responsible for the dead and the injured pay up for any damages and crimes is the very least,” he said.

The Pope offered a prayer for the victims and their loved ones in a public address at St Peter’s Basilica:“While I entrust those, who have lost their lives to the mercy of God, I express my spiritual closeness to their families, to the injured, evacuees and all those who have suffered due to this dramatic event”.

Fire Brigade Spokesman, Luca Cari, said 400 firefighters were at the site, lifting big chunks of concrete to create spaces for rescue teams to check for survivors.

In Paris, France’s foreign ministry said three French nationals were among the dead.

The Morandi Bridge, named after the engineer, who designed it, forms part of the A10 motorway run by Autostrade.

The 55km stretch of the A10 accounts for around 1.7 per cent of total network traffic for Italy’s biggest toll road operator, according to one analyst’s estimate.

Autostrade’s parent, Atlantia, also runs toll-road concessions in Brazil, Chile, India and Poland.

“The top management of Autostrade per l’Italia must step down first of all,” Mr Toninelli said in a Facebook post.

He also said the government would inspect the structure of ageing bridges and tunnels across the country with a view to launching a programme of remedial works if required.

Conte, speaking at a news conference in Genoa, said he made the declaration after a request from regional authorities.

Italy PM declares state of emergency after bridge collapse

<h1>Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday declared victory in tightly-contested presidential and parliamentary elections, extending his 15-year grip on power as the opposition complained bitterly about the conduct of the vote count.</h1>

The stakes were particularly high as the new president will be the first to enjoy enhanced powers under a new constitution agreed in an April 2017 referendum strongly backed by Erdogan but which opponents say grant autocratic powers.

Erdogan was on course to defeat his nearest rival Muharrem Ince with more than half the vote without needing a second round, initial results showed.

"The unofficial results of the elections have become clear. According to these... I have been entrusted by the nation with the task and duties of the presidency," Erdogan said in a victory address at his Istanbul residence.

"Turkey has given a lesson in democracy to the entire world," he added, pointing to an 88 percent turnout.

Erdogan won 52.5 percent in the presidential poll while Ince, of the secular Republican People's Party (CHP), was on 31 percent, state-run Anadolu news agency said, based on a 98 percent vote count.

The figures could yet change as final ballot boxes are opened. But if confirmed, the figures would show Erdogan polling on a similar rating or even stronger than his 2014 election victory where won his first mandate after over a decade as prime minister.

Celebrations erupted outside Erdogan's residence in Istanbul and AKP headquarters in Ankara, with crowds of flag-waving supporters, AFP correspondents said.

Trailing were Selahattin Demirtas of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) with over eight percent in third and Meral Aksener of the nationalist (Iyi) Good Party with over seven percent.

Erdogan also declared victory in the parliamentary election saying that the alliance led by the AKP and its Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) allies had won the majority in parliament.

A count of almost over 97 percent showed that Erdogan's AKP and the MHP would win 293 and 49 seats respectively, enough for an easy majority in the 600-member chamber.

The HDP was polling 11.5 percent, well over the 10 percent minimum threshold needed, to win 67 seats which would make the party the second largest opposition faction in the new chamber.

Celebrations erupted in the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir, with people letting off fireworks into the sky, AFP correspondents said.

Its success is all the more remarkable given the HDP's Demirtas has campaigned from a jail cell after his November 2016 arrest on charges of links to outlawed Kurdish militants.

Erdogan had faced an energetic campaign by Ince, who has rivalled the incumbent's charisma and crowd-pulling on the campaign trail, as well as a strong opposition alliance in the legislative poll.

But the CHP expressed unease over the conduct of the count, accusing Anadolu of being over hasty in publishing results that favoured Erdogan.

Its spokesman Bulent Tezcan said Anadolu was publishing a count of over 90 percent of votes while in fact short of 40 percent had been counted.

Ince had himself earlier accused Anadolu of "manipulation" but said he would only comment once official results were announced.

Several world leaders supportive of Erdogan, including Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, called to congratulate him on his "victory", the presidency said.

Erdogan also warned anyone against casting doubt on the results: "I hope nobody will harm our country's democracy by casting a shadow on the election system and its results in order to disguise their failure."

Erdogan has overseen historic change in Turkey since his Islamic-rooted ruling party first came to power in 2002 after years of secular domination. But critics accuse the Turkish strongman, 64, of trampling on civil liberties and autocratic behaviour.

The president has for the last two years ruled under a state of emergency imposed in the wake of the 2016 failed coup, with tens of thousands arrested in an unprecedented crackdown which cranked up tensions with the West.

Erdogan has also campaigned against the backdrop of increasing economic woes including high inflation and a currency that has sometimes been in freefall.

And although Erdogan dominated airtime on a pliant mainstream media, Ince finished his campaign with eye-catching mass rallies, including a mega meeting in Istanbul on Saturday, that gave hope to the opposition.

Turkish voters had for the first time cast ballots for both president and parliament in the snap polls, with Erdogan looking for a first round knockout and an overall majority for his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Turkish President declares victory in presidential poll

<h1>MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — A member of a civilian self-defense group says five people have been killed in an attack by suspected Boko Haram extremists in northern Nigeria.</h1>

He says six people were injured and homes and vehicles were burned.

Resident Umar Ibrahim says a suicide bomber detonated his explosives shortly after midnight near people sleeping outside their homes in the heat.

Security authorities in Maiduguri have not made a statement on the attack.

Nigeria more than once has claimed victory over Boko Haram but the group continues to carry out suicide bombings and kidnappings in the region.

Maina Shettima tells The Associated Press that the bodies were found Saturday morning in Tungushe village just outside Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State and the birthplace of Boko Haram.

5 killed in suspected Boko Haram extremist attack in Nigeria

<h1>US lawmakers were poised to vote Thursday on long-term Republican-sponsored fixes to immigration amid a firestorm over family separations on the US-Mexico border.</h1>

The votes come a day after US President Donald Trump, in a stunning about-face, ordered an end to the family separations at the border.

Images and recordings of wailing children detained in cage-like enclosures has ignited global outrage, forcing the legislative action on an immigration system in disarray.

Despite Trump's order there was no immediate plan in place to reunite the more than 2,300 children already separated from their families.

"Congress has the authority and the responsibility to make the law of the land and to fix the immigration system," Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told a security forum on Capitol Hill.

Two measures are before the House of Representatives -- a conservative bill and a more moderate "compromise," which the White House and leadership in the Republican-controlled Congress has been urging rank-and-file members to support.

Top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi said her caucus was opposed to both bills, and it was unclear if there was sufficient Republican support for the compromise measure.

Trump himself raised doubts before the votes, seeming to signal that conservatives need not cast tough votes on the compromise while shifting the blame for failure to Democrats.

"What is the purpose of the House doing good immigration bills when you need 9 votes by Democrats in the Senate, and the Dems are only looking to Obstruct," Trump tweeted.

The compromise bill, in addition to ending family separations, addresses Trump's goals of boosting border security including funding for his wall, limiting so-called "chain migration," ending the visa lottery program and providing legal protections for young immigrants in the Obama-era DACA program who were brought to the country illegally as children.

"It does not guarantee citizenship, but it does provide for a merit-based visa that the DACA population could apply for," congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a member of House GOP leadership, told Fox News.

Trump has accused rival Democrats of causing the problems at the border, telling supporters that Democrats put "illegal immigrants before they put American citizens."

For weeks, Trump had insisted he was bound by law to split children from their parents and that only Congress could resolve the problem -- before he radically shifted gears.

Trump's order suggests the government intends to hold the families indefinitely by challenging a 1997 court ruling known as the Flores Settlement, which places a 20-day limit on how long children, alone or with their parents, can be detained.

Trump's executive order would keep families together but in custody indefinitely while the parents are prosecuted for entering the country illegally.

That move could lead to new legal battles for the administration.

Trump said there was a need to sustain his "zero tolerance" policy to prevent crime.

"We still have to maintain toughness, or our country will be overrun by people, by crime, by all of the things that we don't stand for and we don't want," he said.

After a downturn last year, the flow of migrants from Central America and Mexico has surged since October.

From March to May this year, more than 50,000 people a month were apprehended for illegally crossing the border from Mexico.

Nearly all of the arriving families, and many others, have officially requested asylum, citing the high levels of violence in their home countries.

The "zero tolerance" policy, including mandatory separation of children from adults as a deterrent, was announced May 7.

Gene Hamilton, a senior Justice Department official, said the executive order was a "stopgap" move and that Congress needs to pass new legislation to give the president more powers to fight illegal immigration.

Current laws, he argued, simply encouraged people to enter the country with their children, expecting to be caught and then released into US society.

Democrats have warned that any order to undermine the critical Flores protections would be immediately challenged in court.

But Republicans were divided over the two bills up for a vote in the House of Representatives, and Democrats signalled their opposition, making for a day of legislative drama.

Congress sets immigration vote amid furore over family separations

<h1>Former US President Barack Obama called Wednesday for an end to the separation of migrant children from parents at the US-Mexico border, saying the “cruelty” of the practice was contrary to American ideals.</h1>

“To watch those families broken apart in real time puts to us a very simple question: are we a nation that accepts the cruelty of ripping children from their parents’ arms, or are we a nation that values families, and works to keep them together?” Obama said in a statement posted on Facebook.

“To find a way to welcome the refugee and the immigrant –- to be big enough and wise enough to uphold our laws and honor our values at the same time –- is part of what makes us American,” said the former president, while acknowledging that Wednesday was World Refugee Day.

Obama’s comments joined a firestorm of opposition to the Donald Trump administration’s so-called “zero tolerance” policy begun in early May that caused the separation of more than 2,300 children from their parents after they crossed the US-Mexico border illegally.

Acknowledging the overwhelming criticism, President Trump said at the White House that he would sign an order to keep migrant families together, despite for days insisting that only a new law passed by Congress could halt the separations.

Trump’s decision came after sustained bipartisan criticism, including from former first ladies who spoke out Monday.

Michelle Obama said simply, “Sometimes truth transcends party,” while retweeting an excerpt of a newspaper op-ed by Laura Bush.

Bush wrote in the Washington Post: “I live in a border state. I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart.”

She also compared the family separations to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, considered one of the darkest chapters of American history.

To watch those families broken apart in real time puts to us a very simple question: are we a nation that accepts the cruelty of ripping children from their parents’ arms, or are we a nation that values families, and works to keep them together?

Former US President calls for end to the ‘cruelty’ of family separations

<h1>North and South Koreas leaders held surprise talks on Saturday after President Donald Trump cast an uncertain pall over the turbulent Korean peninsula by cancelling a historic summit with Pyongyang only to suggest it might still go ahead.</h1>

South Korea's presidential Blue House said the two leaders held talks for two hours on Saturday afternoon in the same Panmunjom truce village where they had met last month, making a declaration vowing to improve ties.

"They exchanged views and discussed ways to implement the Panmunjom Declaration and to ensure a successful US North Korea summit," the Blue House said in a statement, adding Moon would make a personal statement on Sunday morning.

On Thursday Trump rattled the region by cancelling his meeting with Kim which had been due to take place in Singapore on June 12 citing "open hostility" from Pyongyang.

But within 24 hours he reversed course saying it could still go ahead after productive talks were held with North Korean officials.

The original decision to abandon the historic summit blindsided South Korea which had been brokering a remarkable detente between Washington and Pyongyang after months of Kim and Trump trading insults and threats of war.

Pictures released by the Blue House showed Moon also shaking hands with Kim's sister Kim Yo Jong, who has played a major public role in recent talks with the South, including leading a delegation across the border during February's Winter Olympics.

The spy chiefs from both sides were at the meeting according to the photos.

The meeting between Moon and Kim took place in a grand building on the North Korean side of Panmunjom, a surreal and heavily fortified village that lies between the two countries and marks the spot where the armistice ending the Korean War in 1953 was signed.

Only last month the two leaders met in the same village, with Kim famously inviting Moon to step briefly into the North before they both held talks in a building on the South's side.

Saturday's meeting is only the fourth time serving leaders of the two Koreas, who remain technically at war, have ever met.

Unlike last month's summit, which was held in front of live TV cameras, Saturday's meeting took place in utmost secrecy, with reporters only being told after the face to face had taken place.

The meeting is the latest remarkable chapter in a roller coaster few months on the Korean peninsula. Last year Trump and Kim were threatening war after Pyongyang tested its most powerful nuclear bomb to date and launched test missiles it said were capable of reaching the United States.

Tensions were calmed after Moon grabbed an olive branch from Kim who offered to send a delegation to the Winter Olympics in South Korea, sparking a major detente that led to Trump agreeing to hold direct talks with Pyongyang.

But in recent weeks the summit had been thrown into doubt by increasingly bellicose rhetoric from both top US administration officials and Pyongyang.

Trump eventually pulled the plug on talks in a personal letter to Kim on Thursday.

But he left the door open to future meetings and Pyongyang's immediate reaction was to say it was willing to sit down "at any time", prompting Trump to reply that the Singapore summit could still take place.

Koh Yu-hwan, am expert on Korean relations at Dongguk University, said Saturday's meeting between Moon and Kim increased the likelihood of the Singapore summit taking place as originally intended.

"Today's summit is aimed at resolving the misunderstanding caused by communcation glitches between Washington and Pyongyang and lay the groundwork for the US-North Korea sumnmit," he told AFP.

Photos released by South Korea showed President Moon Jae-in shaking hands with his counterpart Kim Jong Un on the North Korean side of the Demilitarised Zone separating the two nations.

Korean leaders meet after US president threatens to quit Kim summit

<h1>New York (AFP) - Disgraced Hollywood powerbroker Harvey Weinstein was arrested and charged Friday with rape and sex crimes on two women, nearly eight months after his career imploded in a blaze of assault accusations that triggered the global #MeToo movement.</h1>

The New York police department announced in a brief statement he was "arrested, processed and charged with rape, criminal sex act, sex abuse and sexual misconduct for incidents involving two separate women."

The former mogul -- once the toast of Hollywood and whose films won scores of Oscars -- is expected to appear before a Manhattan court later on Friday morning, where he is expected to plead not guilty.

Seun Adeyeye

Articles written by the author

Court confirms death sentence on 75 in sit-in

Response to DRC outbreak going well – WHO

103 cases reported in DRC – UN

UN flag at half-mast to mark the death of its former Secretary-General

Italy PM declares state of emergency after bridge collapse

Turkish President declares victory in presidential poll

5 killed in suspected Boko Haram extremist attack in Nigeria

Congress sets immigration vote amid furore over family separations

Former US President calls for end to the ‘cruelty’ of family separations

Korean leaders meet after US president threatens to quit Kim summit

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