Vietnam arrests two in UK truck death investigation

Yahoo – AFP, 1 November 2019

Many of the 39 victims are believed to be Vietnamese after families said
their loved ones were missing

Vietnam police have arrested two people for trafficking in connection with the death of 39 migrants whose bodies were found in a truck in Britain, many of them feared to be Vietnamese.

The move comes after British police arrested four people over the tragedy and are now seeking to question two brothers from Northern Ireland who have links to the road-haulage and shipping business.

The victims were initially identified by British police as Chinese, but many are now believed to be Vietnamese after families in central Vietnam said their loved ones had not been heard from.

Vietnam said Friday two people were arrested for alleged involvement in the case, which has exposed the dangers of illegal people-smuggling from the Asian country to Europe.

Many of the suspected victims came from central Ha Tinh province, where the two arrests were made in connection with "the case of 39 dead bodies found in a container truck in the UK", according to a statement on the local police website.

The pair were accused of "organising and brokering for other people to go abroad and stay abroad illegally", it said.

The bodies of the victims were found in a refrigerated trailer on October 23 in an industrial park in Essex, east of London. Police said the truck came from a Belgian port.

The 25-year-old driver of the truck, Maurice Robinson from Northern Ireland, has been charged with 39 counts of manslaughter.

He was also charged with conspiracy to traffic people, conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration, and money-laundering.

Prosecutors said he was involved in an international trafficking ring as he appeared in court this week.

Three others who were arrested have been released on bail.

Several Vietnamese families said they heard from relatives before their crossing into the UK but have had no contact since.

Vietnam has said Britain sent documents to help with the complicated task of identifying the bodies, many of whom were believed to be carrying falsified passports.

DNA samples have also been taken from relatives in Vietnam to help with the process.

But so far none of the dead have been officially identified.

The truck tragedy has plunged communities in central Vietnam into mourning, as families desperately wait for news.

The region has long been a source of illegal migration to Britain for people seeking better lives.

Migrants often work in nail bars or cannabis farms, heavily indebted and vulnerable to exploitation.

British detectives probing the deaths of 39 Asian migrants in a refrigerated truck near London renewed their appeal for two brothers in the haulage business to help with the investigation https://t.co/YZlaMa3sCq

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 1 november 2019

USAID launches latest clean-up for Vietnam War-era Agent Orange site

Yahoo – AFP, April 20, 2019

A Vietnamese soldier stands next to a sign warning of toxic hazard at Bien Hoa
air base, on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City (AFP Photo/Thomas WATKINS)

Hanoi (AFP) - The US launched on Saturday a $183 million clean-up at a former Vietnam storage site for Agent Orange, a toxic defoliant used in their bitter war which years later is still blamed for severe birth defects, cancers and disabilities.

Located outside Ho Chi Minh City, Bien Hoa airbase -- the latest site scheduled for rehabilitation after Danang airbase's clean-up last year -- was one of the main storage grounds for Agent Orange and only hastily cleared by soldiers near the war's end more than four decades ago.

US forces sprayed 80 million litres (21 million gallons) of Agent Orange over South Vietnam between 1962 and 1971 in a desperate bid to flush out Viet Cong communist guerrillas by depriving them of tree cover and food.

The spillover from the clearing operation is believed to have seeped beyond the base and into ground water and rivers, and is linked to severe mental and physical disabilities across generations of Vietnamese -- from enlarged heads to deformed limbs.

At Bien Hoa, more than 500,000 cubic metres of dioxin had contaminated the soil and sediment, making it the "largest remaining hotspot" in Vietnam, said a statement from the US development agency USAID, which kicked off a 10-year remediation effort on Saturday.

The dioxin amounts in Bien Hoa are four times more than the volume cleaned up at Danang airport, a six-year $110 million effort which was completed in November.

"The fact that two former foes are now partnering on such a complex task is nothing short of historic," said the US ambassador to Vietnam, Daniel Kritenbrink, at Saturday morning's launch attended by Vietnamese military officials and US senators.

Hanoi says up to three million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, and that one million suffer grave health repercussions today -- including at least 150,000 children with birth defects.

An attempt by Vietnamese victims to obtain compensation from the United States has met with little success. The US Supreme Court in 2009 declined to take up the case while neither the US government nor the manufacturers of the chemical have ever admitted liability.

While US officials have never admitted direct links between Agent Orange and birth defects, USAID on Saturday also issued a "memorandum of intent" to work with government agencies to improve the lives of people with disabilities in seven Vietnamese provinces.

Vietnamese blogger who vanished in Thailand jailed in Hanoi

Yahoo – AFP, March 21, 2019

Blogger Truong Duy Nhat on trial in Danang in 2014.  He is believed to be back
in jail in Hanoi after vanishing in Thailand (AFP Photo/Vietnam News Agency)

A Vietnamese blogger who vanished in Thailand earlier this year is being held in a Hanoi prison, his friend and wife confirmed Thursday.

Truong Duy Nhat wrote weekly posts about politics and current affairs for Radio Free Asia (RFA) and last posted about the prospects for change in Vietnam in light of major anti-government demonstrations in Venezuela.

All independent media is banned in Vietnam and bloggers, activists and rights lawyers are routinely jailed.

The one-party state has seen an uptick of arrests under a hardline leadership in charge since 2016, with nearly 60 put behind bars last year according to an AFP tally.

Nhat, 55, fled to Thailand in January and applied for refugee status with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, according to RFA.

His employer and family lost contact with him soon after and he has not been heard from since. The UN said it does not comment on individual cases.

Nhat's friend Pham Xuan Nguyen said he visited Hanoi's T-16 jail on Wednesday and received confirmation Nhat was being held there.

"I took Nhat's wife to the jail yesterday. I saw the book the jail gave to her to register future visits," he told AFP Thursday.

"Inside the book, the date of his arrest was written January 28, 2019... it said that he was transferred to the jail the same day," the friend said, adding that they did not see Nhat.

The blogger's wife Cao Thi Xuan Phuong confirmed the account to AFP, declining to comment further.

His daughter Truong Thuc Doan, who lives in Canada, said she believes he was taken from Thailand against his will.

"It's clear that my father did not voluntarily go back to Vietnam," she told RFA.

The circumstances of Nhat's return have not been confirmed by Hanoi and he has not yet been formally charged.

RFA spokesman Rohit Mahajan said Thursday the organisation remains "very concerned about our contributor and his treatment in detention".

This is Nhat's second prison stint. He was jailed for two years in 2014 for "abusing democratic freedoms" after writing blogs critical of Vietnam's communist leadership.

Hanoi has in the past forcibly returned corruption suspects, including a former state oil executive kidnapped by Vietnamese security agents from a Berlin park in 2017.

Last year, a fugitive spy was sent back from Singapore to face trial for divulging state secrets.

Malaysia court frees woman in North Korea murder case

Yahoo – AFP, M. Jegathesan, March 11, 2019

Indonesian Siti Aisyah waves to the press after her return to Jakarta having been
freed by a Malaysian court (AFP Photo/ADEK BERRY)

An Indonesian woman accused of assassinating the North Korean leader's half-brother was freed Monday after Malaysian prosecutors dropped a murder charge against her, in a shock decision that delighted her friends and family.

Siti Aisyah smiled as she was ushered into a car outside the court, where she had been on trial for a year and a half alongside a Vietnamese woman for the 2017 murder of Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur airport.

"I feel happy. I did not know this will happen. I did not expect it," said the 27-year-old, who earlier hugged her tearful Vietnamese co-accused, Doan Thi Huong, in the dock when the news was announced.

Indonesian officials mounted a major diplomatic effort to free Aisyah, which included pressure from the president. The Indonesian justice minister had written to Malaysia's attorney general seeking her release, citing problems with the case, and he agreed last week.

The women had always denied murder, saying they were tricked by North Korean spies into carrying out the Cold War-style hit using VX nerve agent, and believed it was a prank for a reality TV show.

Elite Malaysian police secure the court hearing the North Korea assassination case 

(AFP Photo/Mohd RASFAN)

Their lawyers presented them as scapegoats, saying that authorities were unable to catch the real killers. Four North Koreans -- formally accused of the murder alongside the women -- fled Malaysia shortly after the assassination.

The trial, which began in October 2017, had been due to resume Monday with the defence stage of proceedings after a break of several months.

But at the start of the hearing at Shah Alam High Court, prosecutor Muhammad Iskandar Ahmad requested that the murder charge against Aisyah be withdrawn and she be given a discharge, without providing a reason.

The judge agreed to a discharge not amounting to an acquittal, and ordered Aisyah's immediate release. This means Aisyah has not been formally cleared of the charge and could, in theory, be re-arrested.

The news was a surprise as the court had only been scheduled to hear Huong testify Monday, and the Vietnamese woman was left in shock that she was not released alongside Aisyah.

"I do not know what will happen to me now. I am innocent -- please pray for me," the 30-year-old said. Her testimony was adjourned Monday as her lawyers said they would also apply to get the charge against her dropped.

Indonesian Siti Aisyah adjusts hear headscarf during a press conference on 

her return to Indonesia (AFP Photo/ADEK BERRY)

Homecoming party

Aisyah arrived later Monday in Jakarta, where she was reunited with parents. In her hometown of Sindangsari on Java island, there was shock and delight as word spread of her release.

"We've heard the news and we're so happy. We're getting a celebration ready!" her aunt Darmi, who goes by one name, told AFP.

Indonesia often makes concerted diplomatic efforts to free its citizens detained overseas, particularly those who may face the death penalty.

Speaking at the Indonesian embassy in Malaysia, Indonesian Justice Minister Yasonna Laoly reeled off a list of figures in government -- from President Joko Widodo to the foreign minister -- who had pushed for Aisyah's release.

A murder conviction carries a mandatory penalty of death by hanging in Malaysia. The government vowed last year to abolish capital punishment but has yet to amend the law.

Vietnamese national Doan Thi Huong is escorted into the Malaysian court hearing

the assassination trial (AFP Photo/MOHD RASFAN)

There does not appear to have been any such aggressive lobbying effort from Vietnam for Huong, however.

Vietnam generally does not get publicly involved in individual criminal cases overseas, and foreign affairs officials did not respond to AFP’s request for comment Monday.

In the first stage of the trial that ran until August last year, prosecutors presented their case.

Witnesses described how the victim -- the estranged half-brother of Kim Jong Un and once seen as heir apparent to the North Korean leadership -- died in agony shortly after being attacked.

Prosecutors said Aisyah and Huong were well-trained assassins but their lawyers argued the four North Koreans were the masterminds, and provided them with poison on the day of the murder.

South Korea has accused the North of ordering the hit, which Pyongyang denies.

Malaysia had been one of the nuclear-armed North's few allies but the assassination badly damaged ties, and led to the countries expelling each other's ambassadors.

N. Korea's Kim kicks off official Vietnam visit

Yahoo – AFP, by Jenny VAUGHAN, 1 March 2019

North Korea's Kim Jong Un kicked off an official 'Goodwill visit' to Vietnam after
his summit with US President Donald Trump

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un kicked off an official visit to Vietnam Friday, three days after arriving in the country for a nuclear summit with US President Donald Trump that ended deadlocked.

Kim put aside the troubled negotiations for the pageantry of a formal diplomatic occasion in Hanoi, where -- accompanied by his sister and close aide Kim Yo Jong -- he was received by Vietnam President and Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong.

The smiling leader walked before rows of children waving Vietnamese and North Korean flags outside the mustard-yellow colonial-era Presidential Palace, before inspecting an honour guard.

The long-isolated North is increasingly seeking to portray itself as a country like any other, and Vietnam is Kim's fourth foreign destination in less than 12 months, after not leaving his borders for more than six years following his inheritance of power.

He has travelled to China four times for meetings with President Xi Jinping, walked across the border with South Korea for a summit with President Moon Jae-in, and went to Singapore for his first summit with Trump.

But for protocol purposes Kim's trips do not rank as state visits, as he is not North Korea's head of state -- his grandfather Kim Il Sung retains the title of Eternal President even though he died in 1994.

Instead Kim is officially chairman of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the State Affairs Commission, although he is most commonly referred to as the "Supreme Leader".

The North's state KCNA news agency described it as an "official goodwill visit" to Vietnam.

Curious onlookers lined the streets Friday to catch a glimpse of Kim -- the first North Korean leader to visit Vietnam since his grandfather in 1964.

But not all were impressed.

"The summit failed. I don't know how much Vietnam has spent on this, but it must be a lot," Hanoi resident Tu Mai, 40, told AFP.

Train journey

The North Korean leader later met the head of the southeast Asian country's rubber stamp parliament, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, telling her that the warm relationship between their nations was established by Kim Il Sung and Vietnam's revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh.

"I was deeply moved by the fervent welcome from the Vietnamese people and felt our 70-year history of friendly ties," Kim said.

During the Cold War, Vietnam and North Korea were both members of the Communist bloc, with Pyongyang sending Hanoi pilots and psychological warfare specialists to help it in the Vietnam War.

Hanoi has since embraced market economics and been rewarded with rapid growth, while it now counts the US as an ally.

Kim is expected to lay wreaths at the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and war martyrs monument on Saturday ahead of his planned departure by train for the marathon return journey home.

Kim undertook a 4,000-kilometre (2,500-mile) two-and-a-half day rail journey through China to Vietnam to attend the summit.

The streets of Hanoi have been lined with heavy security along with military equipment and armoured vehicles for the summit, and some said it was exhausting work.

"It's tiring, we've been on high alert for two weeks now," a police officer told AFP.

"I really wish it would end soon as it really disrupts people's lives."

North Korea's Kim Jong Un kicked off an official 'Goodwill visit' to Vietnam after his summit with US President Donald Trump.

VIDEO: Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong holds a welcoming ceremony for the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi pic.twitter.com/9lG6TwujWl

— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 1, 2019

Kim-dergarten: Vietnam's N. Korea nursery pines for visit by Supreme Leader

Yahoo – AFP, Quy Le BUI, 19 February 2019

The school was built almost entirely with North Korean donations

Wearing traditional dress, the children in Hanoi's only North Korean-founded kindergarten belt out Korean songs and recite their Korean vocabulary -- skills they hope to show off to Kim Jong Un when he visits Vietnam next week.

The reclusive North Korean leader is making his first trip to Vietnam to meet with US President Donald Trump between February 27 and 28.

It is their second summit, during which Washington hopes to see progress on dismantling Pyongyang's nuclear programme.

The serious summit agenda was far from the minds of toddlers at the Vietnam-DPRK Friendship Kindergarten on Tuesday.

Instead the three-to-five-year-olds sang and danced in the 'Kim Il Sung' classroom named after Kim Jong Un's grandfather, one of Hanoi's closest allies during the Vietnam War.

"Jal gaseyo!" the kids chanted -- goodbye in Korean -- at the school where portraits of communist leaders past -- Kim Il Sung, his son Kim Jong Il and Vietnam's revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh -- hang on the wall.

Established in 1978 at a time when conflict-battered Hanoi still received aid from Pyongyang, the school was built almost entirely with North Korean donations, from the blankets and mattresses for naptime to the bowls and utensils used at mealtime.

Pupils learn about North Korean culture, from kimchi and kimbap to traditional dress

Today some of the school's 450 pupils learn about North Korean culture, from kimchi and kimbap to traditional dress, and occasionally receive visits from North Korean officials and embassy personnel.

"Even though North Korean friends are in difficult conditions, they still pay due attention to this kindergarten," former head teacher Hoang Thi Thanh told AFP.

The school's current headmaster Ngo Thi Minh Ha is hoping that support extends to North Korea's top leader, who will meet Trump in Hanoi.

"We really hope to welcome North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to visit Vietnam and the Vietnam-DPRK friendship kindergarten, we have proposed our wish (to the embassy)," she told AFP.

Pyongyang has not yet confirmed the summit, with news about its date and location coming only from the White House, and details of the ultra-secretive leader's trip remain unknown.

The meeting is aimed at building on Trump and Kim's first summit in Singapore in June, the first ever meeting between sitting leaders from the US and North Korea, who have never formally ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

Former head teacher Thanh said she would love to see Kim visit the school, but is also hoping for a productive summit.

"I hope for peace and stability in Korean peninsula in the next meeting. I also hope this meeting will bring closer the two sides of Korea like (north and south) Vietnam," she said.

'The world trusts us': Vietnamese proud to host Trump-Kim summit

Yahoo – AFP, February 6, 2019

Analysts say the trip could offer the North Korean leader a model of post-war
 economic transformation under a communist state with capitalist leanings
(AFP Photo/Manan VATSYAYANA)

Vietnamese young and old expressed their delight Wednesday after hearing their country had been chosen for the second face-to-face meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The communist-run Southeast Asian country was announced during Trump's State of the Union address as the location for the high-profile summit due to take place later this month.

It follows the pair's historic handshake and brief declaration on denuclearisation at their inaugural meeting in Singapore in June last year.

The pick brings prestige to the former US foe-turned-ally and is symbolic for Vietnamese of a certain generation, who welcomed the move.

"Our country now has a new position and the world trusts us," Pham Van Thau, an 82-year-old communist party member, told AFP in Hanoi.

"The summit will help the world understand more about Vietnam."

The precise location for the summit -- to be held on February 27 and 28 -- has not been announced, though both the capital Hanoi and beach resort town Danang have been rumoured.

Nguyen Hong Nhung, a masters student, hoped the summit could expand her country's budding tourism industry.

"We have a chance... to show everyone that Vietnam is a beautiful country and that the Vietnamese are friendly," she said.

Analysts say the trip, which is set to be Kim's first to Vietnam, could offer the North Korean leader a model of post-war economic transformation under a communist state with capitalist leanings.

Nhung agreed: "I think North Korea now is like Vietnam before the US embargo was lifted, poor and economically limited."

On Facebook and other social media platforms, users beamed with pride at the prospect of the summit.

Commenters on one site said Kim could even take inspiration from the country's north and south reunifying after the war.

"They meet in Vietnam so that Kim can see how the two parts of a country will look like after reunification," Gia Hoang commented on otofun.net.

Vietnam is looking to follow up on its successful hosting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in 2017 and the regional World Economic Forum last year -- boosting its diplomatic gravitas on the global stage.

VIDEO: Hanoi residents react to the news that their capital city has been picked to host the second much-anticipated summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pic.twitter.com/kXFoymP2F8

— AFP news agency (@AFP) February 9, 2019

John McCain's Hanoi Hilton jailer recalls 'stubborn' POW

Yahoo – AFP, Tran Thi Minh Ha, with Jenny Vaughan in Hanoi, August 26, 2018

Tran Trong Duyet, the former director of the infamous 'Hanoi Hilton' prison, grew
to respect the young John McCain (AFP Photo/Nhac NGUYEN)

Haiphong (Vietnam) (AFP) - As a prisoner of war in the "Hanoi Hilton", navy pilot John McCain was known as uncompromising, frank and an avid reader who fiercely debated the war with his Vietnamese jailers.

One of them, the former director of the infamous Hoa Lo prison, recalls verbally sparring with the famous inmate and says McCain's refusal to budge on his views eventually earned his admiration.

"It was his stubbornness, his strong stance that I loved when arguing with him," retired colonel Tran Trong Duyet told AFP.

In the decades following the Vietnam War, McCain -- who died Saturday at the age of 81 -- forgave the enemies who once held him captive, and helped reconcile the two countries that today enjoy strong ties.

His five and a half years in prison began in October 1967 when McCain was thrown into the French-built jail after his Skyhawk divebomber was shot down over Hanoi's Truc Bach lake.

Fished out with a broken leg and two broken arms he was shipped to the cold, crowded facility where some 500 prisoners of war were held.

His captors quickly learned McCain's father was a navy admiral, and the young prisoner soon developed the nickname "Crown Prince".

John McCain's flight suit is displayed at the ‘Hanoi Hilton’, now a museum in

the Vietnamese capital (AFP Photo/HOANG DINH Nam)

The early years were grim.

McCain was held in solitary confinement and suffered from dysentery. For months on end, he was fed only bread and pumpkin soup. He communicated with fellow inmates by tapping codes on the thick concrete walls.

In his memoirs, McCain wrote that solitary "put me in a pretty surly mood" and that he would ward off depression by hollering insults at guards.

And then there were the interrogations and beatings.

"Ropes were put on me and I sat that night bound with ropes," McCain wrote after his 1973 release, recalling one brutal session.

"For the next four days, I was beaten every two to three hours by different guards. My left arm was broken again and my ribs were cracked."

English classes, jokes

Duyet denies McCain or others were mistreated and says he punished any fellow guards who stepped out of line.

"There was no torture, Vietnamese people saved him," Duyet said in an interview earlier this year at his home in the port city of Haiphong, where he displays both photos of American POWs and more recent images of himself in military uniform posing with US officials.

Tran Trong Duyet, John McCain's wartime jailor, points to photos of US prisoners 

of war on display at his home (AFP Photo/Nhac NGUYEN)

By the end of McCain's long years in prison, Duyet said his relationship with McCain started to warm.

"Out of working hours, we considered each other friends," he said. "He taught me English... he had good teaching skills."

In his post-prison writings, McCain said things got easier for him in the early 1970s, which he called the "coasting period".

He read propaganda texts about Vietnam communist revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh, and was allowed to roam the prison yard with fellow Americans, who named different sections of the compound after Vegas hotels.

His former jailor preferred to focus on the rosier memories, recalling how they joked, shared stories about family and travel, and even dished about women.

"We laughed together and agreed that women are the same everywhere -- they like flattery, they like to sulk, and they're jealous," he told AFP, smiling.

'America's POW'

McCain left the navy in 1981 for a long career in politics, most notably as Republican Senator for Arizona. But his "Hanoi Hilton" experience resonated throughout his life.

Donald Trump said during the campaign for the presidency that McCain was "not a war hero" because he was captured in Vietnam.

Hoa Lo prison, which has been turned into a museum, was home to 500 prisoners 

of war when McCain was held there (AFP Photo/Nhac NGUYEN)

The controversial comments inflamed his throngs of supporters, many of whom saw his time as a POW as a defining experience.

"John McCain will always be America's prisoner of war, that experience is now inseparable from the name John McCain and the person that has been John McCain," said Alvin Townley, author of "Defiant" about American POWs held in Hoa Lo.

McCain was also celebrated for his role in reconciling the United States and Vietnam, which in the half century since the war's end have become close allies.

"(His) openness towards Vietnam and the willingness to revisit not only the country, but his experiences there have certainly helped heal a lot of wounds," Townley said.

McCain visited the Southeast Asian country several times after the restoration of diplomatic ties in 1995, even returning to the "Hanoi Hilton" -- now a popular tourist attraction -- for an emotional meeting with another former jailer.

Duyet never got a chance to reconnect with McCain, but imagined what he might say if he had.

"If he came to Vietnam, I would greet him, not as a former prisoner and a jailer, but as two veterans, from both sides of the battlefield, now meeting again in the spirit of reconciliation," he said.

When informed of McCain's death, Duyet said Sunday he was "so sad."

"Please if you can, convey my condolences to his family for me."

Two Koreas march together as Asian Games burst into life

Yahoo – AFP, Faisal KAMAL, August 18, 2018

The two Koreas also marched together at this year's Pyeongchang Winter
Olympics opening ceremony. (AFP Photo/CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN)

North and South Korea marched together in a stirring display of unity as the Asian Games, one of the world's biggest sports events, opened in a blaze of colour in Jakarta on Saturday.

South Korean women's basketball player Lim Yung-hui and North Korean footballer Ju Kyong-chol jointly held the Korean Unification flag aloft as they led the athletes out to an ovation from the packed crowd.

It is the second such symbolic gesture this year by the two Koreas, who also walked together at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics opening ceremony -- an event that heralded an unprecedented warming of ties.

The North and South, still technically at war, are joining forces in women's basketball, canoeing and rowing during the 40-sport, two-week regional Olympics in the Indonesian capital and Palembang, a port city on Sumatra island.

South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon and North Korean Deputy Prime Minister Ri Ryong-nam, watching from the VIP seats, rose together holding hands and beaming as the Korean athletes marched.

The ceremony opened with a skit purportedly showing President Joko Widodo doing stunts on a motorbike in Jakarta's streets before riding into the Gelora Bung Karno stadium, to roars from the crowd.

About 1,500 dancers in traditional dress then performed a tightly choreographed routine before Afghanistan led the athletes' parade into the stadium.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo declared the Games open. (AFP 

Photo/Jewel SAMAD)

There were huge cheers when the two Koreas, whose athletes together number about 1,000, marched into the stadium together wearing pristine white and blue uniforms.

'You can feel proud'

Widodo was then seen dancing in his seat as Indonesian singer Via Vallen took to the stage, before the stadium fell silent to honour the victims of the recent Lombok earthquake.

"You can feel proud of your home country Indonesia," said Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, president of the Olympic Council of Asia, before Widodo declared the Games open.

Indonesian badminton great Susi Susanti, the women's singles Olympic champion in 1992, lit the Games cauldron and the ceremony closed with a noisy music performance and spectacular fireworks.

It provided a vibrant start to the Games, whose build-up has been dogged by logistical headaches and security fears after Indonesia suffered its deadliest terror attack in a decade in May.

The sprawling archipelago has also been grappling with its latest earthquake disaster after strong tremors in Lombok, an eastern island, left more than 400 people dead.

Indonesia, a country of about 270 million, stepped in to host the Games at short notice after Vietnam pulled out, citing the event's eye-watering costs.

Indonesia is hosting one of the world's biggest sporting events. (AFP 

Photo/BAY ISMOYO)

Indonesia has a poor track record in hosting multi-sports events -- the 2011 Southeast Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang suffered serious corruption problems and delays, and two people died in a stadium stampede.

Rights group Amnesty International said at least 31 people were killed in a "shoot first and ask questions later" police crackdown on petty crime.

But officials say all venues are ready for competition and tournament-related problems so far have been relatively minor, from the ticket website crashing to misspelt words on signs.

About 18,000 athletes and officials from 45 Asian countries will be at the Asiad, organisers said, looking to make their mark across a range of sports from swimming to sepak takraw and bridge.

The Asian Games encompass nearly the full Olympic programme and are considered the pinnacle by many participating nations, for whom Olympic success often proves elusive.

Indonesia is about to open the #AsianGames but its traffic-clogged capital Jakarta remains shrouded in a toxic haze of air pollution, despite drastic efforts to cut down on congestion https://t.co/ukFXJoXVIl pic.twitter.com/qVoOaPt9LO

— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 17, 2018

Related Article:

Science & Spiritually Conference 2018, BC – Canada (4), June 16-17, 2018 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Predictions - Text version) - New 

"The second thing I told you about was this: There's a 50% chance that the new leader of North Korea, the son, would not follow in the footsteps of his father. I told you there was a 50% chance of this. Then I started itemizing the reasoning why this might make sense, especially to the Korean leader. I then told you it might take a long time if it manifested at all. I told you the problems would be within the old advisors for his father's family. He had to tread slowly and lightly to do something against all odds. This will all come out someday because of the handshake.

Here was the potential or the prediction of what might happen: Those who had the machine guns in the DM zone would drop them, because this North Korean leader would unify the two Koreas. There would be no nuclear weapons in his land and there would be the beginning of abundance for his people. His people and the world would then give him something he had always wanted and was imbued with from birth - the desire for accolades and more accolades. Like his father before him, he was the premier egotist, and this would be the unexpected way to create a world at his feet. That's what I said. Then I said, "Watch for it, but don't be anxious." I talked about that in 2013, and five more times since then. In August 2017, I itemized my advice for him, point by point. The advice that I gave followed the potentials that were there and those were the very points in the handshake this week in June of 2018.

Now, you tell me what happened. "Kryon, you're going to be famous because you predicted these things!" Dear ones, all I did was look into a field that is being shown to you today [by the scientists at the conference]. And all I did was to show you the potentials that were already there. In other words, he was thinking about these things and talking to others behind the scenes about them. No matter what his advisors told him right up to the brink of sending his missiles, he was always thinking that there might be another way that would gain him ultimate fame. Dear ones, this has been in progress since his father died! Therefore, it was in the field, but not a given, dear ones - a potential.

Next, I want to show you the bias of humanity at this time, something I have spoken of many times. This potential of the handshake is amazing, and it has started to be manifested. What should the reaction be to something that deflects the potential of war, or saves thousands lives? Instead of joy or amazement or celebration, Humans go for the reverse: It can't happen. It's a trick. It's a bad deal.

I want you to start reading the reactions of the press. I want you to read the reactions even from the South Koreans. They said, "Well, we know North Koreans, and that's never going to happen. We know who they are, and we know their nature. Because in the past, they never performed what they said they would. So it's a joke." That is a quote from a South Korean. "It's a joke."

What happened to this comment? "Isn't this a beautiful potential? Look at this amazing thing - against all odds!" Now, your free press, the reporting segment of our culture, has decided not only to report it, but to let you know it's probably not going to happen! They say: "Nay. Maybe yes, maybe no. We'll see. We expect the worse." And this continues and continues, and all it shows you is the monstrous bias of the dark side that wants to pull anything good back to what the past gave to you."