A Chinese woman carrying multiple cellphones and a thumb drive containing malware was arrested on Saturday at US President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida while he was staying there, court documents revealed Tuesday.

An arrest document in the federal district court of Palm Beach, Florida said Zhang Yujing tried to gain entry into Mar-a-Lago on Saturday, first presenting herself as a member and saying she was headed to the pool — despite not having a swimsuit. Then, she claimed to be attending a non-existent Chinese-American friendship event.

After she was detained, she offered an additional story: that she was asked by a Chinese friend named Charles to travel from Shanghai to attend the event and attempt to speak to a member of the president's family about US-China economic relations, the document said.

The woman carried two passports from the People's Republic of China, according to the US Secret Service which arrested her. The charge documents mistakenly identified them as being from the "Republic of China," the official name of Taiwan.

Secret Service agents at the scene found four cellphones, a laptop computer, an external hard drive and a thumb drive that "contained malicious software", according to the document.

Zhang was arrested and charged with making false statements to federal officers and knowingly entering a restricted building — which Mar-a-Lago becomes while Trump is in residence.

Trump owns the luxurious beachside club in the wealthy Atlantic coast city of Palm Beach, and travels there frequently on weekends to play golf and meet friends.

He keeps a residence in a private area of the club, but was reportedly golfing at a nearby course around the time Zhang was there.

While Zhang's story of attending an event that was not on the club schedule raised suspicions, the Miami Herald reported that there might have been substance to it.

Two events had been recently advertised at Mar-a-Lago for March 30 by a local Chinese-American businesswoman, Cindy Yang, on Chinese language social media, the Herald said.

Yang is a Mar-a-Lago member who built and later sold a chain of massage parlors in Florida, which were recently raided by police over prostitution. In recent years she has promoted herself as a path of access to the US president, his family, and other decision-makers.

Yang's website featured pictures of her with Trump and other members of his family and senior administration officials.

The Herald also said that an event promoter who Yang worked with was named Charles Lee.

Norwegian goes on trial in Russia for espionage
Moscow (AFP) April 2, 2019 –

A Norwegian accused by Russia of spying on its nuclear submarines went on trial Tuesday in Moscow, Russian news agencies reported.

Norwegian Frode Berg, 63, was detained in Moscow in 2017 following a sting operation by Russia's FSB security service.

Berg "is accused of spying for Norway. He gathered information on nuclear submarines," state prosecutor Milana Digayeva told RIA Novosti state news agency.

The case is classified as "totally secret" and is being heard behind closed doors, Digayeva said. Fifteen witnesses were to be called, the prosecutor added.

A former Russian police officer was accused of handing Berg files on the Russian navy and given a 13- year prison term in December.

Berg admitted to acting as a courier for the Norwegian intelligence services several times, but said he did not know the purpose of what he was delivering.

"He thought the money he was delivering had another purpose," Berg's Norwegian lawyer Brynjulf Risnes said.

Risnes, who is in Oslo awaiting permission from Russia to visit his client, told AFP that Berg "is pleading not guilty to the charges of espionage."

He said that there was a "very great risk that he will be convicted," given the lack of acquittals in Russian spy cases in recent years.

Berg risks a jail term of 10 to 20 years, the lawyer said. He hoped that if convicted, Berg would not have to serve a full sentence in Russia but could be extradited or pardoned by President Vladimir Putin.

At the end of the hearing, Berg told Norwegian journalists that "it went well, it went very well," Risnes said.

Berg's position "has not changed," his Russian lawyer Pyotr Anashkin told the TASS state news agency. "He does not accept any guilt. He's glad the trial has started and soon it will all end."

The Moscow court on Tuesday extended Berg's detention in custody until September.

Norway, a NATO member, normally enjoy good relations with neighbouring Russia, with which it shares a short land border, but these have grown more tense since the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis in 2014.