Australia to Ban Chinese Technology Giant From Mobile Data Project

SYDNEY — 

National security concerns are likely to result in Chinese telecom giant Huawei being blocked from a major 5G mobile wireless project in Australia, according to local media reports. They say that intelligence sources believe the company is a ‘cyber espionage risk’. Analysts believe the move could further aggravate tensions between Australia and China, its biggest trading partner.

Australia’s The Financial Review is reporting that Huawei will be stopped from helping to develop the next-generation mobile phone network. The newspaper says that intelligence agencies are warning ministers in Canberra about the security implications of allowing a company with suspected links to the Chinese government to be involved in a project of such national importance.

There has been no official comment from the Australian government, but the Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter says laws are in place to ban companies from sensitive ventures.

“There is a process in place and there is an ability to exclude an organization or organizations from taking part in that process on national security grounds,” he said.

It was concerns of that type that prompted Australia to ban Huawei from taking part in Australia’s new National Broadband Network in 2012.

The Chinese technology giant has insisted it is independent from authorities in Beijing.

Huawei Australian Chairman John Lord says the company remains in talks with Canberra about the 5G project.

“Government officials have raised no real concerns other than to seek more information from us about the way 5G’s being formed, its similarities to 4G, how Huawei intends to take 5G forward, so we are not really getting any concerns expressed to us at all other than reports in the media,” he said.

Huawei has also lost a contract to build a 4000km cable between the Solomon Islands, a South Pacific island nation, and Sydney following rare intervention by Australian spy chiefs. They were worried about a Chinese company gaining access to Australia's internet infrastructure.

Canberra is also hoping to pass foreign interference laws to counter alleged meddling by governments and individuals. The move comes amid rising fears in Australia over the influence of China in its domestic affairs.

Earlier this month media reports detailed allegations allegedly contained in a top-secret document that China had tried to influence Australia's political parties for the past decade, as well as every level of government.

In response, Beijing has previously accused Australia of being ‘anti-China’.

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Trump Renews Defense of North Korea Agreement

WASHINGTON — 

U.S. President Donald Trump renewed his defense Sunday of the agreement he reached with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, saying it already has led to an end to Pyongyang's nuclear tests and "rockets flying all over the place."

Trump has voiced his irritation at U.S. critics' assessment that the brief pact he and Kim signed at their Singapore summit was not specific enough to ensure an end to North Korea's nuclear weapons development. The accord said Kim "reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," but set no timetable for the disarmament or terms for independent inspections of North Korean nuclear sites.

Trump, on Twitter, said, "Funny how the Fake News" - Trump's term for news stories he doesn't like - "in a coordinated effort with each other, likes to say I gave sooo much to North Korea because I 'met.' That’s because that’s all they have to disparage! We got so much for peace in the world, & more is being added in finals. Even got our hostages/remains!"

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said late last week the United States and North Korea will soon resume negotiations, possibly this week, and the U.S. "most definitely" is expecting verifiable North Korean action to denuclearize the Korean peninsula by the end of Trump's first term in the White House in January 2021.

Trump also defended his decision to end military exercises with South Korea, long an irritant to North Korea, as Washington and Pyongyang attempt to finalize terms of the denuclearization.

"Holding back the 'war games' during the negotiations was my request because they are VERY EXPENSIVE and set a bad light during a good faith negotiation. Also, quite provocative. Can start up immediately if talks break down, which I hope will not happen!" he said.

While en route home from the summit, Trump tweeted, "There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea," an assessment both Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Congress said amounted to hyperbole or wishful thinking, even as they as they mostly praised Trump's effort in meeting with Kim.

One Trump critic, Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer, mangled an American idiom and inadvertently praised Trump, saying that the summit was "all cattle and no hat," meaning substantive and no talk, instead of the opposite, correct phrasing, he meant to say, "all hat and no cattle."

Trump tweaked his political rival Sunday, saying, "Chuck Schumer said 'the Summit was what the Texans call all cattle and no hat.' Thank you Chuck, but are you sure you got that right? No more nuclear testing or rockets flying all over the place, blew up launch sites. Hostages already back, hero remains coming home & much more!"

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Cambodian Prince Hurt in Car Accident

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA — 

Cambodia’s Prince Norodom Ranariddh was seriously injured, and his wife killed, in a car crash Sunday in the southwestern coastal city of Sihanoukville, police said.

Ranariddh’s sports utility vehicle was hit head on by a taxi driving in the opposite direction, said Chuon Narin,police chief of the province of Preah Sihanouk.

“The prince was taken in a helicopter for an emergency rescue in Phnom Penh,” Chuon Narin told Reuters. “He is seriously injured but he will be fine.”

Ranariddh’s wife, Ouk Phalla, 39, an exponent of traditional dance, died in a hospital in Preah Sihanouk, Chuon Narin said, adding that both SUVs involved in the crash had been speeding.

The son of the influential late monarch Norodom Sihanouk and half-brother of the current King Norodom Sihamoni, Ranariddh, 73, has had a turbulent political career.

He returned to politics in 2015 to lead the royalist Funcinpec party that ditched him years ago.

In 1997, he was overthrown as co-prime minister in a bloody coup and since his return to politics, had vowed to work with former rival and long-serving prime minister Hun Sen.

Cambodia’s Supreme Court dissolved the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) last year, leaving the way clear for Hun Sen to extend more than three decades of rule in an election on July 29.

Ranariddh’s Funcinpec was allocated most of the CNRP’s parliamentary seats after its dissolution, and its leader, Kem Sokha, was arrested over accusations of plotting to take power with the help of the United States.

The CNRP and Washington have both denied the charges.

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In Myanmar, America's Pastime Has Asian Flair

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The national baseball team receives little support from Myanmar and sees few fans in the stands but it's clear there's no shortage of effort and enthusiasm. Read More In Myanmar, America's Pastime Has Asian Flair : https://ift.tt/2lgpfPK

Decade-old Nazi Flag Photo Infuriates Australian PM

SYDNEY — 

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has condemned soldiers who flew a Nazi swastika flag above a military vehicle while on duty in Afghanistan in 2007.

A photo reportedly taken in 2007 but just recently made public shows a large swastika flag flying over an Australian military vehicle in Afghanistan. Experts said they were highly confident the image was genuine and had not been digitally altered.

Military commanders have insisted that appropriate action was quickly taken at the time.

Turnbull said the incident was outrageous.

"Completely and utterly unacceptable," he said Thursday. "It was reported in 2007, that incident. The flag obviously was removed and the personnel involved were disciplined, but the incident — it was wrong, it was absolutely wrong. Their commanders took action at the time."

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation obtained the photo and said a military source maintained that flying such an offensive flag was a "twisted joke," rather than evidence or an expression of genuine neo-Nazism.

However, Ben Wadham, an associate professor in the School of Education at Flinders University in Adelaide and a former military investigator, believes something more sinister was at work.

"Historically, arms corps in the Australian Defense Force and militaries across the globe are very conservative environments," he said, adding that he had noticed such sentiments during his experience as an infantry soldier.

"The picture was taken around 2007," he added. "I think this is at the same time that we had a scandal around our soldiers over there using racist language towards the locals."

A Jewish Australian civil rights organization, the Anti-Defamation Commission, said the image was "deeply troubling" and was an insult to past Australian servicemen and women. It said during "a time of escalating anti-Semitism and intolerance" this was a "vile display of bigotry."

Most of Australia's combat troops left Afghanistan in December 2013, but about 300 members of the navy, army and air force remain in the country in an advisory and training capacity.

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