MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – A Sydney business consultant was convicted Friday of breaking Australia’s foreign interference laws by providing reports to two people he should have suspected were Chinese spies. Alexander Csergo, 59, is only the second person to be convicted under Australian laws against covert interference and espionage.
NEW YORK (AP) - Stocks pared their losses on Wall Street as an early spike in crude oil prices eased later in the day. The S&P 500 fell 0.3% after erasing an earlier drop of 1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.3%. Markets in Europe and Asia had considerably larger losses, when oil prices were higher earlier in the day.
GOLD COAST, Australia (AP) – Two more members of the Iranian women’s soccer team were granted asylum in Australia before their teammates departed the country, Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Wednesday, but one of the woman later changed her mind and will return to Iran.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sought to reaffirm her alliance with President Donald Trump on Thursday after the president this week seemed to complain that Japan was among the nations that did not join his call to help protect the Strait of Hormuz. Takaichi met with Trump at the White House.
DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) – A court on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali sentenced three Australian citizens on Monday for the fatal shooting of a fellow Australian national in June after they claimed to have been paid by a man they will not identify.
WASHINGTON (AP) – In the escalating war in Iran, the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs would ordinarily be at the center of the geopolitical fray. Typically led by a veteran diplomat, the bureau’s role would be to coordinate U.S. foreign policy across an 18-country region, much of which has become a chaotic battlefield scarred by drone and missile strikes.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) – Australia has granted asylum to five members of the Iranian women’s soccer team who were visiting the country for a tournament when the Iran war began, Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Tuesday.
Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) – Two teenagers mistakenly left a knapsack containing marijuana and cash at a donation area outside a New Zealand charity shop then returned in a panic to retrieve the bag, police said Monday.