Thai court suspends Pita as lawmaker as parliament votes on PM - CNA

BANGKOK: Thailand's Constitutional Court ordered a temporary suspension of prime ministerial hopeful Pita Limjaroenrat as a lawmaker on Wednesday (Jul 19), delivering its announcement as parliament convened for what could be his final shot at becoming premier.

The court decision came after accepting a case that alleges Pita, leader of the election-winning Move Forward Party, was unqualified to run in a May 14 election because he held shares in a media company, in violation of electoral rules.

The 42-year-old, US-educated liberal Pita lost his initial bid for the premiership in a parliamentary vote last week and needs the backing of more than half of the bicameral parliament to be become the next prime minister.

He must overcome fierce resistance from rivals at odds with his party's anti-establishment ambitions, including a royalist military that appointed members of the Senate that denied Pita in his initial bid.

It was not immediately clear whether the court announcement would scuttle Wednesday's vote, with lawmakers still debating Pita's nomination.

TWIN CHALLENGES FOR PITA

Parliamentary rules written by the military after a 2014 coup and skewed in its favour are making it extremely difficult for Pita to form a government with an eight-party alliance that continues to back him.

The court decision, its second active case involving Pita, came as lawmakers debated whether Pita should be allowed to contest a second vote on the premiership, with political rivals arguing he had already been rejected.

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2023-07-19 05:31:00Z
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US envoy Kerry says China climate talks constructive but complicated - CNA

BEIJING: United States climate change envoy John Kerry said on Wednesday (Jul 19) that his talks with Chinese officials this week have been constructive but complicated, with the two sides still dealing with political "externalities", including Taiwan.

"We're just reconnecting," Kerry told reporters. "We're trying to re-establish the process we have worked on for years."

Kerry arrived in Beijing last Sunday and has held meetings with China's top diplomat Wang Yi and Premier Li Qiang as well as veteran climate envoy Xie Zhenhua in a bid to rebuild trust between the two sides ahead of COP28 climate talks in Dubai at the end of this year.

"We're trying to carve out a very clear path to the COP to be able to cooperate and work as we have wanted to with all the externalities," Kerry said.

Climate diplomacy between the world's top two emitters was suspended in August last year following the visit of then US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, a democratically governed island that China claims.

"The mood is very, very positive," Kerry said ahead of meetings on Wednesday. "We had a terrific dinner last night. We had a lot of back and forth. It's really constructive."

"We're focused on the substance of what we can really work on and what we can make happen."

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2023-07-19 02:06:07Z
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US soldier who crossed into North Korea faced disciplinary action back home - CNA

SEOUL: An American soldier facing disciplinary action fled across the inter-Korean border into North Korea on Tuesday (Jul 18) and was believed to be in North Korean custody, US officials said, creating a fresh crisis for Washington in its dealings with the nuclear-armed state.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed concern for the soldier, who the US military in Korea said joined an orientation tour of Joint Security Area between the Koreas and "wilfully and without authorisation crossed the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)".

The US Army identified the soldier as Private Travis T King, who joined in 2021.

"There's a lot that we're still trying to learn," Austin told a news briefing. "We believe that he is in (North Korean) custody and so we're closely monitoring and investigating the situation and working to notify the soldier's next of kin."

The crossing comes at a time of high tensions on the Korean peninsula, with the arrival of a US nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine in South Korea for a rare visit in a warning to North Korea over its own military activities.

North Korea has been testing increasingly powerful missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, including a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile launched last week. It fired another ballistic missile into the sea near Japan on Tuesday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing South Korea's military.

Colonel Isaac Taylor, spokesperson for US Forces Korea, said the military was "working with our KPA counterparts to resolve this incident", referring to North Korea's People's Army.

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said US officials at the Pentagon, the State Department and the United Nations were all working to "to ascertain more information and resolve this situation".

"We're in the early stages," she said, adding that the primary concern was determining the well being of the soldier.

North Korea's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A DASH ACROSS THE BORDER

The soldier was on a civilian tour with a group of visitors to the Panmunjom truce village when he crossed over the line marking the border, US official say. The Joint Security Area in the demilitarised zone has separated the Koreas since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

But US officials were stumped about why the soldier fled to North Korea and outlined a puzzling series of events on Tuesday.

King had finished serving time in detention in South Korea for an unspecified infraction and was transported by the US military to the airport to return to his home unit in the United States, two officials said.

He had already passed alone through security to his gate and then, for whatever reason, decided to flee, one official said. Civilian tours of the demilitarised zone are advertised at the airport and King appeared to have decided to join one, the official added.

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2023-07-18 22:12:00Z
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US national crosses into North Korea during border tour: UN Command - CNA

SEOUL: A US soldier is believed to have been detained by North Korea after crossing the heavily fortified border - an incident likely to further aggravate Washington's troubled relations with the nuclear-armed state.

"A US national on a JSA orientation tour crossed, without authorisation, the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)," the UN Command said, referring to the Joint Security Area and the border between the Koreas.

"We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our KPA counterparts to resolve this incident," it said, referring to the North's Korean People's Army.

A US official confirmed the American citizen was a soldier and that he was believed to be detained by Pyongyang, while US Forces Korea spokesman Colonel Isaac Taylor said the service member "willfully and without authorisation" crossed into North Korea.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told journalists that "we're closely monitoring and investigating the situation and working to notify the soldier's next of kin".

CBS News, citing US officials, reported that the soldier was a low-ranking member of the US Army who was being escorted home to the United States for disciplinary reasons, but somehow managed to leave the airport and join the tour group.

North and South Korea remain technically at war since the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice, rather than a peace treaty, with a Demilitarised Zone running along the border.

Soldiers from both sides face off at the JSA north of Seoul, which is overseen by the United Nations Command.

It is also a popular tourist destination and hundreds of visitors tour the area on the South Korean side every day.

Former US president Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Panmunjom Truce Village in 2019 and even stood on North Korean soil by stepping across the demarcation line there.

"Panmunjom is the most likely site this American chose to cross into North Korea because it's the only location one could attempt such a move out of the whole JSA tour," Choi Gi-il, a professor of military studies at Sangji University, told AFP.

An eyewitness who said they were on the same tour told CBS News the group had visited one of the buildings at the site when "this man gives out a loud 'ha ha ha' and just runs in between some buildings".

"I thought it was a bad joke at first but, when he didn't come back, I realised it wasn't a joke and then everybody reacted and things got crazy," they said.

South Korea's defence ministry declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

NO NORTH KOREAN SOLDIRES

North Korea sealed its borders at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and has yet to reopen them. Its security presence on its side of the border at the JSA has also been scaled back significantly.

When AFP toured the JSA earlier this year, no North Korean guards were visible in the area. Even so, under armistice protocols, South Korean or US personnel could not run across the border to retrieve the US national.

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2023-07-18 11:39:00Z
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‘Rally support’: experts weigh in on Japan’s Saudi deals as China deepens reach - South China Morning Post

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1. ‘Rally support’: experts weigh in on Japan’s Saudi deals as China deepens reach  South China Morning Post
2. Japan PM in UAE to pitch green technology ahead of COP28  CNA
3. Japan and UAE to work together on innovation, climate change  The Straits Times
4. Japanese Prime Minister Kishida steps up energy diplomacy in Middle East  South China Morning Post
5. Riyadh, Tokyo to cooperate on energy security, hydrogen and ammonia  CNA
6. View Full coverage on Google News

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2023-07-18 01:30:18Z
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Geely to invest US$10b in Tanjung Malim, PM says - Malaysiakini

Chinese automobile manufacturer Geely will invest US$10 billion (RM45.3 billion) to turn Tanjung Malim, Perak, into the region’s largest auto city.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said the aspiration, conveyed by the company in a letter to him last night, would create thousands of job opportunities for Malaysians.

“I am mentioning this for the first time. Geely, which is jointly producing cars with...

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2023-07-18 05:46:36Z
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Kerry says climate change requires 'new definition' of China-US cooperation - CNA

BEIJING: Global warming poses a threat to all humankind and requires a new kind of cooperation between China and the United States, US climate envoy John Kerry told Chinese officials on Tuesday (Jul 18).

Kerry has called for "urgent action" by Beijing and Washington to tackle the threat of climate change as the world's two largest polluters revive stalled diplomacy on reducing planet-warming emissions.

Speaking at Beijing's Great Hall of the People with China's top diplomat Wang Yi, Kerry underlined the need for "global leadership" on the issue.

His visit to China came as the Northern Hemisphere endured record-setting summer heatwaves, which scientists have said are being exacerbated by climate change.

"Climate, as you know, is a global issue, not a bilateral issue. It's a threat to all of humankind," Kerry told Wang.

"This is a matter of global leadership," he stressed, adding that the world "really hopes for that and needs it".

"Our hope is now that this can be the beginning of a new definition of cooperation and of capacity to resolve the differences between us," he added, noting that "we both know there are real differences".

"But we also know from experience that if we work at it, we can find the path ahead and ways that resolve these challenges."

Wang, in response, underlined the need "for a healthy, stable, and sustainable Sino-US relationship".

"Cooperation on climate change is advancing under the overall climate of China and the United States, so we need the joint support of the people of China and the United States," he told Kerry, who he described as an "old friend".

Climate talks between the two biggest greenhouse gas emitters came to a halt last year after Nancy Pelosi, then speaker of the US House of Representatives, enraged Beijing by visiting self-ruled Taiwan, which China considers to be part of its territory.

Kerry, a former secretary of state, has enjoyed comparatively cordial and consistent relations with China despite Washington and Beijing locking horns over Taiwan and other issues.

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2023-07-18 02:36:00Z
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