World briefs

South Korea will stop exchanging classified intelligence on North Korea with Japan amid a bitter trade dispute, an official said, a surprise announcement that is likely to set back U.S. efforts to bolster security cooperation with two of its most important allies in the Asian region. 

China “will not sit idly by” if the U.S. proceeds with a sale of advanced F-16V fighter jets to Taiwan, a senior Chinese army officer said while warning of other potential countermeasures in addition to punishing foreign firms involved in the deal. 

China-US An associate professor at the University of Kansas was secretly working full time for a Chinese university while doing research in Kansas on projects funded by the U.S. government, an indictment filed alleges. Feng “Franklin” Tao was charged with one count of wire fraud and three counts of program fraud.

Indonesia More than 100 West Papuan students in Jakarta staged a protest against racism and called for independence for their restive region. The protesters marched down a main road leading to the army headquarters and presidential palace chanting “Freedom Papua” and holding banners reading “We are not monkeys.”

Australia Two whistleblowers, lawyer Bernard Collaery and former army officer David McBride, appeared in a Canberra court yesterday charged separately with leaking classified government information that alleges Australia bugged East Timor’s Cabinet and potential war crimes committed by Australian troops in Afghanistan.

Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency says two lawmakers have been arrested for unspecified actions described as “disrupting” the country’s car market. The report says the two lawmakers — Fereydoun Ahmadi and Mohammad Azizi — were initially taken to the Evin prison in Tehran but they were later released for about $85,000 in bail.

Brazil Human rights and victims’ groups are raising alarms about the record levels of deaths at police hands in the state of 17.2 million people, with 1,075 slain in the first seven months of the year, according to official figures. And far-right Rio state Gov. Wilson Witzel and President Jair Bolsonaro are pushing to give police a still-freer hand.

Spain has issued international health alerts in light of a widening outbreak of listeria from pork meat that has affected 150 people and killed one person. Health Minister María Luisa Carcedo said alerts had been posted to the European Union and the World Health Organization given the possibility that some tourists may be affected.