Turnbull asserts Australia’s ‘perfect right’ to sail SCS

AUSTRALIA: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is insisting on Australia’s ‘‘perfect right’’ to sail its naval fleet through the South China Sea, after a robust exchange in the disputed waters between Australian frigates and the Chinese navy.

Turnbull said Australia asserted its right to freedom of navigation throughout the world’s oceans, including the South China Sea. The remark came after the ABC reported that three Royal Australian Navy vessels were ‘‘challenged’’ by Chinese forces when sailing through the region earlier this month. Turnbull did not confirm or deny the event but declared that Australia had a right to the freedom to send its navy through the international waters.

Between its strategic location and wealth of natural resources, the South China Sea could become a flashpoint for major conflict. China claims many parts of the sea as its territorial waters but has come under strong criticism for building a series of military bases on reefs near neighbours, including Vietnam and the Philippines.

‘‘All I can say to you is we maintain and practice the right of freedom of navigation and overflight throughout the world,’’ Turnbull said. ‘‘In this context, you’re talking about naval vessels on the world’s oceans, including the South China Sea, as is our perfect right in accordance with international law.’’

The ABC reported that the Chinese navy challenged the Australian warships on why they were in the South China Sea, citing an official who described the exchanges as ‘‘robust’’ but polite.

Two of the warships, HMAS Anzac and HMAS Success, travelled through the South China Sea from Subic Bay in the Philippines. The third, HMAS Toowoomba, went through the contested waters after leaving Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia. – Fairfax

The source of the infection is unknown but the paper states: ‘‘The possibility that BSE-infected feed could have reached North Africa cannot be ruled out.’’ There are more than 10 million Dromedary, or Arabian, camels worldwide. Although best known in the West as pack animals, they are a major source of meat and milk in Africa and much of the Middle East.

Boris Johnson, the British Foreign Secretary, was presented with a platter of grilled camel meat while on a trade mission in Abu Dhabi in 2013, sharing a picture of the meal on social media.

Gabriele Vaccari, one of the study’s authors and head of the Emerging Zoonosis Operative Unit of the Istituto Superiore di Sanita in Rome, said researchers were first alerted when Algerian experts observed symptoms in the animals reminiscent of those displayed by British cattle suffering from bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or ‘‘mad cow’’ disease.

Tests found Camel Prion Disease (CPD) in three animals, suggesting the disease could be present in 3 per cent of the camel population presented for slaughter at the local abattoir.

Vaccari said as yet there was ‘‘no evidence’’ that the disease could be passed to humans. ‘‘Some prion diseases like scrapie in sheep do not appear to move from animal to human populations but others like BSE in cattle do. At the moment we do not know if this can cross the human species barrier.’’

Surveillance of animal populations for prion diseases has been a major concern of health security officials since BSE was first identified in UK cattle in 1986, causing head tremors, weight loss and lack of co-ordination among the infected beasts.

BSE became a full-blown crisis 10 years later when it was established the disease had jumped to humans in the form of the aggressive degenerative disease, Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), and the first known victim, 19-year-old Stephen Churchill, died of it in 1995.

A worldwide ban was placed on British beef exports and nearly five million animals were slaughtered, costing the UK economy an estimated £5 billion ($NZ9.7b) and killing 200 people worldwide, 177 of them in Britain. – Telegraph Group

‘‘All I can say to you is we maintain and practice the right of freedom of navigation and overflight throughout the world.’’

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull