Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti on Tuesday sent a message to US President Barack Obama condemning blasts at the Boston Marathon which left three dead and more than 100 injured as "a cowardly act".
"I am sure that even in these painful circumstances, America will know how to react by reaffirming the fundamental values of its great civilization," the outgoing Italian premier said in reaction to the explosions on Monday.
He said the blasts were "a cowardly act of violence that prompts disdain and leaves us shocked with its suffering and horror".
Security was stepped up in major cities across the United States amid fears of a repeat of the September 11th, 2001 attacks.
A Swedish ban on Chinese telecoms company Huawei was confirmed in court on Tuesday, citing the country's security as a just reason for banning its equipment in a 5G rollout.
The administrative court in Stockholm ruled that the decision of the Swedish telecoms authority, PTS, to ban the use of equipment from Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE in a new Swedish 5G telecom network last October — a move that irked Beijing — was legal.
Equipment already installed must also be removed by January 1st, 2025.
“Sweden’s security is an important reason and the administrative court has considered that it’s only the security police and the military that together have a full picture when it comes to the security situation and threats against Sweden,” judge Ulrika Melin said in a statement.
Huawei denounced the ruling, but did not say whether it would appeal.
“We are of course noting that there has been no evidence of any wrongdoings by Huawei which is being used as basis for this verdict, it is purely based on assumption,” Kenneth Fredriksen, the company’s vice-president for Central, Eastern Europe and the Nordic region, told AFP.
Huawei will now evaluate the decision and the “see what kind of actions we will take to protect our rights,” Fredriksen added.
After the UK in the summer of 2020, Sweden became the second country in Europe and the first in the EU to explicitly ban Huawei from almost all of the network infrastructure needed to run its 5G network.
Beijing had warned that PTS’ decision could have “consequences” for the Scandinavian country’s companies in China, prompting Swedish telecom giant and Huawei competitor Ericsson to worry about retaliation.
“We will continue to be available to have constructive dialogues with Swedish authorities to see if we can find pragmatic ways of taking care of security and at the same time keeping an open and fair market like Sweden has always been,” Fredriksen said.
Please whitelist us to continue reading.
So this website can function correctly please whitelist The Local with your adblocker, antivirus software or browser add on.
Please visit the help centre for more information
Member comments