Security was tightened yesterday in the Solomon Islands' capital, a day before parliament was to elect a new leader.
Hundreds of police backed by a multinational peacekeeping force were patrolling Honiara in a show of force to head off any potential civil strife by supporters of candidates in the vote, Deputy Police Commissioner Peter Marshall said.
Manasseh Sogavare -- a combative prime minister who spurred a series of controversies -- was ousted last week by lawmakers in a no-confidence vote brought by the opposition.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Patteson Oti is the government candidate in today's ballot, while former education minister Derek Sikua is the opposition candidate.
Political demonstrations have sometimes devolved into rioting in Honiara in the past, but Marshall said his forces and an Australian-led multinational force known by the acronym RAMSI are well prepared for any possible unrest today.
``We will do our job with support from armed RAMSI soldiers and police, and people must respect the rule of law,'' he said.
Sogavare came to power in April last year in the wake of rioting that devastated Honiara's Chinatown area and helped dislodge then-leader Snyder Rini.
His support as prime minister gradually eroded amid allegations of abuse of power, growing resentment at his verbal attacks on RAMSI and stagnation of the impoverished economy.
RAMSI police commander Denis McDermott said the international forces were operating in support of Solomon Islands police -- not at the behest of political parties: "RAMSI does not get involved in politics."
Sogavare had constantly criticized RAMSI as an Australian-dominated intervention force, though it has retained widespread support for ending ethnic violence.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion