■ BHUTAN
New king crowned
The isolated Himalayan kingdom crowned a new king yesterday, placing a charismatic Oxford-educated bachelor as head of state of the world’s newest democracy. In an ancient ritual in the white-walled palace overlooking the picturesque Thimphu valley, 28-year-old Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck was handed Bhutan’s Raven Crown by his father, becoming the world’s youngest reigning monarch. The deeply revered former king, who is 52, abdicated two years ago as part of his plan to reform and modernize the deeply traditional and insular nation of more than 600,000 people by ending absolute royal rule.
■COLOMBIA
Aid plan fails to meet target
The nearly US$5 billion US aid package known as Plan Colombia failed to meet its goal of halving illegal narcotics production in the Andean nation, a US congressional report released on Wednesday said. The General Accounting Office report does, however, note that the mostly military assistance helped Colombia markedly improve security, with kidnapping and murder rates falling and the armed forces greatly diminishing the leftist rebel threat. Its release comes as US officials make it clear that aid for Colombia, an estimated US$657 million this fiscal year, will be now be trimmed because of the US financial crisis. The widening scandal over army killings of civilians to boost body counts that cost Colombia’s army chief his job this week could, also affect US aid.
■PERU
Civil liberties suspended
The government suspended civil liberties in the southern province of Tacna on Wednesday and gave the army the go-ahead to rein in protests that have killed three people. But troops have not yet been deployed against the violent protests over a new law that reallocates mining royalties to a neighboring province to pay for basic services like water and education. Three people have been killed in the unrest since last week, said Yehude Simon, Cabinet chief to President Alan Garcia. On Tuesday, protesters clashed with police and burned a municipal building in Ciudad Nueva.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Interpreter guilty of spying
A British army interpreter accused of spying for Iran was found guilty by a court in London on Wednesday. Daniel James, 45, was arrested in 2006 when he was working for General David Richards, who was then commanding international forces in Afghanistan and is now head of the British army. Reservist James was convicted by a jury at the Central Criminal Court of sending coded e-mails to the Iranian military attache in Kabul. Jurors were to continue their deliberations yesterday on a second charge against him relating to a memory stick containing secret documents found in his possession plus a third count of misconduct in a public office.
■UNITED NATIONS
Ban condemns abductions
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemns the abduction of four aid workers and two pilots in central Somalia and demands their immediate release, his spokeswoman Michele Montas told a press briefing on Wednesday. “He is deeply concerned about the worsening trend of killings and abductions of aid workers in Somalia,” Montas said. The four aid workers linked to the French NGO Action Against Hunger and their two pilots were kidnapped on Wednesday in Dhusa Mareb, witnesses and officials said. Somali sources said the hostages were two French nationals, a Belgian, a Bulgarian and the two Kenyan pilots.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese