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World News Quick Take

■ 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.


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