■ 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.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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