News in Brief
LONDON (Reuters) -- British police said on Monday they would not take any further action following an investigation into media reports that honors had been offered in return for donations to one of King Charles’ charities. London’s Metropolitan Police began investigating last year after the Sunday Times reported a Saudi businessman had received an award after paying thousands of pounds towards projects supported by Charles. Prosecutors had reviewed a file of evidence following an investigation by the police’s Special Enquiry Team (SET) to see if any offences had been committed, and detectives said they had concluded no further action would be taken. “Should any new information or evidence come to light that requires further assessment, this will be carried out by the Met’s SET,” the police statement said. “Nobody has been arrested or charged during the course of this investigation.” The allegations, which related to the Prince’s Foundation, were made before Charles became king following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth last September.
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BEIJING (AFP) -- China on Monday accused a government employee of spying for the United States, the second incident of espionage it has announced in a month. The case announced Monday, which is still under investigation, involves a 39-year-old named Hao who worked for an unspecified ministry, the Ministry of State Security (MSS) said in a statement. Hao was studying in Japan when he became acquainted with a U.S. embassy employee during a visa application, and developed “a close relationship” with him, the ministry said. The man then introduced Hao to another colleague, an operative of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who persuaded Hao to start spying for the U.S. agency as he was about to return to China, it said. Hao signed a contract and received U.S. training, before getting a job in government as per his instructions, according to the MSS. Hao “made several secret contacts with CIA personnel within the country to provide intelligence and collect espionage funds” while working there, before he was found out, the ministry said.
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GUATEMALA CITY (AFP) -- Social democrat Bernardo Arevalo swept to victory in Guatemala’s presidential election on Sunday, with his anti-corruption message firing up weary voters. The 64-year-old sociologist is the son of an ex-president but his win is still a massive upset, defying opinion polls, court battles and attempts to have his party disqualified. Arevalo scored 59 percent of the vote, with 95 percent of ballots counted, according to official results from the TSE national election body. His rival, former first lady Sandra Torres -- who enjoyed the backing of the incumbent as well as the elite -- came second with 36 percent of the vote. Arevalo will replace unpopular right-wing president Alejandro Giammattei, who is constitutionally limited to one term. Guatemala has some of the worst poverty, malnutrition and child mortality rates in Latin America, according to the World Bank. The murder rate is one of the highest in the world, with many killings attributed to gang violence related to drug trafficking.
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LONDON (Reuters) -- British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is due to visit China at the end of this month, two sources familiar with the matter said, a long-awaited trip seeking to stabilize a turbulent relationship that has sunk to its lowest point in decades. The foreign ministries of both countries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Cleverly was expected in China towards the end of July, but the trip never materialized as China announced the unexpected replacement of his counterpart. Cleverly is due to land in Beijing on Aug. 29, one of the sources said. Another source said the trip was expected around the end of the month, without specifying dates.
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MOGADISHU (Reuters) -- Somalia has banned TikTok, messaging app Telegram and online-betting website 1XBet to limit the spread of indecent content and propaganda, its communications minister said. “The minister of communications orders internet companies to stop the aforementioned applications, which terrorists and immoral groups use to spread constant horrific images and misinformation to the public,” the minister, Jama Hassan Khalif, said in a statement late on Sunday. Members of terrorist group Al Shabaab often post about their activities on TikTok and Telegram.The decision comes days after Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said a military offensive against Al Shabaab aims to eliminate the Al-Qaeda-linked group in the next five months.
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BENGALURU (Reuters) -- India’s space agency on Monday released images its spacecraft took of the far side of the moon as it headed for an attempted landing on the lunar south pole, just days after the failure of a Russian lander. The Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft had been in a race with Russia to be the first to land on the lunar south pole, a region whose shadowed craters are thought to contain water ice that could support a future moon settlement. As news of the failure of Russia’s Luna-25 mission broke on Sunday, ISRO said that Chandrayaan-3 was on course to land on Aug. 23. Rough terrain makes a south pole landing difficult, but making a first landing would be historic. The region’s water ice could supply fuel, oxygen and drinking water for future missions. The Chandrayaan-3 was launched with a budget of about 6.15 billion rupees ($74 million), less than the cost to produce the 2013 Hollywood space thriller “Gravity”.