Bolivian airline licence suspended after crash

MEDELLIN • The Bolivian authorities have suspended the licence of charter airline Lamia, whose plane crashed in the Colombian mountains on Monday, killing 71 people, including members of a Brazilian football team.

Investigators are examining pilot error and air traffic control problems as possible factors in the crash.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Pro-EU candidate wins London suburb

LONDON • Prime Minister Theresa May's government yesterday suffered a rebuke over its plans to pull Britain out of the European Union (EU), after voters in Richmond ousted a eurosceptic lawmaker in favour of a pro-European candidate.

Liberal Democrat candidate Sarah Olney took 49.7 per cent of the vote, compared with 45.2 per cent for Mr Zac Goldsmith, who had held the seat for Mrs May's Conservative Party since 2010. He resigned in October, prompting the by-election in which he stood as an independent.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Australia to spend $1.3b to protect reef

SYDNEY • Australia will spend A$1.3 billion (S$1.37 billion) in the next five years to improve the water quality and well-being of the Great Barrier Reef to prevent the World Heritage Site from being placed on the United Nation's "in danger" list.

But activists say the money - in addition to the A$1 billion fund announced earlier - is insufficient and want the government to take more concrete action to protect the reef.

REUTERS