WORLD BRIEFS
Guyana-Venezuela border tensions soar
GEORGETOWN, Guyana—Calls mounted Thursday for calm to prevail as Venezuela said it saw a “provocation” in joint US-Guyana military exercises and vowed to pursue the “recovery” of an oil-rich region both neighbors claim as their own. The UN Security Council called an urgent meeting for Friday on the fast-escalating row that Guyana said “threatens international peace and security.” Washington provoked an angry response from Caracas by announcing that it would hold joint “flight operations within Guyana” as part of “routine engagement and operations to enhance security partnership” with its ally. —AFP
US congressman rebuked for setting off fire alarm
WASHINGTON—A Democratic congressman was censured by the House of Representatives on Thursday after deliberately setting off a fire alarm at the US Capitol complex that forced the evacuation of an office building ahead of a crucial vote. Jamaal Bowman already admitted the misdemeanor in DC Superior Court in October, where he agreed to pay a $1,000 fine and write an apology to police in return for the charges being withdrawn in three months. Three Democrats joined Republicans to pass the censure, which forced the New York congressman to stand in the well of the House while he was admonished in front of colleagues. —AFP
