Briefly

COLOMBIA

Ex-leader found guilty of witness tampering

A Colombian court on Monday found Alvaro Uribe guilty of witness tampering, making him the country's first ex-president to be convicted of a crime. The 73-year-old — who led Colombia from 2002 to 2010 — was found guilty of asking right-wing paramilitaries to lie about their alleged links to him. Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia read her decision aloud to the court over the course of some 10 hours. She found the right-wing politician not guilty of a separate bribery charge. The former leader is expected to hear his sentence on Friday. He risks 12 years in prison. The decision came less than a year before the 2026 presidential election, in which several of Uribe's allies are competing for the top office.

ECUADOR

Attackers kill 17 at liquor store

Armed attackers killed at least 17 civilians and wounded 14 in two attacks overnight in Ecuador, authorities said on Monday. Gunmen traveling in two pickup trucks opened fire with pistols and rifles on people outside a liquor store in the city of El Empalme, Guayas Province, killing 15, police said. Among the dead was a minor who ran for more than 1 kilometer before collapsing and dying from his gunshot wounds. The same group of attackers shot two more people dead at a different location. Ecuador has been battling a severe security crisis since President Daniel Noboa declared an "internal armed conflict" in January last year against organized crime groups tied to drug trafficking.

DPRK

Bilateral contact only 'hope' for Washington

A meeting between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the United States will remain as a "hope" for the US side if Washington fails to accept the irreversible position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state and the fact that geopolitical environment has radically changed, a senior official has said. Kim Yo-jong, vice-department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, made the remark in a statement issued on Monday, the official Korean Central News Agency reported on Tuesday. If Washington intends to use a personal relationship as a way to end the DPRK's nuclear weapons program, the effort would only be the subject of "mockery", she added.

Agencies - Xinhua