News In Brief

Singapore's envoy to UN going to Washington post

A key figure of the United Nations is leaving New York for Washington, Monitor contributor Louis Wiznitzer reports. Tommy Koh, Singapore's ambassador to the United Nations since 1974, is immensely popular and considered to be one of the ablest diplomats ever to serve at the international organization. He managed on innumerable occasions to bridge gaps between the Western and third-world countries. In particular, he chaired the Law of the Sea Conference for three years and was the main architect of the Law of the Sea Convention, adopted in 1982.

''His constructive and imaginative approach, his unfailing honesty as a negotiator, often made him indispensable,'' a high-ranking US diplomat says.

''Tommy,'' as his friends call him, will now be his country's ambassador to the United States. He was awarded a honorary doctorate of law by Yale University last month.