News In Brief

New Caledonian separatists install provisional rule

Militant Kanaks seeking independence for New Caledonia hoisted their flag and installed their own provisional government in a ceremony in a Noumea suburb on Saturday.

After an emergency meeting Saturday evening of the French Cabinet, Edgard Pisani, minister in the cabinets of former presidents Charles de Gaulle and Georges Pompidou, was appointed high commissioner to draw up new plans for self-rule in the South Pacific island territory.