The UN comprises of 193 members that have to contribute to the regular annual budget as determined by the organisation. The organisation is dependent on the contributions from its member states in the form of voluntary and assessed contributions. While voluntary contributions are left to the members’ discretion the assessed contributions depend on each country’s paying capacity.

The USA contributes the most to the UN annual budget with 22%, accounting to the latest available UN data.

From Asia, Japan is the highest contributor to the UN budget. The total UN budget for the year 2016-17 was $ 5.6 billion. China is another major contributor and it has paid 7.92 per cent of the UN budget making it the third highest contributor in the world and second in Asia. China’s assessed contribution in next three years will increase to 10.2 per cent making it surpass Japan for the first time.

Australia contributes 2.3% and is the third largest contributor to the UN budget from Asia. South Korea is the fourth highest contributor from the region with 2.03 per cent of the total budget.

India contributes 0.737 per cent to the UN regular budget making it the highest contributor amongst South Asian countries and fifth in Asia.

Indonesia follows India by contributing 0.504 per cent of the total annual budget of the UN making it the sixth highest contributor in Asia. Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines are other major contributors.

Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan together contribute less than 1 per cent to the UN budget with Bhutan being the least contributor in Asia. Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia and Loas together contribute 0.075 per cent to the annual UN budget.

The United Nations provides heavy discount to the poorer countries and the resultant deficit to the budget is compensated by the five permanent members. While the countries with robust economies contribute monetarily, the lower economy countries contribute in terms of personnel deployment to the peace keeping missions.

Australia’s tourism minister has made a shameless pitch to entice Prince Harry Down Under for his stag night or honeymoon, offering a James Bond-style “helicopter crawl” or seclusion in the Outback.

The prince will marry Meghan Markle next May, and Steve Ciobo said Thursday he had written to Clarence House with a list of adrenaline-packed suggestions for a buck’s party, as well as “slower, contemplative” honeymoon options.

“Australia can provide the perfect pre-wedding party and an amazing romantic honeymoon after the wedding,” he said in a statement.

The minister said the prince and his friends could replace the traditional Aussie pub crawl with a helicopter crawl of Outback drinking venues, or go fishing for barramundi in the Northern Territory.

“We also have suggested they could come to the Gold Coast and go dune buggying,” he told Channel Nine television.

“Then for the honeymoon something a little bit more slower and contemplative. They could visit some of the magnificent parts of Australia.”

He suggested the Longitude 131 Lodge near giant red monolith Uluru — also known as Ayers Rock — where his brother Prince William and wife Kate previously stayed, or the Great Barrier Reef.

“I told Prince Harry Tourism Australia stands ready to work with him and Ms Markle to design an itinerary to their tastes,” Ciobo said in the statement.

It is not known whether Markle has visited Australia, but Harry was in the country in June this year to promote the Invictus Games.

The next version of the event for injured and sick service personnel is in Sydney in 2018, with local reports saying it could be the newly married couple’s first official overseas engagement.

Washington urged tough action as emergency talks on the North’s latest provocation opened in the UN Security Council — and after US President Donald Trump derided Kim Jong-Un as a “sick puppy” and threatened “major” new sanctions.

Pyongyang on Wednesday tested its third intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) — which it claimed was capable of striking anywhere in the United States — snapping a two-month pause in missile launches.

North Korean leader Kim said the test of the Hwasong-15 weapons system had helped his country achieve the goal of becoming a full nuclear power, as the international community expressed outrage.

“We call on all nations to cut off all ties with North Korea,” Washington’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, told her fellow envoys.

Haley said Trump had called Chinese President Xi Jinping and urged him to “cut off the oil from North Korea.

“That would be a pivotal step in the world’s effort to stop this international pariah,” she said, issuing a stern warning to Kim.

“If war comes, make no mistake: The North Korean regime will be utterly destroyed,” she said.

– ‘The situation will be handled’ –

The UN Security Council was meeting at the request of the United States, Japan and South Korea to consider next steps after three rounds of sanctions adopted in the past year failed to push North Korea to change course.

France’s UN Ambassador Francois Delattre said the council should respond with a “tightening of the sanctions” — a move that would likely entail the adoption of a new sanctions resolution.

Japanese Ambassador Koro Bessho said “the international community has to keep the pressure up.”

Earlier, Trump — who had traded barbs with Kim for months — had asked Xi to use “all available levers” to press the hermit state.

“Additional major sanctions will be imposed on North Korea today. This situation will be handled!” Trump said on Twitter.

So far Wednesday, no new announcements were forthcoming.

Last week, Trump announced new US unilateral sanctions on Pyongyang and returned it to a US list of state sponsors of terror.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has called for “additional measures” to toughen up international sanctions, including allowing countries to intercept vessels carrying goods to and from North Korea.

There are concerns in Seoul that Trump might be considering military action against the North that could trigger a full-scale war.

Seoul is home to 10 million people and only about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the border — well within range of Pyongyang’s artillery.

Historic cause

North Korean state media said the missile launched Wednesday was more sophisticated than any previously tested by Pyongyang.

“The ICBM Hwasong-15 type weaponry system is an intercontinental ballistic rocket tipped with super-large heavy warhead which is capable of striking the whole mainland of the US,” the North’s official news agency KCNA said.

State television brought out Ri Chun-Hee, a star presenter who only appears for significant developments, to announce the landmark.

“Kim Jong-Un declared with pride that now we have finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force, the cause of building a rocket power,” she said.

Pyongyang said the missile reached an altitude of 4,475 kilometers and splashed down 950 kilometers from its launch site.

At least one Western expert said the missile’s lofted trajectory suggested an actual range of 13,000 kilometers — enough to hit every major US city.

David Wright, an arms control expert and co-director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the flight parameters of Wednesday’s test pointed to a missile with “more than enough range to reach Washington DC, and in fact any part of the continental United States.”

While Pyongyang has yet to prove its mastery of the re-entry technology required to bring a warhead back through the Earth’s atmosphere, experts believe it is at least on the threshold of developing a working intercontinental nuclear strike capability.

In September, Pyongyang conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test and then fired an intermediate-range missile over Japan.

– Raft of past sanctions –

Over the past year, the UN Security Council has imposed biting sanctions on Pyongyang aimed at choking off revenue to its military programs.

These include a ban on North Korean exports of coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, trade restrictions and the blacklisting of a number of North Korean entities and officials.

The council has also banned the hiring of North Korean guest workers and capped oil exports, in particular from China, Pyongyang’s main trading partner.

Russia called the launch “provocative” and Beijing expressed “grave concern and opposition.”

China once again pressed its proposal that the North stop missile and nuclear tests in exchange for a freeze of US military exercises — a proposal Washington has repeatedly rejected.

Canada said it would host a meeting of foreign ministers to discuss the North Korean threat.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that North Korea’s latest test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) “demands that countries further isolate the Kim regime.”

During a phone conversation earlier in the day, US President Donald Trump asked President Xi Jinping to cut off China’s crude oil supplies to North Korea, a move that would deal a crippling blow to North Korea’s economy.

Trump told the Chinese leader “that we have come to the point that China must cut off the oil from North Korea,” Haley said.

“That would be a pivotal step in the world’s effort to stop this international pariah,” she said.

Haley also called “on all nations to cut off all ties with North Korea” and said the Security Council should take away North Korea’s voting rights at the United Nations.

The council was meeting at the request of the United States, Japan and South Korea to consider next steps after three rounds of sanctions adopted in the past year failed to push North Korea to change course.

Haley said the ICBM launch had raised the threat of war.

“The dictator of North Korea made a choice yesterday that brings the world closer to war, not farther from it.”

“If war comes, make no mistake: The North Korean regime will be utterly destroyed,” she warned.

Pyongyang on Wednesday tested its third ICBM — which it claimed was capable of striking anywhere in the United States — snapping a two-month pause in missile launches.

    The move raised hope for some of the more than 120,000 tourists stranded after a surge in activity at Mount Agung had grounded hundreds of flights since Monday, sparking travel chaos.

It was not immediately clear when flights would resume. Airport officials cautioned that the airport could shut again if winds change direction once more and endanger flights.

Ash is dangerous for planes as it makes runways slippery and can be sucked into their engines.

“We are going to constantly monitor the situation on the ground,”  Ngurah Rai airport spokesman Arie Ahsanurrohim told AFP.

Australian visitor Ebra Syllivan was overjoyed at the news.

“I didn’t know it was going to reopen today — we just came here because our flight was (originally scheduled for) tonight and we’ve booked out of our motel,” she said at the airport.

“It’s fabulous because we need to get back. We’ve got to get back to work.”

Mount Agung could produce a major eruption at any moment, officials have warned.

– ‘Bigger, explosive eruption’ –

Tens of thousands have already fled their homes around the volcano — which last erupted in 1963, killing around 1,600 people — but as many as 100,000 will likely be forced to leave in case of a full eruption, disaster agency officials have said.

Experts said Agung’s recent activity matches the build-up to the earlier disaster, which ejected enough debris — about a billion tonnes — to lower global average temperatures by around 0.3 degrees Celsius for roughly a year.

“Small eruptions have been happening continuously but there’s still the possibility of a bigger, explosive eruption,” said I Gede Suantika, a senior volcanologist at Indonesia’s volcanology agency.

“Activity remains high and we are still on the highest alert level.”

Roadside signs that read “Volcanic danger zone. No entry!” underscored the potential risks of staying behind.

There is a 10 kilometre exclusion zone around Agung, which is 75 kilometres from the beachside tourist hub of Kuta.

As of Wednesday around 440 flights had been cancelled since the start of the week.

The airport on nearby Lombok island — also a popular tourist destination — has opened and closed several times in the past few days. It is currently open.

– ‘Very nervous’ –

Some 100 buses are taking visitors to several destinations including Indonesia’s second-biggest city Surabaya on Java island — 13 hours’ drive and a ferry ride away — and the capital Jakarta, as torrential rain lashed the island.

“We decided to take the bus because in this island we are very nervous and we want to stay in another island, we want to be in Java,” said Sofia Maria, a 24-year-old Russian tourist on her way to Jakarta.

The majority of Bali’s tourists are Chinese, followed by Australians, Indians, Britons and Japanese, according to the immigration office, which added that nearly 25,000 foreigners live on the small Hindu-dominated island.

Foreigners whose visitor visas are expiring will be given a special permit to stay longer due to the eruption, the agency said

Agung rumbled back to life in September, forcing the evacuation of 140,000 people living nearby. Its activity decreased in late October and many returned to their homes.

However, on Saturday the mountain sent smoke into the air for the second time in a week in what volcanologists call a phreatic eruption — caused by the heating and expansion of groundwater.

So-called cold lava flows have also appeared — similar to mud flows and often a prelude to the blazing orange lava of popular imagination.

Indonesia, the world’s most active volcanic region, lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” where tectonic plates collide, causing frequent volcanic and seismic activities.

Last year seven people were killed after Mount Sinabung on the western island of Sumatra erupted. A 2014 eruption at Sinabung killed 16.//AFP

The legislation, which takes effect from June 2019, was passed in Victoria after 100 hours of often fiery debate, making it the only place in Australia where the practice will be legal.

State Premier Daniel Andrews, who supported the bill after the death of his father last year and allowed a conscience vote in parliament, said people should have the right to “choose to be in control of the last part of their journey”.

“For too long, we have denied, to too many, the compassion, the control, the power that should be theirs in those final moments of their life,” he said.

“I’m proud today that we have put compassion right at the centre of our parliamentary and our political process. That is politics at its best.”

Jen Barnes, who has a tumour on her brain that is growing and inoperable, welcomed the decision as giving people like her a choice.

“I just want to know that it’s there, the option is there,” she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“It’s unlikely that I would see it come through for me because I’m not likely to be here in 18 months’ time. But for the future, I think it’s the right way to go.”

The 18-month delay before the bill takes effect was to finalise details, including deciding which drug, or cocktail of drugs, would be best.

– ‘Safest in the world’ –

The scheme will be accessible only to terminally ill patients over 18 living in Victoria for at least a year and with less than six months to live, down from an originally proposed 12 months.

There will, however, be exemptions for sufferers of conditions such as motor neurone disease and multiple sclerosis who have a life expectancy of one year.

Those applying must be determined by multiple doctors to be suffering intolerable pain and be of sound mind.

They will then be given a lethal drug within 10 days of asking to die, which they administer themselves. If they are not capable, a doctor can help.

“I hope the implementation of this bill really does start to give people some hope and some compassion that a good death will in fact be possible for people who are enduring difficult end of lives,” said state Health Minister Jill Hennessy.

Victorian Attorney-General Martin Pakula said robust debate on the issue had ensured there were ample safeguards.

“We have ensured we have compassionate legislation while still giving Victorians the protections and safeguards they need — making this the most conservative and safest scheme in the world,” he said.

Assisted suicide is illegal in most countries around the world and until now had been banned in Australia, although it was legal for a time in the Northern Territory before the law was overturned in the 1990s.

When legal there, prominent Australian right-to-die campaigner Philip Nitschke became the first doctor in the world to administer a legal, voluntary, lethal injection to end a life.

He went on to do the same for three other people.

Other states in Australia have debated assisted dying in the past, but the proposals have always been defeated, mostly recently in New South Wales in September.

It was the nuclear-armed North’s first ballistic test in more than two months and an initial assessment by the Pentagon said it was an ICBM that flew about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) before splashing down within Japan’s maritime Economic Exclusion Zone.

Trump, who has previously threatened North Korea with “fire and fury,” was guarded in his immediate response, as the UN Security Council agreed to convene an emergency session to discuss the latest provocation.

“I will only tell you that we will take care of it, Trump said at the White House. “It is a situation that we will handle,” he added, without elaborating.

North Korea’s immediate neighbours were less restrained, with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe calling the test an intolerable, “violent” act and South Korean President Moon Jae-In condemning Pyongyang’s “reckless” behaviour.

The South Korean military responded by staging a precision strike missile exercise as it has done following previous North Korea tests.

Prior to Wednesday’s launch, the North’s last missile test was on September 15 and the subsequent pause had prompted some speculation about whether North Korea might be willing to embrace a negotiated solution to the nuclear standoff.

Trump insisted there would be no change to his administration’s “maximum pressure campaign” which has sought to curb Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme with tightened sanctions backed by dire warnings of massive retaliation in the event of any attack.

Diplomatic options

But his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, also stressed that diplomatic options remained “viable and open.”

It was the North’s third successful test of an ICBM which is seen as having the range to reach the mainland United States.

While Pyongyang has yet to master the re-entry technology required to bring a warhead back through the Earth’s atmosphere, experts say it is on the threshold of developing a working nuclear strike capability against US cities.

Tensions over the North’s weapons programme peaked after Pyongyang conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test in September and then fired an intermediate-range missile over Japan.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Wednesday’s test went higher than ever before and was a step toward North Korea building missiles that can “threaten everywhere in the world, basically.”

There was no immediate reaction from China, the North’s sole ally and economic lifeline, which has come under repeated US pressure to do more to rein in Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.

China has pushed for a “dual track approach” to the crisis which would see the United States freeze its military drills in South Korea while North Korea would halt its weapons programmes.

Washington has rejected that approach, and last week unveiled new sanctions targeting North Korean shipping, as well a number of Chinese companies doing business with the pariah state.

Terror sponsor

President Trump also declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, a spot on a US blacklist the country had shed nearly a decade ago.

But the North remained defiant, vowing to continue building up its nuclear force and warning that sanctions would never succeed.

It also slammed Washington for behaving like an “international judge” and said the terror listing was “clearly an absurdity and a mockery to world peace and security”.

Drumming up support for a tough stance against North Korea’s nuclear weapons ambitions was the main focus of a marathon Asian tour undertaken by Trump earlier this month.

But the US administration has kept the door open to dialogue with Pyongyang and Trump has even said he would be willing, in the right circumstances, to sit down with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

North Korea has made significant progress in its atomic and missile technology under Kim, who took power after the death of his father and longtime ruler, Kim Jong-Il, in 2011.

Since then he has overseen four of the country’s six nuclear tests and hailed its nuclear weapons as a “treasured sword” to protect itself from potential invasion by the US “imperialist enemy.”

The second batch of Thai tourists was expected to leave for Surabaya today, the embassy stated, adding they would travel by buses provided by the Thai Honorary Consul General office in Denpasar.

The embassy said on its Facebook page that people who wanted to travel to Surabaya should contact a help desk set up at Ngurah Rai airport between 10am and 3pm.

The desk is situated at the international terminal’s departure hall and the emergency telephone number is +62 812 3825542. The airport has extended the suspension of services to at least today.

Consul personnel at an airport in Surabaya would help coordinate Thai tourists’ travel as there are not any direct flights from there to Thailand.

The embassy also stated that it had opened online registration for Thai people living in Bali and Thai tourists in case of emergency.

At present, 265 Thais have registered with the embassy, 260 of whom are tourists.

Thai Airways International suspended flights to Denpasar from Monday until tomorrow after the Indonesian airport was forced to close as the volcano about 75 kilometres away started spewing smoke and ash.

Scores of Malaysians are also stranded in Bali, The Star reported, with some staying on in their hotels but many others have checked out and been forced to spend nights at the Ngurah Rai airport, along with hundreds of tourists from other countries.

“Our flights were cancelled. We decided to wait here at the airport,” said Jie Aman, a 35yearold project coordinator who was on a holiday with her sister.

She said they had been stranded at the crowded airport and there were not enough chairs to accommodate people.

“Malaysia Airlines [MAS] distributed food packets for their passengers.”

Jie bought her ticket from MAS while her sister bought a ticket from AirAsia.

“MAS is offering me a few options due to the cancellation, including deferment of travel until February 28, 2018, a change of destination to Jakarta, Surabaya or any Asean destination on MAS network or a full refund,” she said.

Her sister was later informed that her flight with AirAsia had been rescheduled to today. But she will have to stay in Bali at her own expense.

Yue Chee Hong, 29, who is currently in Bali, said he still did not know if his flight to Kuala Lumpur would be cancelled.

“All inbound and outbound flights Tuesday were cancelled,” he said.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been ostracised by a global rights community that once adored her but is now outraged at her tepid reaction to the plight of the Rohingya.

After the talks in the capital Naypyidaw, the pontiff will address Suu Kyi and diplomats there — his first opportunity to speak publicly about the conflict that looms over his trip.

Pope Francis (2nd L) stands with Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi (3rd L) onstage with children during an event in Naypyidaw on November 28, 2017.  // AFP PHOTO

The 80-year-old pontiff late Monday received a “courtesy visit” from the powerful army chief Min Aung Hlaing — whose troops, according to the UN and US, have waged a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya from Rakhine state.

General Min Aung Hlaing has firmly denied allegations of widespread brutality by his forces, despite the flight to Bangladesh since late August of 620,000 Rohingya who have recounted widespread cases of rape, murder and arson.

His office said he told the pope there was “no discrimination” in Myanmar, and praised his military for maintaining “the peace and stability of the country”.

The pope has repeatedly spoken out from afar about the crisis, standing up for what he has called his Rohingya “brothers and sisters”.

Pope Francis (L) shakes hands with Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi during an event in Naypyidaw on November 28, 2017.  // AFP PHOTO

A similar approach in Myanmar is fraught with danger — using the term “Rohingya” is unacceptable in a mainly Buddhist country where the Muslim minority are denied citizenship and branded illegal “Bengali” immigrants.

The country is listening closely to see if Francis will use the word “Rohingya” on Myanmar soil, and risk provoking the outrage of Buddhist nationalists.

Early Tuesday, day two of his four-day visit, the pontiff met leaders from Buddhist, Muslim, Baptist and Jewish faiths in Yangon.

The conversation centred around themes of unity in diversity, with the pope sharing a prayer and giving a “very, very beautiful speech”, according to Sammy Samuels, a representative from the small Jewish community.

Francis flies up to Naypyidaw Tuesday afternoon to meet Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Lady, as she is fondly known in Myanmar, finally came to power after elections in 2015 but has fallen from grace internationally for not doing more to stand up to the army in defence of the Rohingya — whose name she will not publicly utter.

Rights groups have clamoured for Suu Kyi to be stripped of her peace prize. Oxford, the English city she once called home, on Monday removed her Freedom of the City award for her “inaction” in the face of oppression of the Rohingya.

– Catholics congregate –

So far, the pontiff has received a warm welcome to the majority Buddhist nation.

Myanmar’s Catholic community numbers just over one percent of the country’s 51 million people.

But some 200,000 Catholics are pouring into the commercial capital Yangon from all corners of the country ahead of a huge, open-air mass on Wednesday.

Zaw Sai, 52, from Kachin state, found space for himself and his family to camp out in a churchyard.

“We feel very pleased because we are from different ethnicities but are one in our religion,” he told AFP.

Just days before the papal visit, Myanmar and Bangladesh signed a deal to start repatriating Rohingya refugees within two months.

But details of the agreement — including the use of temporary shelters for returnees, many of whose homes have been burned to the ground — raise questions for Rohingya fearful of returning without guarantees of basic rights.

Towering columns of thick grey smoke have been belching from Mt Agung since last week, and in the last few days flames have been shooting into the sky, forcing all flights to be grounded until at least Wednesday morning.

The Thai Embassy in Jakarta said on its Facebook page that the desk would be available from 10am to 3pm and situated at the international terminal’s departure hall.

The emergency telephone number is +62 812 3825542.

The Denpasar office will also provide buses for Thai tourists who want to change their point of departure to an airport in Surabaya city. People who are interested can contact officials at the help desk, the embassy’s Facebook page said.