India seizes record haul of smuggled gold outside airport
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian police said they had made the single biggest seizure of gold smuggled into the country on Tuesday after arresting six people leaving an airport with 60 kg of the precious metal flown in from Dubai.
Exclusive: Iran smuggles in $1 billion of bank notes to skirt sanctions – sources
LONDON/ANKARA/NEW YORK (Reuters) – At least $1 billion in cash has been smuggled into Iran as it seeks to avoid Western sanctions, a bigger figure than previously reported, Iranian officials and Western intelligence and diplomatic sources say.
France’s Hollande urges Libya factions to strike political deal
PARIS (Reuters) – French President Francois Hollande said on Tuesday that warring factions in Libya must strike a political deal to restore a central government, parliament and banking functions, and stop a worsening problem with human trafficking.
Egypt rejects blame for civilians killed in Libya airstrikes
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt on Tuesday rejected accusations of blame in the death of seven civilians killed in Libya last week when Cairo’s military bombed suspected Islamist militant targets after the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians.
Jailed Malaysian opposition leader’s family seeks royal pardon
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – The family of jailed Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said on Tuesday they had filed for a royal pardon two weeks after the 67-year-old former deputy prime minister was sent back to jail for five years.
First Ebola survivors talk of hope and despair in Guinea
GUECKEDOU, Guinea (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Lying in an Ebola treatment center in southeast Guinea, hidden behind thick plastic sheets and surrounded by nurses in yellow protective suits, Rose Komano feared she would not survive the virus that had…
Saudi court jails al Qaeda recruiters, bin Laden associate: newspaper
DUBAI (Reuters) – A Saudi court has jailed at least 13 men on counts including the recruitment of al Qaeda militants for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and sheltering Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, Saudi newspapers said on Tuesday.
Boko Haram mine kills two soldiers in southeast Niger: ministry
NIAMEY (Reuters) – A mine planted by Islamist militant group Boko Haram killed at least two soldiers on Tuesday in the town of Bosso in Niger’s southeastern region of Diffa, Niger’s defence ministry said.
Gunmen in Afghanistan halt buses, seize 30 passengers
KANDAHAR (Reuters) – Unidentified gunmen in southern Afghanistan stopped two buses traveling to the capital, Kabul, and seized around 30 people belonging to the ethnic Hazara minority, a bus company official said on Tuesday.
French lawmakers in first Damascus visit for three years
PARIS (Reuters) – A cross-party group of French lawmakers held talks with Syrian officials in Damascus on Tuesday, the first such contacts in the Syrian capital since the closure of France’s embassy there in 2012.
