NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
Cairo bombing: The death toll from a latenight suicide blast near Cairo’s famed tourist market rose to three on Tuesday after a police officer died of his wounds, officials said. The fatalities in the attack near the Khan el-Khalili bazaar in the heart of Cairo were all policemen. The attack was a rarity for the central area of Egypt’s capital amid a years-long security crackdown under President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. The Interior Ministry said the attacker, 37-year-old alHassan Abdullah, blew himself up after police officers approached to arrest him. Egypt has been battling Islamic militants for years, but the insurgency gained strength after the 2013 overthrow of an elected but divisive Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi. The militants have mainly targeted security forces and Christians.
Corruption charges: A trial has begun for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s brother and close confidante, who faces corruption allegations brought by hard-liners who dominate the country’s judiciary. The semi-official ISNA news agency reported that Hossein Fereidoun, who was on the team that negotiated Iran’s 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers, went on trial Tuesday with four other defendants. They are charged with financial misconduct dating back to 2016. Rouhani, a relative moderate within Iran’s political system, changed his surname decades ago. Iran has jailed allies of former presidents for similar charges.
Willing to talk: Pakistan’s prime minister offered Tuesday to hold talks with India, even as he warned New Delhi to refrain from launching any attacks on his country following last week’s suicide bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Imran Khan said he hoped “better sense” would prevail after the attack that killed at least 40 Indian troops. But he warned in a televised speech that if India attacks, “Pakistan will not merely think of retaliation, but rather, we will retaliate.” New Delhi has blamed Islamabad and threatened a “jaw-breaking response” for the bombing in which a militant rammed an explosiveladen van into a paramilitary bus.
Ivory trafficker: A Tanzanian judge sentenced a Chinese trafficker who was labeled the “ivory queen” to 15 years in jail after she was convicted of smuggling about 700 elephant tusks. The PAMS Foundation, a conservation group supporting Tanzanian efforts to curb wildlife crime, says the conviction Tuesday of Yang Fenglan shows that Tanzanian authorities are serious about cracking down on trafficking. The case against Yang, who was arrested in 2015, was viewed as a major test of Africawide efforts to hold key trafficking figures accountable for the mass killing of elephants to supply ivory to illegal markets, including in China. In Tanzania alone, the elephant population declined by 60 percent to 43,000 between 2009 and 2014, according to the government.
Smartphone ban: Russian lawmakers approved a bill prohibiting military personnel from using smartphones on duty, a move intended to block leaks of sensitive information on social media. The bill approved by the lower house Tuesday also forbids servicemen to post photos, videos and information about themselves, other soldiers and their relatives on the internet. The move follows the publication of open source stories about the fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces, and about the Russian military campaign in Syria.
Chronicle News Services