NORTH CAROLINA JUDGES TOSS DRAWN DISTRICTS

» A North Carolina

R A LEIGH , N . C . judicial panel rejected state legislative district maps Tuesday, saying legislators took extreme advantage in drawing voting districts to help elect a maximum number of Republican lawmakers. The judges gave lawmakers two weeks to try again.

The three-judge panel of state trial judges unanimously ruled that courts can step in to decide when partisan advantage goes so far it diminishes democracy. Their ruling comes after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June in a separate case involving North Carolina’s congressional map that it’s not the job of federal courts to decide if boundaries are politically unfair — though state courts could consider whether gerrymandering stands up under state laws and constitutions.

The state judges found that the way the majority-Republican General Assembly redrew legislative district maps in 2017 violated the rights of Democratic voters under the state constitution’s equal protection and freedom of assembly clauses.

U.S. hits Iran space agency with sanctions over missile work.

The Trump administration imposed sanctions Tuesday on Iran’s space agency for the first time, accusing it of developing ballistic missiles under the cover of a civilian program to launch satellites into orbit.

The sanctions announced by the State and Treasury departments targeting the agency and two of its affiliates follow the explosion Thursday of a rocket at Iran’s Imam Khomeini Space Center in what an Iranian official said was a technical malfunction during a test.

With the latest sanctions, the Trump administration can subject foreign companies and governments, including international space cooperation organizations, to penalties if they have any involvement with the Iranian space agency. They would also freeze any of the agency’s assets in U.S. jurisdictions, though there aren’t likely to be any.

South African police arrest 90 as unrest in cities continues.

RG» South Africa’s JOH A NNE S B U president condemned days of widespread looting and arson attacks on foreign-owned businesses across Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria, calling the violence “totally unacceptable.”

Police have arrested more than 100 people in five areas impacted by the violence. Police minister Bheki Cele confirmed that five people had died since the violence started Sunday night.

Bangladesh bans cellphone services in Rohingya camps.

» Bangladesh’s telecommunications regulatory body has asked operators to shut down cellphone services in sprawling camps in the southeast where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar live, citing a security threat and illegal phone use, an official said Tuesday.

Zakir Hossain Khan, a spokesman for the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, said they asked the operators to respond to the order within seven days.

Asked what sort of security threat the country is facing, Khan said a recent survey in the camps revealed that cellphones are being used there illegally. He said they have reports that people are present there who pose a threat to national security, but would not elaborate.

Sen. Manchin announces he won’t run for West Virginia governor.

Sen. Joe Manchin III, a Democrat, announced Tuesday that he will stay in the Senate and not run for governor in West Virginia, passing on a challenge to a Republican incumbent strongly backed by President Donald Trump.

Manchin, 72, served as governor from 2005 to 2010, and last year considered retiring from the Senate before reluctantly agreeing to seek re-election in a state that Trump carried handily in the 2016 presidential race. He was narrowly re-elected to a six-year term.