Senate aide pleads guilty to lying to FBI
AP, Washington
A former Senate intelligence committee employee has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. James Wolfe appeared in federal court in Washington on Monday and pleaded guilty to a single charge in the three-count indictment against him.
Prosecutors had said Wolfe told a reporter in October 2017 that he had served someone with a subpoena involving the potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign and later lied to FBI agents about the exchange. He admitted he didn’t tell agents the truth.
Southern France flood toll rises to 13
AP, Paris
French officials say flash floods that swept through the southwest Aude region largely claimed elderly victims, who were seemingly caught off guard by the sudden torrents.
The Aude regional government and the Interior Ministry in Paris said Tuesday that the death toll from the flooding overnight Sunday to Monday had risen to 13 and that three people were still listed as missing.
Macron looks to revive fortunes with cabinet reshuffle
AFP, Paris
French President Emmanuel Macron reshuffled his government on Tuesday after two weeks of fevered speculation about the changes, which will see former Socialist MP Christophe Castaner take up the key position of interior minister.
The reshuffle was forced by the unexpected resignation of former interior minister Gerard Collomb on October 2, a major blow to Macron as the 40-year-old head of state struggles with record low polling figures.
14 Iranian security personnel seized on Pakistan border
AFP, Tehran
Fourteen Iranian security personnel, including Revolutionary Guards intelligence officers, were abducted on the volatile southeastern border with Pakistan on Tuesday, state media reported.
The border guards were “abducted between 4 am and 5 am in the Lulakdan area of the border by a terrorist group,” the official IRNA news agency said.
Lulakdan is a small village 150 kilometres (about 90 miles) southeast of Zahedan, capital of the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan.
Tropical storm kills three in Oman, Yemen
AFP, Aden
At least three people have been killed and 33 injured by flash flooding in Yemen and neighbouring Oman caused by Tropical Storm Luban, the UN and local authorities have said.
Mahra province in the far east of Yemen and the neighbouring Dhofar region of Oman are the only parts of the Arabian Peninsula that have a monsoon climate governed by the tropical weather systems of the Indian Ocean.
Mountains rising to 1,300 metres (4,300 feet) separate a fertile coastal strip from the infamous Empty Quarter in the vast desert interior.
