Iran executes drug-trafficking ringleader: report

AFP, Tehran

Iran has dismantled an international drug-trafficking ring and executed its leader nicknamed the "Crocodile of the Persian Gulf" along with an accomplice, semi-official news agency ISNA said yesterday. "The 'Crocodile' was operating under different guises and aliases and was arrested while transferring more than 100 tonnes of drugs over international waters," Hormozgan province chief prosecutor Ali Salehi was quoted as saying. "Intelligence operations were ongoing for four to five years to arrest the 36-year-old... he led one of the biggest and most vicious drug-trafficking networks in Iran and the region," he added. Salehi only identified the ringleader by the initials "A.Z." and his accomplice as "M.H.".

The convicted leader had smuggled more than 400 tonnes of drugs into Iran and laundered 20 trillion rials ($147.3 million) into the country's real estate sector, the prosecutor said. "The other members of this trafficking ring were sentenced to a total of 420 years and fined 21 billion rials ($154,753)."

Isabel dos Santos' graft scandal ups stakes for Angola

AFP, Luanda

Allegations of corruption swirling around his predecessor's daughter have set a crucial test for Angolan President Joao Lourenco in his vow to reform a country rich in oil and tainted by graft. Isabel dos Santos, the 46-year-old billionaire daughter of ex-president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, is being probed for allegedly siphoning off millions from state companies and stashing the funds overseas. Analysts say the mounting scandal raises the stakes -- not just for the dos Santos family and elites who prospered during the ex-president's 38-year rule, but also for Lourenco himself. "A lot rests on this case," said Berlin-based Transparency International's southern Africa advisor, Mokgabo Kupe. Dos Santos "is a symbol of the fight against corruption," said Oxford University fellow and Angolan law professor Rui Verde. "If (she) is charged, of course, everyone could be charged."

Lebanon's new finance minister meets with IMF official

AFP, Beirut

The new finance minister of debt-saddled Lebanon met yesterday with an official from the International Monetary Fund for what he said was a "courtesy visit" and not bailout talks. Ghazi Wazni's meeting with IMF alternative executive director Sami Geadah came as Lebanon grapples with its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war. The meeting served to "congratulate Lebanon on the formation of a new government," Wazni said on Twitter afterwards. He had told AFP earlier that it was "a courtesy visit... to get to know the IMF team". "The discussions will not focus on an economic rescue plan, which is being prepared (separately) inside government," he added. It follows a meeting on Friday between Wazni and a delegation from the World Bank led by its regional director Saroj Kumar Jha. Wazni assumed the post of finance minister on Tuesday with the formation of a long-awaited cabinet that faces huge economic and political challenges. The previous government resigned on October 29, two weeks into a nationwide protest movement demanding the removal of politicians deemed incompetent and corrupt.

Yemen rebels advance as loyalists beat ‘tactical’ retreat

AFP, Dubai

Huthi rebels have gained ground east of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, in what the defence minister acknowledged as a “tactical withdrawal” by government loyalists. Renewed fighting, which entered its ninth day on Saturday, allowed the rebels to retake loyalist positions, loyalist commanders told AFP. “Some of these positions had been under government control for three years”, one of the commanders said, on condition of anonymity. Defence Minister General Mohammed Ali al-Maqdishi implicitly recognised the rebels’ advance in the Nihm area, in comments published by the official Saba news agency. Maqdishi spoke of a “tactical withdrawal from some positions”, during a meeting on Friday with loyalist commanders.