Briefly

SUDAN

Khartoum removed from 'US terror list'

The US embassy in Khartoum said on Monday that US President Donald Trump's administration has removed Sudan from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, a move that could help the African country get Western loans to revive its economy. The US embassy said in a Facebook post that the removal of Sudan was effective immediately. Delisting Sudan is also a key incentive for the government in Khartoum to normalize relations with Israel. The two countries have agreed to have full diplomatic ties, making Sudan the third Arab state－after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain－to move to normalize relations with Israel this year. After Sudan, Morocco also established its diplomatic ties with Israel.

IRAN

Fire subdued after oil pipeline spill

Firefighters have largely contained a blaze that broke out after a pipeline carrying crude oil to Iran's second-largest refinery ruptured on Sunday because of a landslide, the head of the state company in charge of oil pipelines said. "Most of the fire... has been contained and operations teams are repairing the damaged section of the pipeline," said Qasem Arab Yarmohammadi, chief executive of the Iranian Oil Pipeline and Telecommunications Company. "Landslides have a long history in this area," he added. Khosro Kiani, an emergency official in southwestern Iran, where the blaze occurred, said earlier that the oil had spilled down a hard-to-access valley, which firefighting equipment could not reach, the semiofficial news agency Tasnim reported.

UNITED KINGDOM

Spy thriller author John le Carre dies

John le Carre, the British writer best known for his Cold War espionage novels Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, has died aged 89, his agent and family said on Sunday. The author, a former British intelligence officer whose real name was David Cornwell, wrote 25 novels and a memoir in a career spanning six decades. He sold nearly 60 million books worldwide. Such was his influence that le Carre was credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with introducing espionage terms such as "mole", "honey pot" and "pavement artist" to popular English usage. His fans included former US president George H.W.Bush and former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

MALAYSIA

Largest seizure of crystal meth made

Malaysian authorities have seized more than two tons of crystal methamphetamine worth more than $26 million aboard a small boat off the country's western coast, the largest ever such haul in Malaysia's history. The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency said over the weekend that it made the seizure on Wednesday off Penang. The agency said that a maritime patrol found the drugs on a recreational boat that was behaving strangely. The United Nations said earlier in the year that the cumulative value of the methamphetamine market in Asia is more than $60 billion.

Agencies - Xinhua