Terror suspect handed over to Paris

BRUSSELS • Belgium yesterday handed over terror suspect Salah Abdeslam to France for trial over the November multi-site attacks in Paris that killed 130 people, officials said.

The 26-year-old Belgian-born French citizen was to be brought before a French judge yesterday, prosecutors said.

Abdeslam was supposed to blow himself up during the Paris attacks last Nov 13 but changed his mind at the last minute, a prosecutor has said.

BLOOMBERG

Reformists eye gains in Iran elections

TEHERAN • Nearly a quarter of Iran's parliamentary seats are at stake tomorrow in an election in which reformists want to consolidate their recent comeback.

The second round run-offs were triggered because no candidate in 68 constituencies managed to win 25 per cent of the votes cast in the initial ballot on Feb 26.

Reformists made big gains in the first round following Iran's nuclear deal with world powers, which lifted sanctions long blamed for hobbling the economy.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

More than 91,000 Zika cases in Brazil

BRASILIA • Brazil's outbreak of Zika - which has been linked to the devastating microcephaly birth defect in newborns - has topped 91,000 cases, health officials said on Tuesday.

Between Jan 3 and April 2, 91,387 suspected cases of Zika were reported, with a disproportionate share, 30,286, in the poorer north-eastern region of the country, the Health Ministry said.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

US military seeks to curb tobacco use

WASHINGTON • United States Defence Secretary Ash Carter has issued new policy guidelines aimed at curbing tobacco use within the military that include raising the prices of tobacco on military bases to match local market prices.

The policy also includes widening smoke-free zones in areas frequented by children, according to an April 8 memo seen by Reuters.