Bangladesh customs agents seized more than 400 tortoises being smuggled in three suitcases through the country's main airport on Tuesday, an official said.

Two Indian citizens were arrested in connection with the seizure at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital Dhaka, customs officer Showkat Ara said.

"The tortoises were carried in three suitcases. They were smuggled to Bangladesh from India and were being taken to Bangkok," Ara told AFP.

The animals, worth an estimated three million taka ($37,000) on the black market, will be kept at a conservation centre, she said.

Government conservationist Tapan Kumar told AFP the seizure was the largest in recent years and it included three types of endangered tortoises, including Star Tortoises, commonly used for oriental medicines.

Officials said there has been a spike in incidents of exotic animal poaching in recent months.

PHOENIX (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday ruled Arizona may require voters to show identification at the polls, a ruling likely to add fuel to the fiery debate about voting rights in a presidential election year.

But the court also ruled the state cannot demand that they show proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, a decision the state's attorney general said he would appeal.

That could set the stage for yet another U.S. Supreme Court showdown over a contentious Arizona law touching on citizenship issues. Next week, the high court will hear arguments over the state's effort to crack down on illegal immigration.

At issue in Tuesday's ruling was a 2004 Arizona ballot initiative, Proposition 200, that amended state election laws to add the citizenship and identification requirements. The measure - designed to stop illegal immigrants from voting - was challenged in court shortly afterward.

While agreeing that Arizona was within its rights to require identification at voting places, the appeals court concluded the national Voting Rights Act superseded the law's requirement that anyone registering to vote in a federal election show "satisfactory evidence" of U.S. citizenship.

A growing number of states have enacted voter ID laws, prompting a divisive debate over whether proponents are seeking to limit access to the polls in a presidential election year.

Thirty states have laws requiring that voters show at least some type of identification to vote in November, according to the National Council of State Legislatures.

Several states have enacted voter photo ID laws since the start of 2011, including Texas, Wisconsin, Kansas and Pennsylvania, though the U.S. Justice Department has blocked the Texas law and a state judge has blocked the Wisconsin law.

The Arizona law's "photo identification requirement is not an invidious restriction" and does not violate the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause, the court's majority concluded in an opinion by Judge Sandra Ikuta.

But the court was not convinced by Arizona's arguments in favor of Proposition 200's proof of citizenship requirement.

"In sum, the NVRA and Proposition 200's registration provision ... do not operate harmoniously as a single procedural scheme for the registration of voters for federal elections," Ikuta wrote.

"Therefore, under Congress's expansive Elections Clause power, we must hold that the registration provision ... is pre-empted by the NVRA" when a when a voter seeks to register for a federal election.

SPLIT DECISION

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on another controversial Arizona law touching on citizenship issues - the state's first-in-the-nation effort to crack down on illegal immigration inside its own borders.

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, a Republican, said on Tuesday that he would appeal the registration part of the split ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"The court upheld the requirement that persons wishing to vote must show identification at the polling place. The part we will have to appeal deals with registration. We always expected the U.S. Supreme Court to have to decide this one," Horne said in a statement.

"The people of Arizona have a right to request that people registering to vote show some evidence they are citizens and we fully expect the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold that," he added.

Arizona's Republican governor, Jan Brewer, welcomed the part of the ruling about the ID requirement, her spokesman said.

"Unfortunately the court didn't take the further step of upholding our proof of citizenship requirement for individuals registering to vote," spokesman Matthew Benson told Reuters.

"This decision prevents Arizona from evenly applying its proof of citizenship requirement for all individuals registering to vote."

Plaintiffs in the suit, who argued that the law led to legal residents being unable to register to vote, hailed the ruling to strike down the proof of citizenship requirement as a victory.

"Today's ruling vindicates all the U.S. citizens who were improperly rejected for voter registration in Arizona," said Nina Perales, vice president of litigation for the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Arizona may no longer defy federal law in voter registration "particularly in a manner that discriminates against newly naturalized citizens," Perales said in a statement.

The group said the lead plaintiff in the case, Jesus Gonzalez, was a newly naturalized U.S. citizen who was twice rejected when he attempted to register to vote because state officials said the could not confirm his citizenship.

The case in the 9th Circuit is Gonzalez v. State of Arizona, 08-17094.

(Additional reporting by Dan Burns; editing by Christopher Wilson and Mohammad Zargham)

CULVER CITY, Calif. (AP) — It was a heartbreaker for Tom Petty and the band when someone stole five of their precious guitars from a soundstage, but it was music to their ears when police in Southern California announced Tuesday that the instruments had been recovered and a security guard was under arrest.

Police identified the arrested man as Daryl Emmette Washington, 51, of Los Angeles, a private security guard at The Culver Studios lot.

Police Chief Don Pedersen said the break in the case came when the suspect pawned one of the guitars at a Hollywood pawn shop for $250.

"Mr. Petty would have joined us, but he's preparing for a concert in Denver," said Pedersen, who described the stolen guitars as collectively worth $100,000.

A message seeking comment from the band's publicist, Jim Merlis, was not immediately returned.

The instruments were reported stolen last Thursday from The Culver Studios, a sprawling complex of soundstages west of downtown Los Angeles where Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers had been rehearsing for an upcoming tour.

The instruments were Petty's blond 1967 maple 12-string Rickenbacker and his Gibson SGTVJunior, Mike Campbell's blue Dusenberg, Ron Blair's Fender Broadcaster and Scott Thurston's 1967 Epiphone Sheridan.

On its website, the band offered a "no questions asked" $7,500 reward for information leading to the return of the instruments.

Their return comes as the band prepared to kick off their tour Wednesday in Broomfield, Colo.

The band is known for a string of hit singles, including "American Girl", "Don't Do Me Like That" and "Breakdown."

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Associated Press writer Robert Jablon in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — One potential juror was questioned for 68 minutes. Another for 64 — and he didn't even make the cut. Along the way, Roger Clemens' lawyer offered some clues as to his strategy once testimony gets under way, including a challenge to whether Congress had a legitimate purpose in holding the hearing at which the seven-time Cy Young Award winner testified — and whether Clemens' testimony was voluntary.

The laborious task of selecting a jury for the Clemens retrial resumed Tuesday and might not be done by the end of the week, with the judge and lawyers for both sides parsing prospects' thoughts on topics as disparate as Barry Bonds and Lance Armstrong, Twitter and the reputation of the Justice Department.

"To be completely honest, I dislike Barry Bonds. ... Truthfully, I believe he actually did it. I believe he used drugs," said one man, a graphic designer who nevertheless was asked to return after he expressed neutral feelings about Clemens.

The court is narrowing the initial jury pool of 90 down to 36, from which to select the final 12 jurors and four alternates who will decide whether Clemens lied when he denied using steroids and human growth hormone before a U.S. House committee in February 2008. The extra 20 are needed because Clemens' lawyers are allowed to strike 12 and prosecutors, eight — without giving any reason.

By the end of the second day, only 32 Washingtonians had been questioned, with 15 — 11 women and four men — meeting the initial approval of U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton.

Jury selection will continue at least through Thursday, and no session is scheduled for Friday. Even the judge's "10-minute break" in the morning ended up lasting 25 minutes.

"Things aren't going as fast as I thought," Walton said early in the afternoon.

Finding potential jurors without some preconceived opinion about the case — or whether it's worth the time and expense for the government to pursue it — has been challenging. Among those who were excused was the woman who told the judge: "I feel like I know too much." She said she had discussed the case with friends and added: "I frankly question the legitimacy of bringing this to this court."

It was during questioning of one potential juror that Clemens' attorney Rusty Hardin raised the issue of whether Clemens truly "voluntarily appeared" before Congress. Clemens was not subpoenaed to testify at the 2008 hearing, and the government has always maintained that he testified on his own will.

Clemens' lawyers also filed a memo with the court that argued the government must show that the hearing was a "competent tribunal." The memo listed a dozen "examples of Congressional conduct that exceeds the power to investigate," including "asking a witness to appear before a committee to give him an opportunity to tell his side of the story."

"There's going to be a challenge by the defense as to the propriety of the hearing ... and the way it was conducted," Hardin told one juror.

Clemens, wearing a dark pinstriped suit and red tie, remained silent during the proceedings, listening to the questioning and often looking at notes.

Among the potential jurors asked to return was lawyer who is a distant relative of Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller. Among those excused was a woman who realized serving on the case might lead to domestic disharmony.

"You're in that Clemens case, aren't you?" she said her husband asked as they rode in the car after Monday's session.

"Judge said for me not to talk about this," she said she answered.

"We did not talk the whole night," the woman said. "I said, 'This ain't going to work in my house.'"

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Associated Press writer Frederic J. Frommer contributed to this report.

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Follow Fred Frommer at http://twitter.com/ffrommer

Follow Joseph White at http://twitter.com/JGWhiteAP

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc hired PayPal's former head of products to help oversee its newly-formed commerce group, as the Web pioneer looks for new ways to reignite growth.

Yahoo said on Monday that Sam Shrauger will co-lead the consumer commerce business, along with Mollie Spilman, who most recently led marketing in Yahoo's Americas region.

The announcement fills an important slot in the management reorganization unveiled last week by Yahoo Chief Executive Scott Thompson, the former President of PayPal, a unit of eBay Inc.

The commerce group is one of three businesses, along with media and connectivity products, that Thompson folded under Yahoo's flagship consumer products division in the reorganization that takes effect on May 1.

The commerce group includes a variety of existing Yahoo online properties, including real estate and job listings, and will include unspecified new offerings, Yahoo said.

Yahoo, which reports its first-quarter financial results on Tuesday, earlier this month announced plans to layoff 2,000 employees, or 14 percent of its staff.

Shares of Yahoo were down one cent at $14.78 in after hours trading on Monday.

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Andrew Hay)