IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Egypt

Soldier killed in gun attack

Gunmen on a motorcycle killed one Egyptian military policeman and wounded three others as they were escorting an army bus in Cairo on Thursday, a security official said. Attacks on security forces have surged since the army ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in July, triggering deadly violence in the country. The gunmen struck in broad daylight in the Amireya neighborhood of east Cairo, the security official said.

Turkey

Protesters seek chaos, says PM

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan accused protesters on Thursday of trying to sow chaos to influence local elections after Turkey's worst day of civil unrest since anti-government demonstrations swept the nation in the summer. Late on Wednesday, a man in Istanbul was shot dead and a police officer in eastern Turkey had a fatal heart attack. Erdogan said demonstrators had "burned and destroyed" offices of his ruling AK Party in Istanbul.

India

Court confirmsdeath sentence

A New Delhi court has confirmed the death sentence given to four men convicted of the gang rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in December 2012. A special fast-track court had sentenced the men in September, saying their crime was one of the very rare cases that warranted the death penalty. The attack on the 23-year-old medical student unleashed a wave of public anger over the treatment of women in India.

United States

Indian diplomat case dismissed

An Indian diplomat in New York charged with visa fraud and making false statements about her domestic worker has won a dismissal of her federal indictment, in a move that could help smooth over a dispute that has frayed US-India ties. Devyani Khobragade, who was India's deputy consul-general in New York, had diplomatic immunity when she sought on Jan 9 to dismiss the indictment, and thus could not be prosecuted.

Singapore

Bitcoin business to be regulated

Singapore's central bank said on Thursday it will regulate "intermediaries" for the Bitcoin virtual currency to prevent them from being used for money laundering and terrorist financing. Intermediaries such as Bitcoin exchanges and operators of vending machines were "particularly vulnerable" to being used for such purposes, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said in a statement.

AFP-Reuters-AP

(China Daily 03/14/2014 page12)