IN BRIEF (Page 12)

United States

10 helicopters provided to Egypt

The United States said on Tuesday it will deliver 10 Apache attack helicopters to Egypt, relaxing a partial suspension of aid imposed after Egypt's military ousted president Mohammed Morsi last year and cracked down violently on protesters. US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel informed his Egyptian counterpart of the decision, which will help Egypt's counterterrorism operations in the Sinai Peninsula, the Pentagon said.

Syria

Lawmaker runs for presidency

Syria's parliament speaker said that a lawmaker, Maher Abdul-Hafiz Hajjar, announced his candidacy on Wednesday for the June 3 presidential election - the first to enter a bid for the top post in a vote called in the face of the country's civil war. Syrian state TV said the 43-year-old is from the northern city of Aleppo. President Bashar al-Assad has hinted that he would seek another term in office but has not yet announced his candidacy.

France

Plan to curtail Islamist radicals

France is cracking down on youth who leave their homes to fight with Islamist radicals in Syria's civil war. The interior minister announced a series of measures on Wednesday that range from allowing suspicious parents to tip off authorities to withdrawal of passports and putting potential militants' names in a European computer bank. Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said this week that 500 had gone to Syria from France, double the figure in January.

United Nations

Iran seeks US reversal on envoy

Iran asked the United Nations on Tuesday to demand that the United States grant a visa to Teheran's proposed new UN envoy, while Washington stood firm on its decision to deny entry to Hamid Abutalebi. The US has said it would not grant a visa to Abutalebi because of his connection to the 1979-1981 Teheran hostage crisis, when Iranian students seized the US Embassy and held 52 US citizens hostage for 444 days.

AP-Reuters-AFP

(China Daily 04/24/2014 page12)