IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Greece

PM hails agreement with neighbor

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Tuesday hailed as a historic opportunity the agreement reached with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or FYROM, to resolve the decadesold name row between the two neighbors. Severna Macedonja (Republic of North Macedonia in English) will be FYROM's new name, he announced during a state address, as his FYROM counterpart Zoran Zaev was making a similar statement at Skopje. The name dispute started in 1991 when FYROM declared independence from Yugoslavia and chose the name Macedonia, which is also the name of a Greek province.

Syria

US-led airstrikes kill 12 civilians

At least 12 members of the same family were killed by renewed US-led airstrikes on Syria's northeastern province of al-Hasakah on Tuesday, state news agency SANA reported. The airstrikes targeted the village of Tal Shayer in the countryside of al-Hasakah, the latest in a string of airstrikes that have caused civilian casualties. A day earlier, the US-led coalition killed 18 civilians, mostly Iraqi refugees, in airstrikes in Khoeberah, SANA said.

France

Paris hostages freed, suspect held

A four-hour hostage standoff in Paris ended with police moving in, arresting the armed suspect and freeing the people held in a ground-floor office, the interior minister said on Tuesday. There was no indication of an extremist motive, police said. The Paris prosecutor's office detained the suspect, a 26-year-old man born in Morocco, an official said. It was not immediately clear if he had French nationality.

Australia

Winning ticket found on fridge

A man has claimed a multimillion lottery win, after discovering that the winning ticket had been stuck to his fridge for almost six weeks after the May 5 draw. He wanted to remain anonymous but became a millionaire after his lottery ticket was one of only two winning entries nationally in Tattslotto draw 3839, landing a prize of more than $1.52 million. His ticket was not registered to a Tatts Card, so officials had to wait for the winner to find them.

Xinhua - Ap

(China Daily 06/14/2018 page12)