WORLD briefs

MEXICO CITY. The US has released $214 million of an aid package to help Mexico fight drug trafficking, including funds for five helicopters for the military to be delivered by year's end, a top State Department official said yesterday. The helicopters will be the first to be sent to Mexico under the Merida Initiative, a three-year, $1.4 billion program to train and equip law enforcement to deal with the ruthless cartels.

MEHTAR. A suicide bomber killed at least 23 people, including the country's deputy head of intelligence, in an attack near a mosque in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, officials said. Lutfullah Mashal, governor of Laghman province who escaped injury in the attack, said the bomber burst from a shop and blew himself up while officials were getting into cars outside the mosque in the provincial capital Mehtar Lam.

LOS ANGELES. Michael Jackson's death certificate has been amended to reflect his cause of death as homicide. The document has been changed to specify that his death was caused by "injection by another". Investigators had concluded that a powerful concoction of prescription drugs killed the pop star.

HONOLULU.Stinky city bus riders soon could get soaked. The Honolulu City Council is considering a bill that would impose up to a $500 fine and/or up to six months in jail for public transit passengers convicted of being too smelly. The bill w ill be heard Thursday in committee. It would make it illegal to have "odors that unreasonably disturb others or interfere with their use of the transit system".

FRANKFURT. Six countries trying to address concerns about Iran's nuclear program met in Germany on Wednesday, but the German government said it has received no official word yet on new proposals that Tehran is pledging to make.

JERUSALEM.Israel and the Palestinians held their first high-level talks since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office in March, sharing ideas on how to shore up a fledgling Palestinian economic recovery. The meeting between Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom and Palestinian Economics Minister Bassem Khoury was the latest sign of a thaw in frosty relations.