World briefs

CHINA Setting off fireworks to celebrate Chinese New Year may be a centuries-old tradition, but the country’s authorities are urging people to light fewer of them this week as cities fight a losing battle against relentless, toxic air pollution.

INDIA’s defense minister says he will investigate a senior coast guard officer’s comment that Indian coast guards had destroyed a Pakistani “terror boat” late last year, contradicting the ministry’s position that the men on board had blown up their own boat.

INDIAN Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dark suit with its unique monogram pinstripes goes up for auction in his home state of Gujarat. The money raised in the three-day auction of the suit and hundreds of other gifts received by Modi will be used to clean up the heavily polluted Ganges River.

BANGLADESH A special tribunal dealing with war crimes involving Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war convicts and sentences a leading collaborator to death for crimes including mass killing, arson and looting.

AFGHANISTAN The number of civilians killed or wounded in fighting in Afghanistan climbed by 22 percent in 2014 to reach the highest level in five years as foreign troops concluded their combat mission, the U.N. says in an annual report.

PHILIPPINES The Philippine government says it received 87 million pesos (USD1.97 million) from the United States to pay for damage caused by a U.S. Navy minesweeper to a protected reef two years ago.

GREECE is preparing to present its creditors with an official proposal aimed to save bailout talks from collapse, as time is running out for a deal that would keep the country solvent and within the euro currency bloc. Germany, the main European creditor, was quick to say it was skeptical of any new proposals.

FRANCE With a racist song ringing in his ears, a black man trying to board a subway train in Paris stands back after twice being pushed away by a group of Chelsea soccer fans. The incident happened Tuesday at Richelieu Drouout metro station, a short time before Chelsea played Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League. Yesterday, the Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into racially-motivated violence on public transport.

DANISH police have confirmed the name of the gunman who opened fire at a free-speech seminar and a synagogue in Copenhagen and revealed details of the weapons used in the deadly attacks. Police spokesman Joergen Skov says 22-year-old Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein killed a Danish filmmaker outside the seminar Saturday with a single shot with a M95 assault rifle. He then sprayed the entrance with 27 bullets, wounding three police officers inside.

CUBA-USA A new round of negotiations to restore full diplomatic ties with Cuba will take place next week in Washington and a delegation of U.S. senators says they are hopeful the two sides will reach a deal soon.