World briefs

CHINA A suspected dust explosion at an automotive parts factory in eastern China that supplies General Motors has killed at least 69 people and injured more than 180 others, state media report, again highlighting workplace safety that remains a concern.

SYRIA Rebels fighting in Syria’s civil war cross into Lebanon and raid a border town, killing and capturing security force members in the most serious incursion into the tiny country during its neighbor’s 3-year-old conflict.

USA The first person infected with Ebola to be brought to the United States from Africa is safely escorted into a specialized isolation unit at one of the nation’s best hospitals, where doctors say they are confident the deadly virus won’t escape. Fear that the outbreak killing more than 700 people in Africa could spread in the U.S. has generated considerable anxiety among some Americans.

ISRAEL U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says an attack that killed 10 people at a U.N. school in the Gaza Strip is a “moral outrage and a criminal act.” Ban says the attack yesterday “is yet another gross violation of international humanitarian law, which clearly requires protection by both parties of Palestinian civilians, U.N. staff and U.N. premises, among other civilian facilities.”

LIBYA A day of militia fighting for control of the international airport in Libya’s capital Tripoli has killed 22 people, the interim government said yesterday. It said “heavily armed groups” have shelled “civilian targets,” endangering thousands of citizens and displacing hundreds of families. The 22 people were killed on Saturday alone, the latest casualties in fighting that has claimed more than 200 lives in recent weeks.

UKRAINE Fighting is raging on the western outskirts of Donetsk as the advancing Ukrainian army tries to seize control of the pro-Russian separatists’ stronghold. In danger of being encircled, the separatists renewed their calls for Russia to send troops to their aid.

FRANCE President Francois Hollande has commemorated the 100th anniversary of World War I with an appeal to players in the Gaza conflict to put animosities aside. Hollande gave an impassioned speech yesterday in Vieil Armand in Alsace, marking Germany’s declaration of war on France on Aug. 3, 1914. He was joined by German President Joachim Gauck — the first time Germany’s head of state has attended the event.