World briefs

CHINA’s smog-plagued capital has announced plans to ban the use of coal by the end of 2020 as the country fights deadly levels of pollution, especially in major cities. Beijing’s Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau posted the plan on its website, saying the city would instead prioritize electricity and natural gas for heating.

BANGLADESH Families of at least 125 people presumed dead after their ferry capsized in central Bangladesh accuse authorities of launching a feeble rescue effort and leaving their loved ones trapped for more than 24 hours.

AFGHANISTAN A man dressed in an Afghan army uniform opens fire on foreign troops at a military base, causing casualties, an Afghan military spokesman says.

AUSTRALIA The government announces plans to regulate travel to terrorist hotbeds such as Iraq and Syria as part of a raft of counterterrorism measures aimed at addressing the domestic threat posed by war-hardened homegrown Islamic extremists.

USA The second American aid worker recently diagnosed with Ebola in west Africa is en route to Atlanta. A chartered plane specially equipped to contain infectious diseases took off at 1:12 a.m. local time (9:12 p.m. EDT Monday) from the airport in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia. Although hospital officials haven’t released the patient’s identity, the aid group she was working with has identified her as 59-year-old Nancy Writebol.

UAE Saudi Arabia said yesterday it is testing a man for the Ebola virus after he showed symptoms of the viral hemorrhagic fever following a recent trip to Sierra Leone. The Health Ministry said the symptoms appeared in the 40-year-old Saudi man at a hospital in the western city of Jiddah. He is in critical condition and being treated in a unit with advanced isolation and infection-control capabilities.

NIGERIA Graphic new video footage from northeastern Nigeria shows the country’s military carrying out abuses against civilians as part of their fight against the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, Amnesty International said yesterday. The international human rights group also accused the military of killing of more than 600 released prisoners. The violence against civilians constitutes “war crimes,” Amnesty alleged.

NETHERLANDS The Palestinian foreign minister said yesterday that his government intends to apply for membership at the International Criminal Court this year in hopes of holding Israel responsible for alleged violations of war crimes law in Israeli-occupied territories.

UK A blood-red sea of ceramic poppies is spilling from the Tower of London to commemorate British and Commonwealth soldiers killed in World War I on the 100th anniversary of its start. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge joined Prince Harry yesterday to “plant” the ceramic poppies in the dry moat surrounding the Tower to honor the military dead.