World briefs

CHINA Production and export of police equipment primarily used for torture, such as electric shock wands and neck-and-wrist cuffs connected by a chain, has grown dramatically, enabling human rights violations at home and abroad, Amnesty International said in a report yesterday. More on p10/11

CHINA An explosion at a fireworks factory in southern China killed 12 people and injured 33 others, the local government said yesterday. Two people were also missing following Monday’s blast, which shook Nanyang Export Fireworks Factory, the city of Liling in Hunan province said. It revised the injured toll down from 38 because it said five people who had been transferred between hospitals were counted twice. It did not say what caused the explosion but said it was a work safety incident.

INDIA With homegrown technology and a remarkably low budget of about USD75 million, India is on course to become the first nation to conduct a successful Mars mission on its first try. If the Mars Orbiter Mission, affectionately nicknamed MOM, settles into orbit this morning as planned, the country will join the U.S., European Space Agency and the former Soviet Union in the elite club of Martian explorers.

AUSTRALIA Prime Minister Tony Abbott warns Australian extremists who fight with the Islamic State group in the Middle East that they face long prison sentences if they return to Australia. Abbott’s government will introduce draft legislation that would create a new criminal offense for simply visiting terrorism hotspots. More on p12

NEPAL Both government troops and communist guerrillas raped women during Nepal’s decadelong insurgency but the violence has gone largely unpunished, in part because of a short time limit for reporting attacks, a human rights group said.

LIBERIA New estimates from the World Health Organization warn the number of Ebola cases could hit 21,000 in six weeks unless efforts to curb the outbreak are ramped up. Since the first cases were reported six months ago, the tally of cases in West Africa has reached an estimated 5,800 illnesses. WHO officials say cases are continuing to increase exponentially and Ebola could sicken people for years to come without better control measures.

USA A day after over 100,000 people marched to warn that climate change is destroying the Earth, more than 1,000 activists blocked parts of Broadway in Manhattan’s financial district in a sit-in to protest what they see as corporate and economic institutions’ role in the climate crisis. Organizers said the FloodWallStreet sit-in aimed to disrupt business in the financial district. Over 100 people, including a person wearing a white polar bear suit, were arrested Monday night for disorderly conduct.

ISRAEL Special forces stormed a West Bank hideout early yesterday and killed two Palestinians suspected in the June abduction and slaying of three Israeli teenagers, a gruesome attack that had triggered a chain of events that led to the war in Gaza this summer. The deaths of the two suspects, identified by the Israeli military as well-known Hamas militants, ended one of the largest manhunts conducted by the Israeli security forces.

UKRAINE A cease-fire in east Ukraine is being upheld by both government troops and Russia-backed rebels, a senior Ukrainian official said yesterday, in a first step toward enforcing a truce that has been riddled by repeated violations since it was imposed earlier this month.