World briefs

AFGHANISTAN-CHINA The new Afghan president travels to China this week, signaling the pivotal role he hopes Beijing will play in Afghanistan’s future, not only in the economic reconstruction of the war-ravaged country after U.S. and allied combat troops leave by the end of the year but also in a strategic foreign policy aimed at building peace across a region long riven by mistrust and violence. More on p10

JAPAN Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s honeymoon with Japan’s voters is fading as scandals and a slowing economic recovery take a toll on his popularity and hinder progress on his policy agenda. The resignations of two ministers in Abe’s newly reshuffled Cabinet and reports that political funds of the replacement trade minister were used in a visit to a sex show bar were just the start.

N KOREA A high-ranking Japanese delegation arrives in Pyongyang to assess the progress of a North Korean investigation into the fates of Japanese citizens who were abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and ‘80s. The abduction issue has long been a major obstacle in the frosty ties between North Korea and Japan, which have no formal diplomatic relations. More on p12

USA  The United States will help fight Ebola over “the long haul,” the American ambassador to the United Nations said on a trip to the West African countries hit by the outbreak. Samantha Power, who traveled to Sierra Leone yesterday, met Sunday with religious leaders in Guinea, where the Ebola outbreak was first identified in March.

AUSTRALIA Three men who attempted to enter Australia’s Parliament House wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood, a niqab and a motorcycle helmet say they were unfairly treated under new regulations targeting Muslim face veils. The men want Muslim veils that cover the face banned from the nation’s seat of government and said their stunt exposed inequality in the security system that allows visitors to be so dressed. More on p13

AUSTRALIA A court refuses bail for an Australian charged with providing money to a U.S. citizen fighting alongside extremists in Syria. Police arrested Hassan El Sabsabi on Sept. 30 in a series of counterterror raids across Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, following an eight-month investigation prompted by information from the FBI.

NIGERIA Dozens of girls and young women are being abducted by Islamic extremists in northeast Nigeria, raising doubts about an announced cease-fire and the hoped-for release of 219 schoolgirls held captive since April.

TUNISIA’s main secular opposition party is claiming a big victory over the once dominant Islamists a day after historic parliamentary elections. The Nida Tunis party has cited exit polls to say it has won more than any other party in the 217-member parliament.

SOUTH AFRICA Prosecutors will appeal the verdict and sentencing of Oscar Pistorius, who was handed a 5-year prison term after being convicted of culpable homicide, the country’s National Prosecuting Authority said yesterday.

SOUTH AFRICA Police say that South African soccer team captain Senzo Meyiwa was fatally shot during an apparent house robbery, underscoring the country’s high rate of violent crime. More on p19

POLAND will move thousands of troops toward its eastern borders in a historic realignment of a military structure built in the Cold War, the country’s defense minister told The Associated Press Yesterday. Tomasz Siemoniak said the troops are needed in the east because of the conflict in neighboring Ukraine.