Slain journalists remembered

KABUL • Afghanistan's slain journalists were remembered on World Press Freedom Day yesterday, days after the deadliest attack on the country's media since the fall of the Taleban in 2001.

A double suicide blast in Kabul on Monday, claimed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria group, left 25 people dead, including Agence France-Presse chief photographer Shah Marai and eight other journalists, while a BBC reporter was killed in a separate attack in eastern Khost province.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Cop dies saving people from speeding car

WUHAN • A Chinese policeman died after saving several people from a speeding car in central China's Hubei province on Monday.

Police officer Liu Guibin attempted to stop the reckless driver, who drove directly into bystanders several times, before the 50-year-old was run over as he was pushing others out of the way.

XINHUA

3 cities' projects fail to meet air-quality goals

BEIJING • China has ordered three northern cities to stop approving new projects that would add to air pollution after they failed to meet air-quality targets this past winter.

The mayors of Handan in Hebei province and Jincheng and Yangquan in Shanxi province were given the orders after being summoned to a meeting at the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in Beijing yesterday.

The meeting came after the cities failed to meet targets to cut levels of hazardous, breathable particles known as PM2.5 over the October 2017 to March 2018 period.

REUTERS