VIENNA — Iran was actively designing a nuclear weapon until 2009, more recently than the United States and other Western intelligence agencies have publicly acknowledged, according to a final report by the United Nations nuclear inspection agency.

The report, based on partial answers Iran provided after reaching its nuclear accord with the West in July, concluded that Tehran resumed efforts during President George W. Bush’s second term and continued them into President Barack Obama’s first year in office. The International Atomic Energy Agency found no evidence that the effort succeeded in developing a complete blueprint for a bomb.

President faces charges

RIO DE JANEIRO — Impeachment proceedings were opened Wednesday against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff by the speaker of the lower house of Congress.

A special commission in which all political parties are represented must now weigh the decision of speaker Eduardo Cunha, who himself is facing corruption charges, to open the proceedings against Brazil’s president based on accusations her government broke fiscal responsibility laws. Ms. Rousseff sharply disputes the accusations.

China: Hack was a crime 

HONG KONG — China has acknowledged for the first time that the breach of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s computer systems, which the Obama administration said exposed the personal information of more than 21.5 million people, was the work of Chinese hackers. China insisted that the breach was the result of criminal activity, not a state-sponsored cyberattack.

The assertion came in one paragraph midway through an article published Tuesday by Xinhua, the state-run news agency, about a meeting in Washington between top Chinese and U.S. law enforcement officials. The report did not say whether Chinese authorities had identified anyone suspected of carrying out the security breach.

U.S.-led strikes pound IS

LONDON  — The U.S.-led coalition has been pounding Islamic State group targets near the militant-held Iraqi city of Ramadi. Iraqi forces have encircled Ramadi and this week asked the city’s civilian residents to leave — a sign that a major operation could be imminent.

The coalition says its aircraft conducted 15 airstrikes in Iraq on Wednesday, nine of them on IS targets near Ramadi. In Baghdad, coalition spokesman Col. Steve Warren says the strikes are in support of Iraqi operations to liberate Ramadi.

Al-Qaida makes gains

SANAA, Yemen — Militants belonging to al-Qaida’s local affiliate seized control of two towns in southern Yemen early Wednesday, including a provincial capital, in their latest move to take advantage of turmoil during the country’s civil war.

Al-Qaida’s local affiliate already controls Al Mukalla, Yemen’s fifth-largest city, on the southern coast, having captured it in the weeks after war erupted in March. On Wednesday, members of the militant group, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, routed rival militias in Abyan Province, storming the town of Jaar and consolidating their control of the province’s capital, Zinjibar, according to residents of Abyan, which is west of Al Mukalla.

France closes 3 mosques

PARIS — The French government has shut down three mosques and four informal Muslim prayer rooms out of concern that they were contributing to Islamic radicalization, the French interior minister announced Wednesday.

The minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, told the National Assembly that the action was necessary after the deadly terror attacks in and around Paris on Nov. 13. Mr. Cazeneuve said it was the first time that the French government had taken such a step.

Also in the world …

Beijing’s skies have begun to clear, bringing a hint of blue for the first time in days even as toxic clouds of smog that had cast the metropolis in darkness continued to linger over cities north of the Chinese capital. … Spain’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday rejected Catalonia’s independence resolution setting a road map for splitting off from Spain by 2017.

First Published: December 3, 2015, 5:00 a.m.