HELENA, Mont. — One of the oldest coal companies in the country filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday to deal with more than $1.4 billion in debt amid declining demand for the fuel.

Englewood, Colo.-based Westmoreland Coal Co. filed for voluntary Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston as part of a restructuring agreement with an unnamed group of lenders.

Westmoreland was incorporated in 1854 in Pennsylvania. It has coal mines in Montana, New Mexico, Ohio, North Dakota, Texas and Wyoming, and a coal-fired power plant in North Carolina.

It is the fourth major coal company to file for bankruptcy in the past three years, joining Peabody Energy Corp., Arch Coal and Alpha Natural Resources.

Westmoreland also has mines in Canada that are not part of the bankruptcy filing.

Coal companies have struggled as demand drops due to a glut of cheap natural gas, the rise of renewable energy sources and plans by some states to reduce or eliminate coal from their energy portfolios.

There are no new coal plants in the U.S., and two top coal consumers, China and India, have canceled projects as they seek to curb air pollution.

Westmoreland has $770 million in assets and $1.4 billion in debt, according to the bankruptcy filing. One of its creditors is the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, which Westmoreland owes $1.8 million in royalties, according to the bankruptcy filing.

The restructuring agreement must be approved by a judge.

Pentagon weapons vulnerable to cyberattacks, report finds

WASHINGTON — Defense Department weapons programs are vulnerable to cyberattacks, and the Pentagon has been slow to protect the systems that are increasingly reliant on computer networks and software, a federal report said Tuesday.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office said the Pentagon has worked to ensure its networks are secure, but only recently began to focus more on its weapons systems security. The audit, conducted from September 2017 to October 2018, found that there are “mounting challenges in protecting its weapons systems from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.”

Pentagon officials have acknowledged the department, military services and defense contractors are under cyberattacks, including from state actors seeking to steal data to gain an economic or technological advantage.

DHS to waive laws for new border gates in South Texas

HOUSTON — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that it will waive environmental laws so it can build gates between sections of border barriers in South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley.

The waiver lists 11 locations where the government plans to install gates in existing fencing. DHS has issued similar waivers of environmental laws for projects elsewhere on the border.

The government has 700 miles of fencing on the border. In far South Texas, segments of fencing stop and start along the levee built next to the Rio Grande, the river separating the U.S. and Mexico. Many parts of the fencing are built a significant distance from the river, in some cases cutting off private property.

The proposed gates would seal some of those gaps.

Dutch appeals court upholds landmark climate case ruling

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — A Dutch appeals court Tuesday upheld a landmark ruling that ordered the government to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25 percent by 2020 from benchmark 1990 levels.

The Netherlands, known for its historic reliance on windmills and ongoing use of bicycles, already is working to cut emissions, but the court said that the country needs to do more.

“Considering the great dangers that are likely to occur, more ambitious measures have to be taken in the short term to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to protect the life and family life of citizens in the Netherlands,” the court said.

The original June 2015 ruling came in a case brought by the environmental group Urgenda on behalf of 900 citizens.

Attacker disfigures statue of bare-breasted woman

ALGIERS, Algeria — A man with a hammer on Tuesday attacked and damaged a statue of a bare-breasted woman, an emblem of the eastern city of Setif, in the latest in a series of such attacks.

Setif communications director Mohamed Touiri said that a Salafist, someone who adheres to a conservative brand of Islam, disfigured the face, breasts and arm of the statue, which is the centerpiece of a fountain in the heart of the city nearly 185 miles east of Algiers, the capital. The suspect will undergo a mental exam, he said.

Culture Minister Azzedine Mihoubi, who is from Setif, suggested in a tweet that the culprit was the same man who damaged the statue last year.

The colonial-era statue is the work of French sculptor Francis Saint Vidal, dating to 1889.

It was attacked and damaged last December.

Syria’s Assad offers general amnesty to deserters

BEIRUT — Syrian President Bashar Assad granted general amnesty Tuesday to army deserters within Syria and outside the country, a move that could boost the return of refugees who fled violence in their war-torn country.

The decree, published by state media, said the amnesty did not include “criminals” and those on the run unless they turn themselves in to authorities. Deserters in Syria have four months to do so; those abroad have six months.

Since Syria’s conflict began in March 2011, tens of thousands of soldiers have either deserted their posts or defected and joined rebels trying to remove Assad from power. The amnesty also includes draft dodgers. The new amnesty does not include army defectors, some of whom are still fighting against the government.

In Indonesia: The death toll from the earthquake and tsunami on Sulawesi island reached 2,010 Tuesday as authorities prepared to end the search for thousands of victims feared buried in mud and rubble in and around hard-hit Palu city. The region had recorded 508 aftershocks since the magnitude 7.5 quake Sept. 28.

In Haiti: The death toll from Saturday’s magnitude 5.9 earthquake that hit near northern Haiti has increased to 17. Officials say nine people died in the north coastal city of Port-de-Paix, seven in Gros Morne and one in Saint-Louis de Nord. The government said at least 7,783 families are in urgent need of humanitarian aid.