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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 13 november 2019

Air quality sinks to 'severe' in haze-shrouded New Delhi

By RISHAB R. JAIN eas. Some residents say the pol-
NEW DELHI (AP) — A thick Favorable winds had briefly lution is so bad that it should
gray haze blanketed In- halved the level of pollut- be the most important issue
dia's capital on Tuesday, ants, but winds blowing for the government.
with authorities attempting from the northwest carried Pollution controls have
to reduce the pollution by air-borne particles from been imposed, such as
sprinkling water to settle burning crops in Punjab sprinkling water from high-
dust and banning some and Haryana states to New rises and banning some
construction. Delhi, leading again to high construction to settle or
The air quality index ex- levels of pollution, accord- avoid dust, but the capital's
ceeded 400, considered ing to the government's air poor air quality has contin-
"severe" and about eight quality monitoring system, ued amid calls for the gov-
times the recommended SAFAR. ernment to do more to ad-
maximum, according to Air pollution in northern In- dress the root causes.
the state-run Central Pollu- dia peaks in the winter due Restrictions on private ve-
tion Control Board. to smoke from agricultural hicles meant to reduce
Buildings and monuments fires. Farmers say they are A sweet candy vendor walks amidst thick layer of smog as he emissions were relaxed on
in New Delhi were largely unfairly criticized and have looks for customers in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019. Monday and Tuesday for
obscured by the haze and no choice but to burn stub- Associated Press the 550th anniversary of the
residents complained of ble to prepare their fields birth of Guru Nanak, the
health effects. for the next crop. Rising pollution levels have India. The government founder of the Sikh religion.
"We can't breathe prop- The smoke from fields mixes also irked foreign visitors, should put more effort into Doctors in the city of 20 mil-
erly. My eyes are burning," with vehicle emissions and with some saying they plan tackling this problem," said lion people say many of
said Urmila Devi, who lives construction dust, making to cut short their trips be- Rijil Odamvalappil of Abu their patients are complain-
in Ghaziabad, one of the New Delhi the world's most- cause of health concerns. Dhabi, who was visiting ing of ailments related to
capital's most polluted ar- polluted capital. "We are in the capital of New Delhi with his wife. the filthy air they breathe.q

Kazakhstan offers to host Russia-Ukraine meeting

MOSCOW (AP) — Kazakh- has stalled. Peskov, said that Russia is
stan's ex-president said Nursultan Nazarbayev, who grateful to Nazarbayev for
Tuesday he offered to host stepped down as Kazakh- his mediation efforts but
the leaders of Russia and stan's president earlier this believes that such talks
Ukraine for talks on set- year but continues to wield need to be thoroughly pre-
tling the conflict in eastern considerable influence, pared and produce con-
Ukraine, but the Kremlin said that he suggested that crete results.
was noncommittal about the leaders of Russia and "President Putin doesn't re-
such an encounter. Ukraine meet in his country. ject any meetings, but he
The fighting between Rus- He said he had spoken to believes that preparatory
sia-backed separatist reb- Ukrainian President Volody- work needs to be complet-
els and Ukrainian troops myr Zelenskiy, who reacted ed," Peskov said in a con-
in Ukraine's industrial east positively. Nazarbayev not- ference call with reporters.
has killed more than 13,000 ed that he had told Russian Zelenskiy, who was elected
people since 2014. A 2015 President Vladimir Putin in a landslide in April on
deal brokered by France that Zelenskiy is ready for a promises to end the fight- Russia-backed separatist rebels' unit walk to take their position
and Germany has helped meeting, but he didn't say ing in the east, has pushed at the new line of contact outside Petrivske, Ukraine, Saturday,
reduce the scale of hostili- how Putin reacted. for talks about ending the Nov. 9, 2019. Associated Press
ties, but political settlement Putin's spokesman, Dmitry conflict.q