Environment

Patna, Sep 30 (PTI) After being pounded by heavy rain over the weekend, most parts of the Bihar capital remained submerged even as the state-wide death toll mounted to 25

In Patna, there has been a let up in rainfall since morning though the sky is overcast and the IMD has predicted showers later in the day

According to the state disaster management department, six casualties have been reported from Gaya district where five persons were buried alive in a wall collapse while another person was drowned in a river which was in spate because of incessant rains

BANGKOK, Sept 30 (NNN-TNA) – The Thai Pollution Control Department (PCD), reported today (Monday), an unhealthy level of air pollution, covering 15 main areas in Bangkok, with particulate matter smaller than PM2.5.

The PCD said, levels of 42-66 micro-grams per cubic metre were found in the air, exceeding the safety threshold of 50 micro-grams per cubic metre of air, to the unhealthy level between 53-66 micro-gram per cubic metre.

JAKARTA, Sept 29 (NNN-ANTARA) – The number of casualty climbed to 30, with 156 others injured, while around 25,000 people took shelters, a senior disaster agency official said today (Sunday), after a 6.5-magnitude quake hit Indonesia’s eastern Maluku province, three days ago.

The jolts damaged 534 houses, one bridge, nine office buildings, six education facilities, one health facility and two other infrastructure facilities, according to the spokesman of the national disaster management agency, Agus Wibowo.

ROME, Sept 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Hundreds of thousands of youths demonstrated across European cities on Friday in the second in a global series of protests to avert a climate catastrophe.

Waving signs and yelling slogans, schoolchildren and students in Italian cities were among those joining the latest “Friday for Future” rallies.

Organisers said 200,000 people joined a march in Milan while another major rally snaked through the centre of Rome. Demos were called in some 180 Italian cities.

Pune, Sep 26 (PTI) At least 17 persons were killed in rain-related incidents after intense showers battered Pune city and parts of the district on Wednesday and Thursday, officials said.

The district administration declared holiday on Friday for schools in the city as well in the tehsils of Haveli, Bhor, Purandar and Baramati.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Gabon will become the first African country paid with international funds to preserve its forests in an effort to fight climate change, the United Nations said.

Norway will provide Gabon, which is almost 90 percent covered by forest, with $150 million (136 million euros) to battle deforestation, according to the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI), which the UN launched to bring together the region’s nations with Western donors. 

New York, Sep 24 (AFP/PTI) US President Donald Trump stirred up fresh outrage on social media Monday with a tweet mocking an impassioned speech made by 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg at the UN climate summit in New York.

Her voice shaking with emotion in an address that was the defining moment of the summit, Thunberg accused world leaders of betraying her generation by failing to act on rising emissions, repeating the words "how dare you" four times.

RUMONGE, Burundi, Sept 21 (NNN-XINHUA) – The China-aided Ruzibazi hydro-power station project, located in Burundi’s Rumonge province, will expand bilateral cooperation, Burundian President, Pierre Nkurunziza, said Friday.

Nkurunziza made the remark when attending a construction commencement ceremony for the project held onsite.

The project, the largest China-aided project in Burundi so far, involves the building of a hydro-power station with an installed capacity of 15 megawatt.

SYDNEY/BANGKOK (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of students were taking to the streets across Asia and Europe on Friday for a global strike demanding world leaders gathering at a U.N. climate summit adopt urgent measures to avert an environmental catastrophe.

The protests kicked off in the Pacific islands - some of the nations most threatened by rising sea levels - and Australia, where social media posts showed huge demonstrations around the country, from the big coastal cities of Melbourne and Sydney to outback towns such as Alice Springs.

KUALA LUMPUR/JAKARTA, Sept 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Thousands of schools have been ordered closed across Malaysia and Indonesia on Thursday, affecting at least 1.7 million students, officials said, as toxic haze from rampant forest fires sent air quality plummeting.

Nearly 2,500 schools were ordered to suspend classes in Malaysia — including nearly 300 in the smog-hit capital of Kuala Lumpur — over soaring health concerns sparked by toxic haze from out-of-control blazes in Indonesia’s Sumatra and Borneo islands.