Environment

New Delhi, Jan 22 (PTI) Heavy rains drastically reduced the pollution level of the national capital, which recorded the best air quality of this year on Tuesday, authorities said.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data, the overall air quality index (AQI) in the city was 133, which falls in the 'moderate' category.

This is the first time this year that an AQI as low as 133 was recorded, the CPCB data showed. In first week of January too, the air quality had improved to 'moderate' category for a brief period of time.

MOSCOW, January 22. /TASS/. /TASS/. An earthquake of 6.1 magnitude has rocked Indonesia on Tuesday, US Geological Survey reported.

The earthquake's epicenter lay 220 km to the north-west of the town of Dompu (around 49,000 residents) on the Sumbawa island, at the depth of 31.3 km.

No injuries or damages have been reported. No tsunami alert was issued.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Falling temperatures replaced the weekend’s falling snow Monday as bitter cold and gusty winds swept across the eastern United States.

The National Weather Service had forecast that temperatures would be more than 20 degrees below normal across the Northeast, with wind gusts up to 30 mph (48 kph) and wind chills approaching minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 40 degrees Celsius) in northern New York and Vermont.

KANPUR:  Encroachers have got their hands on the green belt assigned from Yasoda Nagar to Kidwai Nagar crossing in the city’s south area. It now looks more as the pollution belt. The residents around the roads blame on them for the problems.

They were bringing in use vacant space for servicing vehicles, dumping building materials and running a shop selling pan masala and tobacco pouches. The Kanpur Development Authority provided as many as 30-feet space for the development of the green belt.

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — Macedonia’s government has ordered the winter break for students to be extended to Jan. 23 because of extremely high levels of toxic particles in the air in many cities throughout the country.

The government said in a statement Sunday that the measure is to “shorten the time of exposure of students to air pollution and to protect their health.”

City authorities in the capital Skopje also have introduced free public transport and have doubled the prices for parking in order to force people not to use private cars.

SANTIAGO, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- A second batch of 100 Chinese-built electric buses joined the public transit fleet serving Chile's capital Santiago over the weekend.

Transport and Telecommunications Minister Gloria Hutt unveiled the new units on Saturday, saying the buses made by Chinese vehicle maker Yutong will serve alongside the first batch of 100 buses already in circulation.

18 Jan 2019; DW: Temperatures are set to climb next week as heatwave conditions persist in parts of the country. The searing heat has had a particular impact on the Australian Open tennis tournament and a cycling event.

Australians have been offered a little reprieve this weekend before sweltering conditions to return to the southeast.

This week temperatures soared to as much as 15 degrees Celsius above the average, with 14 temperature records broken in the populous state of New South Wales (NSW) alone.

New Delhi, Jan 18 (PTI) Lt. Governor Anil Baijal on Friday reviewed the air pollution situation in Delhi and asked agencies to direct field officers to visit hotspot and heavily penalise instances of burning of waste, polluting units and dust-generating activities.

Baijal also asked the Delhi government to ensure greening of areas where waste has been lifted to control dust pollution.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The storm that pummeled much of California for three days began moving east Thursday after causing at least six deaths, forcing wildfire victims threatened by floods to flee their homes and plunging nearly 300,000 utility customers into darkness.

The winter storm is forecast to unleash heavy rain, snow and wind in Colorado and “will be slamming the East Coast by Sunday,” National Weather Service forecaster Steve Anderson said. “From Maine to Florida.”

Anderson said most of California should be dry and sunny by Friday.

18 Jan 2019; DW: Four German managers at carmaker Audi were the latest to be charged in the United States as part of a diesel emissions cheating scandal. The company has already paid an €800 million fine as part of a case in Germany.

A US grand jury in Detroit has indicted four Audi engineering managers from Germany on counts of conspiracy, wire fraud and violations of the Clean Air Act.