China’s capital woke up to orange-tinted skies Saturday as the strongest sandstorm so far this year hit the country’s north, delaying some flights at Beijing’s airport and prompting a dust warning for Seoul.
The sky glowed and a thin film of sand covered Beijing, causing workers to muffle their faces in vast Tiananmen Square.
The city’s weather bureau gave the air quality a rare hazardous ranking.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Air quality is “very bad for the health,” China’s national weather bureau warned. It said people should cover their mouths when outside and keep doors and windows closed.
China’s expanding deserts now cover one-third of the country as a result of overgrazing, deforestation, urban sprawl and drought. The shifting sands have led to a sharp increase in sandstorms, the grit from which can travel as far as the western US.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences has estimated that the number of sandstorms has jumped six-fold in the past 50 years to around two dozen a year.
The latest sandstorm has also affected the regions of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia and the provinces of Shanxi, Shaanxi and Hebei.
As the sandstorm moved southeast, South Korea’s national weather agency issued a yellow dust advisory for Seoul and other parts of the country. Chun Youngsin, a researcher at the Korea Meteorological Administration, said the yellow dust was expected to hit the Korean peninsula beginning yesterday afternoon and it would be “the worst yellow dust” this year.
Some flights at Beijing’s international airport were delayed but eventually took off, said a woman answering inquiries from concerned passengers on the airport hot line.
China has planted thousands of acres of vegetation in recent years in an effort to stop the spread of deserts in its north and west, but experts have said the work will take decades. China’s dust storms were at their worst in the 1950s and 1960s after campaigns to raise farm and factory output following the 1949 communist revolution stripped the soil of vegetation.
“I think this kind of natural disaster is caused by human activity, but I don’t know the exact reason, and I don’t know exactly what we can do to prevent this,” Shi Chunyan, a Beijing resident, said of yesterday’s storm.
Shamans in Peru on Monday gathered for an annual New Year’s ritual where they made predictions for the year to come, including illness for US President Donald Trump and the downfall of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. “The United States should prepare itself because Donald Trump will fall seriously ill,” Juan de Dios Garcia proclaimed as he gathered with other shamans on a beach in southern Lima, dressed in traditional Andean ponchos and headdresses, and sprinkling flowers on the sand. The shamans carried large posters of world leaders, over which they crossed swords and burned incense, some of which they stomped on. In this
‘NO COUNTRY BUMPKIN’: The judge rejected arguments that former prime minister Najib Razak was an unwitting victim, saying Najib took steps to protect his position Imprisoned former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was yesterday convicted, following a corruption trial tied to multibillion-dollar looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state investment fund. The nation’s high court found Najib, 72, guilty on four counts of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering related to more than US$700 million channeled into his personal bank accounts from the 1MDB fund. Najib denied any wrongdoing, and maintained the funds were a political donation from Saudi Arabia and that he had been misled by rogue financiers led by businessman Low Taek Jho. Low, thought to be the scandal’s mastermind, remains
Near the entrance to the Panama Canal, a monument to China’s contributions to the interoceanic waterway was torn down on Saturday night by order of local authorities. The move comes as US President Donald Trump has made threats in the past few months to retake control of the canal, claiming Beijing has too much influence in its operations. In a surprising move that has been criticized by leaders in Panama and China, the mayor’s office of the locality of Arraijan ordered the demolition of the monument built in 2004 to symbolize friendship between the countries. The mayor’s office said in
FIGHTING CONTINUES: Thai military dropped 40 bombs on border areas, Cambodia said, while Bangkok said Phnom Penh launched heavy attacks and damaged homes Cambodia yesterday accused Thailand of intensifying its bombardment of disputed border areas, even as officials from the two countries attend a multi-day meeting aimed at negotiating an end to deadly clashes. The neighbors’ long-standing border conflict reignited this month, shattering an earlier truce and killing more than 40 people, according to official counts. About 1 million people have also been displaced. Cambodian and Thai officials were in their third day of talks at a border checkpoint, with ministers of defense from the two countries scheduled to meet today. However, the Cambodian Ministry of National Defense said Thailand’s military carried out a heavy
RSS