Day: March 22, 2022

WASHINGTON — In what is likely no surprise to millions of urban dwellers in East and South Asia experiencing frequent chest congestion, sore throats and stinging eyes, the region last year recorded the highest levels of the most dangerous type of air pollution in the world.

“Countries and regions in East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia suffered from the highest annual average PM2.5 concentration weighted by population,” says the study released Tuesday by IQAir, a Switzerland-based company operating a real-time air quality information platform.

PM2.5 is atmospheric particulate matter of 2.5 microns (a millionth of a meter) in diameter or less, which can penetrate human lungs and directly enter the bloodstream.

“PM2.5 actually kills more people than any other air quality pollutant,” said Glory Dolphin Hammes, chief executive officer of IQAir North America.

Based on data from the company’s global network, Bangladesh is the country with the worst PM2.5 air pollution, while New Delhi in neighboring India ranks at the bottom of the list of capital cities for bad air.

Chad, Pakistan, Tajikistan and India round out the five worst nations for air quality.

Dhaka, Bangladesh; N’Djamena, Chad; Dushanbe, Tajikistan; and Muscat, Oman, are the other capital cities rated the most polluted.

Those seeking the cleanest air should head to the southwest Pacific Ocean, to the French overseas territory of New Caledonia, whose main city, Noumea, also ranks at the top for a breath of fresh air among any capital.

Other places where the air is most clear are the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean and Cape Verde, in the Atlantic off the coast of Africa.

Some parts of the developing world lack sufficient monitoring.

“We’ve identified three underrepresented areas — Africa, the Middle East and South America,” Dolphin Hammes told VOA. Now that monitoring is at a sufficient level, “there are two countries (Chad and Tajikistan) that are among the most polluted countries that weren’t on our report last year.”

Developed countries usually have a higher density of air quality monitors than developing countries and regions.

In 2021, air pollution levels increased from those of the previous year, when there was a decrease due to pandemic lockdowns, which resulted in less ground and air transportation.

Another contributor to the rise in air pollution last year was an increase in wildfires, Dolphin Hammes said.

“Air pollution is definitely a part of the climate factor formula. How significant exactly is PM2.5 as part of that formula? I believe that’s debatable,” she added.

The World Health Organization last September cut the recommended annual PM2.5 limit by half, from 10 micrograms per cubic meter to 5 micrograms per cubic meter, stating that the reduction would prevent millions of deaths.

Scientists applauded the new guidelines, but worried that some countries would have trouble implementing them, given that much of the world was failing to meet the older, less stringent standards, according to Reuters.

Air pollution also takes a significant economic toll, believed to be equivalent to 3% to 4% of the world’s gross domestic product, according to the Greenpeace environmental group.

The annual IQAir reports, which began in 2017, are based on PM2.5 air quality data from what is now a total of 6,475 cities in 117 countries, regions and territories. The global data comes from “tens of thousands of regulatory and low-cost air quality monitoring stations operated by governments, nonprofit organizations, research institutions, and citizen scientists around the world,” according to the company.

Source: Radio Pakistan

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan advocated on Tuesday for Muslim countries and close ally China to work together to mediate and put an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“We are all worried about what’s going on there,” Khan told the opening session of a two-day conference of foreign ministers from the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) being hosted in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.

“We should think about …how we can mediate, how we can bring about a cease-fire,” Khan said in his keynote speech to the inaugural session of the 48th session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers.

“May be OIC along with China, we can all step in and try to stop this conflict, which is going to have, if it keeps going the way it is, it would have great consequences for the rest of the world,” Khan said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended and addressed the OIC meeting as a special guest. U.S. and envoys from other non-OIC countries as well as the United Nations are among around 600 delegates also attending the conference.

China and Pakistan have not condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Wang met with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi after arriving in Islamabad on Monday for the OIC meeting. “The two sides “exchanged views on the Ukraine issue and expressed concerns over the spillover effects of unilateral sanctions” against Moscow, according to a post-meeting statement from the Chinese foreign ministry. Beijing has denounced the Western sanctions as getting “more and more outrageous.”

Khan met with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on February 24 — the day tens of thousands of Russian forces invaded Ukraine. Pakistan also abstained from the U.N. General Assembly vote that condemned the Russian aggression.

The Pakistani prime minister has also publicly and repeatedly criticized Western diplomats in Islamabad for collectively urging his government in a letter recently to condemn Moscow for its action against Kyiv, saying Pakistan wants to stay neutral and would rather help in any efforts to promote a negotiated settlement between the warring sides.

Pakistan has lately developed close ties with Ukraine, becoming a major importer of Ukrainian wheat while relations between the South Asia nation and Russia have also rapidly improved in recent years after decades of adversarial ties because of Islamabad’s alliance with the West during the Cold War.

Afghanistan

Khan also renewed his call for stepping up support for Afghanistan, where humanitarian and economic upheavals have worsened since the Taliban takeover of the country last August.

“Finally, there is no conflict going on (there). The only danger now to Afghanistan is that through the sanctions and non-recognition, they might end up having a humanitarian crisis,” the Pakistani leader said.

Khan said already people in the neighboring country are falling below the poverty line and there’s brain drain going on.

“So, it’s extremely important that we help the people of Afghanistan. And I say this because a stable Afghanistan is the only way we are going to be able to stop international terrorism from Afghan soil,” he added.

“Let’s not be delusional that some other country will come and, sort of through drones or something, fight terrorism. It’s not going to happen.”

No country has yet recognized the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, citing concerns related to human rights, terrorism and a lack of inclusive government in Kabul since the hardline group seized power.

Source: Voice of America

NEW DELHI — The parents of Reuters photographer Danish Siddiqui, who was killed in a Taliban attack in Afghanistan last year, have begun legal action at the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the Islamist group, a lawyer for the family said on Tuesday.

Siddiqui, a Pulitzer Prize winner, was embedded with Afghan special forces when killed on July 16 during a failed attempt by government troops to retake Spin Boldak, a town near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, from the Taliban.

New Delhi-based lawyer Avi Singh told an online news conference that Siddiqui’s parents were seeking legal action against six leaders and other unidentified commanders of the Taliban at the Hague-based ICC on the grounds that the group targeted and killed their son because he was a photojournalist and an Indian national.

Two Taliban spokesmen did not respond to calls and messages from Reuters seeking comment.

Siddiqui was based in New Delhi and had traveled to Afghanistan to cover the Taliban campaign to retake the country as the United States and its allies were withdrawing forces to end their 20-year-long war there.

Siddiqui, 38, was “illegally detained, tortured and killed by the Taliban, and his body was mutilated,” Singh and his family said in a statement issued before the news conference.

“These acts and this killing constitutes not only a murder, but a crime against humanity and a war crime.”

A commander of Afghanistan’s erstwhile Special Operations Corps that had hosted Siddiqui said the photojournalist was mistakenly left behind with two commandos when soldiers withdrew from Spin Boldak amid fierce fighting with the Taliban.

The Taliban denied that they captured and executed Siddiqui. Afghan security officials and Indian government officials had told Reuters that, based on photos, intelligence and an examination of Siddiqui’s body, his body was mutilated while in Taliban custody after his death.

In August, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied reports that Siddiqui was captured and executed, rejecting the assertions of the Afghan security forces and Indian government officials as “completely wrong.”

Reuters has previously reported it “was unable to independently determine if the Taliban deliberately killed Siddiqui or desecrated his body.”

Source: Voice of America