Mexico City air forces people indoors
MEXICO CITY -- Mexico City has been blanketed in a smoky haze since last weekend, the result of dozens of forest fires and hot, windless weather at the end of the dry season.
On Thursday, the government took the significant step of closing primary schools, along with limiting public-works projects. It also ordered tens of thousands of vehicles off the streets.
Authorities shut down playgrounds in the capital's sprawling Chapultepec Park as parents were advised to keep children indoors and windows closed. A semifinal match between first-division soccer teams Club America and Leon was moved from Mexico City to Queretaro because of the air.
The government reported that levels of particulate matter of 2.5 micrometers or less, known as PM2.5, reached 148 micrograms per cubic meter of air Thursday. That's about six times the World Health Organization's daily limit. Ozone levels were also high.
The Mexican capital has long suffered from smog because it sits in a "bowl" between mountains that trap pollutants. In 1992, the United Nations described it as the most polluted city in the world.
Church plan stirs protests in Russia city
MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a compromise Thursday to ease tensions over a plan to build a Russian Orthodox cathedral in a popular park in the nation's fourth-largest city that has sparked protests and drawn nationwide attention.
Unsanctioned protests in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg have been held for four-consecutive days near a central park where two tycoons are planning to build a cathedral. Several dozen protesters have been detained and 21 of them have been handed jail terms ranging from two days to 10 days for disobeying police.
The protests reflect local anger after authorities pushed ahead with the project despite complaints that the church would take away a rare green, recreational space in the city of 1.5 million people. The standoff also reflected the growing power of the Russian Orthodox Church, whose increasingly assertive stance about secular affairs has worried many in Russia.
Asked about the controversy, Putin said authorities must reach out to opponents of the project and work out a compromise.
"The local residents' opinion must be taken into account," Putin said. "A cathedral must help unite people, not cause a rift."
Pakistan doctor held after HIV outbreak
RATODERO, Pakistan -- More than 500 people in a district in Pakistan have tested positive for HIV, the virus that can lead to AIDS.
Sikandar Memon, head of the AIDS Control Program in Sindh province, said officials have screened 13,800 people from Larkana and 410 children and 100 adults tested positive for HIV.
Rehmat Bibi's son, 10-year-old Ali Raza, tested positive for the virus after being taken to a doctor for a fever. A physician who has AIDS has since been arrested and is being investigated for possibly intentionally infecting patients.
"We were in great pain the day we heard about our son testing HIV positive," Bibi said Thursday.
Authorities say the HIV outbreak in Larkana was apparently started when physician Muzaffar Ghangharo, who has AIDS, infected patients in early April. Ghangharo was arrested earlier this month after Ali and others tested positive for the virus. Police are still trying to determine whether Ghangharo knowingly spread the disease to others.
Nationwide, Pakistan's Health Ministry has registered more than 23,000 HIV cases. Pakistani health officials have said HIV is usually spread in the country by using unsterilized syringes.
Combatants, civilians killed in Kashmir
SRINAGAR, India -- Five rebels, two army soldiers and two civilians were killed Thursday in two gunbattles in disputed Kashmir that triggered anti-India protests and clashes, officials and residents said.
The first gunbattle broke out in a neighborhood in the south of the town of Pulwama as police and soldiers scoured the area looking for militants, said Col. Rajesh Kalia, an Indian army spokesman. He said as troops began conducting searches, they came under heavy gunfire, leading to a clash that killed three militants and a soldier.
A civilian was also killed and his brother was wounded during the fighting, police said. Two soldiers were also injured.
In the second gunbattle, also in southern Kashmir, government forces searched a village near Shopian town after getting a tip that militants were hiding there, police said. As the troops surrounded a civilian house, militants reportedly ran out while firing at them and tried to take refuge in an apple orchard.
In the exchange of gunfire, two rebels, a civilian and a soldier were killed, police and residents said.
A Section on 05/17/2019