For days now a heavy smog has smothered Beijing. By Saturday afternoon, it was so thick you could see just a few hundred meters in the city center. Tower blocks vanished into the grayness. The air tasted of coal dust and vehicle fumes, two of Beijing’s main sources of pollution. Even indoors the air looked hazy. World Health Organization guidelines say average concentrations of the tinniest pollution particles should be no more than 25 mg/m3. In Beijing, the pollution there was over 400 by the city’s official readings and more than 800 according to a US embassy monitoring center.
The former Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman and the country’s foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg have won through to a runoff in the Czech Republic’s presidential election. They beat seven other contenders including the former prime minister Jan Fischer. From Prague Rob Cameron
With almost all of the votes counted, this election is now about two very different men. Milos Zeman is a hard-drinking, chain-smoking politician known for his witty putdowns of his political opponents. Karel Schwarzenberg is a titled prince, 75 years of age but wildly popular amongst young urban voters and closely linked to the country’s first president, the late Vaclav Havel, in a sense he carries his legacy.
World News from the BBC
Clashes have erupted again in Northern Ireland following a protest over the local council’s decision to restrict the number of days that British Union flag can be flown over Belfast’s city hall. Stones and fireworks were thrown and police responded with water cannon. Trouble broke out when loyalists who want stronger ties with Britain passed an Irish nationalists’ area.