Asia

"SAVAR, Bangladesh — On the worst days, the toxic stench wafting through the Genda Government Primary School is almost suffocating. Teachers struggle to concentrate, as if they were choking on air. Students often become lightheaded and dizzy. A few boys fainted in late April. Another retched in class."

"HONG KONG -- China’s cabinet has adopted 10 measures to improve air quality in the latest move aimed at responding to the dense smog that has repeatedly enveloped Beijing and other major Chinese cities in recent years."

"Denise Mauzerall arrived in Beijing this year at a time that was both horrifying and illuminating. The capital was facing some of its worst pollution in recent memory and Mauzerall, a Princeton environmental engineering professor, was passing through on her way to a university forum on the future of cities."

Drought, loss of water rights, and debt are among the factors causing farmers in India's Maharashtra state to commit suicide.

"Hundreds of people took to the streets of the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming on Thursday to protest against the planned production of a chemical at a refinery, the second demonstration this month against the project."

"DHAKA, Bangladesh -- A cyclone blowing across the Indian Ocean is expected to hit Bangladesh on Thursay, threatening the lives of 8.2 million people in northeast India, Bangladesh and Myanmar (Burma). The highest storm surge and rainfall predictions are for Bangladesh’s coastal cities of Chittagong and Cox’s Bazaar."

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