Tuesday January 15, 2013
Kaieteur News
Page 23
Chinese media urges Sri Lanka’s President removes action on air pollution chief justice after impeachment (Reuters) - Chinese media said yesterday the government had to take urgent action to tackle air pollution, which has blanketed parts of the country at dangerous levels in recent days, and one newspaper called for a rethink of a “fixation” on economic growth. China’s media are under tight Communist Party control and usually steer clear of controversy, but news organizations are freer to report on pollution, partly because it can’t be hidden from the public. Air quality in Beijing was far above hazardous levels over the weekend, reaching 755 on an index that measures particulate matter in the air with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers. A level of 300 is considered dangerous while the World Health Organization recommends a daily level of no more than 20. “How can we get out of this suffocating siege of pollution?” the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, said in a
front-page editorial. “Let us clearly view managing environmental pollution with a sense of urgency.” A thick smog shrouded the capital on the weekend, cutting visibility and sending many people out to buy face masks in a bid to protect themselves. It was the worst recorded air pollution in the capital, according to Zhou Rong, climate and energy campaigner at Green peace. Yesterday was again gloomy but the pollution index stood at 321 in the afternoon, according to widely followed data collected by the U.S. Embassy from its own measuring device. The Global Times newspaper said the foul air “shocked locals ... triggering calls from the public to shift the country’s development model away from the previous fixation on economic growth”. It said heavy smog was hanging over most of the north China plain. Cars pump out much of the pollution which fills the air on cold, windless days.
Many people burn coal for heat in the winter, and this winter is the coldest in years. The China Daily blamed Beijing’s tall buildings for trapping the pollution. “The high-rises are too densely built and block the dirty air from dispersing,” it said. Many other cities showed alarmingly high pollution over the weekend. About half of 74 cities monitored for air quality showed severe pollution, the People’s Daily said. Particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers, known as PM2.5, can cause cardiopulmonary disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory infection, according to the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health. Authorities advised citizens to stay indoors and ordered government car fleets to cut back driving. Beijing resident Xu Tingting, 27, said it was up to the government to do something: “The air quality would be better if the government could take measures.”
(Reuters) - President Mahinda Rajapaksa removed Sri Lanka’s chief justice from office with immediate effect on Sunday, defying a Supreme Court ruling that the impeachment process was illegal and setting the stage for a possible constitutional crisis. Rajapaksa’s ruling party voted to impeach Shirani Bandaranayake, Sri Lanka’s first female chief justice, on Friday. The move has caused an outcry among opposition lawmakers, religious leaders and lawyers, prompted the United States and United Nations to voice concern for the integrity of justice in the South Asian state, and may alarm foreign investors. “The president has said in the removal statement that he was in agreement with the request for the removal of the chief justice from office made in the said address of parliament,” Rajapaksa’s office said in a statement. Bandaranayake’s lawyers confirmed that she had been notified of her dismissal, but declined to say if she would leave office. The Court of Appeal has
President Mahinda Rajapaksa also nullified the ruling of a parliamentary panel which found Bandaranayake guilty of financial irregularities and failure to declare assets. Lawyers across Sri Lanka boycotted courts for a second day running on Friday in protest at the vote. A black cloth was hung at the entrance of the Supreme Court building in Colombo, and some lawyers inside covered their mouths with black cloth or wore black headbands. Lawyers Collective, a
judiciary activist group, has urged all Supreme Court judges not to accept Rajapaksa’s appointment of a new or acting chief justice. “The politically motivated process of removal of the Chief Justice was nothing but a misuse and abuse of constitutional provisions and Standing Orders,” the lawyers collective said in a statement on Sunday. “The conscience of the nation and the bar is disturbed and is in anguish - and will never accept the illegal and unconstitutional removal of the Chief Justice.” The clash between the government and judiciary has underlined the power wielded by Rajapaksa and his family in the island nation, where he has been president since 2005. Relations between Rajapaksa and Bandaranayake soured after the chief justice ruled in September that a bill submitted by the president’s younger brother, Basil Rajapaksa, proposing an 80 billion rupee ($614 million) development budget, must be approved by nine provincial councils.