BEIJING recorded 290 days of good air quality last year, the highest since monitoring began, the municipal ecology and environment bureau said Thursday.
The number of days with good air quality in the national capital accounted for 79.2 per cent in 2024, marking an increase of 19 days compared to the previous year and a significant rise of 114 days compared to 2013.
The number of days with heavy air pollution dropped dramatically, from 58 in 2013 to just two in 2024, a decrease of 96.6 per cent.

Historic Dala Dockyard hosts sesquicentenary celebration

TWO male suspects involved in the robbery of the Shwesin Academy gold shop in Mandalay have been apprehended. 

The robbery occurred at 5:30 pm on 18 December 2024 at the Shwesin Academy gold shop located on 77th Street, between 36th and 37th Streets in Mahaaungmyay Township, Mandalay Region. The shop owner Daw Win Win Aye (52) and staff were inside when three masked men arrived on an unregistered motorcycle.

INDIA launched a rocket Monday carrying two small spacecraft to test docking in space, a critical step for the country’s dreams of a space station and a manned Moon mission. 

The mission is “vital for India’s future space ambitions”, Jitendra Singh, the country’s science and technology minister, said in a statement ahead of the launch, which was broadcast live by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced plans last year to send a man to the Moon by 2040. 

CHINESE President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for the nation to remain confident in the coming year, saying the world’s second largest economy can overcome its challenges and pressure through hard work. 

Xi made the remarks in his New Year message for 2025 delivered through China Media Group and the internet. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for making 2025 “a new beginning” in his message for the New Year. 

“Throughout 2024, hope has been hard to find. Wars are causing enormous pain, suffering and displacement. Inequalities and divisions are rife — fuelling tensions and mistrust,” Guterres said. 

He said that the globe has just endured a decade of deadly heat and the top ten 10 hottest years on record have happened in the last 10 years, including 2024. 

THE world ushered in 2025 on Tuesday, with huge crowds waving goodbye to the old year that brought Olympic glory, a dramatic Donald Trump return and turmoil in the Middle East and Ukraine. 

It is all but certain that 2024 will go down as the hottest year on record, with climate-fuelled disasters wreaking havoc from the plains of Europe to the Kathmandu Valley. 

Sydney — the self-proclaimed “New Year’s capital of the world” — sprayed nine tonnes of fireworks from its famed Opera House and Harbour Bridge at midnight local time (1300 GMT). 

MIZUHO Bank said Tuesday that its systems experienced connection disruptions from around 7 am, affecting online transactions for individuals and corporations, but it stressed there are no other issues detected such as a loss of customer data. One of Japan’s three megabanks suggested it may have been targeted by a distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS attack, in which networks are overwhelmed by data from multiple sources over a short period. The bank said internet transactions were functioning again by approximately 10 am.

US carmaker Tesla’s megafactory in Shanghai has kicked off trial production seven months after its construction started, according to Tesla China on Tuesday. 

The company told Xinhua Tuesday that the factory is dedicated to manufacturing Tesla’s energy-storage batteries, Megapack, whose mass production is expected to fully start in the first quarter of 2025. 

A total of 633 container vessels docked at the Yangon Port in 2024, the Myanma Port Authority announced. 

The arrival of the contain er vessels rose in 2024 compared to 629 vessels in 2023. 

Myanma Port Authority stated that 49 vessels in January, 53 in February, 55 in March, 50 in April, 52 in May, 50 each in June, July and August, 55 in September, 52 in October, 57 in November and 60 in December 2024 arrived at Yangon Port.