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NEW DELHI (AP) — A thick layer of toxic smog cloaked India’s capital on Friday as smoke from firecrackers used to celebrate Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, pushed air pollution to hazardous levels.

New Delhi’s air quality index plunged into the “severe” category, according to SAFAR, India’s main environmental monitoring agency. In many areas, levels of deadly particulate matter reached seven times the World Health Organization’s safety limit.

Authorities in the capital have banned the use and sale of traditional firecrackers since 2017, asking people to opt for environmentally friendly ones or light shows instead, but the rule is often flouted.

New Delhi, home to more than 33 million people, is regularly ranked one of the most polluted cities in the world.

The air pollution crisis deepens particularly in the winter when the burning of crop residue in neighboring states coincides with cooler temperatures that trap deadly smoke. That smoke travels to New Delhi, leading to a surge in pollution and worsening the public health crisis.

Emissions from industries without pollution controls and the use of coal, which produces most of the country’s electricity, are also linked to poor air quality in urban areas.

“We may not realize it now, but later we will face lung problems,” said Manoj Kumar, a New Delhi resident who does his morning runs around the capital’s iconic India Gate monument.

Several studies have estimated that more than a million Indians die each year from air pollution-related diseases. Tiny particulate matter in polluted air can lodge deep in the lungs and cause a variety of major health problems.

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TORONTO – Joseph Woll rolls with the punches.

And the Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender has dealt with his fair share of body blows.

He appeared poised to take over the No. 1 job last season until getting cut down by a high ankle sprain that cost him 2 1/2 months.

Woll wasn’t at the same level when he returned, splitting duties with crease mate Ilya Samsonov before the latter was tapped on the shoulder for the club’s first-round playoff series.

Then down 3-1 to the Boston Bruins in the best-of-seven matchup, Woll came off the bench and backstopped the Leafs to consecutive victories, but suffered a back injury in the dying seconds of Game 6 that ruled him out of the finale.

He had a long summer to again think about grabbing hold of one of hockey’s most pressure-packed positions — the starting netminder in the sport’s biggest media market — after Toronto lost Game 7 in overtime.

Anthony Stolarz, a journeyman with a solid resume, had signed in free agency, but the job appeared to be Woll’s until groin tightness again sidelined him just prior to the season.

A younger version of the 2016 third-round pick might have handled yet another setback differently.

“I think now I understand there’s things you can control and there’s things you can’t,” Woll explained. “Sometimes when you get injuries like that, you can’t really control much. At the end of the day, I know the work I put in, and I’m confident in that.”

On the heels of an iffy debut, the 26-year-old is starting to look and feel like his old self.

Woll made 24 saves Thursday in Toronto’s 4-1 victory over the Seattle Kraken after allowing four goals on 26 shots in a 5-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues last week.

“A little more comfortable in my second game,” he said. “Getting back into the flow of playing. I look forward to continue playing and keep finding that rhythm.”

Woll, who grew up in suburban St. Louis, entered 2024-25 with a 21-13-1 record, .912 save percentage and 2.76 goals-against average across 36 regular-season games to go along with appearances in seven playoff contests in an injury-stunted career since first breaking into the NHL in 2021.

He watched Stolarz put up an impressive stat line for Toronto (6-4-1) in October with a 4-2-1 mark, .916 save percentage and 2.45 GAA.

Woll said those numbers haven’t added any pressure.

“You can focus on that, (but) I think it’s a bit of a waste of attention,” he said. “Regardless of what situation you’re in, you’re always going to feel a little pressure. That’s what makes playing here pretty fun. I was just really happy to see (Stolarz) do as well as he did.

“It’s a team sport at the end of the day. We’re looking to win.”

Woll’s teammates have been impressed with how he’s handled a string of disappointments on the physical side.

“He’s had a real good approach,” Leafs centre John Tavares said. “Just controlling what he can and focusing on the next day, the next opportunity, and then maximizing that.”

First-year Toronto head coach Craig Berube said Woll’s professionalism has stood out.

“This guy’s dialled in,” he said. “Very on top of what he needs to do.”

Toronto winger William Nylander pointed to Woll’s mental toughness.

“A lot of resilience,” he said. “The work ethic is there every day. That’s why he’s the goalie he is.”

“A test of his character,” added forward Matthew Knies. “No shock to me.”

Woll, however, has had his moments.

“There’s a little bit of emotion and disappointment and frustration when you do get hurt,” he said. “I try to allow myself to feel those things and be human for a bit … then you have to turn the page and look to what’s important.

“And what gets you back.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2024.

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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The mother thought her baby looked healthy when he was born 1.5 months early, but staff swiftly whisked him to the neonatal intensive care unit.

It was the last time Burcu Gokdeniz would see her baby alive. The doctor in charge told her that Umut Ali’s heart stopped after his health deteriorated unexpectedly.

Seeing her son wrapped in a shroud 10 days after he was born was the “worst moment” of her life, the 32-year-old e-commerce specialist told The Associated Press.

Gokdeniz is among hundreds of parents who have come forward seeking an investigation into the deaths of their children or other loved ones since Turkish prosecutors accused 47 doctors, nurses and ambulance drivers and other medical workers of neglect or malpractice in the deaths of 10 newborns since last year.

The medical workers say they made the best possible judgment calls while caring for the most delicate patients imaginable, and face criminal penalties for unwanted outcomes.

Shattered parents say they have lost trust in the system and the cases have prompted so much outrage that demonstrators staged protests in October outside hospitals where some of the deaths occurred, hurling stones at the buildings.

Prosecutors haven’t said how much the defendants allegedly earned. After the scandal emerged, at least 350 families petitioned prosecutors, the Health Ministry or the president’s office seeking an investigation into the deaths of their loved ones, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

The prosecution’s case

Prosecutors are demanding up to 583 years in prison for the main defendant, Dr. Firat Sari, who operated the neonatal intensive care units of several hospitals in Istanbul. Sari is charged with “establishing an organization with the aim of committing a crime,” “defrauding public institutions,” “forgery of official documents” and “homicide by negligence.”

Prosecutors say that the evidence clearly shows medical fraud for profit. An indictment issued this month accused the defendants of falsifying records, and placing patients in the neonatal care units of some private hospitals for prolonged and sometimes unnecessary treatments in facilities unprepared to treat them.

Turkey guarantees all citizens health care, and its public health system reimburses private hospitals that treat eligible patients. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party, in power since 2002, has promoted the expansion of private health care facilities to improve access in the country of 85 million people.

Years without a family, then a death

After years of fertility treatment, Ozan Eskici and his wife welcomed twins — a boy and a girl — to one of Sari’s hospitals in 2019. Although the babies initially appeared to be healthy, both were admitted to intensive care. The girl was discharged after 11 days, but the boy died 24 days later.

During questioning by prosecutors, Sari denied accusations that the babies were not given the proper care, that the neonatal units were understaffed or that his employees were not appropriately qualified, according to a 1,400-page indictment.

He told prosecutors: “Everything is in accordance with procedures.”

This week, a court in Istanbul approved the indictment — which includes hundreds of pages of transcripts of secretly taped recordings of telephone conversations between suspects — and scheduled the trial date for Nov. 18.

The way that the case has horrified the nation has left the defendants increasingly isolated.

Lawyer Ali Karaoglan said he and two other attorneys who represented Sari during the investigation have recently withdrawn from the case. And authorities have since revoked the licenses and closed nine of the 19 hospitals implicated in the scandal, including one owned by a former health minister.

The scandal has led main opposition party leader Ozgur Ozel to call for all hospitals involved to be seized by the state and nationalized. Erdogan said those responsible for the deaths would be severely punished but warned against placing all blame on the country’s health care system.

“We will not allow our health care community to be battered because of a few rotten apples,” Erdogan said, calling the alleged culprits “a gang of people devoid of humanity.”

“This gang … committed such despicable atrocities by exploiting the facilities provided by our state to ensure citizens with higher quality and more accessible, affordable healthcare,” Erdogan said.

He added: “Those who commit such barbarism will be held accountable before the law in the most severe way for their crimes. As the president, I will continue to follow this issue personally to ensure that these killers, who played with the lives of innocent babies for financial gain, never see the light of day again.”

No more trust in the system

Gokdeniz, who gave birth in 2020, said she trusted Sari and accepted her son’s death as natural until she watched the scandal unfold in TV news and on social media.

“It all started to fall into place like dominoes,” she said.

Eskici, too, had placed complete trust in Sari, whose assurances he now views as cruel deceptions.

“The sentences he told me are in front of my eyes like it was yesterday,” he said.

Sibel Kosal, who lost her baby daughter Zeynep at a private hospital in 2017, is also seeking answers. She says the scandal has shattered her trust in the health care system and left her in constant fear for her surviving children.

“They have ruined a dad and a mom,” she said.

Kosal pleaded to the authorities to take immediate action.

“Don’t let babies die, don’t let mothers cry,” she said. “We want a livable world, one where our children are safe.”

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Badendieck reported from Hamburg, Germany.