Tones of sand from deserts in China's interior blew into Beijing on Saturday, shrouding China's capital in a yellow-orange haze that authorities warned made the air quality "hazardous”. A level five pollution warning was issued, and people were urged to stay indoors. Sandstorms frequently hit the arid north of China in the spring, when temperatures start to rise, stirring up clouds of dust that can travel across China, to South Korea and Japan and even as far as the western United States.

A man armed with a high-powered gas pistol tried to break into Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin's Mausoleum on Red Square in Moscow, shooting a policeman in the process. Police say they spotted the gunman behaving strangely near the mausoleum and that he viciously beat a police officer who confronted him before shooting and wounding the man.