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Smoke from forest fires in the region have once again covered the city of Palembang in South Sumatra. Activity on the Musi river has been slowed by the smoke. The smoke originates from forest fires which occur in forests around the Musi river itself and cause visibility to drop to some 200 meters.
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A thick smoke, caused by forest fires, covers Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan and is getting even thicker now. The visibility in some areas of the city is less than 50 meters. Residents of Palangkaraya hope for any rain to come soon, some even held an exceptional istisqo prayer, in which one asks for rain.
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Forest fires are once more disturbing the normal way of life for many people in Riau province on the island of Sumatra. Forest fires, lit by people to clear land for agriculture or by people who want to hide that they actually stole wood from the forest, are causing a dense haze over the area which even reaches as far as peninsular Malaysia.
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Malaysia is ready to help Indonesia put out its raging forest and open fires, the wind-blown smoke of which has caused a haze in some parts of Malaysia and reduced visibility and air quality. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak made the offer of assistance when asked whether Malaysia was prepared to help out, especially to extinguish the fires in Sumatra.
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Smoke from forest fires starts to cause problems for flights from and to the airport of Medan, Polonia. Normally there is a sight of around six kilometers, but this has now dropped to only three. Strong winds from the forest fires in the direction of the airport and rainfall have caused thickening smoke around the airport.
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Indonesia has rented two helicopters to cope with the returning forest fires which cause a haze over the region regularly. "The government has brought in two helicopters to overcome the forest fires," said Malem Sambet Kaban, forestry minister. He said that the two rented helicopters, Russian Kamov Ka-32A helicopters rented from South Korea, will be used in West and Central Kalimantan, the two provinces that were most affected.
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Firefighters battle dozens of land-clearing forest fires on the island of Sumatra, officials told, as thick clouds of haze spread across parts of the region. Donny Osmon, head of a local firefighter agency, said that farmers and agricultural companies began setting the fires last Sunday, at the start of the dry season, to clear brush and peat lands for use as agricultural estate.
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Smoke from land-clearing forest fires disrupts flights serving the Indonesian part of Borneo as the country enters the dry season, according to a local official on Sunday. The haze covered the city of Pontianak in the western part of the island for the last two days, delaying flights on Sunday morning because of the reduced visibility, reported local airport chief Syamsul Bachrie.
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Collected funds from different institutions to be used to avert and overcome forest fires amounted to 300 billion Rupiah (24.8 million euro) for this year, according to Forestry Minister M.S. Kaban. The minister told that the funds were collected from the Office of the Coordinating Minister for People' s Welfare (100 billion Rupiah), the Forestry Ministry (66 billion Rupiah), while the rest found it's origins from provincial administrations. "Each province of the seven participating provinces provides Rp10 billion," the minister said.
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Scientists in the United States have linked the extreme weather caused by El Nino to the widespread wildfires in Indonesia. "Droughts over Indonesia are often brought on by a shift in the atmospheric circulation over the tropical Pacific associated with El Nino conditions," said David Edwards, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. "Although the current El Nino is rather weak compared to that of 1997-98, we have found dramatic increases in wildfire activity and corresponding pollution."
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Indonesia said on Thursday 90 percent of forest and brush fires that have produced thick smoke blanketing much of Southeast Asia have died out as regional officials met to discuss plans to tackle the annual hazard. The smoke, known in the region as haze, has affected much of Southeast Asia for months, triggering fears of a repeat of the choking situation that hit the region in 1997-98.
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A shift in wind direction brought the haze from Indonesia's land-clearing fires back to Singapore on Tuesday after an earlier clean air reprieve. The Pollution Standards Index (PSI) moved out of the healthy range to 57 and remained within the moderate category.
Singaporeans have been out in force since last Wednesday, when heavy showers cleared the air of the weeks of haze that triggered warnings from environmental officials to stay indoors and in air conditioned rooms.
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Two Beriyev Be-200 amphibious planes of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry have left from Khabarovsk for Indonesia for putting down forest fires. Their mission will last for over a month. According to updated reports, 27 million hectares of forests are on fire in Indonesia, while haze has spread onto over 550,000 square kilometers, the press service of the ministry’s Far Eastern regional center said on Sunday.
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Airports closed by low visibility have reopened in Indonesia and the air is cleaner over Singapore and Kuala Lumpur after rain doused forest fires spreading haze across the region, officials said on Friday. It was not immediately clear however if the improvement was temporary or whether the haze could return after a few days.
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Thick smoke from forest fires in Indonesia has shut airports and slashed visibility to below 100 metres (330 ft) -- and there is no respite in sight, officials said on Wednesday. The fires have been raging for weeks, spreading smoke across much of Southeast Asia and triggering fears of a repeat of the environmental disaster in 1997-98 when dry conditions linked to the El Nino weather pattern caused a choking haze that cost the region billions of dollars in economic losses.
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Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has apologized for the smoke haze that has choked parts of neighboring Malaysia and Singapore, and agreed to hold a regional meeting to tackle forest fires in the country. "Under the name of the Indonesian government, I should apologize to the neighboring countries over this incident,'' Yudhoyono told reporters in Jakarta today. "Clearly, it's not something we want.''
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Heavy rains brought relief to some areas of Indonesia shrouded in smoke by land-clearing fires, but blazes elsewhere Monday delayed flights and brought misery to residents. Skies were clear across parts of central Sumatra and west Kalimantan provinces on Borneo island, locals said. "Finally God has sent us rain to clear the haze," said Sadikin, a resident in Pontianak, the largest city in west Kalimantan.
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Malaysia urged Indonesia to quickly ratify an agreement that would facilitate a regional response to smokey haze in Southeast Asia caused by brush fires on the sprawling archipelago, a news report said Sunday. Indonesia is the only country among the 10 member-Association of Southeast Asian Nations that hasn't ratified the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, which the grouping approved in 2002.
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Singaporeans woke up to clearer skies on Sunday morning after a hazy Saturday. Air quality in Singapore on Saturday moved into the "unhealthy" range for the first time this year. The 3-hour Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) hit 150 at 9pm, the highest this year. But it later eased to 136 at 12 midnight and on Sunday morning, the PSI dropped further to 57 at 7am. The highest 3-hour average PSI reading recorded was in September 1997 when it hit 226.
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Thick smoke from bush and forest fires in Indonesia has forced schools to close and brought misery to residents, officials said on Friday, with no sign of firefighters in one hard-hit area. A vast blanket of smoke, or haze as it is known locally, occurs every year in Indonesia, angering neighbours Singapore and Malaysia who have long demanded Jakarta do more to stop the dry-season fires being lit by farmers and big companies.
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Indonesia on Wednesday urged airports in areas shrouded by thick smoke from forest fires caused by deforestation to close if conditions made landings’ hazardous, after a jet with more than 100 on board skidded off a runway in Borneo. The passenger jet operated by Mandala Airlines skidded off the runway upon landing amid thick haze in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province on Tuesday as fires spread choking haze to neighboring Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore.
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Smoke and ash from land-clearing fires in Indonesia blanketed a large swath of Indonesia's west Monday, sending air quality levels plummeting there and in neighboring Singapore and Malaysia. The smoke was shrouding an estimated 556,000 square kilometers of land on Sumatra and across Indonesian Borneo.
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Jambi deputy governor Antony Zeidra Abidin held an impromptu meeting Sunday with a number of head of agencies and related authorities under his administration to deal with the increasingly thickening fog over Jambi, caused by forest and oil palm plantation fire. Antony, in charge of the Jambi province forest fire control and eradication team, held the emergency meeting after inspecting the fire raging in the oil palm estates in Arang-Arang on Saturday, according to a report by the Indonesian news agency, Antara.
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Indonesian law enforcers are making arrests and quizzing plantation companies suspected to be responsible for forest fires in several parts of the country following complaints at home and abroad over the perils of the annual haze. According to Indonesian news agency, ANTARA, police have arrested 20 people in Sumatra's Riau province and will quiz at least six plantation firms in Kalimantan.
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Indonesia will drop water bombs and try to induce rain via cloud seeding next week in a bid to douse forest fires blanketing parts of Southeast Asia with choking smoke, officials said on Friday. Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie said water bombs, each containing between 1,000 and 3,000 litres, would be dropped from military cargo planes in fire-ravaged areas on Sumatra and Borneo islands.
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Firefighters battled hundreds of forest fires on the Indonesian island of Borneo Friday, as haze blanketed at least two cities in the region, officials said. "There are fires burning all over farmers' land," said Yohannes Sudarto, a forestry ministry official coordinating firefighting efforts in Central Kalimantan, a province on Borneo island. He said that 45 firefighters were trying to put out the fires, but were struggling because in many places they had no access to water.
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Smoke from raging ground and forest fires has blanketed Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau province on Indonesia's Sumatra island, local meteorology and airport officials said on Friday. Marzuki, an offcial of the meteorology agency, said that the visibility had decreased to the range of 6 to 7 kilometers. The normal is from five to ten kilometers. "This morning the visibility was extremely down to between 30 meters to 50 meters," Marzuki told Xinhua by telephone.
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More than 1,100 forest fires burning in central Indonesia have enveloped the region in a choking haze that's reduced air quality and delayed flights, officials said yesterday. Bush fires have sent smoke billowing over large parts of Indonesia's Sumatra and Kalimantan islands in recent months, and the cloud has also spread to neighboring Malaysia.
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Smoky haze from forest and brush fires blanketed parts of the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra Saturday, disrupting flights in western Borneo island, officials said. At least five flights in Pontianak city in West Kalimantan province were delayed early Saturday by smoke from fires lit to clear new plantation land, said Kosasi Munir, the city's airport operational chief. Morning visibility was only at 50 to 300 metres (165 to 990 feet), Munir said.
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Indonesian police have arrested a businessman for ordering workers to deliberately start fires to clear farm land, contributing to the smoke haze that has blanketed parts of Indonesia and its neighbours, a report said Sunday. Police in the province of Riau, one of the areas usually hardest hit by the annual chocking haze, arrested a man identified only by his initials ADS and the head of a private palm oil firm on Saturday, the Kompas newspaper said.
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Indonesia is seeking help to put out the raging fires in Sumatra – the source of the haze over neighbouring Malaysia – and taking to court those who carry out open burning. Indonesian Embassy deputy chief of mission Suherman Obon said his country would be happy to accept Malaysia's assistance. “Our ambassador has reported the situation in Malaysia to Jakarta.
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As Indonesia's haze continues to envelop parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan provinces, Indonesian officials have - again - blamed farmers for starting fires across the country.
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Seven aircraft failed to land at the Sultan Syarief Airport on Tuesday due to the thick haze from forest and bushfires raging in Indonesia's Riau province. Airport chief Sutrisno said visibility increased to about 400 metres at 8am from 300 metres at 6am on Tuesday. As visibility was below the threshold, seven airplanes failed to land at the airport and one airplane failed to take off, he said.
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Smoke haze from burning vegetation has returned to parts of the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo, and is starting to affect visibility. A meteorology official at Pekanbaru in central Sumatra said the haze had reduced morning and late afternoon visibility to between two and three kilometres compared to the normal level of above 10 kilometres.
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A Malaysian-owned plantation firm whose director was jailed for causing smoke haze on Indonesia's Sumatra island has agreed to pay more than $US1 million (EUR 901,000) in compensation, an official said. "Following an agreement on April 23 with the company, PT Adei Plantation agreed to pay 1.1 million dollars in settlement money to the government," Nixon Silalahi, an environment ministry official,said today.
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Thousands of underground coal fires around the world could be fuelling toxic pollution, contributing up to 3% of the rate of global warming and threatening wildlife, scientists warned yesterday.
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Schools have been ordered to close in the capital of Indonesia's Central Kalimantan province because of persistent choking haze caused by fires, an official said Thursday. Palangkaraya mayor Salundik Goyong Wednesday ordered the closure with immediate effect of all schools in the city and surrounding areas, mayoral spokesman Halis Lanca said.
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Choking haze from forest fires has returned to cover much of Indonesia's side of Borneo island, forcing residents to wear masks as the pollution index rises to three times world safety standards, officials said on Friday. Visibility in at least two provinces has dropped to as low as 50 metres over the past few days and all flights to and from Central Kalimantan's airport have been cancelled since the beginning of the month as the smoke has spread.
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At least three people have died and 60 more are suffering from respiratory problems as thick haze from forest fires burning out of control continues to engulf Palangkaraya, the provincial capital of Central Kalimantan. Central Kalimantan deputy governor Nahson Taway said on Tuesday that the haze, which he claimed was worse than last year's, had also forced airport authorities to close the airport over the past few weeks. "We are worried that the problem will persist as the fire spreads very fast across the peat land during the current dry season," Nahson said after reporting the haze problem to Vice President Hamzah Haz.
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Asean environment ministers warned yesterday that the region is likely to be hit by the haze as early as next month because of the El Nino weather phenomenon. But, they said, preventive measures are being put in place to control air pollution and the authorities will intensify early warning efforts and surveillance. Plans under consideration include the banning of 'open' burning in plantation and forest areas, and tighter regulation of controlled burning by small-scale farmers.
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Rain has brought a welcome respite to parts of Indonesia's Sumatra island which had been blanketed by thick haze following forest and ground fires, police and an official said Wednesday.
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Haze from forest fires, that have been raging in several parts of Sumatra, thickened over Riau's provincial capital, Pekanbaru, on Wednesday, where day turned into a virtual night, forcing many people to wear face masks in order to breathe.
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The thick haze which blanketed parts of Indonesia and its neighbors for months three years ago is beginning to choke regional skies again, officials said on Monday. The haze has been returning to parts of Kalimantan and Sumatra as well as southern Thailand.
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