Tag: Malaysia

Malaysian PM: Hong Kong leader should quit

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Malaysia’s prime minister said Friday Hong Kong’s embattled leader should resign over the city’s increasingly violent pro-democracy protests and warned China would take “harsh action” to end the demonstrations. Hong Kong has been rocked by unprecedented protests for nearly four months, with millions taking to the streets angered by what they see as Beijing’s authoritarian rule of the semi-autonomous city. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad — who at 94 is […]

Continue Reading →

Malaysia threatens ride-hailing firm Grab with $21 million fine

  KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Malaysia’s competition watchdog on Thursday threatened to hit Grab with a $21 million fine for practices that allegedly reduce competition, the latest problem for the ride-hailing giant. Grab is the biggest ride-hailing firm in Southeast Asia, and has strengthened its hold on the market since buying US rival Uber’s operations in the region last year. But the Singapore-headquartered firm has come under scrutiny from regulators in several countries due […]

Continue Reading →

Malaysia, Indonesia shut thousands of schools over forest fires haze

  KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Thousands of schools were shuttered across Malaysia and Indonesia Thursday, affecting at least 1.7 million pupils, officials said, as toxic haze from rampant forest fires sent air quality plummeting. Nearly 2,500 schools were ordered to shut their doors in Malaysia — including nearly 300 in the smog-hit capital Kuala Lumpur — over soaring health concerns sparked by toxic haze from out-of-control blazes in Indonesia’s Sumatra and Borneo islands. Indonesia […]

Continue Reading →

Indonesian haze closes schools, sparks fears for Singapore F1

    by Sam Reeves Agence France Presse KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Toxic haze from Indonesian forest fires closed thousands of schools across the country and in neighbouring Malaysia Wednesday, while air quality worsened in Singapore just days before the city’s Formula One motor race. Illegal fires to clear land for agriculture are blazing out of control on Sumatra and Borneo islands, with Jakarta deploying thousands of security forces and water-bombing aircraft to tackle […]

Continue Reading →

Indonesia arrests nearly 200 over raging forest fires

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia has arrested nearly 200 people over vast forest fires ripping across the archipelago, police said Monday, as toxic haze sends air quality levels plummeting and sparks flight cancellations. Jakarta has deployed thousands of personnel to battle blazes that are turning land into charred landscapes and consuming forests in Sumatra and Borneo islands, where thousands of schools have been shut over health fears. The fires — usually started by illegal burning […]

Continue Reading →

Frontline fight: Indonesia locked in epic battle against jungle blazes

by Dessy SAGITA PEKANBARU, Indonesia (AFP) — Working around the clock, thousands of firefighters are struggling to contain smog-belching blazes raging across rainforests and farmland in Indonesia, one of the frontlines against fires blamed for aggravating global warming. Those leading the response are short on equipment, with some wearing just flimsy masks and rubber boots as they blast streams of water at flames consuming the jungle — and enveloping wide swathes of Southeast Asia in […]

Continue Reading →

Forest fires destroying vital buffer against climate change

PEKANBARU, Indonesia (AFP) — With fierce blazes raging in jungles from the Amazon to Indonesia, concerns are mounting about the impact as rainforests play a vital role in protecting the planet against global warming. The latest serious outbreak is in Indonesia, where smog-belching fires started to clear land for agriculture are burning out of control, blanketing the region in toxic smog. Why are rainforests important in fight against global warming? Mankind’s reliance on fossil fuels […]

Continue Reading →

Hundreds of schools shut as forest-fire haze blankets SE Asia

  by Junus Nuh Agence France Presse JAMBI, Indonesia (AFP) — Huge fires are raging across vast swathes of Indonesia’s rainforests — some of the world’s biggest — with toxic smog shutting hundreds of schools in Southeast Asia, officials said Tuesday. Massive jungle areas in Sumatra and Borneo islands are ablaze as thousands of personnel battle to quell the fires, frequently started to clear land for crop plantations. Burning forests to make way for farming […]

Continue Reading →

Indonesia forest fires surge, stoking global warming fears

by Dessy Sagita Agence France Presse PEKANBARU, Indonesia (AFP) — The number of blazes in Indonesia’s rainforests has jumped sharply, satellite data showed Thursday, spreading smog across Southeast Asia and adding to concerns about the impact of increasing wildfire outbreaks worldwide on global warming. Illegal blazes to clear land for agricultural plantations have been raging on Sumatra and Borneo islands, with Indonesia deploying water-bombing helicopters and thousands of security forces to tackle them. It is […]

Continue Reading →

‘No suspicion of foul play’ in Franco-Irish teen’s death: Malaysian police

  SEREMBAN, Malaysia (AFP) — A vulnerable Franco-Irish teen who disappeared from a Malaysian rainforest resort died from internal bleeding due to starvation and stress, and there is no suspicion of foul play, police said Thursday. Mohamad Mat Yusop, Negeri Sembilan state police chief, told reporters Nora Quoirin died from “gastrointestinal bleeding” and she had suffered “extreme stress” and “hunger”. “For the time being, there is no suspicion of foul play,” he told reporters after […]

Continue Reading →

Dutch tourist killed in Malaysia cave floods, guide missing

  KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Flash floods killed a Dutch tourist in a popular cave located in the rugged Mulu National Park on Malaysia’s Borneo island, an official said Saturday, as a search continues for a missing guide. Local fire and rescue chief Law Poh Kiong identified the dead man as 66-year-old Peter Hans Hovenkamp from Utrecht in the central Netherlands. “He died due to drowning following flash floods in the caves. His body […]

Continue Reading →

Najib’s former deputy hit with new graft charges in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Malaysia’s former deputy premier under scandal-plagued ex-leader Najib Razak was hit with seven fresh corruption charges Wednesday for allegedly receiving about $3 million in bribes. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, now an opposition leader who was a key figure in the former regime, has now been charged with a total of 54 counts of corruption since his long-ruling coalition lost power last year. The latest charges relate to allegations that he received […]

Continue Reading →
1 … 10 11 12 13 14 … 33