Haze from fires in Indonesia, at home blanket KL: As gray clouds

Haze from fires in Indonesia, at home blanket KL: As gray clouds of pollution blanketed parts of Malaysia, authorities on Friday said they would take legal action against companies that lit fires to clear plantation land. Seasonal burning in parts of Malaysia and neighboring Indonesia have sent smoke drifting across the region, cutting visibility and raising health concerns. Thursday was the worst day so far, with two air quality monitoring stations -- both near Kuala Lumpur -- reporting unhealthy pollution levels. Many other stations reported higher- than-normal pollution, although the levels were not deemed hazardous. --AP

Demonstrators clash with police in Tehran, 40 injured: About 40 students were injured and 10 arrested in several hours of clashes at a Tehran university between demonstrators and Iranian police special forces, a student leader said on Friday. "About 200 members of the special forces, armed with batons and wearing helmets, invaded the campus at 1:00 a.m. on Friday. The clashes lasted until 8:00 a.m.," said the member of an Islamic student association. About 10 were arrested and another 100 are suffering from exposure to the tear-gas fired by the special forces," he said. --AFP

Polish government survives confidence vote: Poland's left-wing minority government narrowly survived a confidence vote in parliament on Friday called by Prime Minister Leszek Miller after the strong "yes" in the European Union entry referendum last weekend. Miller's victory, by a vote of 236 to 213 with no abstentions in the lower house, gives his unpopular cabinet a fresh chance to tackle key reforms needed to prepare Poland for joining the EU next year. --Reuters