Haze clouds Brunei's skies

Haze clouds Brunei's skies

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (AP): The international airport canceled
short-distance flights yesterday as thick smoke from nearby
forest fires shrouded the country with critical air pollution
levels.

In Brunei, the oil-rich kingdom on the northern coast of
Borneo island, people wearing surgical masks walked the streets
quickly and drove cars slowly, squinting to see more than 150
meters away.

With visibility cut as low as 50 meters, short-distance lights
to Labuan and Miri in nearby Malaysia were canceled yesterday.
The capital city's airport was shut in the early morning, when
the haze cover was thickest, but reopened by 9 a.m., airport
officials said.

Fires in the drought-stricken kingdom combined with smoke from
raging forest fires in Sarawak and Kalimantan have blanketed
Brunei with smog in recent weeks.