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.