Indonesia shuts schools as smoke from forest fires takes health toll

PEKANBARU: Indonesia closed more schools on Monday in parts of the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, as well as providing oxygen at health centres to help treat some of the thousands suffering respiratory infections due to choking smoke from forest fires. Indonesia and neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia are regularly hit by smoky haze from slash-and-burn clearances of forests for timber and palm oil plantations, but conditions this year have been the worst since 2015 due to an El Nino weather pattern causing an extended dry spell. (Reuters)