Malaysia lifted a state of emergency in two areas near the capital yesterday after air pollution levels fell well below the danger mark, easing the country's worst pollution crisis in eight years.
Changing winds have helped to disperse smog that has shrouded central Malaysia for a week, dis-persing smoke blown in from forest fires in Indonesia to northern regions, officials said.
The sky over Kuala Lumpur was clear for the first time in days and the weather bureau predicted weekend rains to further wash away the haze that has threatened public health.
"We thank God, and this is through the effort of everybody regardless of religion," Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi told reporters during a visit to a pollution monitoring center near the capital.
Badawi had urged citizens of all faiths to beg for divine intervention to banish the haze that had grounded some flights, disrupted shipping, and forced the closure of hundreds of schools.
The National Security Council said pollution readings were well below the 500-level mark which had triggered the emergency in Kuala Selangor and Port Klang, the country's biggest port, following choking smoke from forest fires in Indonesia.
Only 12 places in the country registered a reading classed in the category of "unhealthy" and most of them were in the northern states of Penang and Perak, it said.
A reading of 101-200 on the Air Pollutant Index (API) is classed as "unhealthy," 201-300 "very unhealthy" and 300 and above is "hazardous."
The latest reading put Kuala Lumpur at 103, Port Klang at 105 and Kuala Selangor at 117, it said.
Visibility at an airport in Penang, a major tourist spot and a hub for electronics firms, dropped to 500m early yesterday, but recovered to about 1km by afternoon.
The airport would be shut if visibility fell below 300m, an airport official said. Most of Penang's electronics exports go by air to the US, Japan and Taiwan.
Environment Minister Adenan Satem was quoted as saying by the Star newspaper that Indonesia has asked for Malaysia's assistance in cloud-seeding operations to douse the fires burning on Sumatra.
Meanwhile, Indonesia's leading environmental watchdog yesterday urged Jakarta to declare a state of emergency and criticized officials' slow handling of the haze crisis.
"The most important thing that the government should do is to declare a state of emergency, take action to extinguish the fires and tell the public what to do because this concerns the safety of many people," said Chalid Muhammad, executive director of environmental group Walhi, in a statement.
"These fires should push the government to ... reform its policing of forest management in Indonesia, which in Walhi's view has never been given serious thought, even though forest fires have occurred annually since 1997," the statement said.
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
‘CROWN JEWEL’: Washington ‘can delay and deter’ Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan, but it is ‘a very delicate situation there,’ the secretary of state said US President Donald Trump is opposed to any change to Taiwan’s “status quo” by force or extortion and would maintain that policy, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Hugh Hewitt Show host on Wednesday. The US’ policy is to maintain Taiwan’s “status quo” and to oppose any changes in the situation by force or extortion, Rubio said. Hewitt asked Rubio about the significance of Trump earlier this month speaking with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) at the White House, a meeting that Hewitt described as a “big deal.” Asked whether the meeting was an indication of the
RSS