Haze turns Indonesia skies orange, shuts schools in East Timor

Palangkaraya, Indonesia – Thick haze turned the skies in Indonesia’s Palangkaraya shades of yellow and orange on Thursday, reducing visibility to a few dozen meters as wildfires cause a regional air pollution crisis. Kuala Lumpur topped monitoring site IQAir’s ranking of the most polluted major global cities by Thursday, followed closely by Singapore, and with Indonesia’s Medan and capital Jakarta just behind. Fires burning for months in Indonesia have sent smoke across the region, and on Thursday East Timor began a three-day school closure prompted by the haze.