15/08/2005 (Sunday Business Post - Authorities in central Malaysia plan totake legal action against oil palm plantation owners who burnedagricultural waste, defying a ban that was installed to ease the chokingsmog caused by fires in Indonesia.

Selangor state chief minister Mohamad Khir Toyo criticised the owners offive plantations who flouted the open burning ban and said the Departmentof the Environment was preparing a case against the offenders.

Meanwhile, a team of 125 Malaysian firefighters and disaster managementexperts are leaving for Indonesia’s Sumatra island to help put out theraging forest fires responsible for acrid smoke that has enveloped much ofMalaysia since the beginning of August