Jakarta / AFP Indonesia’s top Islamic clerical body said on Wednesday it has issued a fatwa against intentionally starting forest fires in a bid to stop the blazes that cloak Southeast Asia in haze every year. The religious edict by the Indonesian Ulema Council said it was “haram”, or against Islamic law, for Muslims to start fires on purpose …

  Seoul / AFP Floods in North Korea that have left hundreds dead or missing are the “worst disaster” to hit the country since World War II, state media said on Wednesday. The official KCNA news agency did not give exact numbers of those killed or unaccounted for, but a UN report said 138 people have died and 400 are …

  Colombo / AFP Exiled Maldives opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed has said he is in talks with the former president, who repeatedly threw him in jail, to “legally topple” the current leader of the troubled honeymoon islands. Nasheed became the first democratically elected president of the Maldives in 2008, but now lives in exile in London after he was jailed …