KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's ousted deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim was back in court on Tuesday to face a new charge of sodomy after being sentenced to six years in jail two weeks ago for corruption. "It is not selective prosecution but malicious prosecution," Anwar told reporters after High Court Judge Abdul Wahab Patail set a hearing for Tuesday next week to decide a date for the latest trial to begin. In the charge read to the court, the date of the alleged "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" with his driver Azizan Abu Bakar was put at 1992, two years earlier than the original charge which alleged the offence was committed in 1994. The two charges against Sukma involve sodomy and "abetting Anwar in sodomising Azizan", a key prosecution witness in Anwar's five-month-long corruption trial which ended earlier this month. Anwar's counsel Rajah Aziz Addruse told the court the Defence wanted to defer the new trial until June while Mohtar said the prosecution was ready to go totrial at any time except late May.

Forest fire sparks haze fears

JAKARTA: A spreading forest fire in Indonesian Borneo's West Kalimantan province has caused increased air pollution in the region and renewed concerns of haze problems, a report said Tuesday. The smoke has not yet disrupted flights in and out of the provincial capital Palangkaraya but the airport staff were on alert, the Kompas newspaper said. It is believed the fire, outside Palankaraya was started in a land clearing operation. "The land here has a high content of peat and is infertile unless we clear it with fire. Unfortunately the people don't watch the clearing process and the fire spreads to other fields and later turns into a forest fire," a villager, Sukardi, said. Forest fires in Sumatra and Borneo covered much of the region with a choking haze in 1997 and to a lesser extent in 1998. Smoky haze from the fires, also started in land clearing operations, spread to surrounding countries disrupting business and transport, spawninghealth problems and Driving away tourists.

Chernobyl hits S-Korea

SEOUL: South Korea was hit hard by the Chernobyl computer Virus, with angry computer users blasting the government for failing to issue advance warnings, experts said on Tuesday. The widely-distributed virus, with the potential to make personal computers (PCs) useless, had been timed to strike on Monday -- the 13th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the former Soviet Union. The South Korean government said an estimated 250,000, or 3.1 percent, of its eight million business and home PCs were infected by the virus, and it apologized for not taking hastier action. "It is true that the government was not vigilant, without realizing its seriousness," Deputy Information and Communication Minister Ahn Byong-Yop said. Experts said the damage caused by the virus was far greater than necessary because of a lack of understanding and preparation for the coming danger.