HANOI - A PREGNANT British woman sentenced this month to life in prison in Laos for drug trafficking was also fined more than US$70,000 (about S$101,000), a Lao government spokesman said Tuesday.

A panel of judges found Samantha Orobator, 20, guilty of trafficking 680 grams (1.5 pounds) of heroin last August, when she was caught trying to board a plane to Thailand.

KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIAN police have cracked down on an attempt to revive a banned group that falsely offered paramilitary jobs to thousands of recruits in exchange for money, an official said.

Authorities detained six of the group's leaders who were interviewing dozens of recruits at a business centre in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, a federal police official said Monday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to make public statements.

JAKARTA - MORE than 400 fires have been recorded burning in Indonesia's Riau province so far in June, a huge increase from the same time last year, officials said on Tuesday.

Smoke from the fires is causing haze that is drifting across neighbouring Malaysia, where authorities said on Sunday air quality and visibility in some areas had fallen from 'good' to 'moderate' over the previous week. .