Kuala Lumpur - Thick smoke blanketed several states in Malaysia Thursday after winds brought in choking haze caused by forest fires on Indonesia's neighbouring Sumatra island.

In the southern state of Malacca, visibility was 6 kilometres while visibility at the international airport in the northern state of Penang was recorded at 8 kilometres by midafternoon, with an air-pollutant index of less than 100, which qualifies for moderate air quality, the Meteorological Department said on its website.

A department spokesman said the haze was expected to continue until the end of the week, adding that residents were encouraged not to carry out open burning to help improve air quality.

Jakarta  - At least 37 people were injured and many buildings damaged when an earthquake measuring magnitude 7.4 on the Richter scale struck early Thursday off the northern tip of Indonesia's Sulawesi island, an official said.

The quake hit Talaud Islands, a small archipelago off Sulawesi near the Philippines, and of the 37 people injured there, nine people were in serious condition, said Rustam Pakaya, head of the Health Ministry's crisis centre.

Jakarta - Nine people were seriously injured and many buildings were damaged when an earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale struck early Thursday off the northern tip of Indonesia's Sulawesi island, an official said.

A small island chain off Sulawesi near the Philippines was hit hardest, with houses and government buildings collapsing, said Sutiono, an official at the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency in Jakarta.

"According to the latest information, nine people were badly injured in Kabarua district," Sutiono told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Jakarta - An Indonesian court on Wednesday threw out a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against a son of late president Suharto over a business deal involving a failed national car project.

The Finance Ministry had sought 4 trillion rupiah (340 million dollars) in damages from Hutomo Mandala Putra, better known as Tommy Suharto, and his companies.

PT Timor Putra Nasional, set up by Tommy Suharto to build a homegrown car, defaulted on its loans to national banks after the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.

But in 2003, Timor's assets were sold to a little-known company called Vista Bella Pratama by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency, which managed Timor's assets after the carmaker defaulted.

Jakarta - Many of Indonesia's child domestic workers toil up to 18 hours a day and face physical and sexual abuse while the government is doing very little to protect them, New York-based Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

Hundreds of thousands of children under the age of 18 who work as domestic help are not considered formal workers in Indonesia and therefore are not entitled to a minimum wage, overtime pay, and a weekly day off and vacation, Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

Jakarta  - Thailand will work with the UN refugee agency and neighbouring countries to help Myanmar's Rohingya boat people, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said Wednesday.

The Thai military has been accused of mistreating migrants belonging to the Rohingya minority group, who said they were fleeing persecution in Myanmar, by towing more than 10 vessels out to sea and leaving the refugees in engineless boats without sufficient food and water.

Almost 400 of the Rohingya migrants were rescued by the Indonesian Navy off the coast of Aceh province in January and earlier this month.

The Rohingya told Indonesian officials they had been physically abused by Thai authorities before being abandoned at sea.