Indonesia failed to predict severity of El Nino weather: minister

[WorldNews]

By Bernadette Christina JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's weather agency failed to predict that the effects of the El Nino weather phenomenon this year would be worse than in 1997, a senior minister said on Wednesday, as the government considers declaring a national emergency due to forest fires. The fires raging across the archipelago have created a haze that has blanketed much of Southeast Asia in recent months and, according to authorities, have left more than half a million Indonesians suffering from respiratory ailments. Luhut Panjaitan, the coordinating security minister tasked by President Joko Widodo with overseeing the government's response to the crisis, said the state weather agency BMKG had not forecast the severity of the El Nino effect.

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