US President Barack Obama said the world must offer haven to refugees, as he visited a Malaysian centre for displaced children amid a bitter and racially tinged US debate over the Syria exodus.
Iran has appointed its first woman ambassador since the 1979 Islamic revolution, naming foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham to head its embassy in Malaysia.
Malaysia increasingly resembles a "police state" as the government uses repressive laws to silence critics including those demanding the prime minister answer corruption allegations.
Malaysia closed schools in several states and the capital Kuala Lumpur due to choking smoke from Indonesian slash-and-burn farming that has smothered much of Southeast Asia in smog for weeks.
Visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak pledged to help Indonesia fight forest fires blanketing Southeast Asia in haze as foreign aircraft joined operations to douse the blazes.
Malaysia's premier has urged Indonesia to act against those responsible for raging fires that have blanketed Southeast Asia in smog for weeks, as Malaysian schools closed again over health concerns.
Helicopters water-bombed raging forest fires that have cloaked parts of Indonesia in thick haze and pushed air quality to unhealthy levels in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia.
A global anti-corruption conference opened in Malaysia with a demand for the country's Prime Minister Najib Razak to come clean on a raging financial scandal.