Asia floods kill 20, displace 170,000

Heavy rains in parts of Malaysia and Indonesia unleashed floods that killed at least 20 people and forced 170,000 others to abandon their homes.

At least 13 people were killed and 14 others were missing in torrential rains that swept Indonesia's provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra, officials and news reports said Saturday. More than 80,000 villagers were forced from their homes in the two provinces.

Officials in southern Malaysia said heavy rains had killed seven people and displaced more than 90,000 others over the past week.

In Indonesia's Aceh province, on the northern tip of Sumatra, floods inundated six districts along the northern coast, cutting off land transportation with neighboring North Sumatra, said Nurdin F. Jos, an Aceh government spokesman.

Nine villagers were killed, including five in the district of Tamiang, and two were missing in Bener Meria district, he said. A total of 70,000 villagers fled their homes.

In North Sumatra's district of Langkat, four villagers were found dead and 12 others were reported missing, the private El Shinta radio reported, quoting local officials.

It said 17,000 people were evacuated from their houses.

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi rushed to visit affected areas in the southern state of Johor on Saturday as he returned from an official visit to Venezuela, the national news agency Bernama reported.