Malaysia has set up an online hall of shame where the public can post pictures of traffic offenders as part of a campaign to instill discipline and safety on roads. The website, www.panducermat.org.my, was launched on Tuesday and will be used to catch offenders who usually get away because of a lack of enforcement.
A court sentenced a Pakistani man to seven years in jail after he pleaded guilty to kidnapping and robbing South Africa’s number two diplomat in Malaysia last year. Nisar Ahmad Khan (36) was sentenced to three years for his involvement in the kidnapping of South Africa’s deputy high commissioner Cornelius van Niekerk Scholtz and four years for stealing the diplomat’s cheque book, cash and cellphone.
A Malaysian family was horrified to discover their maid had spiked their drinking water with soiled diapers and sanitary pads as a magic charm to ensure they were nice to her, reports said on Friday. The 26-year-old Indonesian maid was caught on a spy camera that the suspicious family set up at their home in Kuala Lumpur.
Women factory workers were shocked when a man in a full Darth Vader costume paraded menacingly in front of them and then flashed his genitals, Malaysian media reported on Thursday. The women were waiting for their bus after work when the man got out of his car and strutted in front of them in his Darth Vader costume.
World champion Michael Schumacher lowered his targets for Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix after a disappointing performance in first qualifying in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday. Schumacher could only manage the 14th-fastest time of the day and was forced to watch his rivals speed away into the distance with their new models.
Ferrari boss Jean Todt has tipped the world champions to bounce back from a poor start to the season and retain their constructors’ crown by the end of the year. The Italian team chose to start the season with a modified version of their old car and found themselves outpaced by their rivals.
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/ 23 February 2005
A Malaysian state plans to build new public toilets equipped with soft, background music and newspapers for people to enjoy while using the bathroom. Officials announced that ”happy and healthy toilets” would be installed in popular spots in the northeastern state of Kelantan, The Star daily reported on Wednesday.
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/ 20 January 2005
A group of Malaysian local government officials has cancelled an Egyptian cruise and a troupe of belly dancers amid outrage at their all-expenses paid trip, media reports said on Thursday. Dinner on board a cruise ship on the Nile and the belly dancing have been replaced on their itinerary by an extended visit to the Egypt Museum.
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/ 20 December 2004
A jilted Malaysian bride was left waiting on her wedding dais after her groom called off the engagement via a cellphone text message, a report said on Monday. But Norlida Abdul Rahman (23) put on a brave face and her wedding dress on Friday night and carried on with the wedding feast for 1 000 guests at her family home.
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/ 10 December 2004
Two Malaysian retirees have been detained by religious authorities in the northern Perak state after they were caught allegedly having sex by the beach in broad daylight, a news report said on Friday. The 56-year old man will be charged with committing ”indecent acts” with his 51-year old partner, who also happens to be his sister-in-law.
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/ 9 December 2004
Malaysian police have busted a brothel in an abandoned pigsty after housewives complained that their husbands spent a surprising amount of time there, police said on Thursday. The pigsty, with 20 cubicles, was furnished with tables, fans, a bar serving alcohol, neon lights and a sound system.
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/ 8 December 2004
Malaysian police have arrested a disgruntled former postman, who had been on the run for the past four months, for failing to deliver 21 255 letters, local media said on Wednesday. The 27-year-old postman told investigators he was upset with his meagre salary and believed he was sending a message to the authorities by hoarding the letters, the New Straits Times reported.
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/ 10 November 2004
An express bus driver on drugs took eight terror-stricken passengers along on a half-hour high-speed police chase in Malaysia’s northern Terengganu state, a report said on Wednesday. The driver, who roared off after being flagged down in a routine speed trap, rammed one of the two police cars chasing his bus in an attempt to run it off the road.
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/ 9 November 2004
It was the last fang for Malaysian snake-charmer Bidin Mat Hashim when a cobra bit him in front of a Korean television crew. After 24 snakebites in a 50-year career, he’s calling it quits. Bidin, who has been handling snakes since the age of 15 and appeared regularly on television, said: ”I have given serious thought to it and have decided to stop, once and for all.”
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/ 25 October 2004
A 22-year-old Malaysian electronic engineer has claimed a national record for running backwards, saying he ”wanted to do something meaningful in life”. S Moganasundar won a place in the popular Malaysia Book of Records after running backwards for 30km, the official Bernama news agency reported on Monday.
A 72-year old Malaysian man took his marriage vows for the 53rd time in his life, this time with his newest bride – his first ex-wife, reports said on Tuesday. Kamarudin Mohammad tied the knot with Khadijah Udin, 74, his former sweetheart and ex-wife, on Sunday in the northern Kelantan state, the New Straits Times reported.
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/ 19 September 2004
A Malaysian woman has celebrated her birthday in a glass box containing more than 6 000 scorpions, with just days to go before reclaiming a bizarre world record. Nur Malena Hassan, who turned 27 on Saturday, plans to spend 36 days in the box after first setting the world record in 2001.
A Malaysian woman is trying to beat a world record set by another woman in neighbouring Thailand for the longest stay in a room full of scorpions, news reports said on Sunday. Nur Malena Hassan (27) on Saturday entered a glass box with 6 000 scorpions at a shopping arcade.
A deadly strain of bird flu that has killed 27 people across Asia this year has hit Malaysia, the government announced on Thursday. Tests have proved that an outbreak of avian flu among chickens in a village in the north-eastern state of Kelantan, first revealed on Wednesday, was caused by the H5N1 virus.
Malaysian emergency services rushed to the tightly guarded United States embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Monday after a powder that police said could be anthrax was found in a letter. The incident comes just days after an anthrax scare at the US embassy in Sri Lanka last week turned out to be a hoax.
Pirates slaughtered 30 seafarers worldwide in the first six months of this year — the highest toll in more than a decade — and governments need to boost patrols in hot spots at sea to curb the violence, a maritime group said this week. The 30 killings reported globally from January until June compared to 16 during the same months last year, despite a decline overall in pirate attacks.
Icann, the United States body managing global website allocation, on Wednesday announced a powerful new technology that makes it possible for every human being to have an internet address. ”This next-generation version of the internet protocol, IPv6, provides trillions more addresses than the IPv4 system that is in use by most networks today,” said Icann.
Marine archaeologists have recovered thousands of artefacts believed to date back to the Ming dynasty from a 400-year-old shipwreck in Malaysian waters, local media said on Sunday. More than 6 000 pieces of porcelain were salvaged from the wreck off the eastern Terengganu state.
Three Pakistanis and a Singaporean were charged in a Malaysian court on Wednesday with abducting a South African diplomat. Deputy High Commissioner Nicky Scholtz reported that he was forced into a car as he walked along a Kuala Lumpur street, robbed and held prisoner for several days before being freed.
Malaysia’s former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has defended his gift of timber to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe several years ago, and said he is prepared to be prosecuted if the act is deemed an abuse of his power while in office, reports said on Saturday.
Senior South African diplomat Nicky Scholtz was bound with wire, beaten and repeatedly tortured during a week of captivity after being seized by kidnappers from one of the Malaysian capital’s busiest streets, officials said on Tuesday. Scholtz’s captors, who thought he was a tourist, extorted thousands of dollars and threatened to kill him.
Malaysian police said on Monday they were searching for at least four suspects who allegedly kidnapped, assaulted, then later released a South African diplomat. Deputy High Commissioner Nicky Scholtz (54) said he was forced into a car by unidentified men on May 23 while walking to a hotel where he was staying in Kuala Lumpur, said police officials.
A political row brewed in Malaysia on Thursday over claims that the government is partially funding the construction of a lavish ,9-million (R58-million) mansion for Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe. Mugabe, in a recent interview with Britain’s Sky News television, denied that the 25-bedroom mansion near Harare was being financed by Zimbabwean taxpayers, saying the Malaysian and Chinese governments were providing partial funding.
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/ 3 September 2003
South African President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday urged developing countries to unite to protect their interests at the upcoming World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting at Cancun in Mexico.
Mbeki pessimistic about WTO talks
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/ 3 September 2003
President Thabo Mbeki has suggested on Wednesday that poorer nations link up with anti-globalisation protest groups to win a better deal on international trade, while expressing pessimism about the next round of global trade talks.
Deputy President Jacob Zuma said the world could take steps to end conflict by harmonising global responses, strengthening multilateralism and ensuring that national interests do not surpass the collective interest.
A bizarre tale of a bewitched palace, sexual jealousy and the murder of a beautiful royal bride is holding Malaysians spellbound as it unfolds in a sombre courtroom.