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In a live-action remake of King Kong – perhaps a miniature version – rescuers in Malaysia freed a stray puppy from the clutches of a monkey, after it was kidnapped for three days. The first sighting of the ‘abduction’ in Selangor was on Sept 15, when social media user Zeirie Zack Mzy posted photographs in a Facebook group, showing a primate carrying the black-and-white pup, while perched dangerously on utility lines. Three days later, another user shared photographs of the same monkey cuddling its tired but otherwise unharmed victim. In the comments, concerned netizens wondered which brave soul would step...

You thought you have seen it all when people decide to enhance their vaccination experience by dressing up as a dinosaur or even a 'ghost'. Some unexpected guests arrived at a vaccination centre in Penang, Malaysia as seen in a viral TikTok video – with over a million views – posted by user iliyapengyou on Monday (Sept 6). Much to the staff's surprise, a gang of four dressed up as the infamous thieves from popular Netflix series Money Heist walked in to register for their jabs with little fuss. Wearing the iconic all-red jumpsuits and Salvador Dali face mask, one...

At least two of the 9-11 hijackers probably had a U.S.-based support network, according to a former FBI agent. Danny Gonzalez worked on “Operation Encore,” the still-secret investigation into the two Saudi hijackers who were based in San Diego. Gonzalez told CBS News he’s confident the records of that operation will show the hijackers had help. “19 hijackers cannot commit 3,000 mass murders by themselves,” Gonzalez told the network.

The great computer chip shortage of 2021 will likely get worse before it gets better. This conclusion was reached following brief study and anecdotal review. Moreover, while COVID lockdowns may have initially triggered the shortage, several decades of shortsighted decisions and simmering geopolitical tensions make it much more than a matter of fixing a few broken links in the supply chain. Here’s why… The world’s top two leading chip companies are Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics. These two Asian firms, combined, control more than 70 percent of the semiconductor manufacturing market. The U.S., which was once a leader,...

A video showing the Covid-19 vaccination process of a woman living in Malaysia has gone viral after the clip appeared to show the vaccine still in the syringe after the needle was withdrawn from her arm. The video, credited to diyanahmaria, appeared on Facebook group ViralMeletop on Wednesday (July 29), and has so far accumulated more than 400,000 views. In the caption of the video, the Facebook user wrote in Malay that the incident happened at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) in Kuala Lumpur on July 28. The 27-second clip showed The person then pulled out the needle and...

A total of 1,069 units of bitcoin mining machines worth RM5.3mil were seized in a joint operation carried out by police and Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) in Miri between February and April. Miri police chief ACP Hakemal Hawari said eight individuals were also arrested for being involved in mining activities using electricity stolen from SEB's electricity supply lines during the period. "A total of six people have been successfully charged under Section 379 of the Penal Code for electricity theft and have been fined up to RM8,000 and jailed for up to eight months," he said in a statement here...

White flags could be seen flying outside homes and poverty relief organisations across Malaysia this past week as citizens cried out for food and other assistance amid the country's latest Covid-19 lockdown. The surreal scenes, reminiscent of similar protests that swept the South American nations of Guatemala and El Salvador last year, emerged from a grass-roots social media campaign centred on the #benderaputih (white flag) hashtag that began trending on Monday. Community organisers told This Week in Asia the campaign was the clearest sign yet of the economic despair that hundreds of thousands of Malaysia's lower-income families have experienced amid...

KUALA LUMPUR: A group of six medical and consumer-related non-governmental organisations has urged the government to immediately approve the use of Ivermectin to treat COVID-19 patients in Malaysia. The group, known as Malaysian Alliance for Effective COVID-19 Control (MAECC) claimed Ivermectin is a very safe drug that has recently been noted to have very useful and powerful benefits in the treatment of COVID-19. The group is of the view that treatment using Ivermectin is among the alternatives to treat the virus, especially patients in the early stages "We urge the government to position this drug and repurpose it as first-line...

Star Wars fans want Malaysians to know that the Force is with them, but even so, they still need to get vaccinated against Covid-19. Members of the Official Star Wars Malaysia Fan Club have been going around posting pictures of themselves getting their jabs at various vaccination centres (PPV) here, sometimes, in their Jedi outfits or even sporting a stormtrooper helmet. According to club president Sanjiv Indran, the club’s 1,400 members have been feeling rather down since last year after various restrictions to fight Covid-19 prohibited public gatherings. Sanjiv, who owns a large stash of Star Wars costumes, said in...

Shocking scenes in Melbourne, Australia as a church service is attacked by police and new government is on the way in Israel but first... Israel's health ministry says its probable that heart inflammation cases found mainly in vaccinated young men are linked to the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine... That news Tuesday and today Israel's health ministry announcing that 12 to 16-year olds will be vaccinated starting next week... (Story Updated) Shocking video of the crackdown on outdoor worship in Melbourne, Australia last Sunday. Worshipers outdoors after their pastor was arrested Saturday night and the church blocked off by police on Sunday....

Peter Ben Emerek of the World Health Organization (WHO) proclaims it “extremely unlikely” that the coronavirus causing COVID-19 leaked from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). According to the WHO, the issue warrants no further study. But evidence is emerging that the Wuhan lab deliberately engineered the virus. The story begins in Canada. This month Canada removed Dr. Xiangguo Qiu, a virologist from Tianjin, China, and her husband, Keding Cheng, from the nation’s Public Health Agency because, as Karen Pauls of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported on February 6, the pair had previously been removed from Canada’s National Microbiology...

Penang assam laksa is arguably the most popular of laksas in Malaysia. (Pinterest pic) It’s not easy to find a dish that can somehow encapsulate the diverse taste buds of Malaysians, but amazingly, laksa seems to do the job just fine. Be it at a fancy hotel buffet or a roadside stall, laksa is one of the homeliest dishes you can find in every corner of Malaysia. However, what a Penangite considers to be laksa might be completely alien to a Johorean, and vice versa. There are so many types of laksa with either subtle or distinctive features depending...

A video of a woman confronting a group of tudung-wearing women for eating in broad daylight, including non-halal food – at a hawker centre during the fasting month of Ramadan – has gone viral online this week, with Malaysian viewers commenting as well. Ramadan is the Islamic holy month where Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. A video of a woman confronting a group of tudung-wearing women for eating in broad daylight, including non-halal food – at a hawker centre during the fasting month of Ramadan – has gone viral online this week, with Malaysian viewers commenting as well. Ramadan...

Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad says the Covid-19 emergency order has turned the country into a ‘dictatorship’. Reuters Malaysia’s former leader Mahathir Mohamad on Tuesday (April 20) urged the country’s king to revoke a Covid-19 state of emergency, saying the royal order – made in January on the advice of the government – was uncharacteristically turning the country’s Malays against its royal families. The emergency powers granted to Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and the suspension of parliament had transformed the country into a “dictatorship”, the 95-year-old said. More from AsiaOne Read the condensed version of this story, and other...

Microsoft Corporation will invest US$1 billion in Malaysia over the next five years as part of a new partnership with government agencies and local companies, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said on Monday (Apr 19). The investment would be the US tech giant's biggest in Malaysia. The announcement comes after Malaysia in February gave conditional approvals for Microsoft, Google, Amazon and state telecommunications company Telekom Malaysia to build and manage hyper-scale data centres in the country and provide cloud services. It also comes after the country saw foreign direct investments (FDI) plunge by 68 per cent last year, the biggest decline...

BEIJING is using an "insidious" policy of coercion and pressure to assert its control over the South China Sea, a leading Asia analyst has said. China has long claimed sovereignty over the disputed waters, saying that the entire waterway up to the coasts of the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan belongs to it. Beijing's claim is based on the U-shaped nine-dash line etched onto a map in the 1940s by a Chinese geographer. In 2016, an international court of arbitration dismissed China's territorial claims. Despite the ruling, the People's Republic has in recent years built artificial islands in the waters claimed...

A huge container ship that has been stuck across the Suez Canal for almost a week has been freed from the shoreline, officials say. The course of the 400m-long (1,300ft) Ever Given has been corrected by 80%, according to the Suez Canal Authority. It added that further efforts to move the boat would resume later on Monday.

“It is with utmost pleasure that we can confirm that the #Suez Canal Authority and staff have succeeded in re-floating M/V EVER GIVEN. She is currently underway to Great Bitter Lake. More information will follow on our profile. M/V EVER GIVEN is no longer #grounded,” the Leth Agencies said.

On Monday morning, a canal service provider said the Ever Given container ship — the 99-ton ship that measures 1,312 feet by 107 feet by 47 feet — had finally been dislodged after it got stuck in the Suez Canal and blocked ship traffic for six days. Leth Agencies, the canal service provider, confirmed that the Ever Given had been freed, was floating once again, and was moving through the canal, the Associated Press reported. NBC News foreign correspondent Raf Sanchez shared a video on Twitter of the ship moving again At least 369 vessels are waiting to transit the...

Hopes have been raised that the cargo ship could be freed today after emergency crews were ordered to start offloading containers. Experts previously budged its stern and get its rudder and propeller working. The Dutch-flagged Alp Guard and the Italian-flagged Carlo Magno, which were called in to work alongside tugboats already on scene, reached the Red Sea near the city of Suez earlier today. They will now help nudge the Ever Given as dredgers continue to vacuum up sand from underneath the vessel and mud caked to its port side. They have so far shifted 27,000 cubic metres of sand...