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An 83-year-old woman in Kluang, Johor has died after eating puffer fish while her husband is still being treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). According to state news agency Bernama, Johor Health and Unity Committee chairman Ling Tian Soon in a statement on Tuesday (Mar 28) said that the couple had bought the fish from an online seller on Facebook. He said that it was the couple’s first time consuming puffer fish.

Homosexuality is forbidden in Malaysia and laws criminalizing sodomy can result in imprisonment, corporal punishment Activists in Malaysia criticized Thursday a government decision to ban three books for allegedly promoting "LGBTQ lifestyles", saying it would further erode gay and transgender rights. "Jacob's Room to Choose", a children's book about gender expression and identity, was banned in January, the home ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. In the book, a teacher educates children on gender identity at a school after a student wearing a dress feels unwelcome in the boys' toilet. Two other children's books, "The Tale of Seven" and...

Around the middle of this month, workers at Malaysia's Port Klang were surprised to hear knocking from inside one of the shipping containers that had just come off a ship from Bangladesh. When they opened it, they were even more surprised to see a young boy step out. He couldn't speak the local language, so the port workers couldn't figure out who he was or how he ended up inside the container. They alerted law enforcement agencies, which immediately suspected it was a case of human trafficking. "He was the only one found in the container. A police report was...

Overview development progress of PNB Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as of as September 2022.Progress of The World's Second Tallest | PNB Merdeka 118 MalaysiaSCM Southern Corridor Malaysia147K subscribers | 56,554 views | September 2, 2022

In a landslide tragedy that killed at least 21 people in Selangor on Friday (Dec 16), a man and his friend managed to save a mother and her baby. The man, who declined to be named, told Astro Awani that he was sleeping in a tent with his wife and two children at the campsite near Genting Highlands when they heard a sudden loud sound. "Luckily my tent was at the end, my leg was a little sprained because of running", he said. Recounting the moment of anxiety, the man said that all the survivors came out holding flashlights to...

The rescue team's best friend - the K-9 dog detection unit - has also been working tirelessly alongside their human handlers.Many Malaysians have shared photos on social media showing exhausted rescue workers as search operations to locate the buried victims of Friday's landslide near Genting Highlands moved into the third day on Sunday (Dec 18). But many of those pictures do not show their silent companions, who are just as stretched and weary. The rescue team's best friend - the K-9 dog detection unit - has also been working tirelessly alongside their human handlers.

The country’s main Islamic party, PAS, successfully capitalized on the public’s growing disenchantment with the Malay political establishment.At the time of writing, Malaysia remains in political limbo after the country’s fifteenth general election delivered a hung parliament. With none of the major parties or coalitions able to form a government on their own, the country awaits the intervention of the country’s king to decide whether the next government will be headed by a multiethnic, progressive bloc led by veteran opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, or a conservative Malay Muslim coalition led by former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin. But whoever ends...

Two died in Johor while the third died in Kelantan.The police today confirmed that three voters died while waiting for their turn to cast their ballots in the 15th general election (GE15). Without providing further details, Inspector-General of Police Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said two deaths were reported in Johor and one in Kelantan. "These incidents are quite upsetting because these voters had health problems and died while queuing to vote," he told a press conference at the Gombak district police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. He also mentioned an incident where a 23-year-old man grabbed a bottle of indelible ink...

TPS) Sources in the Islamic Waqf, which administers the Temple Mount, told TPS on Monday that marriage contracts will now be processed at the Al Aqsa Mosque rather than in a Sharia Court office in eastern Jerusalem. The aim is to strengthen the Muslim presence on the Temple Mount by bringing Palestinian residents to the mosque. It was also learned that there has been a significant increase in the number of Muslim delegations visiting the Jerusalem holy site after visits dropped during the coronavirus pandemic. Waqf officials estimate that 700 Muslims from Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa visit...

PETALING JAYA: The United States will charge a Malaysian man, with a “Datuk Seri” title, with conspiracy to engage in wildlife trafficking and money laundering. In a statement, the US Attorney for the southern district of New York said Teo Boon Ching, 57, was extradited from Thailand yesterday after he was arrested in June for his second wildlife trafficking offence.US attorney Damian William said Teo was a leader of a transnational criminal enterprise which trafficked rhinoceros horns and enriched poachers who killed endangered animals.Teo, who is said to have businesses in Malaysia and Thailand, had allegedly trafficked and smuggled rhinoceros...

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Three weeks before he faced sentencing, the Malaysian defense contractor at the center of one of the biggest bribery investigations in U.S. military history made an escape as stunning and brazen as the case itself: U-Haul trucks were seen at his home in a tony San Diego neighborhood before Leonard Glenn Francis, known as “Fat Leonard,” snipped off his ankle monitor and disappeared. Nearly a dozen U.S. law enforcement agencies were searching for Francis on Tuesday. But officials acknowledged he may already be in Mexico, and possibly on his way back to Asia. ... officers found...

The military contractor known as “Fat Leonard,” the mastermind behind the worst public corruption scandal in U.S. Navy history who was three weeks away from being sentenced in the case, is on the run. Leonard Glenn Francis, who has been under house arrest, cut off his GPS monitoring ankle bracelet and absconded from his San Diego home sometime Sunday morning, said Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Omar Castillo. Pretrial Services, the federal agency monitoring Francis, was alerted to an anomaly with Francis’ bracelet, and Francis’ defense team went to check on him, knowing he has a history of health issues. An...

A Malaysian court on Thursday sentenced Rosmah Mansor, the wife of former Prime Minister Najib Razak, to a decade in prison for seeking and receiving bribes in exchange for government contracts, just days after her husband was jailed for corruption. The couple have been the focus of multiple graft investigations since Najib's surprise election defeat in 2018, when voters' anger over a separate, multi-billion dollar corruption scandal ended his nine years in power. Advertisement · Scroll to continue A flamboyant figure by Najib's side, Rosmah was widely scorned in Malaysia for her extravagant lifestyle and penchant for Hermes Birkin bags,...

A prank between friends turned into a tragedy after a 16-year-old boy died in a fire in Malaysia on Sunday (Aug 28). The incident happened at an abandoned toilet some 30 km northwest of Kuala Lumpur at Bandar Puncak Alam, Malaysian news outlet Berita Harian reported. More from AsiaOne Read the condensed version of this story, and other top stories with NewsLite. Speaking to the Star, Selangor Fire and Rescue Department director Norazam Khamis said that Damin Kansol was asleep on a sofa in front of a toilet while two of his friends were playing mobile games inside. One of...

It is unlikely Pelosi would back down now, although if she did, the US would need to take measures to not look weak, an Asia expert said A US news broadcaster on Thursday cited sources as saying that US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi departed for Asia yesterday, with a “tentative” itinerary for Taiwan. The trip’s official itinerary comprises Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore, NBC News said. The report also cited sources as saying that Pelosi’s Taiwan itinerary was only listed as “tentative,” and whether she would visit Taiwan is not clear. The report said that Pelosi has...

(Left) The fishing hook that was found lodged in the fish's head. (Right) A receipt for the meal. Facebook/Lemon Mii While having dinner at a restaurant, one Malaysian family found something fishy in their food. A woman took to Facebook on June 22 to detail her family's dreadful experience at a fish head curry restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. They had ordered a large serving of curry fish head to share, but while tucking into their meal, her father discovered a fishing hook lodged in the fish head. Facebook user Lemon Mii uploaded a video of his plate showing the fishing...

CNA spoke to Ravichandran Tharumalingam after his successful summit attempt on May 5. He described the achievement as a way to “conquer old demons”. The then-42-year-old was so keenly focused on summiting Mount Everest for the second time in two years that his euphoria distracted him from a slight tingling sensation in his fingers. He had successfully reached the mountain's peak for the first time in 2006. Ravichandran or Ravi as he prefers to be called, eventually reached the top of the world’s highest mountain once more, but this time at a cost. The tips of eight of his fingers...

Singapore is bracing for a shortage of its de-facto national dish, chicken rice, as major supplier, Malaysia halts all chicken exports from Wednesday (June 1). Restaurants and street stalls in the city-state are faced with hiking prices of the staple food or shutting down altogether as their supplies dwindle from neighbouring Malaysia, where production has been disrupted by a global feed shortage. Malaysia's export ban is the latest sign of growing global food shortages as countries, reeling from the effects of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, extreme weather, and pandemic-related supply disruptions, scramble to shore up domestic supplies and tame food...

Tuesday was a jammed-packed day for food protectionism developments across Asia. India announced a sugar export ban, and Malaysia halted shipments of chicken. Like many others in the region, both countries suffer from high inflation. Each respective government and central bank seeks to suppress inflation, and what appears to be the move at the moment (besides raising interest rates) are protectionist measures. If inflation continues to run hot in these countries, the risk of socio-economic turmoil increases. Today’s events first began with India. Bloomberg reported earlier that sources expected a sugar export ban was imminent. The Indian government announced the...

The Singapore High Court has granted a stay of execution for Malaysian Datchinamurthy Kataiah, according to rights group Lawyers for Liberty. Datchinamurthy, 36, was supposed to be hanged tomorrow. “There will be no execution tomorrow morning. Datchinamurthy argued the case himself as no Singapore lawyer dared to represent him for fear of reprisal from the state,” LFL adviser N Surendran said in a Twitter post. Meanwhile, human rights lawyer M Ravi said the Singapore court granted the stay of execution pending the outcome of Datchinamurthy’s prison correspondence misconduct legal challenge. The matter will be heard by the court on May...