Category Archives: Malaysia

Search for tourist swallowed by sinkhole in Kuala Lumpur stalls amid safety fears

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Officials say it is too dangerous to send in divers to look for the Indian woman who has now been missing for eight days

The search for an Indian tourist who was swallowed by a sinkhole in Malaysia’s capital has stalled after being deemed “too risky”.

Vijaya Lakshmi Gali was walking along a road in Kuala Lumpur on 23 August when the pavement beneath her suddenly collapsed. She plunged into an 8-metre-deep (26ft) sinkhole and disappeared. Rescuers have found no trace of her so far except for her slippers.

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Woman missing after falling into sinkhole in Kuala Lumpur

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Excavator brought in as search continues for woman buried when eight metre hole opened in pavement

A woman is missing after falling into an eight metre (26ft) deep sinkhole in the Kuala Lumpur city centre on Friday after the pavement caved in, burying her, Malaysian authorities said.

It happened in the Dang Wangi area of the Malaysian capital. The local police chief, Sulizmie Affendy Sulaiman, said that based on witness accounts, the woman was walking along the pavement when the earth suddenly collapsed beneath her.

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The 1975 sued by Malaysian festival over Matty Healy’s onstage gay kiss

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Good Vibes Festival organizer seeks $2.4m after band’s violation of behavior code led to a shutdown last July

The organizer of Malaysia’s Good Vibes Festival has sued the 1975 and all of the British pop-rock band’s members individually, following lead singer Matty Healy’s purported protest against the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ law on stage.

Future Sound Asia, the music festival’s organizers, are seeking $2.4m (£1.9m) after the band’s violation of the event’s behavior code resulted in the festival being shut down last July.

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Malaysia plans to give orangutans to countries that buy palm oil

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‘Orangutan diplomacy’ strategy aims to ease concern over environmental impact of palm oil production, says minister

Malaysia plans to give orangutans as gifts to countries that buy its palm oil as part of an “orangutan diplomacy” strategy to ease concerns over the environmental impact of the commodity.

The south-east Asian country is the world’s second biggest producer of palm oil, which is found in more than half of supermarket packaged goods – from pizza and biscuits, to lipstick and shampoos. Global demand for palm oil has been blamed for driving deforestation in Malaysia and neighbouring Indonesia.

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Indonesia volcano eruption spreads ash to Malaysia and shuts airports

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Ships evacuating 12,000 islanders over fears that side of Mount Ruang might slide into sea and cause tsunami

Eruptions at a remote Indonesian volcano have forced more than half a dozen airports to close with ash spreading as far as Malaysia, according to officials, while authorities rushed to evacuate thousands due to tsunami fears.

Mount Ruang erupted three times on Tuesday, spewing lava and ash more than 5km (three miles) into the sky and forcing authorities to issue evacuation orders for 12,000 people.

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Malaysia navy helicopters collide in mid-air, killing all 10 onboard

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Videos on social media show helicopters flying in formation when one clipped another and both crashed

Two Malaysian navy helicopters have collided in mid-air during a rehearsal for a parade, killing all 10 crew members on board, the navy has said.

The incident occurred at the Lumut naval base in the western state of Perak at 9.32am on Tuesday (0132 GMT), the navy said in a statement.

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Schools close and crops wither as ‘historic’ heatwave hits south-east Asia

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Governments across region grappling for response as temperatures soar to unseasonable highs

Thousands of schools in the Philippines have stopped in-person classes due to unbearable heat. In Indonesia, prolonged dry weather has caused rice prices to soar. In Thailand’s waters, temperatures are so high that scientists fear coral could be destroyed.

A “historic heatwave” is being experienced across south-east Asia, according to Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist and weather historian. In updates posted on X, he said heat that was unprecedented for early April had been recorded at monitoring stations across the region this week, including in Minbu, in central Myanmar, where 44C was recorded – the first time in south-east Asia’s climatic history that such high temperatures had been reached so early in the month. In Hat Yai, in Thailand’s far south, 40.2 C was reached, an all-time record, while Yên Châu in north-west Vietnam hit 40.6C, unprecedented for this time of year.

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MH370: Australia offers Malaysia support for new search on 10-year anniversary

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Australia co-ordinated the largest search to date, which failed to yield answers despite surveying more than 120,000 square kilometres under the ocean

• MH370: one of aviation’s biggest mysteries remains unsolved 10 years on
• Timeline of the search for MH370 – a visual guide

Australia has offered the Malaysian government support for a renewed search for the wreckage of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, on the 10-year anniversary of the aircraft’s disappearance.

On Friday, Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, and transport minister, Catherine King, said the government’s “sincere sympathies” remained with the loved ones of those who were onboard.

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Malaysian PM calls on Albanese to reinstate UNRWA funding to aid ‘besieged civilians’ of Gaza

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Difference between the west’s responses to human suffering in Ukraine and Palestine defies reasoning, Anwar Ibrahim says

The Malaysian prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, says he has appealed directly to his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, to reinstate funding to UNRWA, arguing the aid agency was the most effective channel to “help the besieged civilians” of Gaza.

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Australia news live: West Gate Bridge climate protesters jailed; Greens propose plan for 360,000 homes

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Proposal to create a public property developer, with 70% of homes offered for rent, and rents capped at 25% of average household income. Follow the day’s news live

New analysis shows 2m hectares of Queensland forest destroyed in five years

More than 2m hectares (4.94m acres) of bushland in Queensland that included large swathes of possible koala habitat has been cleared over a five-year period, new analysis shows.

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‘We need to go again’: Australian who led MH370 search joins calls for fresh effort to find plane

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Peter Foley, the program director for search led by Australian Transport Safety Bureau, says any chance of success needs the government to invest

The man who led Australia’s search for MH370 has urged the Australian government to support any new effort to find the plane, which disappeared 10 years ago on Friday.

On Sunday the Malaysian government said it was in talks with the US marine robotics company Ocean Infinity to discuss a new search. The company says it is willing and able to return to the search, and has submitted a proposal to the Malaysian government.

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Malaysia in talks over new search for flight MH370 10 years after disappearance

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Prime minister Anwar Ibrahim said Malaysia would reopen the investigation if there was compelling new evidence

Malaysia is willing to reopen an investigation into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines MH370 if there is compelling new evidence, prime minister Anwar Ibrahim has said.

Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, carrying 12 Malaysian crew members and 227 passengers, vanished from air traffic radar on 8 March 2014. Its disappearance sparked the largest ever search operation but the fate of the plane has never been resolved and it remains one of the greatest aviation mysteries.

“We have taken the position that if there is a compelling case, evidence that it needs to be re-opened, we’re certainly happy to reopen,” Anwar told a press conference in Melbourne. He was speaking on the sidelines of a summit of Australia and the Asean grouping of Southeast Asian nations.

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Norway’s King Harald V hospitalised in Malaysia with infection

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The 87-year-old, Europe’s oldest ruling monarch, has suffered from ill health in recent years, and it is unclear when he will return home

Norway’s King Harald V, aged 87 and in poor health, is “improving” from an infection that forced him to be hospitalised while on holiday in Malaysia, his office has said.

The king will remain in hospital on the island of Langkawi and it is not yet known when he will return home, the Royal House of Norway said in a statement on Wednesday.

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Malaysia swears in motorbike-riding billionaire as new king under rotating monarchy system

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Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar takes the throne at a time when royal intervention has been increasingly needed to deal with political instability

Malaysia has sworn in an outspoken motorcycle-riding king in what’s believed to be the world’s only rotating system of monarchy.

Nine ethnic Malay state rulers have taken turns as king for five-year terms since Malaysia gained independence from Britain in 1957.

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‘The pigs have disappeared’: swine fever threatens food source for millions as disease hits wild herds

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Scientists call for urgent intervention, as bearded pig populations are devastated by the deadly virus on islands such as Borneo

Populations of wild pigs are crashing due to the spread of African swine fever (ASF), threatening the livelihoods of millions who depend on them for food, researchers warn.

With a fatality rate of almost 100%, ASF has swept across Asia, Europe and Africa, devastating domestic and wild pig populations over the past 10 to 20 years. The impacts are especially significant in Borneo, in south-east Asia, where bearded pig numbers have declined by between 90% and 100% since it arrived on the island in 2021, researchers said.

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Ex-Malaysian PM’s lawyer pressures Netflix to take down documentary

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Defence counsel for Najib Razak, jailed over fraud scandal, says Man on the Run is ‘sub judice and contemptuous’

A lawyer acting for the disgraced former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak has called for the takedown of a Netflix documentary about a multibillion-dollar fraud scandal that occurred under his administration.

Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, the lead defence counsel for Najib, who is serving a 12-year sentence on corruption charges, said Man on the Run was “sub judice and contemptuous”, according to local media reports.

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Fears grow for hundreds of Rohingya refugees adrift for two weeks

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UN warns of possible tragedy unless people are rescued from two boats on Andaman Sea

About 400 Rohingya refugees have been adrift in two boats on the Andaman Sea for about two weeks, according to the United Nations, which called on regional governments to help rescue them.

The number of Rohingya Muslims fleeing by boats in a seasonal exodus – usually from squalid, overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh – has been rising since last year due to cuts to food rations and an increase in gang violence.

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Coldplay concert to go ahead in Malaysia amid opposition from conservative Muslims

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‘Kill switch’ to cut power in case of an ‘unwanted incident’ was discussed, but the band’s support of Palestine has endeared them to prime minister

A Coldplay concert is going ahead in Malaysia on Wednesday despite opposition from conservative Muslims in the country, but the band could face a “kill switch” that cuts off the show if they seriously offend cultural sensibilities.

Following outcry over a same-sex kiss between members of the 1975 at a Kuala Lumpur concert in July, earlier this month deputy communications and digital minister Teo Nie Ching introduced a ruling that concert organisers must have “a kill switch that will cut off electricity during any performance if there is any unwanted incident”.

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Malaysian hitman released from Australian immigration detention after high court ruling

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Sirul Azhar Umar, sentenced in Malaysia over a politically charged murder, cannot be deported by Australia because he would face the death penalty

A Malaysian bodyguard sentenced over the politically charged murder of a pregnant woman is among dozens of people released from immigration detention after Wednesday’s high court ruling.

Sirul Azhar Umar, a bodyguard to former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, has languished in immigration detention in Australia since having his claim for asylum in Australia rejected in 2019.

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Malaysia issues ‘kill switch’ order to cut controversial concerts

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Measure to ensure foreign artists ‘adhere to the local culture’ follows incident at gig by the 1975 in Kuala Lumpur

Concert organisers in Malaysia must now have a “kill switch” to cut short performances that break official guidelines, a minister has said.

The measure follows the controversy surrounding a performance in Kuala Lumpur by the 1975, whose frontman Matty Healy criticised Malaysia’s homophobic laws in a profanity-laden speech and kissed a male bandmate on stage. The incident in July led to the cancellation of the weekend festival at which the band was performing.

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