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The captain of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 received a two-minute call shortly before take-off from a mystery woman using a mobile phone number obtained under a false identity, as investigators question the pilot's estranged wife, a British newspaper reported. It was one of the last calls made to or from the mobile phone of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah in the hours before his Boeing 777 left Kuala Lumpur on March 8, reported The Mail on Sunday. Investigators are treating it as potentially significant because anyone buying a pay-as-you-go SIM card in Malaysia has to fill out a form giving...

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (CNN) -- For families whose loved ones were aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, the past day has been full of news they were dreading. First, a grim-faced Malaysian Prime Minister confirmed their worst fears, announcing Flight 370 went down somewhere in the Indian Ocean.

<p>MILAN (AP) — Foreign ministry officials in Rome and Vienna confirm that names of two nationals listed on the manifest of the missing Malaysian airlines flight match passports reported stolen in Thailand.</p> <p>Italy's Foreign Ministry said Saturday that an Italian man whose name was listed as being aboard is traveling in Thailand and was not aboard the plane.</p>

SINGAPORE, Aug 3 — Malaysia has finalised its full report on the proposed high-speed rail link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Local television Channel NewsAsia reported Mohd Nur Ismal Mohamed Kamal, chief executive officer of the Malaysia Land Public Transport Commission, as saying that the two sides will meet after the Aidil Fitri celebrations at the end of the month. He said: “The base line alignment and all that is done. But of course, minor changes can still happen. We are just starting the process of engagement and discussion with the Singapore side, with the joint ministerial committee meeting up...

‘Seditious’ Facebook pork photo leads two Malaysians to court Prosecutors on Thursday charged two Malaysians with sedition and inciting religious enmity after they posted a photograph on Facebook considered an insult to the Muslim holy month of fasting. They face up to eight years in prison if convicted of both charges in the Muslim-majority nation. Alvin Tan and Vivian Lee, both ethnic Chinese non-Muslims in their 20s, drew criticism when they uploaded a photograph of themselves earlier this month eating pork stew while conveying greetings to Muslims for the current fasting month of Ramadan. Pork is forbidden for Muslims. Tan...

KATHMANDU SNIPPET: The Annapurna Post vernacular daily reported on Sunday that the arrest was made on April 13. Identified as Mohsin Khosravian, the suspect is currently in police custody.

 The security officials at the Embassy speculated that the suspect was scouting the facility with a harmful intention "for he carried a tourist map of the Lazimpat area" where the Israeli mission is located. 

He had stayed in a Thamel-based hotel. After his arrest, the suspect told police that he had ventured out to find out a shop to repair his laptop.

 According to the report, the Nepal Police's Central Bureau...

WASHINGTON: The famous African explorer Dr David Livingstone might have been impressed, even if the agenda was suspect. Pakistan’s disgraced nuclear proliferator-hero Abdul Qadeer Khan traversed the breadth of Africa in his hey day as a nuclear salesman , going to as romantic a getaway as Casablanca in Morocco and as remote an outpost as Timbuktu in Mali.   US officials might dearly like to get hold of Khan’s travel agent, or simply his itinerary, since he seems to have pretty much charted his own course during his profligate proliferating days. According to accounts now surfacing in the Pakistani media,...

Two suitcases crammed with counterfeit $100 bills were seized in Kuala Lumpur this week from two Iranian traders who flew in to the Malaysian capital on direct flights from Tehran. One contained 153,000 forged dollars and the second 203,000. The traders claimed they were issued the bills by tellers at the Iranian central bank CBI to finance their business transactions and had no notion they had not been dealt genuine greenbacks.

Suspected Iranian Blew Off His Own Leg In A Botched Terror Attack In Bangkok Robert JohnsonFeburary 14, 2012 One day after bombs targeting Israeli embassy staff went off in India and Georgia, another botched attack played out this morning in Bangkok. Through several reports, the incident appears to have played out something like this: Saeib Morabi, a suspected Iranian, was fleeing an explosion that rocked through his rented home in central Bangkok. While he was on the road looking for transportation, another explosion went off "on a nearby road." When Morabi finally managed to flag down a cab, the driver...

Where exactly is Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the man behind the $100 million Ground Zero mosque project? I keep asking because weeks after he stopped answering any questions about his “Cordoba House” plans, there is still no answer. By now, there is information in Rauf’s silence. He launched his Ground Zero mosque and Islamic center project in the name of “dialogue,” “outreach” and “bridge-building” in lower Manhattan. In doing so, he trampled on raw feelings, and set off a divisive debate. Rauf’s apparent dismissal of public questions as not worth his time, while he travels to the Middle East on U.S. taxpayer money, suggests enormous contempt for the American public.Rauf dropped out of sight...

Some time in the next few days, a Malaysian Muslim woman named Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno will be caned under Islamic laws for drinking glasses of beer in a hotel bar, and a number of political analysts say the country's increasingly fractious politics are partly to blame. The ruling National Front and the Islamist component of an opposition alliance are competing to place themselves as the guardians of a faith that has taken an increasingly political face in Malaysia over the last 20 years. The National Front accuses the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, or PAS, of giving up some of its...

KUALA LUMPUR: Police have arrested Wan Min Wan Mat, a key leader of Kumpulan Militant Malaysia (KMM) during an operation in Kota Baru Friday morning. Inspector-general of police Tan Sri Norian Mai said the 42-year-old former Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) lecturer was arrested at about 9.30am. Police are looking for eight suspects who are key KMM members and are offering a RM50,000 reward for information on each leader.

An influential council of Malaysia's state rulers has warned people not to question the supremacy of Islam or the special privileges enjoyed by the country's ethnic Malay majority. The warning underscores the social tensions in Malaysia, where Muslim Malays are about 60% of the nation's 27 million people. Chinese and Indians, who are mostly non-Muslims, comprise a third of the population and friction among the three ethnic groups is always below the surface.

Iran Booted From Defense Show for Displaying Missile Systems April 24, 2008 The Associated Press KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Malaysia's deputy prime minister says Iran has been ordered to leave an international defense show in Kuala Lumpur. Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said Iranian firms exhibited missile systems at the Defense Services Asia show that were "offensive" and contravened U.N. resolutions. Najib told reporters Thursday that Malaysian authorities had "no option" but to tell Iran to leave. The annual show began Monday with hundreds of exhibitors from about 50 nations.

The Himalayan Times Online Beyonce Knowles’ Malaysian Concert Axed Beyonce Knowles' debut Malaysian concert has been cancelled following protests by local Muslim groups. The sexy singer's concert was supposed to take place on November 1 in Kuala Lumpur. The news of the cancellation came from Kuala Lumpur-based concert promoter Pineapple Concerts. While a ministry official said that the concert had been cancelled because Pineapple did not apply for a license, sources revealed to Billboard magazine that the real reason was Beyonce's refusal to comply with a dress code, reports the Sun. nder rules introduced by the Ministry of Culture, Arts...

Hardline Islamic law could be introduced across Malaysia under reforms proposed by the country's chief justice. As the nation in south-east Asia celebrated 50 years of independence from Britain yesterday, its government was preparing to discuss a plan that would revolutionise the legal system put in place by its former colonial administrators. Prince Andrew looks on during a parade at the historic Merdeka Square in downtown Kuala Lumpur As Kuala Lumpur witnessed celebrations that included parades, fireworks and a fighter-jet fly-by attended by the Duke of York, the proposal pointed to the deep differences which locals say are poisoning social...

The Star Online Central Thursday December 21, 2006 Dog loses jaw after cruel beating By BAVANI M. JOY, a little black dog whose jaw was surgically removed after he was almost beaten to death, still looks at humans with love. Despite the cruelty rendered to him, he still looks at people to be petted and loved. On Dec 2, Sabrina Yeap, managing partner of the Furry Friends Farm (FFF), rescued Joy at the Ki-Park Sri Utara construction site belonging to developer, Kepong Industrial Park Sdn Bhd (KIP Group). Joy’s jaw had to be surgically removed after it was beaten half...

BosNewsLifeMalaysia Muslims Besiege Catholic Church Amid Baptism Row Malaysia Muslims Besiege Catholic Church Amid Baptism Row Thursday, 09 November 2006 KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA (BosNewsLife)-- Tensions remain high in a Malaysian town outside the capital Kuala Lumpur after up to 1,000 Muslim protestors besieged a Catholic Church following mobile phone text messages claiming that Malay Muslims would be baptized there.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia has extended for two more years the imprisonment of a terror suspect linked to al-Qaeda's attempts to produce chemical and biological weapons, saying he has more information about terrorist operations. Yazid Sufaat, a U.S.-trained biochemist and former Malaysian army captain, was arrested in late 2001 as he returned home from Afghanistan, where officials say he was working on a biological and chemical weapons program for al-Qaeda that was ended by the U.S.-led war. Since then, he has been held without trial under Malaysia's Internal Security Act on accusations of being a member of Jemaah...