The carcass of a protected Malaysian panther believed bound for the kitchens of Thai restaurants selling exotic dishes was seized by officials at the border between the two countries, it was reported today.

About 3,000 Malaysian Muslims burned an effigy of US President George Bush and called for an international boycott of Danish products today to protest against the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

Vast swaths of Malaysia’s eastern coast were under water today in the country’s worst flooding in a decade, which has left at least seven people dead and forced more than 15,000 people from their homes, officials said.

Malaysia’s largest Islamic opposition party denounced the Thai government today after 85 Muslims died during a military crackdown on protesters in the country’s south.

THE human toll from bird flu reached 31 yesterday when Thailand confirmed a nine-year-old girl died from the disease, while Indonesia joined the list of countries struggling with Asia’s second wave of outbreaks.

Malaysia’s prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi won a landslide victory yesterday after voters resoundingly rejected the fundamentalist Islamic opposition and handed the secular leader a mandate for cleaner government.

Mohawk-style haircuts may be coming back in style, but officials in north-eastern Malaysia have deemed them “un-Islamic”.

A Malaysian state leader wants to call in army troops to cull tigers following a spate of attacks on humans.