Malaysia: Four Westerners jailed over naked mountain photos

Four Westerners who posed naked on Malaysia’s highest peak were Friday sentenced to three days in jail and fined for obscene behaviour in a public place.

The four were among 10 foreigners who stripped naked and took photos on Mount Kinabalu on May 30.

 A local official has said the foreigners’ behaviour was disrespectful to the mountain, which is believed to be sacred, and caused an earthquake last Friday that killed 18 climbers.

Dutch citizen Dylan Snel, British student Eleanor Hawkins and Canadian siblings Lindsey Petersen and Danielle Peterson pleaded guilty in a court in Sabah state on Borneo island to a charge of public indecency, The Star newspaper said on its website.

Malaysia:139 suspected migrant graves found by police in human trafficking camps

The Malaysian police has said that  139 suspected migrant grave sites have been found in 28 people-trafficking camps along the Thai border.

National police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said some of the graves, found since 11 May, may contain more than one body.

They are close to an area of Thailand where trafficking camps and dozens of shallow graves were found this month.

Thailand subsequently cracked down on the routes used by traffickers to move migrants through its territory.

The operation forced traffickers to move the migrants by sea instead. 

Malaysia: Nigerian female student sentenced to death for drug trafficking

A Nigerian female student in Malaysia identified as 30 - year - old Mary George Unazi, was sentenced to death by the Malaysian High Court today May 14th for trafficking 765.9gm of metamphetamine at the Kuala Lumpur  International Airport (KLIA) on May 10th 2011.

Humanitarian crisis: 'Ten deaths' on stranded Myanmar migrant boat

Myanmar migrants on a boat stranded for a week in the Andaman Sea with no food or water say 10 people have died, while some are resorting to drinking urine.

The fishing boat, carrying about 350 people of the Muslim Rohingya minority, has been refused entry to Thailand.

Those on board said the crew abandoned them and disabled the engine. They said the bodies of those who had died were thrown overboard.

Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have been turning away migrant boats.

Several thousand people are still believed to be stuck in boats off the coasts of Thailand and Malaysia.Most are Rohingya Muslims who cannot go back to Myanmar, also known as Burma, where they are not recognised as citizens of the country and are regularly persecuted.

Some of those who are adrift in the Andaman Sea have been provided with food, water and medicine by the Thai navy.

It is not clear how many other boats are in a similar predicament.Some boats containing migrants have been towed over to the Malaysian side of the border - where most migrants want to go - only to be taken back into Thai waters.

No-one wants them, the BBC's Jonathan Head says, and seeing them off the southern coast of Thailand, near Koh Lipe, that it is a "desperate sight" as they beg for food and water.

On one crowded vessel with a lot of women and children on board, our correspondent saw people drinking their own urine from bottles.

The migrants - including 50 women and 84 children - said they had been at sea for three months.

Their situation became critical when their crew abandoned them without a working engine six days ago anchored near the Thai-Malaysian border.

Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division told the BBC: "They're [Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia] playing a game of marine ping-pong not wanting to take in the Rohingyas.

He said it was necessary for the three countries to work together in rescuing them before they decide who is going to take responsibility for them.

"This is an urgent humanitarian crisis and the Thais and others seem to be taking a gentle stroll."

Malaysia: Nigerian canvass drug kingpins busted

Malaysian Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department (NCID), has revealed that nine Nigerian drug kingpins who used foreigners as drug mules were arrested in a major drug bust, resulting in RM2.5mil (S$933,000) worth of contraband substance seized, Asian One reports.