Kuala Lumpur, Sep 24 : Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has agreed to consider the Malaysian Indian Congress’s appeal to release five Hindraf leaders detained under the ISA.

“The Prime Minister has promised to discuss the matter with the Home Minister and arrive at a decision,” said MIC president S. Samy Vellu.

Samy Vellu and Human Resources Minister Dr S. Subramaniam, who is also MIC secretary-general, had a 30-minute meeting with Badawi in Putrajaya.

He said the meeting was to seek the immediate release of the five Hindraf leaders R. Kengadharan, M. Manoharan, V. Ganabatirau, P. Uthayakumar and K. Vasantha Kumar from ISA detention.

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Wednesday that he might resign before a previously set deadline of 2010 when he is to hand over power to his deputy.

Abdullah, who has been facing mounting pressure from within his own ruling party to resign, said he would hand over his portfolio as finance minister to his deputy Najib Razak, and take on the smaller defence ministry from Najib.

Abdullah, who has promised to step down in June 2010, declined to give further details of a more definite time frame for his resignation.

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Wednesday suspended a veteran politician who made racist remarks against the ethnic Chinese community.

Following a special meeting, Abdullah said Ahmad Ismail has been stripped of his post as a district chief in the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party, and would be barred from the party for three years.

During a speech last month, Ahmad said the Chinese were "immigrants" and "squatters" who had no right to demand privileges or equal treatment with the majority ethnic Malays.

Ahmad, who is an ethnic Malay, had defended his remarks and remained unapologetic despite calls by community leaders for an apology.

Kuala Lumpur  - Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Friday announced his government would increase development spending in 2009 as part of initiatives to help the public deal with soaring inflation.

Abdullah, who is also finance minister, said a budget of 207.9 billion ringgit (63 billion dollars) would be allocated for next year, out of which 53.7 billion ringgit would be used for development expenditure, an increase of 11.8 per cent from 46.3 billion ringgit allocated for this year.

Abdullah said the budget, which was announced in Parliament, would focus on developing quality human capital and strengthening the nation's economic resilience.

Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur - Malays