Kuala Lumpur, Jan 6 : Malaysian Indian political leaders of the MIC, DAP and PKR will leave for Chennai this week to attend the three-day ''Pravasi Bharatiya Divas''.

Representatives of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) will also participate in the conference, which is scheduled to begin from tomorrow at the Chennai Trade Centre.

Hindraf chief P. Wathyamoorthy is also expected to participate in the Indian Diaspora Conference. Wathyamoorthy lives in a self-imposed exile in London.

Kuala Lumpur, Jan 6 : Due to the migration of estate workers to town areas in Malaysia, there has been an increase in the number of students in Tamil schools.

"Most Tamil schools except several in the estates showed an increase in student enrolment possibly due to the migration of estate workers to town areas, The Star online quoted Malaysian Tamil schools chief organiser S. Baskaran as saying.

Students, who completed their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) and Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) examinations, have been asked to select their course wisely.

Kuala Lumpur, January 6: R and B star Rihanna will stage a concert in a suburb of Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur on February 13.

The concert, dubbed Rihanna Live In KL 2009, will take place at at Stadium Putra, Bukit Jalil.

It is part of the 20-year-old's `Good Girl Gone Bad' tour, though which she is promoting her chart-topping third album of the same name, reports the Star Online.

Tickets for the concert, being organised by Pineapple Concerts, are already on sale.

Kuala Lumpur - A Malaysian court has charged a Singaporean national for allegedly murdering his 7-year-old Thai stepson last month, a news report said Tuesday.

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia's opposition-ruled northern state of Penang announced Monday that builders hiring foreign workers over local applicants would be blacklisted from receiving state contracts.

Contractors and developers awarded contracts would only be allowed to hire foreigners if they are unable to find enough local workers to complete their jobs, said state Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

"If they do not follow the directive, in the future they will not get contracts from the state government," Lim was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

"I know that contractors prefer to take foreign workers as they have to pay less," he said.

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Monday his country will lead a call to convene special session of the United Nations General Assembly to press for a halt to escalating violence in Gaza.

Abdullah said Malaysia's permanent representative to the UN will hold discussions with contact groups of the Non-Aligned Movement and the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, to get the UN to convene the special session.

"The world must firmly express itself and demand a resolution of the issue," he was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.