Tehran  - Malaysian Prime Minster Abdullah Ahmad Badawi arrived on Sunday for a three-day visit and talks with Iranian officials, state television reported.

Bollywood hottie Mallika Sherawat can’t stop raving about ace Hollywood director Oliver Stone with whom she met at the Global Brand Forum 2008 held in Malaysia.

Mallika was invited last week as a guest speaker at the Global Brand Forum to talk about the challenges and chances in front of the movie business plus about the impact of Indian movies in brands as well as business.

Kuala Lumpur - A global anti-piracy watchdog on Friday hailed what it called a "perfect cooperation" between international naval forces in warding off pirates from attacking a Chinese ship this week off Somalia's coast.

Malaysian warship KD Sri Inderafakti and naval helicopter Fennec responded to an emergency call by crew members of the Zhenhua 4 Wednesday after pirates had boarded the Chinese vessel, said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur.

Nine armed pirates had boarded the ship when the 30-member crew sent a distress message to the bureau, Choong said.

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian police on Thursday shot dead four suspects, including two foreigners, believed to be involved in a spate of recent armed robberies in the northern state of Penang, news reports said.

The suspects, in their 30s and 40s, were driving toward a housing estate before dawn = when they realized they were being tailed by the police, deputy state police chief Salleh Mat Rasid said.

Salleh said the eight-member police team opened fire on the suspected robbers after one of the men took out a gun and shot at the officers.

"These suspects were believed to be involved in several burglaries in Penang," Salleh was quoted as saying by the Star daily.

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian police busted two drug syndicates believed to be helmed by Singaporeans with the seizure of drugs worth about 1.5 million ringgit (434,783 dollars) and the arrest of 13 suspects, news reports said Thursday.

Two raids conducted by police Tuesday night in the southern state of Johor resulted in the seizure of 26 kilograms of drugs, including ketamine; nimetazepam pills, also known as Erimin 5; methamphetamines; and ecstasy.

The suspects, including two accused Singaporean masterminds, were aged 20 to 66 and were believed to be part of the syndicates that have been in operation for the past six months, acting state police chief Hisan Tun Hamzah said.

Kuala Lumpur  - Malaysian police detained five suspects, including two Singaporeans, suspected of running an illegal lottery syndicate in the southern state of Johor, news reports said Thursday.

The suspects - three women and two men, aged 30 to 47 - were arrested when police conducted a raid at a home late Tuesday after a tip-off, the Star daily reported.