Kuala Lumpur  - Malaysian police found drugs worth more than 800,000 ringgit (232,000 dollars) while investigating a three-vehicle accident, a news report said Sunday.

Fourteen kilograms of heroin and a kilogram of ketamine were discovered inside one car involved in the crash. Police decided to search the vehicles before they were towed away.

On Saturday afternoon, a tourist bus driver lost control of his vehicle on a major expressway in the northern state of Perak and crashed into two cars, the News Straits Times reported.

Kuala Lumpur  - A surprise driving theory test on some 400 Malaysian driving instructors resulted in even more surprising results - a total of 65 per cent of them failed, a news report said Friday.

During a seminar in the northern state of Perak, 396 driving instructors were asked to take the driving theory exam, which student drivers must pass in order to obtain a license.

Only 35 per cent of the instructors passed, said director of the state road department Mohamad Yasir Mastakim.

"We will have refresher courses for them to improve their scores," he was quoted as saying by the Star daily.

The test comprises 50 multiple-choice questions, with 42 correct answers being the passing requirement, he said.

Kuala Lumpur, Nov. 27 : Many Tamil schools do not have basic facilities although the country has been independent for more than 50 years, Malaysia Nanban quoted Selangor state executive councillor Dr Xavier Jayakumar, as saying on Wednesday.

He said some schools were conducting their classes in warehouses and under trees.

He added that in the 1980s and 1990s, many parents were not interested in sending their children to Tamil schools due to the deplorable conditions, which made it unsafe for them.

He said the trend had changed and more Indian parents were eager to send their children to Tamil schools due to the excellent academic performance by students in such schools.

Kuala Lumpur - A Malaysian court on Thursday sentenced a housewife to 18 years in prison for burning her Indonesian maid with an iron and scalding her with hot water.

Sessions court Judge Akhtar Tahir found Yim Pek Ha, 40, guilty of abusing her former maid Nirmala Bonat by inflicting injury on three occasions in 2004.

Yim, a former flight attendant who has been free on bail since being charged in 2004, was ordered to serve her sentence beginning Thursday.

The case had gained local and international attention as one of the country's worse incidents of maid abuse.

Nirmala, who has since returned to Indonesia, had claimed to have been beaten and burned for making mistakes in the course of working for Yim.

Manila - Malaysia said Thursday it was withdrawing its troops from an international peacekeeping mission in the troubled southern Philippines amid stalled peace talks between the Philippine government and Muslim separatist rebels.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim said Malaysia's troops were pulling out of the southern region of Mindanao as scheduled on November 30.

He said Malaysia, which has led the international monitoring team (IMT) in Mindanao since 2004, would consider rejoining the mission if the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) make progress in peace negotiations.

Ipoh (Malaysia), Nov. 26 : The National Fatwa Council may have declared yoga ‘haram’ for having the potential to undermine the faith of Muslims as it could be traced back to Hinduism, but according to a senior government official, it is up to the rulers of the respective states in the country to accept the council''s decision.