Singapore - Singapore and Malaysia have set up a joint technical committee to sort out the issues surrounding sovereignty over the disputed territories of Pedra Branca, Middle Rocks and South Ledge, a media report said Tuesday.

Malaysian Minister of Foreign Affairs Rais Yatim and Singapore's Foreign Minister George Teo announced the panel and emphasized both countries' commitment to "honour and abide by the International Court of Justice(ICJ) judgement and fully implement its decision."

Kuala Lumpur, Sep. 1 : At least 200 Malay Indians have been denied loans by a financial institution here, an Indian-based business association has claimed.

Malaysian Indian Business Association (Miba) president P. Sivakumar said that the Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia has not given loans to any of the 200 people it had recommended this year.

"We sent the list to AIM but to date none of the candidates had received loans," The New Strait Times quoted him, as saying.

Sivakumar said AIM, which was set up to help all Malaysians, should reveal how much it had disbursed to poor Indians over the last six months.

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.

Tokyo - Japan's Mitsui Mining & Smelting Co on Friday unveiled a plan to build an electrodeposited copper foil factory in Malaysia as the company expects demands to rapidly grow in Asia.

The nonferrous metal company plans to invest about 15 billion yen (137.22 million dollars) for a new plant to be located next to an existing factory in Shah Alam, Selangor, the company said.

The firm plans to complete the first phase of construction and start operations with a monthly output of 700 tons of electrodeposited copper foil by the beginning of 2010, with an aim to expand its production capacity to total 1,200 tons.

The Japanese company is hoping to lead the market with a total production capacity of 2,800 tons per month at both facilities.

Kuala Lumpur, Aug 29 : Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has reportedly set up a new cabinet sub-committee to champion the commercial interests of the Indian community.

The committee will build a bridge with the Cabinet Committee on Indian Welfare.

Kuala Lumpur  - Malaysia said Thursday its team of peacekeepers was to remain on troubled Mindanao island in the southern Philippines for another three months to monitor peace negotiations between Manila and rebel Muslim separatists.

The announcement comes in the wake of a recent outbreak of fighting between Philippine government forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) which killed at least 40 civilians and displaced more than 340,000.