Ten female soldiers from Malaysia are expected in Lebanon on Tuesday to serve for six months with the Malaysian contingent of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, Malaysia's National News Agency reported.

The agency quoted Armed Forces chief Gen. Tan Sri Zulkifeli Mohd Zin, who presided their sending off ceremony, as saying they would replace the first batch of female members of the armed forces who are completing duty on Jan 21.

Around 400 Rohingya migrants discovered in a raid on a camp hidden in a remote rubber plantation in southern Thailand will be deported back to Myanmar, Thai police said Friday.

The group, 378 men, 11 women and 12 children, were found in a makeshift shelter in the plantation in Songkhla province where they had languished for three months waiting to be trafficked to a "third country", local police said.

A Malaysian Islamic sect that stockpiled a huge cache of swords, gunpowder and other weaponry was preparing for last month's much-hyped Mayan apocalypse prophecy that never came true, police said Friday.

The 46-year-old leader of the sect, which called itself "Sky Banner", was arrested Saturday in the southern state Malacca, and a police raid at his home turned up an array of weapons and survival gear.

Malaysian police on Thursday shot and killed two of the seven suspected criminals who escaped custody this week by temporarily blinding a guard with chilli powder.

The escape Monday of the men -- whom police have called "dangerous criminals" -- has prompted a large-scale manhunt in the northern state of Penang.

Seven Malaysians who escaped police custody this week did so by temporarily blinding a guard with chilli powder hidden in one of the escapee's underpants, police and press reports said Wednesday.

The escape Monday of the seven men -- whom police have called "dangerous criminals" -- has prompted a large-scale manhunt in the northern Malaysian state of Penang.

Seven alleged criminals who were being transferred to a Malaysian court seized the opportunity to hijack the police van carrying them in a daring escape on Monday, police said.

The van's driver had pulled over when a commotion burst out among the detainees who were being taken from jail to their court proceedings in the northern state of Penang, Abdul Rahman Ibrahim, a district police chief, told Agence France Presse.

Ten illegal immigrant Indonesians, including two pregnant women, drowned when their boat capsized in rough seas off Malaysia's southern coast, maritime authorities said Thursday.

The bodies of five men and five women and the rickety wooden boat they were travelling in washed ashore earlier in the week, marine police official Mohammad Muhi told Agence France Presse.

Malaysia has removed quotas and other restrictions on Christians from the Muslim majority nation making their pilgrimage to Jerusalem, government and church officials said.

The move comes after a string of clashes in recent years between the government and the Christian minority and ahead of national polls which must be held by the middle of next year.

Malaysia Airlines on Tuesday said it will buy 36 new ATR turboprop aircraft for 3.0 billion ringgit ($916 million) as it looks to boost profits be further expanding its regional and domestic networks.

Of the 36 ATR-72-600 planes, the carrier said 20 will go to low-cost subsidiary Firefly, which is fast expanding its lucrative routes, while 16 are for MASwings, another low-cost carrier that flies to Sarawak and Sabah on Borneo island.

A top Chinese daily on Wednesday condemned pop star Elton John for dedicating his Beijing show to dissident artist Ai Weiwei, saying it was disrespectful and could lead to bans on other Western performers.

The Sunday night dedication was reminiscent of Icelandic singer Bjork chanting "Tibet, Tibet" at a 2008 concert in Shanghai, which resulted in China's cultural minders refusing performance permits for some Western acts.