Malaysia makes it into BBC's 'Most Read'

I didn't even know this was happening. I was having too much of a blissful time in Sabah. BBC: Sex DVDs show Malaysian minister was in the BBC's Most Read list. Awesome.

Malaysian Health Minister Chua Soi Lek has admitted that he is the man who features in two widely circulated DVDs of an unmarried couple having sex.

He said he had apologised to the prime minister and other ruling party leaders but would not resign, and his own wife and children had accepted his apology.

Mr Chua said he had taken no part in the making of the DVD recordings, one of them
said to be almost an hour long.

The video is CCTV footage taken in a hotel, according to one newspaper.

Let's see what the reaction is like. Apparently this story only broke yesterday. It's so new that Malaysiakini has no damning article on the issue yet. I really do have a lot of respect for him for having come clean about something like that, especially in a country like Malaysia and with the local politicians being known for abusing their power to cover up something like this.

And this is just mean. From NST: 30 couples held over khalwat:

KUANTAN: State Islamic Religious Department enforcement officers had a busy time here early yesterday when they picked up nearly 30 couples for khalwat (close proximity).

Six underage girls were among them.In an operation which lasted from midnight until dawn, the officers raided several budget hotels around town following tip-offs of unmarried Muslim couples spending the night there after the New Year Eve celebrations.

Five Muslim men caught consuming alcohol were also nabbed in the operation, which involved 30 officers.

Just another reason to move to Sabah, where I can blend in with the (real) natives. And one more for the road. From BBC: Malaysia reverses Allah paper ban:

The Malaysian government has reversed a decision to ban a Christian newspaper using the word Allah to refer to God.

The government had threatened to refuse to give the Weekly Herald a publishing permit if it continued to use the word.

The paper's editor said the word had long been used by Christians to refer to God in the Malay language.

The ruling was immediately condemned by civil rights and Christian groups in Malaysia, who said it infringed their right to practice their religion.

But Malaysia's internal security department demanded the word be removed, saying only Muslims could use it.

'Over-zealous ministers'

Now the government has back-tracked.

In a fax to the Herald's editor, the government says it will get its 2008 permit, with no conditions attached.

Father Andrew Lawrence told the BBC he was delighted, saying prayers had been answered.

He blamed politics and a general election expected here in 2008 year for what he said were the actions of a few over-zealous ministers in the Muslim-dominated Malay government.

Religious issues are highly sensitive in Malaysia, which has a 60% Muslim population.

Religious freedom is guaranteed in the law but minority groups have accused the Muslim Malay majority of trying to increase the role of Islam in the country.

This is even meaner. In fact, this is downright inhumane. From BBC: Kenyans burned to death in church:

Thirty Kenyans including many children have been burned to death in a church, after seeking refuge from the mounting violence over last week's elections.

A mob set fire to the church in Eldoret where many people from President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe were sheltering.

The Kenyan government has accused supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga of carrying out "ethnic cleansing" against the Kikuyu.

Both President Kibaki and Mr Odinga have called for the killing to stop.

An estimated 250 people have died in the violence that erupted following the controversial re-election of President Kibaki, according to police and journalists across the country.

About 400 people were said to be taking refuge in the Kenya Assemblies of God church when the attack took place at about 1000 (0700 GMT).

A pastor from the church, Jackson Nyanga, told the BBC that many of the people were beaten before the building was set on fire.

"After torching the church, children died - around 25 in number - four elderly people. And our men and our people who tried to confront them were injured," he said.

This is disturbing no matter where you are in the world. I get that historically, political change has always been preceded by violence, and that the world's most (relatively) successful democracies have been created on violence, but still. Didn't we leave the barbaric era behind us? Or did we just create whole new ways to be barbarians?