Kuala Lumpur, Jan. 7: A Tamil Nesan report has said that Maly Tamils will receive land for the Sri Sakthi Nageswari Amman Temple, which is currently located in Kampung Haji Abdullah Hukum in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur.

According to The Star, Deputy Federal Territories Minister M. Saravanan was quoted as saying that City Hall and developer S. P. Setia had each agreed to allocate 0.2ha for the temple.

He was speaking to reporters after discussions with the temple committee, the Malaysia Hindu Sangam and MIC branch leaders at the temple last Thursday.

Lembah Pantai MIC chief R. Narayanan said the temple had been in existence for the past 80 years adding that at one time, there were about 700 Indian families living in the area.

Kuala Lumpur, Jan 6 : Malaysian Indian political leaders of the MIC, DAP and PKR will leave for Chennai this week to attend the three-day ''Pravasi Bharatiya Divas''.

Representatives of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) will also participate in the conference, which is scheduled to begin from tomorrow at the Chennai Trade Centre.

Hindraf chief P. Wathyamoorthy is also expected to participate in the Indian Diaspora Conference. Wathyamoorthy lives in a self-imposed exile in London.

Kuala Lumpur, Jan 6 : Due to the migration of estate workers to town areas in Malaysia, there has been an increase in the number of students in Tamil schools.

"Most Tamil schools except several in the estates showed an increase in student enrolment possibly due to the migration of estate workers to town areas, The Star online quoted Malaysian Tamil schools chief organiser S. Baskaran as saying.

Students, who completed their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) and Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) examinations, have been asked to select their course wisely.

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia's opposition-ruled northern state of Penang announced Monday that builders hiring foreign workers over local applicants would be blacklisted from receiving state contracts.

Contractors and developers awarded contracts would only be allowed to hire foreigners if they are unable to find enough local workers to complete their jobs, said state Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

"If they do not follow the directive, in the future they will not get contracts from the state government," Lim was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

"I know that contractors prefer to take foreign workers as they have to pay less," he said.

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Monday his country will lead a call to convene special session of the United Nations General Assembly to press for a halt to escalating violence in Gaza.

Abdullah said Malaysia's permanent representative to the UN will hold discussions with contact groups of the Non-Aligned Movement and the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, to get the UN to convene the special session.

"The world must firmly express itself and demand a resolution of the issue," he was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

Kuala Lumpur, Jan. 2: Former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has written an open letter to incoming US President Barack Obama, asking him to abandon his caveman attitude.

The former prime minister listed his 2009 wish list in his weblog on New Year''s Day, appealing to the incoming Obama administration to end war.

"I welcome your promise of change. Certainly your country, the United States of America, needs a lot of changes," the New Strait Times quoted Mohammad, as saying.