Kuala Lumpur  - A Malaysian policewoman who kept hearing the sound of a crying baby made a shocking discovery when she found a five-day old baby stuffed in her Indonesian maid's cupboard drawer, news reports said Tuesday.

The woman, a senior police officer from the northern Perlis state, found the crying baby early Sunday but her maid initially denied the child was hers.

However, on Monday, the 22-year old Indonesian maid known only as Yanti, admitted to giving birth to the baby girl on Thursday in her toilet.

Jakarta - About 100 Indonesian Muslims rallied outside the US embassy in Jakarta Monday to protest a planned visit this week by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The protestors from the conservative Islamic group Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia waved placards denouncing Clinton as a "Zionist agent" in reference to Israel.

"Hillary, you're not welcome here," read a poster held by a woman wearing a white headscarf.

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian marine police detained seven suspected Indonesian pirates after a high-speed shootout Monday, a piracy watchdog group said.

The suspects, travelling in a speedboat and armed with pistols, machetes and hand grenades, were nabbed after a 30-minute chase, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) confirmed.

Marine police from Malaysia's southern region had waited in ambush for the suspects early Monday, following information and assistance from several shipping companies.

Hong Kong - More than 10,000 Indonesian women working as live-in maids in Hong Kong are being illegally underpaid, with some receiving just half the legal salary, according to a survey Monday.

The survey of foreign domestic helpers found that 12 per cent of Indonesian maids in the city of 6.9 million are paid less than the government-set minimum wage of 460 US dollars a month.

Jakarta - A politician and former separatist rebel was shot dead in Indonesia's Aceh province in the latest attack targeting former separatists, an official said Friday.

Taufik, who headed a district branch of the Aceh Party, was gunned down at his home Thursday, said Ibrahim Syamsuddin, a spokesman for the Aceh Transition Committee, an advocacy group for former separatist fighters in Aceh.

Taufik, whose wife is running in a regional election, was the third former rebel to have been killed in the past two weeks, Syamsuddin said.

Kuala Lumpur - Thick smoke blanketed several states in Malaysia Thursday after winds brought in choking haze caused by forest fires on Indonesia's neighbouring Sumatra island.

In the southern state of Malacca, visibility was 6 kilometres while visibility at the international airport in the northern state of Penang was recorded at 8 kilometres by midafternoon, with an air-pollutant index of less than 100, which qualifies for moderate air quality, the Meteorological Department said on its website.

A department spokesman said the haze was expected to continue until the end of the week, adding that residents were encouraged not to carry out open burning to help improve air quality.