KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s flood situation has eased on Tuesday (March 3) with some 82 people from 29 families left at a relief centre in Beaufort after week of floods that inundated five districts in south-western Sabah and interior Tenom. The remaining victims were from five villages in Beaufort district as of 4pm, according to a statement from the Sabah Disaster Management Committee Secretariat. More than 6,000 people from over 100 villages in Tenom, Sook, Membakut, Beaufort and Sipitang were evacuated following heavy rains last week. Improving weather conditions and receding floods saw all the temporary evacuation centres closed in Sook, Sipitang, Tenom and Membakut over the last three days.

(March 3): Japan Post Insurance Co plans to sell holdings of lower-yielding government bonds and replace them with higher-yielding debt on expectations for further interest-rate hikes, according to its chief executive officer. The life insurer expects the Bank of Japan (BOJ) to raise interest rates again as soon as April. It’s one of the nation’s biggest insurers and held ¥50.35 trillion (RM1.25 trillion) in securities at the end of last year. Daiwa investmentWith a shrinking and ageing population pressuring its traditional businesses, Japan Post Insurance is trying to strengthen its asset management operations and diversify its revenue sources. As part of that effort, it invested in Daiwa Asset Management Co (Daiwa AM) in 2024.

KUALA LUMPUR (March 3): Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Holdings Bhd (KL:MHB) has secured a four-year contract from Thailand's upstream player PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Ltd (PTTEP) for offshore works in Sarawak. The contract, structured as a price agreement, was awarded to MHB's wholly-owned subsidiary, Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Sdn Bhd. On completion, the facilities will be installed offshore Sarawak to support PTTEP’s field development plans. As a price agreement, total revenue will likely depend on the actual number of work orders or 'call-outs' issued by PTTEP over the four-year duration. MHB managing director and chief executive officer Mohd Nazir Mohd Nor said the contract was secured through a competitive bidding process and reflects the group’s more than five decades of offshore expertise.

KOTA KINABALU: Residents of a housing area in east coast Sandakan were shocked by the presence of a five-metre-long python coiled along the road near their homes. Sandakan Civil Defence Force (APM) spokesman said that they dispatched a team to the area to capture the reptile weighing about 30kg during the wee hours of Tuesday (Mar 3) after a resident contacted the emergency hotline seeking assistance. He said the python was successfully controlled and captured after a careful operation within an hour after they arrived at the scene. The operations were completed by 12.45am. The spokesman advised the public to remain vigilant, especially at night and in the early morning, and to immediately contact the authorities if they encounter dangerous wildlife in their areas.

SUNGAI PETANI: A Form Five student has been injured after falling from the third floor of a secondary school building after being reprimanded by a teacher for bringing a mobile phone to school. He said the victim had been at the school since Form One is said to have behavioural issues. Adzli said doctors at the Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital here said the student had fractures to the left arm, left collarbone and hip as well as an injured left lung but was in stable condition. It said a cleaner had found the injured student and provided immediate assistance before he was rushed to the hospital while the school promptly informed the parents. Alternatively, Mental Illness Awareness and Support Association Malaysia also offers a 24-hour crisis helpline at 1-800-180-066 and WhatsApp support line at 03-9765 6088 manned by trained volunteers.

KUCHING: A woman was fined RM4,000, in default six months in jail, by the Magistrate's Court here today after pleading guilty to a charge of concealing the birth of her premature baby by secretly disposing of the body. The charge provides a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both upon conviction. She was charged with concealing the birth by burying the baby in a small forested area opposite her house in Taman Malihah on Jan 28 this year. Further investigations revealed that she had given birth in her bathroom and subsequently buried the infant. She was represented by lawyer Milton Foo, while the prosecution was conducted by Deputy Public Prosecutor Ahmad Fauzulutfi Suriani.- Bernama

Iran's retaliatory strikes across the Gulf hit across Dubai's key sectors, landing on airports, hotels and ports. “It’s hard to overstate the peril for Dubai's economic model," said Jim Krane, a fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute. But Dubai's status as a safe-haven for expatriates and their businesses is in increasing doubt. Beirut had been the region's international financial capital until its civil war in the 1970s shattered that image. The creation of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) in 2004 kickstarted a push to draw financial firms.

That has left tens of thousands of passengers stranded as aviation faced its biggest test since the COVID-19 pandemic. The war sent U.S. airline shares lower on Monday, with Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines falling between 2% and 4%. Shares in TUI, Europe's largest travel company, closed down 9.9% while Germany's Lufthansa declined by 5.2% and British Airways owner IAG lost 5.5%. Singapore Airlines cancelled flights to and from Dubai through March 7 while Japan Airlines suspended Tokyo-Doha services. Lufthansa cancelled passenger flights in and out of the United Arab Emirates, while Qatar Airways passengers in Sydney told Reuters they scrambled to rearrange travel with little information.

For Mohamad Keanudin Mohamad Azman, better known as Keanu Azman, Ramadan is a month when he makes a conscious effort to maximise his time for performing ibadah. “Normally I read about five to 10 pages a day, but during Ramadan I try to read around 30 pages daily because I want to complete the whole Quran within the month. “During Ramadan, there are fewer distractions, so you tend to read without any issues.”On the flip side, Keanu says he makes a conscious effort to curb unnecessary chatter. “I also prefer not to go to Ramadan bazaar,” he adds. There’s about 90,000 tonnes of food waste during Ramadan, and I don’t want to be part of that.”(It was reported that in 2023, 90,000 tonnes of food was dumped during Ramadan.)

Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said that the syndicates employ a tactic of breaking down transactions into small amounts, such as RM1,000 to RM3,000. "In just three to 10 minutes, the majority of the money is moved across several different layers of accounts. Saifuddin Nasution noted that 35,322 complaint calls were received as of last January, with a total of RM1.44 million successfully seized through early freezing actions. Saifuddin Nasution added that throughout 2025, the NSRC recorded significant achievements in protecting the interests of online financial scam victims. The centre handled 146,167 complaint calls last year and implemented freezing actions on 138,915 involved accounts.

KUALA LUMPUR (March 3): Sessions Court judge Azura Alwi has directed that the corruption trial involving Lim Guan Eng over the Penang undersea tunnel and major roads project, currently at the prosecution stage, be concluded by June this year. "Only this witness (Gnanaraja) and the investigating officer remain for cross-examination. Earlier during cross-examination, an unwell Gnanaraja questioned defence counsel Tiara Katrina Fuad's line of questioning for raising the same issues. Ramkarpal then interjected: "I think it's about time the court takes control of proceedings, not the witness. Additionally, Lim faces two charges of disposing of a couple of state-owned lots of land in Penang, valued at RM208.8 million, to a developer linked to the undersea tunnel project.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Dewan Rakyat has accepted an apology from Opposition chief whip Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan over his remarks about an exercise conducted by the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) in Marang, Terengganu, in October last year. Takiyuddin (PN-Kota Baru) had reportedly linked the MMEA exercise in Marang to the 1985 Memali incident in his remarks made on Dec 4. ALSO READ: Home Minister moves to suspend Opposition chief whip over controversial remarksTakiyuddin also stood up to express his thanks to the Speaker. It was claimed that Takiyuddin spoke about an incident involving MMEA officers at Masjid Rusila in Marang, Kuala Terengganu, where his remarks could have instilled fear among the public and cast a negative light on MMEA personnel. Bernama subsequently reported on Dec 4 that the motion to suspend Takiyuddin had been postponed to the current meeting.

WASHINGTON (March 2): U.S. President Donald Trump's Republicans insisted on Monday that ​the attack on Iran was fully within his authority as commander in chief, while Democrats said the administration has not made ‌its case and planned a war powers vote this week. But Trump's top aides have not made a convincing case that the U.S. faced an immediate threat, he said. Later in the week, lawmakers are expected to vote on war powers resolutions that could block Trump from continuing to attack Iran without a congressional declaration of war. The U.S. Constitution grants Congress, not the president, the power to send U.S. troops to ⁠war, except ​for limited strikes for national security reasons. However, Trump's Republicans hold slim margins in ​both the House and Senate and even though a few Republicans have joined Democrats in supporting war powers resolutions, his party has blocked every effort so far to force him ​to obtain lawmakers' approval for military action.

LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) - U.S. President ⁠Donald Trump said it was "sad to see" the relationship with Britain ⁠was "not what it was" after Prime Minister Keir Starmer initially held ‌off giving military support to the strikes against Iran. Trump said the likes of France had been more supportive and said he had never expected to see the once "most solid of all" ​relationships change in this way. "It's very sad to ⁠see that the relationship is obviously ⁠not what it was," Trump told the Sun newspaper on Tuesday, his second ⁠interview ‌to a British newspaper in as many days where he criticised the British leader. Senior British minister Darren Jones told Times Radio in response to the latest Trump comment's that the U.S.-UK relationship remained crucial but said the country had ⁠learnt lessons from its involvement in the 2003 Iraq war. Starmer said ⁠in parliament on Monday: "President Trump has expressed his disagreement with our decision not to ​get involved in the initial strikes, but ‌it is my duty to judge what is ​in Britain’s national interest.

Previously, the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) said it was investigating a powerful individual and an international media agency over allegations of attempts to overthrow the government and sabotage national stability. Anwar said the activities under probe were believed to have been triggered by major corruption investigations by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). According to Anwar, strategies outlined in documents linked to an international firm included mobilising foreign media and leveraging overseas networks to put pressure on Malaysian institutions. How does this tie in with detailed planning, using international media and bankers from that period up to the election?” he asked. “For me, this is not tied to party interests, but a matter of national security,” he said.