malaysia

Legoland Malaysia opens with mini buildings galore

It's got a mini Taj Mahal and just about every other icon from Asia, all made out of millions of plastic bricks.

Legoland Malaysia opened to a crowd of 10,000 over the weekend with dozens of rides and iconic 1:20-scale buildings fashioned from plastic.

The Lego paradise was built on 76 acres of former palm tree hills in southern Malaysia across the Straits of Johor from Singapore. It's expected to draw visitors from the city-state and other countries.

More than 50 million bricks were used in the theme park, which is divided into seven theme areas: … Read more

Malaysian law stirs online 'blackout' protest

Many high-profile Web sites in Malaysia are blacked out as part of a one-day protest against changes to a law that they say would restrict online freedom of speech.

Many home pages have been replaced with banners protesting the new amendment, dubbed "114A," to the Malaysian Evidence Act.

Revised in April, the Evidence Act 1950 was updated to include Section 114A, the "presumption of fact in publication," which critics claim would mean Web site administrators, Web hosting providers, Internet providers, and those who own a computer or mobile device "on which [content] was posted" … Read more

Bug gurus spot new species -- on Flickr

Call it fate, or just pure luck. One insect species recently gained a scientific name due to an eagle-eyed taxonomist browsing images on Flickr.

Our short story begins with a simple upload: Amateur photographer Hock Ping Guek posted a series of close-up photos featuring a strange green lacewing insect to the photo-sharing service in May 2011. Guek, who observed the lacewing at a state park in the Malaysian state of Selangor, has a penchant for macro insect photography. … Read more

F-Secure finds rare digitally signed malware

Researchers at F-Secure have uncovered a rarity--malware that is signed with a valid code-signing certificate stolen from a government.

The malware uses a certificate for mardi.gov.my, which is the Agricultural Research and Development Institute of Malaysia. That agency told F-Secure that the certificate had been stolen "quite some time ago." It expired at the end of September so is no longer effective for authentication.

The Trojan program, which F-Secure detected as Agent.DTIW, spreads via malicious PDF files that exploit a vulnerability in Adobe Reader 8, according to the F-Secure blog.

"The malware downloads additional … Read more

Punishment for defamer: Send 100 tweets of apology

I am sure that soccer star Ryan Giggs and others who feel they have somehow been hard done by in writing, will be fueled with enthusiasm for this tale of birching by Twitter.

For the Associated Press reports that Fahmi Fadzil, an aide to an opposition politician and commentator on social issues, was made to undergo a very painful ritual punishment for having defamed a magazine publisher.

Yes, an out-of-court settlement forced him to write 100 tweets of apology over three days. Sadly, it seems these tweets all had to enjoy the same construction.

Which meant that "I am … Read more

The 404 833: Where we're burning up the quarter-mile (podcast)

On today's show, we have CBS' own Morgan Seal, who recently came to the company from Clicker.com, along with CBS Interactive's new president, Jim Lanzone. She joins us today to chat about her history with Clicker.com, as well as Intel's strange new Museum of Me app on Facebook, Malaysia's Twitter punishment, a war between The Oatmeal and FunkyJunk, Shaq's retirement announcement on Twitter, and more!

The 404 Digest for Episode 833

Intel's Facebook 'Museum of Me' is a must-try. Malaysia defamation case: 100 apologies on Twitter. The Oatmeal vs. FunkyJunk: a war for copyrights. Shaq chooses Twitter to announce retirement.

Episode 833 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Intel to close plants, up to 6,000 workers affected

Updated at 3:00 p.m. PST with comments from an Intel spokesperson.

Intel said on Wednesday it will close chip plants to align its manufacturing capacity to current market conditions. Between 5,000 and 6,000 employees will be affected.

The world's largest chipmaker will halt production at five "older" factories.

The company plans to close two existing assembly test facilities in Penang, Malaysia, and one in Cavite, Philippines, and will halt production at Fab 20, an older 200mm wafer fabrication facility in Hillsboro, Ore., Intel said. Additionally, wafer production operations will end at the D2 … Read more

Blogger jailing backfires on Malaysian government

If the Malaysian government had hoped that the recent detention of controversial blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin would quell the country's vociferous blogger community, it may need to look elsewhere.

Bloggers, civil-rights groups, nongovernment organizations, and politicians from both sides of the camp have stepped out to condemn the detention of the founder and editor of the blocked Malaysia Today news portal. Raja Petra was detained earlier this month for two years under Malaysia's Internal Security Act, which permits detention without trial.

Raja Petra, in addition to Sin Chew Daily newspaper reporter Tan Hoon Cheng and opposition lawmaker Teresa Kok, were arrested September 12. While Kok and Tan were subsequently released, Raja Petra was remanded in a two-year detention at the Kamunting ISA detention center in Perak state. He also faces charges of sedition and criminal defamation for linking Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife to the murder of a Mongolian woman.

The ISA is a security law, inherited from the British colonial government, specifically to fight against communist terrorists. Civil-rights groups, politicians, and various international bodies have condemned the use of the ISA against bloggers and members of the media.

Zaid Ibrahim, appointed a minister after the March 2008 elections to oversee legal affairs and judicial reform, resigned from the prime minister's cabinet in protest of the arrests.

Galvanizing effect Various groups and bloggers have been attempting to garner international support against the incarceration of the Malaysia Today editor. … Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: Google's shiny new 'Chrome'

The news today is all about Google's new Web browser, dubbed Chrome. We've got screenshots, an early review, and analysis of what the move means all compiled here.

Also in this podcast: Political bloggers and commentators in Malaysia are bracing for a government crackdown after one controversial portal was blocked by all 19 of the country's Internet service providers; Apple has officially set a date for its next big music-related news event, where new iPods are expected to be announced; and how the Republican National Convention got wired.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:… Read more