Compiled by JO TIMBUONG, C. ARUNO and R. ARAVINTHAN

       A MALAYSIAN nurse serving in Saudi Arabia was overwhelmed with emotion when he was selected to be among the 263 Malaysians there given the chance to perform the haj, Harian Metro reported.

       Ahmad Najhan Hassim (pic), 30, a surgical nurse at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Jeddah, said he put in his application to perform one of the tenets of Islam last year under the hospital staff quota but was unsuccessful.

       He applied again on June 13 through the Malaysian embassy in Saudi Arabia and received the good news two weeks later.

       This year, he said the haj was only open to those living and working in Saudi Arabia.

       Ahmad Najhan views his chance of performing the haj as a blessing in return for caring for his parents, who passed away in 2014 due to old age before he decided to move to Saudi Arabia for work.

       “I thought of them the moment my name was chosen. Maybe this is a reward from God for caring for them,” he said.

       > Comedian Zizan Razak regrets buying a luxury car during the height of his popularity, realising now that the money could have gone into buying a house instead, Kosmo! reported.

       During a live session on Instagram with rapper Joe Flizzow, Singaporean comedian Fakkah Fuzz and entrepreneur Pak Din, Zizan said one of his biggest regrets was buying a Ferrari in his younger days, and he now advised anyone else against making the same mistake.

       Zizan said he wasn’t against anyone with the means to do so to get their dream luxury car, but he personally maintained that it was not the best choice in the long run.

       “A house is forever compared to a car because models are always changing. Now it’s a GT-R after that it will be a GTO and maybe soon a GTB. All sorts of new models will come out,” he laughed, adding that it was better to put the money in an investment.

       In 2015, it was reported that Zizan owned a yellow Ferrari F430 that cost him RM1.5mil after his friend and fellow comedian Tauke shared a photo of Zizan with the car on Instagram.

       The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.