Compiled by CHOW HOW BAN, GERARD GIMINO and R. ARAVINTHAN

       A Johor state assemblyman has urged the municipal and city councils to take over the running of Hindu crematoriums and cemeteries, reported Makkal Osai.

       Bekok assemblyman Dr S. Ramakrishnan said most of these facilities were run by private individuals or non-governmental groups.

       However, both the location and management of these facilities as well as the services were not satisfactory, he said.

       He said he had written a letter to Mentri Besar Datuk Hasni Mohammad urging the facilities to be placed under the local councils.

       > The daily also reported that the Tamil Nadu state government in India had pledged to sponsor the tertiary education of around 11,000 public school students.

       Tamil Nadu had recently introduced a move to set aside 7.5% of the places in engineering courses in government colleges for students from the Tamil stream in state funded public schools.

       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.