Compiled by C. ARUNO, CHAN MAY THENG and R. ARAVINTHAN

       SOME 14 shops in Taiping were destroyed in an early morning fire, Malaysia Nanban reported.

       The Tsen Loong Bazaar, also known as Little India due to the number of Indian-owned shops there, went up in flames around 2am on Sunday.

       Firefighters managed to prevent the flames from spreading and eventually brought it under control.

       However, 14 of the 30 shops in the area were badly damaged.

       Taiping councillor M. Veeran said he will assist in getting the affected shop owners a temporary location.

       > A total of 28 Tamil primary schools and pre-schools in Penang received a total of RM2.3mil allocation from the state government, Makkal Osai reported.

       The report said RM2mil went to the regular operating budget for the schools, RM150,000 was given to the pre-schools and RM150,000 was allocated for emergency funds.

       It said the state government also provided RM90,000 for the Punjabi school in the state.

       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.