At least two people died and 18 others were missing after an overloaded boat carrying illegal Indonesian immigrants capsized off the coast of southern Malaysia, a maritime official said Tuesday.

The official with the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency said the boat carrying around 80 people overturned and sank late Monday as a patrolling vessel was pursuing it off the state of Johor.

A policeman was killed and a second kidnapped after heavily armed gunmen opened fire at a diving resort off Malaysia's Borneo island, a security official said Sunday.

The shooting on Mabul island marks a fresh escalation of violence in the remote area of Sabah state, one of the world's top diving hotspots, renowned for its pristine dive sites.

Malaysian police said Thursday they had arrested seven people in connection with the murder of an Estonian model whose body was found on a resort island.

Freelance model Regina Soosalu's body was discovered on a beach on Rawa island off Malaysia's east coast last week.

Singapore on Wednesday expressed concern at the risk of militant attacks posed by local and foreign jihadists returning to Southeast Asia after fighting in Syria.

Interior Minister Teo Chee Hean said returning fighters have the skills to carry out terror attacks or support others planning them. 

In one fluid motion, Amri Aziz flings his oversized spinning top into the air and with a whip-like crack of rope sends it whirling for the next two hours.

That's when the tea is poured.

Malaysian police on Friday said they have arrested four more suspected Tamil Tiger separatists, including a man allegedly involved in the attempted assassination of a former Sri Lankan president.

The arrests come after three Sri Lankans, including two refugees, were deported in May amid a crackdown on suspected militants, prompting criticism from the United Nations refugee agency.

Malaysia will send a diplomat back to New Zealand to face an attempted rape charge, the foreign ministry said Wednesday, as a diplomatic storm erupted over the case.

Muhammad Rizalman Ismail, a former defense staff assistant at Malaysia's high commission (embassy) in Wellington, escaped prosecution on attempted rape and burglary charges and returned to Malaysia in May after his country invoked diplomatic immunity.

Malaysian police said Wednesday they were looking for a university lecturer and four others allegedly involved in terror activities and now believed to be hiding in the Philippines as it cracks down on suspected militants.

The announcement comes as authorities express concern about youths in the Muslim-majority country being radicalized and recruited to fight in hotspots such as Syria.

Malaysia asked New Zealand to drop an attempted rape case against one of its diplomats in Wellington, promising he would never return to the country, according to documents released Wednesday.

Defense staff assistant Muhammad Rizalman Ismail appeared in a New Zealand court on May 10 accused of stalking a 21-year-old woman the previous night and attacking her at her home in the same Wellington suburb where Malaysia's High Commission is located.

Malaysia on Tuesday vowed to "thoroughly investigate" one of its foreign envoys who fled sex charges in New Zealand after invoking diplomatic immunity.

Defense staff assistant Muhammad Rizalman Ismail was charged in a New Zealand court on May 10 with burglary and assault with intent to commit rape.