8 January 2026 KOTA KINABALU: The United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation ( UPKO) Youth Executive Committee (Exco), led by its chief Felix Joseph Saang, paid a courtesy visit to Datuk Ewon Benedick the Sabah Deputy Chief Minister III and State Minister of Industrial Development, Entrepreneurship and Transport (MINDET) on Wednesday. The courtesy call was aimed at strengthening ties and enhancing cooperation between UPKO’s youth leadership and the Sabah state government. Durin

8 January 2026 KOTA KINABALU: The High Court in Sabah and Sarawak yesterday allowed an application by Abdul Manap bin Bakusai @ Abu Bakar and his three children from Pitas to amend their National Registration Identity Card (MyKad) records to reflect their religion as Christian. In delivering her grounds of judgment, Judge Datuk Celestina Stuel Galid raised serious concerns over the National Registration Department’s (NRD) practice of assigning an individual’s religion without

8 January 2026 KOTA KINABALU: The number of non-citizen residents in Sabah declined to 1,040.2 thousand in 2025 from 1,043.6 thousand in 2024, representing a decrease of 0.32 per cent. This was reported in the International Migration Statistics 2025 published by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) on 24 December 2025. For the period from 1991 to 2025, Sabah recorded the highest number of non-citizen residents among all states, with the highest proportion registered

8 January 2026 KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) is treating with utmost seriousness the incident involving 36 umrah pilgrims who were stranded in Madinah. They were stranded after Al Aisy Travel & Tours Sdn. Bhd. failed to provide accommodation and return flight tickets as promised. In a Facebook post MOTAC Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing shared, "The affected pilgrims, including elderly persons and children, had each made full payment of RM

8 January 2026 KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Rubber Industry Board (LIGS) today launched its V2050 Strategic Direction Plan, a policy document to guide the transformation of the state’s rubber industry towards becoming modern, competitive and inclusive by 2050. The plan also targets increasing the monthly income of rubber smallholders to RM5,000 by 2050. The launch ceremony, held at Wisma Pertanian Sabah, was officiated by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Industry,