Fresh clashes kill 7 in Malaysia

Five Malaysian policemen and two gunmen died in a fresh clash on Borneo as fears mounted that violence linked to a deadly standoff with Filipino intruders had spread to other areas, police said yesterday.
The shootout late on Saturday in the town of Semporna followed a firefight the day before between Filipino followers of a self-proclaimed sultan and Malaysian security forces that left 12 intruders dead along with two police officers.
An estimated 100-300 Filipinos have been surrounded in a farming village by a Malaysian police and military cordon since landing by boat from the nearby Philippines on February 12 to insist the area belongs to their Islamic leader.
The leader, Jamalul Kiram III, 74, claims to be the heir to the Islamic sultanate of Sulu, which once controlled parts of the southern Philippines and the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo.