Actress forced to apologise for hugging scene

Compiled by Ragananthini Vethasalam, C. Aruno and R. Aravinthan

ACTRESS Zara Zya apologised for a hugging scene in the Hati Tercarik Luka drama, which had left some viewers uncomfortable.

Zara, whose real name is Zainurul Razia Mohd Zainuddin, 38, said she receives criticisms with an open heart and vowed to better herself.

“Thank you for calling me out. I apologise and ask everyone to continue praying for me so that I can improve myself,” she told Utusan Malaysia.

She was responding to criticism by viewers on her hugging scene with co-star Syarul Ezani despite wearing a tudung.

Hati Tercarik Luka is a story about a married couple who has to deal with a homewrecker and also stars Fizo Omar, Mia Nasir, Jasmin Hamid and Halim Radzi.

> Having lost contact with his family, a Palestinian student from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang, could only turn to the Al Jazeera news channel to keep tabs on what is going on in his homeland.

According to a Sinar Harian report, it has been five days since Majed FS Habib, 44, lost touch with his family, who had been transferred to the Rafah refugee camp at the Egyptian border.

His parents, siblings and wife all lived in the Gazan city of Shija’iah.

“I hope my family is safe there and I can contact them in the near future,” he said on Monday.

He was among the 53 Palestinian students from USM who received a donation of RM2,000 from the Higher Education Ministry’s emergency relief fund for Palestine.

Majed, a PhD student who has been living in Penang for the past eight months, said he will use the money for his expenses as his family has no means of sending him money at this time.

Another student, Mahmoud MA Brieka, 28, said he has been thinking of his family, who has now been placed at the Rafah refugee camp, every single day. His family used to live in Khan Yunis.

Mahmoud said he has lost 15 family members in the Israel-Palestine conflict which has been raging for over 70 days.

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.