• Tamed elephants help persuade wild cousin to relocate

    Faced with the difficult task of capturing a wild elephant in order to move it to a place of sanctuary, staff from Malaysia's Department of Wildlife and National Parks deployed their secret weapon: a pair of tame elephants named 'Timur' and 'Cek Mek.'

    Bazuki Muhammad / Reuters

    A tame elephant named 'Cek Mek' is driven through a village near Rompin, Malaysia on May 14. Cek Mek was used to accompany a newly captured wild elephant during its relocation from a forest in Kota Tinggi to the Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary in Pahang.

    Bazuki Muhammad / Reuters

    A wild elephant is tranquilized as it is captured in a forest in Kota Tinggi on May 14.

    Trained elephants are used to accompany captured wild elephants during the relocation process from their natural habitat, which can be threatened by the close proximity of human settlements. The presence of other elephants calms the frightened elephant, making it less likely to retaliate or attack the movers.

    Bazuki Muhammad / Reuters

    Cek Mek, right, makes the first contact with a newly captured wild elephant at a forest in Kota Tinggi on May 14.

    Bazuki Muhammad / Reuters

    A newly captured wild elephant is led out of a forest by trained elephants in Kota Tinggi on May 14.

    Photographer Bazuki Muhammad accompanied the Elephant Management Unit as they transported the wild elephant from a forest in Kota Tinggi to the Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary in Pahang.

    Bazuki Muhammad / Reuters

    Tame elephants Cek Mek, left, and Timur, right, play with a newly captured wild elephant at a forest in Kota Tinggi on May 14.

    Bazuki Muhammad / Reuters

    A newly captured wild elephant waits to be unloaded from a truck as it arrives at the Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary outside Kuala Lumpur during the early hours of May 15, after a 9 hour journey.

    According to Reuters, the department has relocated at least 600 wild elephants since 1974. Read more about the process at the Kuala Gandah sanctuary's website.

  • Damir Sagolj / Reuters

    Muslim boys pray at an Islamic school where they live and study the Koran in the village of Lam Mai in the troubled Yala province, March 1, 2011. Yala is one of three Muslim-dominated provinces bordering Malaysia where more than 4,300 people, both Muslims and Buddhists, have been killed in a low-level insurgency since 2004.

    Muslim boys at an Islamic school in Malaysia.

  • Reuters

    The wreckage of a tour bus sits on a highway in Pos Slim, in Malaysia's northern state of Perak, Dec. 20, 2010. A Malaysian bus carrying Thai tourists hit a road divider and overturned, killing 26 people, state news agency Bernama reported on Monday.

    Tour bus crashes in Malaysia, 28 people dead

    By Elena Grothe

    AP reports:

    KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — A double-decker bus carrying Thai tourists overturned on a Malaysian highway Monday, killing 28 people on their way back from a hill resort in the country's worst road accident in years.

  • Menahem Kahana / AFP - Getty Images

    Chaichana Anuwat, left, of Thailand kicks the ball as Mohd Futra Abd Ghani of Malaysia blocks during the sepak takraw mens team final at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, on Nov. 20. Thailand beat Malaysia 2:0.

    He's got hops

    By Katie Cannon, Senior Multimedia Editor

    Sepak takraw is similar to volleyball, but players can only use their feet, knees, chests and heads to move the ball over a net that is just shy of five feet high at its center. To read more about the details of the sport, check out Wikipedia's entry.

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