Malaysia crisis Sultan dies

A Philippine sultan, whose armed followers invaded a vast Malaysian region to revive an old territorial claim and sparked a security crisis in February, has died of multiple organ failure. He was 75.

Fatima Celia, the wife of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, told The Associated Press that her husband died in her arms early today at a Philippine hospital.

She said that before he died he ordered his family and followers to continue laying claim to Sabah state in Malaysia.

Kiram's sultanate in the southern Philippine province of Sulu triggered the biggest security crisis in Malaysia in years when his younger brother and about 200 followers, some armed, barged into a Sabah village, provoking a major Malaysian offensive that left dozens dead.

AP