KUALA LUMPUR – A Malaysian military transport plane was intercepted by two Indonesian jet fighters while flying a regular route over Indonesia’s Natuna Islands, defence officials said Sunday.

The C-130 aircraft was flying from west Malaysia on Saturday towards the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah, a senior official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“That (flying over the Natuna Islands) is a regular route,” the official said, adding that the C-130 continued its journey to Sabah despite the interception.

Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein confirmed the incident.

“Yes… the aircraft was intercepted by two Indonesian jets,” he was quoted as saying by the Star online news portal.

The incident came two days after Indonesian President Joko Widodo visited the islands on a warship in an apparent show of force after clashes with Chinese fishing vessels in the area.

Unlike some of its Southeast Asian neighbours, Indonesia has no maritime disputes with China over reefs or islets in the South China Sea.

But Beijing’s claims overlap Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone – waters where a state has the right to exploit resources – around the Natunas.

Hishammuddin played down the incident, saying Malaysia and Indonesia enjoy close relations.

“I’m not worried as this is normal and it happens everywhere in the world. If there were any incidents between us, we can deal with each other diplomatically. We will not let any incident ruin our ties,” he added.

The Natuna Islands are located in the middle of the South China Sea separating peninsular Malaysia and the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo island.

In 2002 Indonesia lost a case against Malaysia at the International Court of Justice over Sipadan and Ligitan, two small islands in the Celebes Sea off Sabah state.

NEW DELHI – Police have arrested a schoolgirl in northeast India for allegedly cheating during pressure-packed exams that saw her come top in the state in a growing scandal, a senior officer said Sunday.

Authorities in the impoverished state of Bihar have come under intense pressure to crack down on cheating this year during crucial school-leaving exams sat by hundreds of thousands of students.

Teachers and state education officials were left red-faced last year after television footage showed scores of desperate parents and others scaling outer walls of buildings to pass books and pieces of paper to students inside taking exams.

Police on Saturday arrested the 17-year-old, who gained the highest results in the state for year 12 in humanities, after issuing warrants for a string of exam-topping students.

Authorities became suspicious after the girl, when quizzed by a TV reporter this month, failed to correctly spell “political science”, which she had been studying. She added that she thought the subject involved cooking.

Indian authorities red-faced after exam cheating exposed

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“We have now arrested a total of 18 people including (the girl),” senior superintendent of Bihar police, Manu Maharaj, told AFP.

She was arrested soon after she attempted to take a special re-test and interview ordered by the Bihar School Examination Board in the wake of the scandal.

Students, especially millions from poor families, are under huge pressure to pass school-leaving exams which are seen as crucial to their chances of a successful career.

Dozens of police, other officials and parents were arrested in the crackdown last year but the fresh scandal has again embarrassed Bihar education authorities.

Local media on Sunday quoted investigators as saying that school and other officials were allegedly charging large sums of money this year in return for giving students better exam results.