The permit of The Sarawak Press Sdn Bhd, the publisher of the Sarawak Tribune newspaper, has been suspended immediately until further notice, Malaysia's national news services Bernama reported on Thursday.

The decision was announced by Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is also the country's Internal Security Minister, one day after the Cabinet discussed the daily's reproduction last Saturday of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad which were published by several newspapers in Europe, Bernama said.

The Sarawak Tribune, which started publication in 1945, is the oldest English- language newspaper in Malaysia's eastern state of Sarawak. It has a circulation of 25,000 copies in Malaysia and about 300 staff.

Source: Xinhua