Updated: New Malaysian First Lady, Part 3

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has finally announced his impending marriage to his sister-in-law, Jean Danker (pix taken from Screenshots), after having dismissed it as rumours earlier. This was announced by the Prime Minister's Office itself.

The news stunned some readers but it didn't come as a surprise to Sophie although she wasn't the first to write about the development in February. One of the first originators of the information was Malaysia Today, which was subsequently picked up by Sophie and others.

According to various blogs, Jean Danker was married to Osman Mahmud, who was Endon Mahmood's brother. Endon was Badawi's late wife who died less than two years ago in October 2005. But it's not known when the courtship between Badawi and Jean started. It also sounds odd for a man to marry his sister-in-law although there is no blood relation.

The Malaysian blogosphere is now abuzz with analysis of the news. Please see Malaysiakini, Rocky's Bru, and Screenshots.

Sophie has also enjoyed the spillover effect, attracting a record number of visitors today with more than 2,700 hits (Final tally: 2,888 visitors). This is way above her daily average of less than 150 visitors per day.

Update: multidimid has compiled some pix and TV video clip of the news in the public domain, but Sophie is still hoping to see a video clip of the closed-door event itself. Sophie will like to see who's there and more importantly, who isn't.