PETALING JAYA, Malaysia - The latest data from the police reveals that 65 babies have been dumped this year alone, 26 of them boys, 25 girls and the other 14 being foetuses.

This brings the total to 472 cases since 2005, in more than half of which, or 258, the babies were found dead.

Last year, a total of 79 cases were reported.

Among the abandoned babies this month was a girl left outside the house of a childless couple in Bukit Minyak, Bukit Mertajam on Sunday.

The couple, who considered the baby a gift from God, kept the girl for 36 hours before reporting it to the police following advice from neighbours on Tuesday.

On the same day, a man who was fishing in a river in Kota Damansara decided to take a closer look at an abandoned bag and was shocked to find that it contained the body of a newborn baby girl.

Last Thursday, an eight-year-old boy found a dead baby girl in a sewage tank behind a college dormitory in Bandar Bukit Bunga, Tanah Merah, Kelantan.

The authorities took 45 minutes to remove the remains before sending it to the hospital for a post-mortem.

On Aug 11, a factory security guard found a newborn baby girl abandoned in a dumpster outside a factory in the Ayer Keroh Industrial Estate in Malacca. He was alerted by the sounds of a baby crying from outside the factory.

On the same day, a villager from Kampung Sungai Dua found a baby girl wrapped in batik cloth dumped in front of a house.

The infant's face was swollen, and she was taken to the intensive care unit of Seremban's Tuanku Ja'afar Hospital.

On Aug 9, a scavenger found a dead baby boy in a garbage bin in Lebuh Macallum, Penang, the second case of baby dumping in the state in 10 days.

On Aug 1, a newborn baby girl with her umbilical cord still intact was found abandoned in a shophouse in Nibong Tebal. She survived and is now reported to be healthy.

-The Star/Asia News Network