Malaysian king dies

King Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Malaysia's king, Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, one of nine traditional rulers who take turns in the figurehead role, died on Wednesday, an aide to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said.

The popular 75-year-old king, the country's 11th constitutional monarch since independence from Britain in 1957, had been put on breathing and kidney support machines after his condition deteriorated following the implant of a heart pacemaker in Singapore two months ago.

Sultan Salahuddin of Selangor returned to Malaysia on Sunday to be admitted to hospital in Kuala Lumpur.

Concern over his condition heightened on Tuesday, when he was visited by family members including his fourth wife Queen Siti Aishah, who was 19 when he married her in 1990.

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The death of a ruler is marked by a national day of mourning in Malaysia, reported Reuters news agency.

Successor elected

Malaysia's hereditary rulers take turns every five years at being king under Malaysia's unique rotating monarchy, which has mainly symbolic powers.

The council of rulers will now elect a successor to the monarch, during whose illness Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin of Terengganu deputized.

Expectations that financial markets could be closed subdued trading in shares, with speculators closing out positions and the state run pension funds reducing activity.

Prime Minister Mahathir, who is also 75, curtailed the constitutional powers of the rulers during the early years of his own 20-year rule.

Mahathir and the present king, who belong to the same generation and were both active in the movement for independence from British colonial rule, had a good working relationship despite some clashes in the early 1980s.