Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim Saturday called Malaysia's recent elections "the mother of all frauds" as he kept up the pressure over polls he says were stolen by the 56-year-old regime.

Anwar addressed tens of thousands in the opposition-governed northern state of Penang three days after a massive rally in the capital Kuala Lumpur kicked off a series of protest gatherings.

Malaysia's opposition appeared headed for a clash with authorities Wednesday, saying it would defy a police threat to stop a protest rally by its leader Anwar Ibrahim over disputed election results.

Malaysia's police chief has said the opposition did not follow proper procedures for staging the Wednesday night rally and that participants would be arrested.

Malaysians voted on Sunday with one of the world's longest-serving governments seeking to stave off a first-ever defeat against an upstart opposition that pledges sweeping reform.

Lines of up to one kilometer (0.6 miles) long were reported as voting got under way at more than 8,000 polling sites nationwide in an apparent heavy turnout, which analysts have said may boost the opposition.

Hundreds of cases of Malaysian election violence have been reported since campaigning for tightly contested May 5 polls got under way at the weekend, police were quoted saying on Wednesday.

A total of 387 incidents were reported in the first three days of the two-week campaign, which kicked off Saturday, and at least 15 people have been arrested over the violence, national police spokesman Ramli Yoosuf told The Star newspaper.

The U.S. is blacklisting an Iranian businessman, a Malaysian bank and a string of companies for allegedly attempting to evade economic sanctions against Iran.

The Treasury Department said Thursday that Babak Morteza Zanjani operated a network of front companies to help Iran access oil revenues in violation of U.S. sanctions. The department said the network moved billions of dollars, including tens of millions to a company controlled by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard force.

A bomb blast killed two top provincial officials on Friday in Thailand's insurgency-plagued south, authorities said, a week after the kingdom held its first formal peace talks with rebels.

The deputy governor of Yala province, Issara Thongthawat, was killed along with Yala permanent secretary responsible for security, Chavalit Krairisk, after a roadside bomb struck their vehicle, officials said.

A massive roadside bomb killed three policemen in Thailand's restive south on Friday, an army spokesman said, a fortnight ahead of peace talks between Thai authorities and a rebel group.

The 90 kilogram (200 lbs) bomb, hidden at a footbridge in Ruso district of Narathiwat province, detonated as a local police patrol passed on a pick-up truck, killing the officers and destroying the vehicle.

Abu Dhabi struck deals worth billions of dollars with Malaysia on Tuesday, a state-owned company announced, as Kuala Lumpur seeks investment to boost the economy before polls due by June.

The deals were announced after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak met United Arab Emirates (UAE) Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan in the administrative capital of Putrajaya, just outside Kuala Lumpur

Malaysian police said on Friday they have arrested more than 50 people in a remote state since the start of a nearly month-long incursion by Filipino Islamists.

Malaysia has said previously that clashes between the gunmen and its security forces had left 60 people dead and has rejected a call by the fighters' leader for a ceasefire in a farming region where the militants were being pursued.

Malaysia said clashes between intruding Filipino militants and its security forces had left 60 people dead as of late Thursday, as it rejected a ceasefire offer from the fighters' leader.

Police chief Ismail Omar said 32 followers of a self-proclaimed Philippine sultan had been killed in two confrontations since Wednesday near the scene of a three-week standoff in Sabah state, after a military assault to dislodge them.