- An 84-year-old sultan known as an avid fan of football and singers like Frank Sinatra became Malaysia's new king Tuesday, the oldest constitutional monarch in the Southeast Asian nation's history.
- Under a unique system maintained since Malaysia's independence from Britain in 1957, nine hereditary state rulers take turns as the country's king for five-year terms.
- The monarch's role is largely ceremonial, since administrative power is vested in the prime minister and Parliament. But he is highly regarded, particularly among the ethnic Malay Muslim majority, as the supreme upholder of Malay tradition and symbolic head of Islam.
- Besides being Malaysia's 14th and oldest king, Sultan Abdul Halim is the first to ascend the throne twice. He was also king between 1970 and 1975, when the father of Malaysia's current prime minister, Najib Razak, was premier.
- He succeeds Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin, 49, who was one of Malaysia's youngest kings.
