KINI ROUNDUP | Here are key headlines you may have missed yesterday, in brief.
1. Police have raided the premises of publisher Gerakbudaya, which had earlier apologised for the controversial cover of the book Rebirth: Reformasi, Resistance, and Hope in New Malaysia over the image featured on the book cover that has been claimed to be insulting to the national coat of arms.
2. A group of intellectuals, dubbed Agora Society, said books should be shielded from government interference, but a principal fellow of Ethnic Studies Institute, Teo Kok Seong, said punishment alone was not enough for those who alter images of national symbols.
3. Amanah and DAP separately concluded that that the proposal to make Warisan president Shafie Apdal the prime ministerial candidate for Pakatan Harapan should be jointly decided at the Pakatan Harapan presidential council meeting.
4. PKR president Anwar Ibrahim denied speculation that he has been scheming with Perikatan Nasional leaders, with whom he had met recently.
5. Electoral reform group Bersih has launched a petition campaign to urge the government to retain former judge Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof as the Dewan Rakyat speaker.
6. Former 1MDB chief executive officer Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi agreed that the company’s joint venture with PetroSaudi International is an attempt to hoodwink the 1MDB board, and the US$2.318 billion (RM9.92 billion) in promissory notes that it received are worthless.
7. Former health minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the previous Pakatan Harapan government followed the recommendations made by an independent inquiry into the 2016 Hospital Sultanah Aminah fire. Its report has already been declassified, but was still pending public release.
8. Several environmental groups have urged the government to discourage the practice of allowing monoculture plantations in permanent forest reserves, which will harm the forest’s biodiversity.
9. Former Sabah chief minister Salleh Said Keruak has cancelled his application to join PKR, citing the party’s internal problems and the current political landscape.
10. The Health Miinstry warned that the global Covid-19 situation is still worsening, although Malaysia only recorded two cases yesterday, while China reported the discovery of a new H1N1 influenza strain that has potential of becoming a “pandemic virus”.
