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Armed cops in balaclavas at HKL; Malaysia no longer Asian Tiger

KINI ROUNDUP Here are the key headlines you may have missed yesterday, in brief.

Armed cops in balaclavas

Police personnel from the Special Task Force on Organised Crime (Stafoc), clad in balaclavas and armed with submachine guns, have manned a security cordon around Kuala Lumpur Hospital's Forensics Department, where the body of Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, is kept.

A momentary distraction occurred early yesterday morning, among the media camped out near the venue to cover the Jong-nam case, when police came and singled out one of the cameramen from Korean Broadcasting Service for suspicious loitering.

The North Korean arrested in the probe into last week's murder of the half-brother of the isolated state's leader lived in Malaysia for more than three years without working at the company registered on his employment permit or receiving a salary.

Asian Tiger no more

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has lamented that Malaysia has lost its status as an "Asian Tiger" due to its once impressive economic performance. "Once upon a time Malaysia was called an Asian Tiger. Today Malaysia is not even a pussycat," wrote Mahathir on his blog yesterday.

Mahathir also warned that selling off the controlling stake in national carmaker Proton to foreigners will not be beneficial for the country. "My fear is that if we do not own Proton any more the Malaysian automotive industry will suffer a great loss," he said.

Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) Youth deputy head Faiz Fadzil said Najib should resign for disclaiming responsibility over 1MDB by refusing to acknowledge that he was a "public official". He was referring to a filing by the PM's lawyers to throw out a misfeasance suit filed by Mahathir.

More Kinibites

Activist Lena Hendry was today found guilty of airing a documentary on the Sri Lankan civil war - No Fire Zone - which had not been approved by the Malaysian Censorship Board.

DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang has challenged Umno information chief Annuar Musa to a joint press conference within the next 48 hours, after Annuar rejected Lim's offer to speak at the party's information session on the 1990s foreign exchange market (forex) scandal yesterday.

Umno supreme council member Puad Zarkashi has compared DAP to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, as North Korea is officially named, with regard to the two having the term "democratic" in their names, sarcastically hinting that neither practises democracy despite the presence of the term.

Looking ahead

Amnesty International will today release its annual report on human rights.

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