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

Zahid on defensive at Umno AGM

The 72nd Umno general assembly concluded last night with party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi still battling internal dissent rather than rallying the party.

In his winding-up speech, he warned his critics in the party not to back him into a corner.

Umno supreme council member Bung Moktar Radin said Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar is only criticising the party out of love and has every right to do so.

As for former party president Najib Abdul Razak, he appeared touched by the support he received from fellow delegates and shed tears.

Azmin still leads in PKR polls

Johor PKR had an uneventful polling day yesterday, in contrast to the violence that rocked the party polls in Kedah a week earlier.

Unofficial results show that PKR deputy president Azmin Ali has managed to maintain a slim lead over his challenger Mohd Rafizi Ramli in this second round of polling.

Other Kinibites

PKR president-elect Anwar Ibrahim has denied any involvement of government machinery in a zakat aid distribution event in Port Dickson, claiming that it had been organised by a youth organisation.

Staff salaries at Umno-owned newspaper Utusan Malaysia have reportedly been delayed for a second consecutive month due to “unforeseen circumstances”.

Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo said the government should press ahead with laws to curb hate speech that have global reach, after the blogger Raja Petra Kemaradin made allegedly racist remarks about a senior police officer’s turban.

Looking ahead

Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail will be launching the National Counselling Month in Putrajaya.

Bersih will be holding a press conference on the Port Dickson by-election.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook and his deputy Kamarudin Jaffar will be visiting the Kelana Jaya LRT Line tomorrow, including the Damai LRT station where a signalling fault had recently caused a two-hour delay.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, will hold a press conference on the preliminary findings of her visit to Malaysia.