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

1. Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador said the police aim to bring fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho back to the country by the year-end, but Najib Abdul Razak’s lead counsel in his 1MDB criminal trial, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, said this would be too late.

2. In one of a series of documentaries on poverty, one Aisha told of eating uncooked rice for three days, because she fears running out of cooking gas and the bread her family managed to afford was reserved for their daughter Paymitra.

3. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is investigating a Genting Plantations subsidiary over hotspots detected in its plantation in Indonesia, a day after Greenpeace claimed that Genting is among oil palm companies with the most amount of burnt land. Genting disputed Greenpeace’s findings.

4. The Health Ministry said its two investigative committees found there is no truth to allegations that Orang Asli women were being coerced or misled to take contraceptives, and reconfirmed earlier reports that the 16 deaths linked to the Orang Asli community in Kuala Koh was due to a measles outbreak.

5. Amid opposition to his visit at Columbia University in New York, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad defended his anti-Semitic remarks as free speech when confronted by a member of his audience.

6. PKR lawmaker Hassan Karim said the parliamentary opposition leader should be given more time to prepare for debates on the government’s annual budget, so it would be based on facts and figures instead of rhetoric.

7. Police urged members of the public to either show proof of wrongdoing in a recent shootout in Rawang or quietly wait for an inquest, instead of hurling unsubstantiated accusations at the police.

8. Cultural activist Eddin Khoo welcomed Kelantan’s move to lift a 28-year-old ban on Mak Yong public performances, but said there is more to the dance than just an art form.

9. A report claimed that sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional is pushing for a merger between Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia X.

10. Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul denied activists’ claims that factories still illegally process imported plastic waste in the locality.