Once again all the main dailies led with the ongoing Altantuya murder trial, highlighting the various spins and turns in the courtroom.

Frontpage

English newspapers

The New Straits Times ' front page read "Suspense", referring to the Altantuya trial which ended abruptly yesterday, just as soon as witness ACP Mastor Mohd Ariff told the court that accused Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar had confessed to him on the Bangkok-Malaysia flight. The daily reported that the sudden termination of the day's hearing brought audible gasps from the gallery.

The Star also headlined the murder trial, highlighting Mastor's explanation about the Special Action Force's (UTK) duties and specialities.

The Sun also had a lead on the high-profile murder trial, telling its readers that the main task of UTK officers were to protect VVIPs. The daily also carried a report that the government has rejected the minimum wage proposal.

Malay Newspapers

Berita Harian 's headlines announced that UTK officers were free to take home explosives or weapons that had not been used during basic training. ACP Mastor told the court that there was a possibility that officers could have taken explosives as the returning of such items to weapons store after training was on a trust basis.

Utusan Malaysia also focused on the confession made by Corporal Sirul to Mastor.

Chinese Newspapers

Sin Chew Daily frontpaged the Federal CID Director Christopher Wan Soo Kee's warning that action would be taken against everyone involved in gangsterism, including politicians.

Oriental Daily reported the High Court had struck out a RM100 million defamation suit by former deputy premier Anwar against Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Nanyang Siang Pau led with the testimony of ACP Mastor in the Altantuya murder trial, who confirmed the two accused in the case were bodyguards for the prime minister and deputy prime minister.

Tamil newspapers

Malaysia Nanban led with a story of a police detective in Johor who claimed that he has been victimised by his superiors for arresting a notorious lorry hijacker. CID M Annathurai also claimed that his superior has ordered investigations on the alleged hijacker-cum-triad chief to be halted at once.

Makkal Osai highlighted the move by the Selangor state government to install closed-circuit televisions (CCTV) in the state to monitor crime. The daily also had a story on a veteran IPF member complaining on the manner the party was being managed its president MG Pandithan.

Editorial

New Straits Times today commented on Bank Negara's recent announcement of a two-tiered interest-rate system, warning that the new system may encourage reckless spending and high debts.

Berita Harian praised the new National Education Blueprint and expressed its hope for all NEB projects to be completed by deadline. The editorial also called for necessities like running water and electricity to be given to rural schools.

Malaysia Nanban commented on the announcement by the Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein yesterday that the government was working towards giving full financial backing for all Tamil schools in the country. The daily also noted that MIC and its president S Samy Vellu had been working closely with the government to achieve this. At present most of the Tamil schools are only partially-aided.

Nanyang Siang Pau commented on the open burning activities in Indonesia which continues to cause haze problem in Malaysia.

Oriental Daily urged the government to make good use of the profits derived from Petronas and be prepared to become a net petroleum import country in the year 2010.

Sin Chew Daily urged the Education Ministry to make amendments to the 5-year Education Blueprint to solve the problems faced by the Chinese vernacular schools.

Others

According to the Star , a Bank Negara official yesterday confirmed that coins are legal tender up to a certain amount. Under Section 24 of the Central Bank of Malaysia Act, one can use one sen, five sen, ten sen and 20 sen coins to pay for a transaction of up to RM2. The official also stated that the recipients of the coins could not reject them under the same act.