Here are key headlines you may have missed, in brief.


1. The government allowed more businesses to reopen despite rising Covid-19 cases. Barbershops and car wash centres are allowed to operate beginning today under strict conditions, while the congregation at Friday prayers and general mass prayers in the Federal Territories have been expanded to half capacity.


2. Chinese New Year celebrations will be muted next week, as the usual house-to-house visits are banned and gatherings are only allowed between family members living in the same house.


3. A 64-year-old grandmother raising a teenager on her own was moved to tears upon receiving a laptop donation that would help her grandchild keep up with virtual classes.


4. Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin was appointed as the national covid-19 immunisation programme coordinator. The ministerial portfolio is created as the country prepares for its largest vaccination campaign ever.


5. Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi ‘thanked’ the government supposedly providing Umno MPs with the same constituency allocation as opposition MPs, but opposition MPs countered they actually received nothing at all and urged the government to emulate Perak instead.


6. Court of Appeal Judge Hamid Sultan Abu Backer was suspended for making allegations in 2019 about supposed misconduct in the judiciary, which will be in effect until his retirement in August.


7. Criticism against former attorney-general Tommy Thomas’ new memoir mounts, including from his immediate predecessor Mohamed Apandi Ali who plans to lodge a police report, and his immediate successor Idrus Harun.


8. Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) has backtracked on its earlier stance not to appeal to Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin on having its registration as a political party rejected, after being dealt a blow in the courtroom.


9. The Defend the North Kuala Langat Forest Reserve coalition appealed for royal intervention from Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah in the state government's proposal to degazette the forest reserve in Kuala Langat.


10. Youth group Aksi Muda has blasted the moderator of a Harakah panel for repeatedly mocking issues of suicide and depression, and Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Siti Zailah Md Yusof for laughing along with the moderator’s remarks.




CARTOON KINI