External News

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 15 — The transition of power from Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will be honoured as what was decided by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) presidential council, said Federal Territories Minister Khalid Abdul Samad today.

Khalid said while a date had not been set, it will not go beyond the two-year timeframe stipulated by the PH presidential council.

“The presidential council made the decision who was to be prime minister. It will be the one to determine who will be the next prime minister.

“The timeframe set will be honoured, but because there isn’t a date, it can be anytime within the two-year period that was determined earlier,” Khalid told reporters at the Seri Perak people’s housing project where he launched a newly constructed common room.

It was reported that Anwar had received an assurance from the prime minister when he went to discuss the transition of power with Dr Mahathir in Putrajaya on Thursday.

Anwar reportedly raised the matter with the prime minister due to a reported signature campaign involving leaders from PAS, Umno and PKR calling on Dr Mahathir to remain in office until the next general election.

He has also noted Dr Mahathir’s promise that the prime minister’s position will be relinquished once the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit concludes.

The Apec summit is due to be held in Kuala Lumpur in November.

Anwar, however, said the matter will be finalised at the PH presidential council meeting on February 21.

PORTLAND: When Nvidia Corp abruptly dropped Activision Blizzard Inc games from its new GeForce Now service earlier this week, it left customers wondering what happened.

Nvidia said on Tuesday that Activision had asked to have its titles removed from GeForce, but didn’t explain why.

It turns out that the video game giant wanted a commercial agreement with Nvidia before they proceeded – and the situation stemmed from a simple misunderstanding, Nvidia said on Thursday.

Because Activision participated in the beta test of the service, Nvidia thought that agreement extended to the initial trial period after GeForce’s Feb 4 launch.

The service, which hosts games online and sells superscriptions to players, is now available to the general public.

Nvidia has been offering a free 90-day trial to its initial crop of customers, which it calls “founding members”.

“Activision Blizzard has been a fantastic partner during the GeForce Now beta, which we took to include the free trial period for our founders membership,” Nvidia said in a statement.

“Recognising the misunderstanding, we removed their games from our service, with hope we can work with them to reenable these, and more, in the future.”

GeForce Now is an attempt to attract customers away from rival gaming services run by Microsoft Corp, Alphabet Inc’s Google, Sony Corp and Apple Inc.

After their free promotional period, founding subscribers will pay US$4.99 a month to stream games from Nvidia-owned data centres.

GEORGE TOWN: Penang mufti Wan Salim Wan Mohd Noor today said it was “probably time” to revise an old fatwa banning Muslim children born out of wedlock from carrying their father’s name.

He said while yesterday’s Federal Court ruling upholding the fatwa was in the spirit of the Shafi’i school of thought, natural justice should prevail.

The majority of Muslims in Malaysia follow the Shafi’i school of thought, one of the four major schools of Islamic law in Sunni Islam.

“Ancient ulama decreed that it is a must for a child to be connected to their father’s nasab or lineage.

“It is in my opinion that this fatwa should be revised and changed if the need arises. After all, Islamic teachings are based on justice, wisdom, honour and goodwill.

“And in meting out justice in this issue, the innocent children born out of wedlock should not bear their parents’ sins.

“There needs to be some wisdom on this matter, to also look at the psychological aspects of the child’s future, which should not be ruined for not having a ‘bin’ or ‘binti’ in their names,” he told FMT.

Wan Salim said a 1981 fatwa set by the National Fatwa Committee had decreed that children born less than six months and two seconds from the nikah (marriage) of the parents cannot carry the father’s name.

Hence, a child born out of wedlock cannot inherit any property of the father or even be recognised as a sibling to other children born after their parents’ marriage.

“Looking at the views of the old fatwa, we have seen that it may not be in agreeance with other ulama, or not in consensus with others,” he said.

Yesterday, a seven-member Federal Court panel unanimously ordered the National Registration Department (JPN) director-general to remove the words “bin Abdullah” from the birth certificate of a Muslim boy from Johor born out of wedlock.

The court also ruled that the boy cannot use his biological father’s name.

The couple had applied to JPN to register the father’s name on the birth certificate under Section 13 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1957 (BDRA) but it carried “bin Abdullah” instead.

JPN refused to substitute it with the father’s name, despite an application made to remove the “bin Abdullah”, on the grounds the child was illegitimate.

This resulted in the parents filing an application for a judicial review in the High Court in 2016.

The couple lost their case in the High Court but the Court of Appeal in 2017 reversed the decision.

SEBERANG JAYA, Feb 14 — A couple was charged with abusing an 11-year-old girl at the Sessions Court here today.

The housewife and her mechanic husband are accused of abusing the girl at their home in the Ampang Jajar flats in Permatang Pauh since the middle of last year.

The couple both claimed trial to the charges that were read out to them in Malay and Tamil before Sessions Court judge Norhayati Mohamad Yunus.

The 38-year-old housewife, who is the girl’s stepmother, was charged with physically abusing her and causing mental trauma.

Her husband, who is the girl’s biological father, was charged with neglect and allowing his daughter to be subjected to physical and emotional abuse.

They were both charged under Section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act 2001 for child abuse which carries a jail term of up to 10 years or a fine of not more than RM50,000, or both, upon conviction.

The couple, who could not be named to protect the identity of the child, allegedly committed the offence between the middle of 2019 and February this year.

Deputy Public Prosecutor JG Kaameni did not offer bail for both the accused but the housewife appealed for bail as she has five young children under her care, including a one-year-old toddler.

Norhayati fixed bail at RM15,000 with one surety each.

She set March 17 for mention of the case.

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 14 ― The High Court here today dismissed an application for bail by DAP member, V. Suresh Kumar, who is facing a charge with giving support to the LTTE terrorist group.

Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah dismissed the 44-year-old accused’s application on grounds that an offence on terrorism under Section 130J of the Penal Code is non-bailable as provided under  Section 13 of the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma).

Justice Sequerah ruled that the provision under Sosma, which denies bail application to the accused seeking bail pending the disposal of his case, is constitutional.

“I respectfully am constrained to differ from the decision of my learned brother (High Court Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali) in the case of Gadek assemblyman G. Saminathan.

“I find that the provision in Section 13 of Sosma in so far as it relates to the absolute prohibition of bail for accused person charged for offences related to terrorism and under which the accused stands charged is constitutional. Therefore the application is dismissed,” he said.

The judge also said that the courts could not  simply called upon to act on cases related to bail application for an accused person charged for terrorism offence.

“This is because the foundation or edifice for the exercise of that power is not there. So there is no question of removing judicial power in the first place,” he said.

Counsel Harshaan Zamani represented the accused while deputy public prosecutor Rohaiza Abd Rahman acted for the prosecution.

Suresh Kumar had pleaded not guilty to a charge with giving support to LTTE by using Facebook under the name of ‘Rocketsuresh DAP’ at the office of investigating officer of E8 (M) Counter-Terrorism Division, Bukit Aman Special Branch here at 2pm on October 7, 2019.

The charge was framed under Section 130J (1)(a) of the Penal Code, which provides for a life sentence or maximum 30 years’ jail or fine and the forfeiture of any property used or intended to be used for committing the offence, upon conviction. ― Bernama