The following are some of the major questions floating in my mind, and I am sure they are shared by many others:
– Why did the Malaysian side initially refuse to hand over the cargo manifest to the Australian investigators? Why did it take so long for the cargo manifest to be released? We still do not know the origins of the lithium-ion batteries and the mangosteens that were supposed to be in the cargo.
Sr Julianna Lim, 69, passed away at about 3.30pm today, succumbing to injuries sustained during a violent attack in front of the Church of the Visitation in Seremban on 14 May which left her in a coma.
Is it wet or dry season now? The weather in Penang has become highly unpredictable and erratic with the lines between the seasons blurred beyond recognition.
Wet or dry – or both? Erratic weather patterns in Penang – View from mainland Penang, 18 May 2014
While earlier generations learned a narrative that essentially started in 1819 with the British colonial administrator, Sir Stamford Raffles, stumbling upon a sleepy Malay fishing village, 13-year-olds now learn of a golden age that started 500 years earlier.
Update by Facebook user Mary Josephine Prittam Singh:
I was at the hospital with the family and IJ Sisters throughout most of the day and felt their pain and anxiety over the incident. Mary-Rose was transferred to the ward around noon whilst Julianna was still at the emergency ward until this evening unable to be moved due to her unstable condition caused by the drop in her blood pressure and very bad brain injuries.
Two Christian nuns working among poor and disadvantaged children were viciously attacked this morning at a church in Seremban.
It is poetic justice that the BN finds itself in a right old pickle in Terengganu with the defections of three state assembly reps. After all, most of us don’t need to be reminded about the BN’s power grab in Perak in 2009. But there is a larger elephant in the room in Terengganu – the state’s sovereign wealth fund which morphed into the controversial and opaque 1Malaysian Development Berhad.
A protest against recent custodial deaths was held outside the central police lock-up in Bayan Baru on Mothers’ Day, Sunday, 11 May.
Outside the Bayan Baru police lock-up – Photograph: Suaram
Supporters at nomination day – Photograph: Nga Kor Ming
Four candidates will contest the Bukit Gelugor seat – Ramkarpal Singh (DAP), Huan Cheng Guan (PCM), and independents Mohamed Nabi Bux and Abu Backer Sidek Mohammad Zan. Another independent is disqualified.
I was horrified to read that the Health Ministry director-general has reportedly stated that foreigners who are outpatients will not be allowed to obtain medicines from government hosital pharmacies beyond five days of outpatient treatment.
The wide distribution of shadow banking package by non-banking financial institutions has encouraged the build-up of household debt from 67 per cent of GDP in 2007 to 87 per cent in 2013.
Francis Loh has written a couple of articles for Aliran that explain why Umno is more receptive to hudud and is hoping to join forces with the conservatives in Pas.
A preliminary report claims that Malaysian military radar did track an aircraft making a turnback on the morning of 8 March, but the radar operator classified it as “friendly”.
At 5.20am on 8 March, an unnamed Captain, based on known information, felt that MH370 “never left Malaysian airspace”. But the search and rescue in the Straits of Malacca was only carried out more than five hours later, after 10.30am (though the South China Sea search had begun earlier that day).
The Captain’s name was edited out of the preliminary report that was released.
A chemical leak from cargo on board a Malaysia Airlines A330 plane en route from Beijing to Chennai in 2000 caused such extensive damage that the plane was deemed unfit for future use. The cargo reportedly had been inaccurately declared.
NNR Global Logistics (M) Sdn Bhd, the shipper of the “lithium ion batteries” on MH370, is part of the Japanese Nishitetsu Group, which claims itself a “world leader in international logistics”.
We were earlier told that the plane was carrying 200kg of lithium ion batteries. And then we were told on 22 March 2014 that they were not lithium ion batteries. But now we see that the consolidated airway bill below from the MH370 cargo manifest states indeed there were lithium ion batteries and the weight stated was 2453kg.
About 200 people gathered for a Workers’ Day rally in an open space in Butterworth opposite one of the oldest factories in the state to protest against the GST. Many others who would otherwise have attended the gathering had travelled to KL for the mammoth GST rally that afternoon.
Two Christian nuns working among poor and disadvantaged children were viciously attacked this morning at a church in Seremban. 
