The WHO later on its website on Nov 26 designated Omicron as a Covid-19 VOC on the advice of its Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution. According to the health minister, the comprehensive contact tracing following the first Omicron case detected in Malaysia demonstrated that "we picked up this case from Nov 19, way earlier than the WHO” which only designated Omicron as a VOC on Nov 26. On the first Omicron case in Malaysia, Khairy said the South African national is a 19-year-old student studying at a private university in Ipoh, Perak. Khairy added that Malaysia is still trying to get more information on Omicron, such as its infectivity and the severity of symptoms in people infected by the variant. Read also:Khairy: First Omicron case detected in Malaysia on Dec 2Malaysia-Singapore vaccinated travel lane continues, Khairy says

KUALA LUMPUR: The Royal Award for Islamic Finance is inviting global nominations, Bank Negara Malaysia and the Securities Commission said in a joint statement on Friday. The Royal Award initiative is jointly led by Bank Negara and the Securities Commission. “One of the main criteria in the selection of The Royal Award is the individual’s innovative and pioneering work in Islamic finance. In conjunction with the Royal Award, the organising committee announced the addition of two new prizes: the Emerging Leader Prize and the Impact Challenge Prize. As for the Impact Challenge Prize, it aims to bring greater recognition to digital and innovative solutions based on Islamic finance principles or Islamic finance enablers, which can improve the economic and social resilience of financially impacted communities globally.

GEORGE TOWN: As scientists are scrambling to understand the level of severity of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, health experts are advising the public that booster jabs are the best defence. “Our best defence against Omicron and the emergence of future variants is to continuously suppress Covid-19 transmission by adopting existing prevention measures. “These include staying vigilant in our daily activities by complying with physical distancing measures, masking up, ensuring hand hygiene, avoiding crowded places, ensuring good ventilation and, of course, stepping up our Covid-19 vaccination with booster shots,” he said when contacted. “Vaccination and booster shots would still be the best solution to overcome the virus and the current standard operating procedure would still be effective in curbing the transmission of Covid-19. “Therefore, the public need to be calm and get their booster shots to increase immunity and disrupt the transmission chain.

(Dec 3): Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s Charlie Munger told a conference on Friday (Dec 3) that markets are wildly overvalued in places and that the current environment is “even crazier” than the dot-com boom of the late 1990s that subsequently led to a bust. “I consider this era an even crazier era than the dot-com era,” Munger, 97, said at the Sohn Conference in Sydney, The Australian Financial Review (AFR) reported. Munger also said that he wished cryptocurrencies didn’t exist, and praised China for taking action to ban their use, according to the AFR. “I think Australia with its deep involvement in China can be in a constructive position. “I think that’s a smart thing for the world to be doing and it would be smart even if there is no global warming.”

He also questioned Rosmah's disregard of the High Court order for her to return back to Malaysia on Nov 21. However, Rosmah chose not to attend yesterday's (Thursday) Court of Appeal hearing involving her appeal. 'Justice delayed is justice denied' is the legal maxim that normal citizens face every day in the constitutional system. “This legal principle should be adopted as with 'fiat justitia ruat caelum' (let justice be done though the heavens fall). Rosmah and Najib are in Singapore as their daughter Nooryana Najwa has delivered her second child with her Kazakh husband.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Facebook could be sued by consumer groups for privacy violations, an adviser to Europe's top court said on Thursday, in a German online gaming case that could pave the way for similar action across the EU. De la Tour said consumer bodies that defend the collective interests of consumers are particularly suited to GDPR's objective of establishing a high level of personal data protection. Facebook found itself in the dock after the Federation of German Consumer Organisations filed a lawsuit alleging that the social network had allowed operators of online games to improperly collect the personal data of gamers. By playing the games, users automatically agreed to share personal data including email addresses. A German lower court had ruled in favour of the German federation, leading Facebook to appeal to a higher court, which subsequently sought advice from the CJEU.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will join other members of the World Trade Organization in signing a declaration on gender equality and women's economic empowerment, the U.S. Trade Representative's office said on Thursday. The declaration is being readied for the 12th ministerial conference of WTO members. USTR said the decision to join the declaration reflects the Biden administration's commitment to "advancing equity across the board and consistent with its national gender strategy to advance the full participation of all people – including women and girls – in the United States and around the world." (Reporting by Andrea Shalal)

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 2): Proton sales in November improved 24.3% year-on-year to 14,187 units, raising the national carmaker’s year-to-date sales to 100,566 units, which is its third successive year to break through the 100,000 sales barrier. In a statement on Thursday (Dec 2), it said November sales improved by 6.2% over October, marking the third consecutive month of growth. Proton Edar chief executive officer Roslan Abdullah said crossing over the 100,000-unit threshold with a month to go is a high point for Proton after another year disrupted by Covid-19. “Not to be outdone, the Proton X50 had a record month with 4,010 units delivered. “The Proton X70 also continued its run of success with 1,901 units delivered this month, keeping it far ahead in the C-segment SUV class,” it added.

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 2): HIL Industries Bhd has expanded its face mask product range to include surgical-grade masks with antiviral and filtration efficiency to remove over 99.9% of virus and airborne particles. The company in July 2020 ventured into the personal protective equipment (PPE) and healthcare business. HIL Industries president and chief executive officer Datuk Milton Ng said the addition to the company’s face mask product line-up is timely, considering rising demand for higher-quality face masks. “As economic and social activities resume globally on the back of mass-vaccination, demand for higher-quality face masks remains solid as another line of defence against the emergence of new variants of the Covid-19 virus, including Delta, Delta Plus and Omicron,” he said. HIL Industries was last traded at 98 sen, valuing it at RM327.36 million.

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 2): Share prices of rubber glove makers including Top Glove Corp Bhd and Hartalega Holdings Bhd rebounded on bargain hunting on Thursday (Dec 2) after investors took profit in recent days and as they assessed updates on the Omicron variant of Covid-19. At 10.16am, Top Glove shares were traded 11 sen or 4.01% higher at RM2.85, while Hartalega’s share price had risen seven sen or 1.11% to RM6.36. Glove makers have been closely watched since the Covid-19 pandemic started in early 2020 due to gloves being crucial personal protective equipment to curb the spread of the outbreak. Looking back, share prices of glove makers rose substantially during the onset of Covid-19 in anticipation that the companies will register higher earnings from stronger demand for their products. However, news of global Covid-19 vaccination progress tempered such sentiment on stronger demand for gloves in recent months before the current Omicron variant rekindled investors' enthusiasm for glove manufacturers.

ATA IMS had also previously denied such claims. A spokesperson for the ministry, when contacted, told theedgemarkets.com that the legal action Saravanan mentioned on taking against ATA IMS was unrelated to the forced labour issue. It is about an "old offence" that ATA IMS has yet to pay the compound for, the spokesperson said but did not specify what it was. ATA IMS subsequently confirmed the matter and warned it would see significant revenue drop from the termination. ATA IMS shares settled 8.89% or four sen lower at 41 sen on Wednesday, giving the company a market capitalisation of RM493.17 million.

MANGROVE forests are shrinking not only in Malaysia but globally due to unhealthy human activities and unsustainable forest practices. The academician said that at the same time, some mangrove forest reserves in the country had been degazetted and made available for other uses. “An examination of 25 mangrove forests across the Indo-Pacific region found that per hectare, they held up to four times more carbon than other tropical rainforests. She said Malaysia’s natural heritage must be conserved through careful planning and governing of the mangrove corridors. Sapura also suggested placing the administration of mangrove forests nationwide under the same government agency in order to have better management and development plans.

NEW YORK: Gold rose on Wednesday, tracking a retreat in the dollar as investors used a pullback in the previous session to buy bullion as a hedge against wider market volatility amid concerns over the impact of the Omicron coronavirus variant. Spot gold was up 0.4% to $1,780.05 per ounce by 2:33 p.m. Concerns over the virus variant are supporting gold as fresh restrictions will slow the global economy, with a weaker dollar also boosting demand for the safe-haven metal, said Phillip Streible, chief market strategist at Blue Line Futures in Chicago. "Choppy markets with underlying anxiety should also be supporting gold prices more but its inability to drag itself back above $1,800 isn't a great sign." Some investors view gold as a hedge against higher inflation, but reduced stimulus and interest rate hikes push government bond yields up, raising non-interest bearing gold's opportunity cost.

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 1): Newly formed non-governmental organisation (NGO) the Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences Association (ATAS) hopes to position Malaysia as the regional hub of tropical agricultural research, food production, agri techno-innovation and entrepreneurship development. “With ATAS, we would like to ensure the success and sustainability of the ecosystem for tropical agriculture which is Malaysia’s main agriculture sector for export. ATAS, whose members comprise agricultural researchers, scientists, academics, entrepreneurs, practitioners, farmers, members of agricultural NGOs and other persons interested in tropical agriculture, aims to spearhead tropical agriculture research and develop state-of-the-art innovative practices for food production. ATAS will also be organizing its first International Conference of Tropical Agriculture (ICTA) on May 26 to 28, 2022. The conference aims to bring together leading agri scientists and academics, agri-techno-entrepreneurs, as well as agri practitioners, community leaders and NGOs to exchange and share their experiences, research findings, best practices and success stories on all aspects of tropical agriculture.

At the same time, Pharmaniaga was supposed to begin supplying vaccines to private clinics by Aug 1. This led PAC chairman Wong Kah Woh to ask the minister whether it was possible to make up for the difference by ordering more vaccines directly from Sinovac. Overall, the PAC’s opinion was that the government should have stuck with the initially agreed upon price. Another issue highlighted by the PAC was the high price of the Sinovac vaccines in the private vaccine market. The government had allowed Pharmaniaga to sell Sinovac vaccines with a reasonable profit, although the price of RM130 per dose, or RM260 for two doses, as suggested by Pharmaniaga, was deemed too high by the PAC.