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Clinton for sale By posting this am I saying that Bill Clinton is different from any other powerful politician, in taking money from foreign donors who obviously hope to influence the political process? No, in this Bill Clinton is not singular. But look at this list: $10 million to $25 million from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Between $1 million and $5 million each from Saudi businessman Nasser Al-Rashid, Friends of Saudi Arabia, the Dubai Foundation, and the governments of Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei and Oman. And the New York Post here is worried about money from India keeping Hillary from...

Sultan of Brunei lets slip his £4bn lifestyle By Andrew Pierce Last Updated: 1:46am BST 25/10/2007 The Sultan of Brunei, who is embroiled in the most expensive family feud in legal history, transferred $8 billion (£3.9 billion) of state funds into his personal bank account to help fund his lavish lifestyle, The Daily Telegraph can reveal. The Sultan of Brunei and his wife, Queen Hajah Mariam, is the world’s wealthiest monarch, with a £10 billion fortune The sultan, one of the world's richest men, has been forced to disclose his personal finances in a court case at the Privy Council...

Asean members hope to adopt the charter formally later this year Ministers from South-East Asian countries have reached agreement on a landmark draft charter. The document gives the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) a set of binding rules for the first time in the bloc's 40-year existence. The agreement comes after nearly two years of deliberations among members. It includes a contentious provision to set up a commission monitoring human rights in the region - despite strong misgivings from some Asean countries. Credibility boost With governments in the region running the gamut from fully-fledged democracies to a military...

Treasuring Brunei's past By Jon Tampoi The tomb of the 5th Sultan of Brunei Darussalam, a historical monument situated at Kota Batu's hillside. - Photos: Jason LeongShards of pottery from business activities with China in the past. Brunei has a rich history of trade, and often received tribute. Many of the great civilisations in our world's history had marine origins, whether they evolved in Europe, the Americas or Asia. The kingdom of Brunei Darussalam is no exception, as historical evidence lends veracity to this claim. Relics of Bruneian culture have been found around river estuaries and ancient settlements, as proven...

WASHINGTON - The United States on Friday classified six Asian countries as religious freedom violators, aside from China, Myanmar, North Korea and Vietnam already blacklisted as worst offenders in the region. Afghanistan, Brunei, India, Laos, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were included in a ‘significant’ list of violators of religious freedom in the US State Department’s annual International Religious Freedom Report 2006. John Hanford, US envoy for international religious freedom, said there was a possibility that one or more from the six nations could be added to a blacklist of ‘countries of particular concern’ that includes China, Myanmar, North Korea and...

PORT MAURA, Brunei (NNS) -- Sasebo, Japan-based USS Patriot (MCM 7) arrived in Brunei for a scheduled port visit June 25, meant to enhance the relationship between the U.S. and Brunei. The visit will be highlighted by a number of social and goodwill opportunities between Patriot Sailors and the people of Brunei, including top dignitaries, members of the Royal Brunei Navy and special-needs kids. “Our primary mission here is to interact with the people of Brunei so that we can work to create a stronger mutual relationship between the United States and Brunei,” said Lt. Cmdr. Richard D. Brawley, Patriot...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, who has been seeking to raise money for the financially strapped government, returned to the Gaza Strip on Wednesday with a suitcase full of cash, Palestinians officials said. An official said Zahar was believed to be carrying up to $20 million. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media. An official statement was expected later Wednesday. The official said Zahar had declared the money at the border, which is controlled by President Mahmoud Abbas' presidential guard and monitored by European observers. It...

ABOARD USS SALVOR, Gulf of Thailand (NNS) -- The rescue and salvage ship USS Salvor (ARS 52) and divers of Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit (MDSU) 1 arrived June 11 at the site in the Gulf of Thailand presumed to be the resting place of the WWII–era USS Lagarto (SS 371) and its crew. In May 2005, British diver Jamie MacLeod reported finding Lagarto, which was last seen May 3, 1945. On May 8, 2006, MacLeod joined U.S. Pacific Fleet Submarine Force Commander Rear Adm. Jeffrey Cassias and families of crew members who served aboard Lagarto at a memorial service...

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has a record that is the envy of conservative leaders around the world. Recently elected to a fourth term (with an enhanced majority, to boot), he has charted a distinctive and largely successful course for Australia's international relations over the past decade. As the Harper government begins to formulate its own approach to foreign policy, Mr. Howard arrives in Ottawa at an opportune moment. Under Mr. Howard's leadership, Australia's ties with the United States have warmed considerably, stemming in large part from Canberra's staunch support for U.S.-led anti-terrorism initiatives and the invasion of Iraq. Mr....

The fall of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has thrown Thailand into uncertainty. Thaksin will remain at the head of his Thai Rak Thai party and has not ruled out a possible comeback, so the rough road has not yet reached its end. But if Thai politics are in for more political jockeying, what about the rest of Southeast Asia? What about the political fortunes of his fellow leaders in the region, some of whom emerged around the same time? Is Thailand alone? The uncertainty in Thailand is not likely to have any shattering effect on the region. But it is...

Cut-price air travel has arrived in South-East Asia - and it is making the same kind of impact as it did in Europe and the United States. Well-established national carriers that have enjoyed near-monopolies are finally being challenged. The newcomers use a similar business model to internet-based operations in Europe and the US. Because of the limited access to computers in some countries in the region, tickets are also available through travel agents. But the same principle applies: the earlier you book, the cheaper the ticket. One of the main players is the Kuala Lumpur-based Air Asia, a company that...

Asia Rising Donald Rumsfeld infamously made a distinction between Old Europe and New Europe. He has been scored ever since for his sweeping and impolitic language, but he wasn't sweeping enough: In geopolitical terms, all of Europe is old, the world's most tourist-friendly museum piece. For the future of high-stakes U.S. diplomacy and of great-power politics, look no further than Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to the U.S. It is Asia that should occupy an outsized place in our strategic thinking, and it is Europe that should be the relative afterthought, not the other way around. The media and foreign-policy...

Asian juggernaut 'ONE vision, one identity, one community", proclaim giant blue ASEAN banners straddling the six-lane motorway from Kuala Lumpur's gleaming airport into Malaysia's capital. For ASEAN's true believers, next week's inaugural East Asian Summit, bringing together leaders of 16 nations including Australia and New Zealand, will be the first tentative step towards the long-term goal of creating an East Asian Community. For the first time Asia's rising giants, India and China, will sit together at a regional forum. For the first time in post-World War II history, the US will be absent from a multilateral gathering encompassing the leading...

Stirring fears al-Qaida's much-heralded "Ramadan Offensive" was beginning early, three near-simultaneous bomb blasts ripped through crowded restaurants on the Indonesia resort island of Bali almost three years to the day of the devastating Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202. At least 25 have been reported killed.

Brunei Sultan weds Azrinaz KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 20: Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei married former TV3 newscaster Azrinaz Mazhar Hakim at a private ceremony here last night. One of the invited guests said the ceremony, held at 8.30pm, was attended by family members, relatives and close friends of the couple. HUSBAND & WIFE: Sultan Hassanal and Azrinaz Azrinaz, or fondly known as Naz, started work as a broadcast journalist with TV3 in 1997. She won TV3’s Most Promising Journalist award in 2000 and received the MIIM Alumni Award in 2002. She quit TV3 in May, saying that she wanted...

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained for a total of9 years and 237 days Free Aung San Suu Kyi! Email General Than Shwe

prince_fayadbolkiah@zipmail.com.br Greetings, I am Prince Fayad W. Bolkiah, the eldest son of Prince Jefri Bolkiah,former Finance Minister of Brunei, the tiny oil-rich sultanate on the northern coast of the island of Borneo in eastern Asia.I will save your time by not amplifying my extended royal family history,which has already been disseminated by the international media during the controversial dispute that erupted between my father and his step brother,the sultan of Brunei Sheik Muda Hassanal Bolkiah. As you may know from the international media,the sultan had accused my father of financial mismanagement and impropriety of US$14.8 Billion dollars. This was as...

BAE takes Sultan to court over £600m order for warships By Sylvia Pfeifer (Filed: 03/04/2005) BAE Systems, Britain's largest defence contractor, is taking the Sultan of Brunei, one of the world's richest men, to court over a $1bn dispute involving an order for three naval ships. The dispute centres on a lucrative export order, estimated to be worth over £600m ($1.13bn), to build three offshore patrol vessels for the Royal Brunei armed forces. The contract was agreed several years ago and BAE, headed by Mike Turner, the chief executive, launched the first ship to much fanfare in January 2001. The...

This message and the pictures are from a friend of a friend of mine who is a retired Air Force Lt.General. He wrote: I toured this aircraft as it was being "remodeled" in Waco. Yes, the sinks are solid gold and one of them is Lalique crystal. The Sultan bought the aircraft for roughly $100M; had it flown to Waco, brand-new, had the interior completely removed; and had the folks at E-Systems(now Raytheon) install $120M worth of improvements and outside. I've gained entrance to nuclear weapons storage areas much easier than gaining entrance to see this airplane.

Initiative intended to promote regional economic integration The U.S. Department of State, in cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), will launch a $1.78 million training and technical assistance program to promote regional economic integration. In a statement released November 16, the State Department said the 18-month program will support the ASEAN Secretariat as well as ASEAN efforts to address transnational issues such as maritime security and counterterrorism. This new program is part of the broader ASEAN Cooperation Plan (ACP) announced by Secretary of State Colin Powell in a meeting with ASEAN Ministers on August 1, 2002. The...

SANTIAGO, Chile - Riot police used water cannons and tear gas Friday to break up a demonstration by hundreds of rock-throwing protesters before more than 20,000 people marched to vent their anger at Pacific Rim leaders, particularly President Bush (news - web sites). While some protesters said they oppose the APEC (news - web sites) summit, which they likened to a rich man's club that does nothing for the poor, much of the rage was aimed at Bush and the U.S.-led war in Iraq (news - web sites). Bush was arriving in Chile on Friday night. At the summit, he...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The Anglican Church in Southeast Asia said Friday that it has severed ties with its U.S. counterpart for elevating an openly gay man to the rank of bishop — another sign of growing disapproval for the move around the world. Archbishop Yong Ping Chung, the Anglican Primate for Southeast Asia, said leaders representing about 170,000 Anglicans in eight Asian countries voted unanimously on Nov. 20 to cut ties with the U.S. Episcopal Church, a member of the 77 million-member global Anglican Communion. The Southeast Asian leaders voted at a special meeting of the region's synod,...

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Tying the terror fight to economic growth, Pacific Rim leaders closed out an annual summit clouded by worries about the North Korean nuclear crisis - and at least one missile test by the North. The 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum said it would work to "dismantle fully and without delay transnational terrorist groups that threaten the APEC economies." The joint statement came after President Bush pushed security to the top of the agenda at a summit where others wanted to focus on the official goal of free trade. The APEC nations, also including China, Japan and...

Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the regional terror network widely suspected of staging the October 12, Bali bombings and dozens of other blasts, dreams of creating a pan-Islamic state in Southeast Asia. It aims to destabilise the region through terror attacks and bring Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and the southern Philippines under a fundamentalist umbrella. Elderly Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, Jemaah Islamiyah's alleged leader or "emir", went on trial on Wednesday for treason. He is charged with trying to topple the Jakarta government through terrorism and set up an Islamic state. The same day Indonesian police announced they have arrested 17...

The sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah, one of the richest men of the world, divorced his second wife, a former air-hostess, and ordered that it is private of all its titles royaux. Une announces made Sunday evening with television announced the news without specifying why the sultan, 56 years old, separated from Mariam Abdul Aziz, 46 years. The rumour of a disagreement circulated already for some time in the sultanate which owes its prosperity with the exploitation of gas and of the pétrole. Le couple had four children since their marriage in 1981.

A New Zealand school teacher has been fined more than $NZ500 for trying to smuggle 48 cans of undeclared Victoria Bitter beer into the Islamic sultanate of Brunei.A Brunei magistrate fined William Strickland for trying to sneak the beer past customs officials, the Borneo Bulletin reported.Mr Strickland, from Nelson, said last night that he had been planning a party so brought some extras in.He was returning from Malaysia in February and declared to customs at the border just 12 cans of beer and two bottles of alcoholic beverages, which non-Muslims are permitted to take into Brunei for personal consumption.Surprised to...