Free Republic

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A court in Malaysia on Friday sentenced three leaders of a Muslim sect to death by hanging after convicting them of armed rebellion to create an Islamic state in the multi-cultural nation.

A good way to find out what's wrong with the economies of the Middle East is to go to Jersey City, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from the World Trade Center. There you'll find plenty of Middle Easterners who planted their entrepreneurial seeds in turf a lot more fertile than that found back home. One such is Magued (Mike) Nour, president of AmericaTrans Overseas Shipping on Summit Avenue. A forthright Egyptian with the confidence of a sea captain, he declares that economies in the Middle East are only as good as the cost of doing business there. Those company ...

The European Commission has conditionally approved Hutchison Whampoa's acquisition of a controlling interest in Europe's premier container handling facility at the port of Rotterdam. Subsidiary Hutchison Port Holdings notified the commission last month of its intention to increase its 35 per cent stake in European Combined Terminals, but approval was delayed due to anti-competition concerns. "They didn't want Hutchison to control all of northern Europe's deep-water ports," said an analyst. Hutchison Port owns 90 per cent of the container terminals at Felixstowe and Thamesport in Britain, both of which are capable of handling the largest box-ships. As Europe has limited ...

Thousands of Christian villagers on Indonesia's Sulawesi island are fleeing attacks by Muslim paramilitaries armed with machine guns and rocket launchers, clerics and media reports said on Saturday.

PASIR GUDANG, Malaysia (Reuters) - Malaysia carried out its largest ever deportation of illegal immigrants on Monday, sending back around 2,500 Indonesian workers on two Indonesian naval ships under armed escort. Indonesian marines and Malaysian policemen armed with rifles and batons stood watch as the workers boarded the Teluk Langsa and Tanjung Kambani at Pasir Gudang port in southern Johor state. The repatriation, which was trouble-free, cost Malaysia 425,000 ringgit ($112,000) and 1,700 Indonesians will be sent home in a similar exercise next month. There were smiles and tears as the men, women and children walked up the gangplank. They ...

In the past, actors became presidents. Now, presidents, having served their terms, tend to turn into actors. “Clinton conquers Hollywood,” Western newspapers reported today. Bill Clinton has already signed his first actor’s contract. Soon, he will perform before television watchers in a detective serial “The investigation into the crime scene,” playing a lawyer (he is forbidden to play the part in real life). The former US president got his first role as soon as a week after he expressed his wish to perform as an actor. Mr. Clinton’s press secretary says that Bill “hopes he can become a genuine actor, ...

HANOI - Tourism authorities in Ho Chi Minh City will launch a new promotional tourism campaign stressing safety and quality, in an attempt to overcome the impacts of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. "Ensuring security and safety will give Vietnam a competitive edge in attracting foreign tourists," said Nguyen Thi Lap Quoc, the newly appointed director of the Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Department. Travel agency Saigontourist will help spearhead the campaign. It plans to work closely with the Vietnam Tourism Administration (VNAT), the aviation industry and Vietnamese embassies and consulates worldwide to beef up ...

Police in South Africa say Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former wife of Nelson Mandela, is being charged with fraud. Mrs Madikizela-Mandela - the head of the African National Congress Women's League - is to appear before a court in Pretoria on Thursday to face charges relating to an alleged fraud involving the use of her signature to obtain bank loans. Investigators said the total amount believed to have been obtained was more than $100,000. A broker, Addy Moolman, has also been charged in the case. He is alleged to have obtained bank loans for non-existent women's league employees using Mrs Madikizela-Mandela's ...

The 4 and 5 subway lines into Manhattan are shut down at the peak of the commuter rush hour. No explanation was given by the subway people.

The Government of Malaysia is shocked and deeply disturbed by recent press reports indicating that a letter sent from Malaysia to a destination in Reno, Nevada was found to contain anthrax. At this time, we have not been able to confirm that the aforementioned letter did indeed originate from Malaysia or that it was not tampered with in the United States itself. The manufacture of such biological agents is a complex process and it is highly unlikely that any group or groups linked to terrorism in Malaysia have access to such agents. We have requested the United States Federal Bureau ...

Ann Radeloff, 21, of South Hampton, N.Y., participates in a demonstration protesting the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan at Washinton Square Park in New York, Saturday, Oct., 13, 2001. Radeloff said she would rather her tax dollars to be spent on education than bombs. Nearly 400 people participated in the rally and march. (AP Photo/Brian Branch-Price)

WASHINGTON, Sept 6 (AFP) - The United States said Thursday it had asked China to explain reports that it had blacklisted a US-based investment bank -- a move which apparently prompted the US ambassador to Beijing to skip an official dinner in protest. Controversy erupted after China reportedly removed Credit Suisse First Boston from a list of underwriters for a multi-billion dollar stock listing by telecommunications giant China Unicom Group after it invited Taiwan's finance minister to a Hong Kong conference. "We are looking into the facts of the situation as far as the position the Chinese have taken on ...

Yes, Priscilla Almeda is happily pregnant and is waiting for the stork’s visit very early next year in New York which she now considers her second home, if not her "only home." No, Priscilla isn’t coming back to the Philippines, not even after she gives birth. Her decision, according to Funfare’s Big Apple DPA, is to remain in New York and New Jersey with her boyfriend (reported father of Priscilla’s forthcoming love child) who works as a radiologist at a New Jersey hospital. "At least here (in New York/New Jersey)," the DPA quoted Priscilla as saying, "I get the respect ...

BANGKOK, Aug 31 (AFP) - Shark fin soup restaurants in Bangkok's Chinatown Friday filed a 103 million baht (2.3 million dollar) law suit against conservation group WildAid over its high-profile campaign against the costly dish. The group of 15 restaurateurs said their trade had dropped by up to 50 percent since the activists launched an advertising campaign two months ago claiming that shark fins contain poisonous mercury. "The campaign has not only spoiled our decades-old reputation but also our sales," said Chinatown Food Producers Group chairman Adul Laohapol, adding that sales of canned shark fin soup had also fallen. "The ...

WELLINGTON, September 1 (AFP) - Kiwi farmers were rejoicing Saturday after the United States announced that lamb import quotas would be abandoned from mid-November. Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton said Saturday that though the decision was expected he was "delighted" it had finally happened. "It's not easy to bring a superpower to its knees so of course I'm delighted."

WELLINGTON, Sept 1 (AFP) - The elusive giant squid, viewed as scientific fact but often dismissed as seafaring fiction, is alive and well and living in large numbers off the coast of New Zealand's South Island. Scientists at the Wellington National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) estimate there are thousands of the creatures, making up two breeding populations off the South Island coasts and providing the ideal opportunity to investigate one of the true remaining mysteries of the deep. Prompting renewed interest in the existence of the squids, the NIWA has revealed it has collected more specimens in ...

GUWAHATI, India, Sept 1 (AFP) - Tribal rebels have shot dead three people in the northeastern Indian state of Tripura in the latest attack on ruling leftist leaders in the troubled region, police said Saturday. Militants from the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) raided the village home of a communist leader near the state capital Agartala and shot dead three people on Friday night, officials said. "A group of 15 NLFT rebels attacked the house of local leader Sukhu Debbarma, and killed him on the spot. Two of his brothers, both members of the state's ruling communist party, were ...

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY— "It’s unthinkable for Muslims to enter a Catholic church, but I think they forgot this just to see the priest they loved," Bishop Edwin dela Peña said Saturday at a funeral Mass for Fr. Rufus Halley, the murdered Irish missionary whom locals fondly called "Popong." Several Muslim women sat alongside Halley’s five brothers--who had traveled from Ireland to bury their brother--sharing grief over the senseless murder of the 57-year-old Columban priest, who was killed Tuesday in a botched kidnapping attempt by suspected Moro rebels outside Malabang town in Lanao del Sur. In death, Fr. Popong ...

In a day of high drama, about 30 elite troops boarded the Tampa after it ignored earlier warnings and entered Australian territorial waters to anchor about four nautical miles off Christmas Island. Mr Howard said it was an unprecedented situation which was in clear defiance of an order from Canberra. He added that it had been willing to provide medical assistance, which the ship's captain had accepted. 'Shortly thereafter, completely contradicting this advice, the ship's captain indicated he would enter Australian waters and approach Christmas Island,' he told Parliament. 'The government was left with no alternative but to instruct the ...

Before she had a ship, before she had any money for a ship or a nurse to go with the ship or a media representative to handle all the reporters who would want to know what she was doing with the ship, Dr. Rebecca Gomperts had an idea. It was 1997, and she was a 31-year-old abortion doctor based in Amsterdam, and to her, the idea seemed straightforward and reasonable, as so many ideas do before they take on the weight of reality. She wanted to buy a ship and sail it around the world, providing abortions at sea for ...