Malaysia’s highest court overturned the sodomy conviction of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim today and freed him from prison – exactly six years after his removal from office triggered the country’s worst political crisis.

Incumbent Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was sworn in today as Malaysia’s fifth prime minister, a day after scoring a landslide election victory that handed the fundamentalist Islamic opposition its worst defeat in more than a decade.

MALAYSIAN prime minister Mahathir Mohamad kept up his strong criticism of Jews and the West yesterday, just days ahead of his retirement after more than 22 years in power.

US President George Bush today jumped into an international row over Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s comments that Jews rule the world, condemning them as both “reprehensible” and ”hateful.”

Faced with furious criticism from the US and Europe over Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s assertion that Jews rule the world, Malaysia apologised today for any misunderstanding and claimed that no offence was intended.

THE biggest summit of Islamic leaders in three years opened yesterday with calls for the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims to unite against “a few million Jews” who allegedly rule the world and get others to fight and die for them.

The biggest summit of Islamic leaders in three years opened today with calls for the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims to unite against “a few million Jews” who allegedly rule the world and get others to fight and die for them.

MALAYSIA has bought the rights from a Japanese firm to the world’s smallest microchip that can be embedded in everything from currencies to human bodies and will boost the global anti-terror war, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said yesterday.

TERROR alerts spread worldwide yesterday amid suspicions of new al-Qaida operations, but countries with tourist hotspots accused Britain of overreacting and the United States of being “afraid of its own shadow”.

ISLAMIC leaders will gather in Qatar tomorrow Wednesday for an emergency summit in yet another 11th-hour bid by a regional organisation to convince the US to forgo plans to invade and occupy Iraq.

LEADERS of Islamic countries yesterday threw their support behind an initiative by France and Germany to avert war on Iraq and said they were considering using their oil to exert pressure on those favouring an attack.

Malaysia’s prime minister today confirmed that Islamic states had discussed using “the oil weapon” in a bid to head off US moves to wage war on Iraq.

President McAleese has agreed with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad that international conflicts should be resolved through diplomacy, officials in Kuala Lumpur said.

Malaysia’s highest court today rejected former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim’s appeal against his conviction and six-year prison term for corruption.

Palestinian suicide bombers should not be condemned as terrorists, the Palestinian representative at an international conference of Muslim leaders said today.

Malaysia’s jailed former deputy leader Anwar Ibrahim today attacked the testimony of key prosecution witnesses as he launched his final appeal against a corruption conviction he claims was politically engineered.

Malaysian police have arrested two more suspected members of an al-Qaida-linked militant group.

King Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, elected by sultans under Malaysia’s unusual royal rotation system, died today after weeks of complications following heart surgery, prime minister Mahathir Mohamad announced.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has warned that foreign government ministers will be arrested if they violate anti-homosexual laws while visiting the mostly Muslim country.

As the Philippines Government stepped up its battle with Muslim rebel hostage-takers today, the military said it found two bodies in guerrilla territory, but neither belonged to the American captive the insurgents claim to have beheaded.

Malaysia’s former police chief was sent to prison today by the Court of Appeals for beating jailed politician Anwar Ibrahim in 1998.

Police wielding canes and backed by water have broken up a rally of about 500 people against Malaysia's longtime leader Mahathir Mohamed.