Mahathir Mohamad

Former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who was ousted in 1998, returned to Malaysia from a trip abroad to a feisty reception by about 1,000 supporters who slipped through a police cordon to greet him at Kuala Lumpur's airport. The crowd shouted, "Long Live Anwar!" as he walked slowly from the terminal, holding the hand of his wife, Azizah Ismail. Anwar left for Germany on Sept. 4 for back surgery, and later went on pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

Jailed politician Anwar Ibrahim was hospitalized for tests after his lawyers claimed that Malaysian authorities were poisoning him with arsenic. Karpal Singh, Anwar's lawyer, said secret tests on the former deputy prime minister's urine proved that the 52-year-old politician, who has been in jail for nearly a year, has a high level of arsenic in his body. "I suspect some people in high places, in all likelihood, are responsible for his condition," Karpal said.

Malaysia is lashing out at neighboring Asian countries for sympathizing with dissident leader Anwar Ibrahim, whose detention sparked yet another protest Saturday. "We should not interfere in the internal political affairs of other countries, especially the friendly nations," Tourism Minister Sabaruddin Chik said Saturday in the latest such criticism.

MALAYSIA * Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's ruling party split a by-election with Muslim fundamentalists who want to declare Malaysia a hard-line Islamic state. The archrivals were contesting the state assembly and national Parliament seats that came open after the death last month of Fadzil Noor, leader of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, or PAS. The fundamentalists retained the assembly seat and built an early, 2,000-vote lead for the parliamentary seat.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Thursday that a local group linked to Afghanistan's Taliban regime conspired to attack U.S. sailors in this Southeast Asian country but that the plans fell through. In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp., Mahathir said members of the group studied in Pakistan and traveled to Afghanistan, where they became involved with the Taliban militia and what the Malaysian leader called "the Osama bin Laden group." Mahathir did not identify the local group.

More than 25,000 opposition supporters gathered in Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's home state Saturday, pledging to end the leader's 19-year control of the Southeast Asian nation. The crowd, mostly Malay Muslims who were once Mahathir's primary backers, gathered in the town of Jitra, about 300 miles north of the capital, Kuala Lumpur. "Our political attitude is growing mature," Abdul Hadi Awang, vice president of the fundamentalist Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, told the crowd.

More than 1,000 people filled the streets of this capital to greet a jailed politician Wednesday, cheering, "We are with you!" as Anwar Ibrahim returned home under heavy guard for his mother's funeral. Despite warnings not to turn Anwar's brief furlough into a political event, about 250 people scuffled with police later in the day at the grave site in Kuala Lumpur. They blocked the path of the ambulance carrying Anwar away from the funeral.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said he was unaware of a videotape purportedly made in Malaysia showing one of the Sept. 11 hijacking suspects meeting an Osama bin Laden operative. The videotape, reportedly made in January 2000, is said to show a meeting between a suspect in the attack on the U.S. warship Cole last year in Yemen and Khalid Almihdhar, one of the suspected hijackers who flew a plane into the Pentagon.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said that if a homosexual British Cabinet minister visited Malaysia with his boyfriend, both would be expelled. In remarks to the BBC, Mahathir explained that he had planned to step down from power a few years ago but could not after he found out that his deputy was gay. The predominantly Muslim nation in Southeast Asia would not accept a gay leader, he said. "It's a difference of values," he said.

Lawyers defending Malaysia's ousted deputy prime minister on a sodomy charge demanded a mistrial Monday after prosecutors changed the year they say the alleged offenses occurred. The prosecution originally said Anwar Ibrahim committed "carnal intercourse" against his former family driver, Azizan abu Bakar, in May 1994. The state then changed the date to May 1992.