Oil Brunei

The Liberian-registered tanker Nagasaki Spirit was on fire and abandoned by its 23-member crew in the Strait of Malacca, a spokesman for Malaysia's Rescue Coordinating Center said. It was not known whether there were any casualties. The Lloyd's shipping casualty service in London said the tanker's captain had first reported that he had been fired on and then reported a collision. Lloyd's said the tanker was sailing from Saudi Arabia to oil-rich Brunei.

"The Peril of Strange-Bedfellowship" by Cheryl Benard (Commentary, Oct. 15) was excellent reading. She has very nicely and justly sympathized with the villain's (Saddam Hussein) position. Truly, the colonial powers have divided the world to their advantage by artificially dividing countries. They did not care about the consequences to the local population. They punished a big country like Iraq by giving it only one port, Basra, while they rewarded the tiny Sabah family with immense oil wealth and good ports.

When President Clinton arrived here Tuesday for his swan-song summit with world leaders, he stepped into a tiny, surreal kingdom where unbelievable wealth blends with rigid repression. Brunei also represents the 21st century challenges confronting the 21 heads of state and leaders in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group as they push to strengthen regional economies and open up some of the world's last closed societies.

Defiant in the face of potential impeachment, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid said Friday he will not quit despite a humiliating censure by Parliament over two corruption scandals. He also denied lying about his role in the scandals and said lawmakers had condemned him without knowing the facts. "I will not step down," he said after praying at a Jakarta mosque. "I will complete my presidential term." His term ends in 2004.

Southeast Asia can be one of the most exciting, exotic and challenging areas of the world for young travelers. You can find yourself meandering through the jungles of northern Thailand on the back of an elephant, lounging on the beaches of Bali or watching the locals take pet birds for a walk in high-rise Hong Kong. A new information-packed guidebook can help you design your adventure, even if you're on a limited budget. The Southeast Asia Handbook, by Carl Parkes (Moon Publications, $16.

There was good news and bad news Saturday as the leaders of Southeast Asia's 10 countries concluded their annual two-day summit amid signs of China's growing regional influence and a shared desire to speed the pace of e-commerce and information technology. The good news was that the gloom of the 1997-98 economic crisis had lifted. Though stock markets and currencies are down, most states have rebuilt their foreign-exchange reserves and are enjoying plump current-account surpluses.

The State Department, after soliciting $10 million in aid for the Nicaraguan rebels from oil-rich Brunei, advised the sultan of the Asian nation to ask for a refund because there was no assurance that the money would actually go to the contras , officials said Tuesday. Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams, who had asked the sultan last summer to send the money to White House aide Oliver L.

The Gurkhas, fabled warriors from the Himalayan nation of Nepal who have fought in the British army in every war since 1815, have new marching orders. The 7,500-man Brigade of Gurkhas--once 16,000 men strong--is headquartered here but dispersed around the world. It is stacking arms, trimming its size to 2,500 by the end of the decade and moving on to new trouble spots. As the new spearhead of the 5th Airborne Brigade, Britain's crisis intervention force, most of the tough Nepalese will be based in England and Wales.

Just as life was getting really desperate, a man came to Prasert Kingsaklang's village. He went door to door telling villagers about well-paid construction jobs in Singapore and Kuwait and other exotic places. Prasert, 40, whose tiny rice farm had failed because of drought and whose wife made only a pittance selling noodles, knew friends who had gone abroad to work. They always came back with enough money to buy a small farm machine or build a house.