Riots Malaysia

Riot police fired water cannons and tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators and clashed with stone-throwing youths in anti-government protests. Demonstrations against Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad have raged in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, since a judge sentenced Malaysia's ousted No. 2 leader, Anwar Ibrahim, on Wednesday to six years in prison. Armed police repeatedly ordered protesters to disperse, but they ignored the warnings.

Riot police fired water cannons and tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators and clashed with stone-throwing youths in anti-government protests. Demonstrations against Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad have raged in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, since a judge sentenced Malaysia's ousted No. 2 leader, Anwar Ibrahim, on Wednesday to six years in prison. Armed police repeatedly ordered protesters to disperse, but they ignored the warnings.

Police fired water cannons to drive back anti-government protesters as they pushed toward a hotel Saturday where U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was taken after her arrival in Malaysia. Seeking U.S. support, the demonstrators marched to within 200 yards of the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Kuala Lumpur, where Albright was taken after arriving to join preparations for a Pacific Rim economic summit Tuesday and Wednesday.

Police fired water cannons to drive back anti-government protesters as they pushed toward a hotel Saturday where U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was taken after her arrival in Malaysia. Seeking U.S. support, the demonstrators marched to within 200 yards of the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Kuala Lumpur, where Albright was taken after arriving to join preparations for a Pacific Rim economic summit Tuesday and Wednesday.

Twenty years ago, Vietnam's Communist government set out to destroy free enterprise. Not surprisingly, its storm troopers headed straight for Cholon, the sprawling, prosperous Chinese district of Ho Chi Minh City. Truckloads of soldiers and volunteers wearing red armbands descended on the maze of crowded, narrow streets to inventory personal property--everything from gold watches to factory machines--that was to be turned over to the state.

He wouldn't put it quite this way, but the past year has been a bit mystifying to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has towered over Malaysian politics as none before him and whose legacy, until an economic crisis, had seemed assured. Why would Malaysians call for one of Asia's longest-serving leaders to resign after all he's done for them? Why would his most trusted ally, a man he created politically, turn on him?