Word: abdullah
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...provides cover for militants. On Aug. 7, 1998, deadly car bombs detonated simultaneously next to the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 224 people--just 12 of whom were Americans--and injuring more than 4,000. The FBI named three Somalia-based suspects: Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, originally from the Comoros Islands, off Mozambique; Kenyan Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan; and bombmaker Tariq Abdullah, a.k.a. Abu Taha al-Sudani. The FBI said the men were members of the "Osama bin Laden network" and offered $5 million for Fazul's arrest or death...
...transitional government in Mogadishu has fractured, with clan loyalties trumping unity. In October, President Yusuf Abdullah fired Prime Minster Ali Mohammed Gedi. (On Nov. 24, in the latest attempt to forge a working government, Nur Hassan Hussain, the longtime president of Somalia's Red Crescent Society, was sworn in as Prime Minister.) Government forces stormed the U.N. World Food Program compound in October and briefly took its head of mission hostage. And the jihadis are regrouping. Ayro, now recovered, is back in Mogadishu at the head of the UIC militia. He recently issued a proclamation hailing bin Laden and calling...
...Abdullah points out that the ruling coalition is composed of parties representing various ethnic communities. "We have adopted a power-sharing formula for over 50 years now, so every community gets a seat at the table when it comes to governing the country," he told TIME. "Everyone participates, and everyone's voice is heard." Many non-Malays don't agree - and their sense of alienation starts early. Government primary schools that used to be essentially secular now feature Islamic prayer halls. Today, only 6% of Chinese parents send their children to such schools, while in the 1970s more than half...
...mainstream press has avoided the topic because of a government directive ordering media to maintain "peace and harmony" by blacking out debate over Islam's role in the state. The censorship disappoints journalists who were pleased when Abdullah initially allowed for more freedom of expression than predecessor Mahathir. In October, Malaysia received its worst-ever ranking in the worldwide press-freedom index compiled by watchdog Reporters Without Borders, falling by 32 places to No. 124. The drop was due, in part, to two separate cases in which a blogger and a publisher of an online newspaper were both pulled...
...cost overruns in the building of a free-trade zone at Port Klang, not far from Kuala Lumpur. The latest official figures show that the project has ballooned to about $1.4 billion, more than double what was projected in 1999. Critics contend that graft has plagued the project, undercutting Abdullah's much-vaunted anticorruption drive. "Thus far, Abdullah's promises to curb corruption remain just that: promises," says Ramasamy Palanisamy, a former professor of politics at the National University of Malaysia. At the same time, the PM, who once earned plaudits for cutting back Mahathir's excesses, has signed...