Islamic hardliners running Malaysia's eastern Terengganu...

Islamic hardliners running Malaysia's eastern Terengganu state passed criminal laws allowing amputation and death by stoning, ignoring protests they breached the constitution and human rights.
Terengganu's legislative assembly approved the "hudud" penal code after 28 lawmakers from the Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS) in the 32-member house voted for the bill.
Three of the four legislators from Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's BN coalition, in power nationally, abstained while one was absent.
"This is nothing but a political gimmick for PAS," Rashid Ngah, a spokesman for the coalition legislators, told Reuters after the vote in the state capital, Kuala Terengganu.
The hudud is inspired by the Arab world's traditional sharia laws. It stipulates chopping off the hands of thieves and stoning adulterers to death. It also orders flogging for women who say they have been raped but cannot prove the crime.
PAS says it wants to apply the law only to Muslims, who account for just over half of Malaysia's 23 million people. Legal experts say the hudud cannot be enforced under the constitution.
A decade ago, Mahathir's federal government, which controls the nation's criminal code, refused to let PAS use similar laws in the neighbouring state of Kelantan.
Analysts said PAS, which wants to turn Malaysia into a conservative Islamic state, is trying to win the support of Muslims who could be swayed by theological beliefs.
PAS has made a mission out of introducing the hudud but has not said what else its version of an Islamic state would entail.