A Malaysian man has launched the country's first legal challenge against Islamic laws banning gay sex, a test case supporters said Wednesday could help combat growing persecution of the LGBT community.He was charged last year for allegedly attempting to have "intercourse against the order of nature", and several others in the same case have already pleaded guilty and were caned as a punishment.Critics say the climate is worsening for the gay community in Muslim-majority Malaysi

American actor George Clooney has called for a boycott of nine Brunei-owned hotels over the sultanate's imposition of the death penalty for gay sex and adultery."Every single time we stay at or take meetings at or dine at any of these nine hotels, we are putting money directly into the pockets of men who choose to stone and whip to death their own citizens for being gay or accused of adultery," Clooney wrote on the website Deadline Hollywood."I've learned over years o

Adultery and gay sex in Brunei will be subject to death by stoning from next week, authorities said, under a strict Sharia law that has been on hold for four years amid heavy criticism.Rights groups reacted in horror Wednesday to the latest hard-line move from the resource-rich nation on Borneo, which practises a stricter brand of Islam than its neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia.The tiny sultanate will implement the harsh new penal code – which also prescribes amputation of a hand and foot fo