'Axis of evil' and 'axis of affluence' dominate world leaders' meet
KUALA LUMPUR - Kings, sheikhs and presidents from the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America converged on the Malaysian capital today in an attempt to make their voices heard in a world where the lone superpower appears headed towards war.
The members of the 114-nation Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) are mostly developing countries with little clout of their own, which is why the movement was formed as an alternative to the US and Soviet superpower blocs during the Cold War.
NAM has been seen as increasingly irrelevant since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but with all three points in US President George W. Bush's "axis of evil" - Iran, Iraq and North Korea - holding membership, the summit has taken on an added significance.
Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told foreign ministers ahead of the summit that a world dominated by just one superpower "is pervaded by a profound sense of unease and uncertainty about the future.
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