Abdullah

ISRAEL'S election catapulted Jordan's King Abdullah into crucial importance that would have taxed his late father, King Hussein, who died in February.At 37, the new king had trained only to lead the army. Already, he has shuffled the Cabinet to make it his own, declared a more open economy, begged for debt relief and visited Washington and Gaza.It appears to be his destiny to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and between Israel and Syria. Such statecraft is not what the half-English Abdullah learned at Sandhurst, the British military academy.

It got to the point where the governor of Maryland would anticipate Melvin Bilal's words whenever he saw him. "I know what you're going to say," Martin O'Malley declared each time Mr. Bilal approached him at various public functions over the last five years. "Tarif Abdullah. " Mr. Bilal is a politically savvy Catonsville-based attorney. For several years, he's handled daunting post-conviction matters for men and women serving life sentences in Maryland prisons, including Tarif Abdullah.

KING FAHD of Saudi Arabia is the fourth son of founding monarch Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud to succeed his father, who died in 1953. Fahd is 74, fat, diabetic, pleasure-seeking, Westernizing and suffered a stroke in November. On assuming power in 1982 he named his half-brother, Abdullah, to be crown prince, heir apparent, second-in-command and head of the tribal-based National Guard. Abdullah is 72, thin, ascetic, traditionalist, pious and speaks no English.King Fahd's New Year's Day appointment of Prince Abdullah to perform royal duties until he recuperates reassured the kingdom that there is no power struggle or change, at least not now. Much is made of Abdullah's stronger Arab traditionalism, compared to Fahd's modernizing.

Howard County police continued Sunday to investigate the mysterious death of a Jessup man whose body was found Saturday in the basement of a vacant house, next to his 5-year-old son, who authorities say was unharmed. Police said Sunday that they do not know how Najib Malik Abdullah, 26, died or when he and his son entered the ranch-style house in the 8700 block of Mary Lane in Jessup. No one has been living in the home and police said it appears Abdullah broke a window to get inside.

A Baltimore man was sentenced yesterday to two consecutive life sentences plus 15 years in prison for the attempted rape and imprisonment of a 19-year-old woman at a Mount Vernon laundromat. Saleem Abdullah, also known as Donald Sasser, 43, of the 2000 block of N. Calvert St., was on parole for attempted murder at the time of the offense, in June 2000. Abdullah had been released for about five months at the time of the attack Abdullah was convicted Feb. 5 by Circuit Judge Albert J. Matricciani Jr.

WASHINGTON - A Mideast peace initiative floated by Saudi Arabia's crown prince has picked up surprising momentum, gaining wide attention and drawing cautious praise from President Bush, Arabs and Israelis. Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz's overture comes amid a void in peacemaking efforts and at a time when Arabs and Israelis are becoming increasingly dispirited over the ever-worsening bloodshed between Israel and the Palestinians. Abdullah has informally called for normal diplomatic and trade relations between the Arab states and Israel in return for Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, territory it has held since the Six-Day War in June 1967.

Wearing a headset and facing a computer screen, Dale Olsen is interviewing Rashid Abdullah in what appears to be a video conference. Abdullah is responding, but his eyes are narrowing, his mouth is hardening and his answers are growing more clipped. The interviewer covers his mouthpiece. "Now I'm going to offend him," Olsen says, as he chooses a prompt from a dozen displayed on the screen: "Your wife is very attractive," he says. "Where did you meet her?" Abdullah erupts in a rage: "Where did you meet my wife?"

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan - A leader of the Afghan opposition to the ruling Taliban regime said yesterday that his forces have been strengthened by fresh military support from Moscow, increased contacts with Washington and the expectation that the United States will soon launch a military attack. Predicting that a U.S.-led attack could take place within days, Abdullah Abdullah, minister of foreign affairs for the Northern Alliance, said any strike should be powerful and decisive. "For years, our people have suffered under terrorism and factionalism," said Abdullah, whose coalition has been fighting the Taliban for control of Afghanistan for the past six years.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - An Arab League summit, where hopes had run high for a new Middle East peace initiative launched by Saudi Arabia, dissolved into chaos yesterday when Palestinian delegates stormed out and hard-line rhetoric from Syrian President Bashar Assad threatened to overshadow a conciliation effort by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. The turmoil at the opening of the two-day summit came on the day that a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded hotel lobby in Netanya, on Israel's Mediterranean coast, where throngs were gathering for the ritual meal that begins the Passover holiday.

IT IS unsettling for the world to lose King Hussein of Jordan. He has been a rock in the turbulent Middle East since 1952, the victim the assassins could not kill, the regime no coup could topple, in a kingdom as small as it was artificial.And he was a force for comparative good, usually (not always) a friend of U.S. policy, an Arab leader with whom Israeli prime ministers talked, an autocrat whose fitful concessions to democracy were ahead of other Arab regimes.King Hussein's absence is mentally destabilizing to other players in the Middle East, including Washington, that took his presence for granted.

LONDON -- The profile of a suspected extremist cell behind attempted bombings in London and Glasgow, Scotland, took shape yesterday as authorities identified two suspects as physicians from Iraq and Jordan, and made three more arrests. With the number of people in custody at eight, police pressed an international manhunt for other suspects believed to be at large. But officials said two key suspects in custody are physicians from the Middle East in their mid-20s who arrived in Britain within the past three years and worked at hospitals in the Glasgow and Birmingham areas.

JERUSALEM -- King Abdullah II of Jordan will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today in the West Bank in an attempt to push along Israeli-Palestinian talks about peace. It will be the king's first visit to the occupied territory, which Jordan ruled until 1967, in seven years. King Abdullah has been traveling the West and the region, urging Israel and the Palestinians to work toward solving their long dispute with the help of an Arab League initiative. He has been arguing that the conflict feeds extremism in the Muslim world and that time is running out before a new round of violence.

Wearing a headset and facing a computer screen, Dale Olsen is interviewing Rashid Abdullah in what appears to be a video conference. Abdullah is responding, but his eyes are narrowing, his mouth is hardening and his answers are growing more clipped. The interviewer covers his mouthpiece. "Now I'm going to offend him," Olsen says, as he chooses a prompt from a dozen displayed on the screen: "Your wife is very attractive," he says. "Where did you meet her?" Abdullah erupts in a rage: "Where did you meet my wife?"

WASHINGTON -- This past month, the world witnessed the full extent of America's folly in Iraq when three suicide bombers from Iraq killed nearly 60 people in Amman, Jordan. Within the Bush administration's Middle East democratization initiative, Jordan is held up as a model for regional change. Of his peers, King Abdullah II is considered among the most steadfast of U.S. allies. He embodies the leadership that the United States desires in the Arab world; a young, Western-educated socio-political liberal who has boldly advocated for Arab economic and political reform while condemning tolerance for Islamic fundamentalism.

CAIRO, Egypt - In a region that is increasingly defined by instability, the Saudi royal family moved promptly and assuredly yesterday to project an image of certainty, for the benefit of both domestic and international stability. At the same time that it was announced that King Fahd had died, Crown Prince Abdullah was declared the new monarch, and the Saudi defense minister, Prince Sultan, was named the new crown prince. Within three days of the announcement, a funeral and ceremony to declare loyalty to the new king is to be completed.

AMMAN, Jordan - The economic sanctions imposed on Iraq before the fall of Saddam Hussein may have been the best of times for neighboring Jordan. Truckloads of goods, from baby food to building materials, legal and illegal, streamed across the barren border. In return, Jordan reaped the benefits of cheap Iraqi oil. The postwar scene looks drastically different. Trucks entering Iraq are still filled with merchandise, but with trade restrictions lifted, the products are by and large American and European.

On April 21, 2004; EDWIENA P. EDWARDS, beloved sister of Norman, Jr., Sabrina Cleo Edwards and Steven El Abdullah (Eartha Edwards); devoted daughter of Norman Edwards, Sr., loving step-daughter of Betty Edwards. She is also survived by devoted cousin Carol Johnson, a host of nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends. On Tuesday, Ms. Edwards will lie instate at New Antioch Baptist Church, 5616 Old Court Rd., where the family will receive friends from 10:30 to 11:00 AM with services to follow.

CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush said yesterday that he had formed a "strong personal bond" in a meeting with Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, working to mend a relationship with a crucial Middle East ally that has been marred by disagreements over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At the same time, the president suggested that Saudi Arabia must do more to help prevent Palestinian suicide attacks if peace is to be achieved. "America can't do it alone," Bush said after meeting for nearly five hours with the crown prince at his Texas ranch.

ATHENS - Score tied. One round to go. A shot at an Olympic boxing gold medal at stake. Apparently only U.S. coach Basheer Abdullah didn't know his 178-pound fighter, Andre Ward, was even with Utkirbek Haydarov of Uzbekistan at 13-13 after three rounds in last night's semifinal match at the Peristeri Olympic Boxing Hall. Believing his light heavyweight was comfortably ahead, Abdullah told Ward to box and dance, a dangerous tactic when a few punches could turn gold into bronze. Because scores are not made available to the fighters' corners during a match, Abdullah wouldn't learn the truth until just before Ward narrowly escaped with a 17-15 victory to send him into tomorrow's gold-medal match against Magomed Aripgadjiev of Belarus.

WASHINGTON - President Bush apologized yesterday for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of U.S. soldiers and said he had scolded Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for his handling of the scandal. But the president rejected calls to oust Rumsfeld. "I told him I should have known about the pictures and the report," Bush said. He was referring to graphic photos that have documented mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners and an Army report that faulted U.S. soldiers for "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses."