Abdullah

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.

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.

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.

KABUL, Afghanistan - In his last days of freedom, Abdullah Shah - a brutal warrior with many enemies - was living like a fugitive in two squalid rooms in the poorest part of Kabul with Gul Makai, the woman unfortunate enough to be his fifth wife. Ten days after their wedding, the 20-year-old bride fled the house into a narrow, stinking lane, screaming that her husband had killed his other wives and was trying to kill her. Abdullah Shah, 37, was arrested. He was later tried and convicted, not for the alleged slayings of his wives but for the murders of 13 civilians in the early 1990s, during the country's vicious civil war. Sentenced to death Oct. 15, he could become the first person executed by the state in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

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.

AMMAN, Jordan -- As King Hussein lay dying in the hospital, Jordan's Cabinet declared the region's longest-ruling monarch incapable of performing his duties and named his eldest son and heir to lead the desert kingdom.The resolution by Jordan's ministerial council appointed Crown Prince Abdullah regent, giving him all the powers and authority invested in a king. The move began the transition of power that has been expected since Hussein suffered a relapse of lymphatic cancer and a second bone marrow transplant failed.

WASHINGTON - An anxious King Abdullah II of Jordan ended a visit to the United States yesterday after 10 days of trying to build bridges - between himself and President Bush, between America and the Arab world, and between Jews and Arabs in the United States. To everyone he met, he delivered a stark message about the need for forceful American intervention to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At no time since the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948, he said, has such involvement been more urgently needed.

JERUSALEM -- Sailing across the Gulf of Aqaba in his royal yacht, Jordan's King Abdullah IIpaid his first visit to Israel yesterday to promote Mideast peace and better economic cooperation between his Arab kingdom and the Jewish state. Leaving behind the disguises with which he has stirred up Jordan during his first year as monarch, the king came with a characteristic message of optimism about peace but did not hide his displeasure that the peace treaty between Israel and his country has not produced more dividends.

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."

A 26-year man who was found dead last month in a basement storage room of an empty Jessup house died from cocaine intoxication, according to a preliminary autopsy report by the state's medical examiner. Elizabeth Schroen, a by Howard County police spokeswoman, said Thursday that "there was no foul play" in Najib Malik Abdullah's death and that police are still trying to determine whether his death was an accident or suicide. Police discovered Abdullah's body April 30 after the owners of the house, located in the 8700 block of Mary Lane, smelled a strong odor coming from behind the door to the storage room.