Sharif

On March 2, 2006, RAFI Y. SHARIF (formerly known as Yale Singer); beloved husband of the late Marian Sharif; devoted father of Yasin Sharif, Tariq Sharif, Ruqaiya Asad, Safia Salam and Anya Sharif. A Burial service will be held on Thursday, March 9, 2006 at 11:30 A.M. from the chapel at Garrison Forest Veterans Cemetery, Owings Mills.

On July 14, 2008; beloved son of Daphne and Robert Alston; grandson of Shirley Charles and Barbara Alston and a host of other relatives and friends. Friends may view at William Brown Funeral Home, 321 S. Philadelphia Boulevard, Aberdeen, MD, Friday 5 to 8 P.M. Funeral will be Saturday 11:30 A.M. Viewing 10 to 11 A.M. Wake 11 A.M., at New Destiny Evangelistic Church, 2080 Trimble Road, Edgewood, MD. Interment Holly Hills Cemetery, Chase, MD, following the funeral.

KARACHI, Pakistan -- Bending to political realities, former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif abandoned his threat to boycott next month's parliamentary elections, agreeing yesterday to allow his party to compete in the Jan. 8 vote aimed at restoring democratic rule. His decision means both major opposition parties, the other headed by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, will contest next month's vote. But the move marks an embarrassing, if not unexpected, about-face for Sharif.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- One of the two main parties in Pakistan's ruling coalition declared yesterday that it will quit the government in a dispute over when and how to reinstate judges fired by President Pervez Musharraf during a crackdown late last year. The announcement by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N faction, raises the prospect of a messy splintering of the alliance that soundly defeated the party of U.S.-backed Musharraf at the polls nearly three months ago. Sharif said his party, although relinquishing its Cabinet posts, would continue to support the coalition for now, and negotiations between the two main parties were expected to continue.

Monsieur Ibrahim Rated PG-13. Sun score *** 1/2 Monsieur Ibrahim welcomes the great Omar Sharif back to the movies in a film that's little in all the best ways. As an Arab shopkeeper in a rundown section of Paris who bonds with a young boy (Pierre Boulanger) and teaches him the joy of accepting people for who they are, not what they seem, Sharif gives a performance that should remind everyone what star power is all about. Without resorting to histrionics, without any big speeches, he commands the screen and serves as the film's moral center.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Less than two weeks before this country's crucial Feb. 18 elections, the man who supplanted slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto as Pakistan's most widely known politician has left the country. It's a peculiar absence in the middle of a political campaign, but one that reflects a growing belief that the coming election likely will be marked by widespread vote-rigging and fraud. Nawaz Sharif, a two-time former prime minister, went to the United Arab Emirates this week, apparently to be with his wife as she underwent surgery in Dubai.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been barred from running in January's parliamentary elections because of a previous conviction, Pakistan's election commission announced yesterday. A spokesman for Sharif, Ahsan Iqbal, said that the barring of Sharif was part of a plan by President Pervez Musharraf and his supporters to rig the elections, and that Sharif's lawyers would contest the decision. Sharif, a leading opposition figure who was overthrown in a military coup in 1999, was allowed to return from exile last week, and filed nomination papers to represent a district of his home city of Lahore in the parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 8. But other candidates in the district challenged his nomination on the grounds that he was convicted in 2000 of hijacking a plane carrying Musharraf, who was then head of the army, an act that precipitated the bloodless coup.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- One of the two main parties in Pakistan's ruling coalition declared yesterday that it will quit the government in a dispute over when and how to reinstate judges fired by President Pervez Musharraf during a crackdown late last year. The announcement by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N faction, raises the prospect of a messy splintering of the alliance that soundly defeated the party of U.S.-backed Musharraf at the polls nearly three months ago. Sharif said his party, although relinquishing its Cabinet posts, would continue to support the coalition for now, and negotiations between the two main parties were expected to continue.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Western diplomats joined the Afghan interior minister and senior military officials yesterday to try to halt some of the worst fighting the country has seen in almost two years. Rival factional commanders battled all night with tanks, artillery and mortars in a district 40 miles west of Mazar-e Sharif, the major city of northern Afghanistan. One faction reported 50 killed and wounded, although the opposing faction put the losses at many fewer. The United Nations, which has a mission in Mazar-e Sharif, confirmed the fighting but was unable to verify casualties.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The exiled leader of Pakistan's second-largest opposition political party was scheduled to fly home today, party officials said, a move that could upset the country's fragile balance before parliamentary elections. Also, two suicide bombers killed at least 18 people yesterday morning in almost simultaneous attacks on Pakistani security forces, including workers from the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, or ISI. Government officials said they would allow the return of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, a bitter rival of President Pervez Musharraf, the army chief who deposed Sharif in a bloodless military coup in 1999.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's leading opposition parties, victors in elections last month, agreed yesterday to form a government and directly challenged the country's U.S.-backed president, Pervez Musharraf, by pledging to restore the senior judiciary that he had sacked. In a breakthrough, the Pakistan People's Party, led by Asif Ali Zardari, husband of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, and the Pakistan Muslim League-N, headed by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, agreed to share power in a coalition.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Less than two weeks before this country's crucial Feb. 18 elections, the man who supplanted slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto as Pakistan's most widely known politician has left the country. It's a peculiar absence in the middle of a political campaign, but one that reflects a growing belief that the coming election likely will be marked by widespread vote-rigging and fraud. Nawaz Sharif, a two-time former prime minister, went to the United Arab Emirates this week, apparently to be with his wife as she underwent surgery in Dubai.

WASHINGTON -- For months, the Bush administration's hopes for political stability in Pakistan rested on the rising influence of Benazir Bhutto. Her death yesterday shattered those hopes and threatened to paralyze U.S. efforts that hinged in part on her survival: the fight against terrorism, the safety of Pakistan's nuclear weapons and stability in the turbulent region. The Bush administration had a huge stake in Bhutto, the pro-Western former prime minister. U.S. officials were banking heavily that her party would win enough seats in next month's elections to stabilize a precarious political climate.

KARACHI, Pakistan -- Bending to political realities, former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif abandoned his threat to boycott next month's parliamentary elections, agreeing yesterday to allow his party to compete in the Jan. 8 vote aimed at restoring democratic rule. His decision means both major opposition parties, the other headed by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, will contest next month's vote. But the move marks an embarrassing, if not unexpected, about-face for Sharif.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been barred from running in January's parliamentary elections because of a previous conviction, Pakistan's election commission announced yesterday. A spokesman for Sharif, Ahsan Iqbal, said that the barring of Sharif was part of a plan by President Pervez Musharraf and his supporters to rig the elections, and that Sharif's lawyers would contest the decision. Sharif, a leading opposition figure who was overthrown in a military coup in 1999, was allowed to return from exile last week, and filed nomination papers to represent a district of his home city of Lahore in the parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 8. But other candidates in the district challenged his nomination on the grounds that he was convicted in 2000 of hijacking a plane carrying Musharraf, who was then head of the army, an act that precipitated the bloodless coup.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- President Pervez Musharraf promised yesterday to lift his emergency decree by Dec. 16, but opponents expressed skepticism that he would fully roll back the repressive measures he imposed nearly a month ago. The pledge came hours into Musharraf's tenure as a strictly civilian leader, which he touted as proof of his commitment to democracy. Taking the oath of office for a new five-year presidential term in the morning, the former general defended his decision to declare emergency rule and chided the West for "unrealistic" expectations about the nature of democracy in Pakistan.

LAHORE, Pakistan -- Tens of thousands of cheering, chanting supporters showered former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif with rose petals as he triumphantly returned from exile yesterday, posing a thorny new challenge not only to the president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, but also to pro-Western opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. Sharif's comeback, just 11 weeks after he was summarily deported by Musharraf, the military leader who once overthrew him, marks a complex new phase in the political turmoil that has gripped the nuclear-armed country, a key U.S. ally, for much of the year.