Sheik

CAIRO, Egypt -- Egyptian officials said yesterday that they had arrested a member of the Kuwaiti ruling family on charges of possessing nearly two pounds of heroin and trafficking in the drug.Under an Egyptian law promulgated two years ago to fight hard drugs, the offenses could be punishable by death.The arrest of the Kuwaiti, Sheik Talal Nasser al-Sabah, a nephew of the emir of Kuwait, and its prominent announcement on the front page of the government-owned newspaper Al Ahram yesterday morning were pointed reminders to wealthy Arabs visiting this country as tourists in large numbers after the Persian Gulf war not to abuse Egypt's hospitality, senior Egyptian officials suggested in interviews yesterday.

For Duncan Sheik, June 7 will forever be a day mired in mixed emotions. It was then, earlier this year, that his seventh album, "Covers 80's," hit stores. The 12-track album features Sheik's deconstructions of his British new-wave favorites, such as New Order's "Low-Life" and Japan's "Gentlemen Take Polaroids. " As the 42-year-old singer-songwriter put it recently, the songs "seemed to capture that angst teenage moment I was going through in the '80s. " But on the day the album dropped, Sheik canceled his summer tour and entered a treatment center for alcohol addiction.

Although both the FBI and the New York Police Commissioner refused to link Mohammed Salamah, the prime suspect in the bombing of the World Trade Center, with any one Islamic group, the media have. Almost all reports now focus on a New Jersey mosque and its preacher, Sheik Omar Abdul-Rahman, who is widely portrayed as an Egyptian version of Ayatollah Khomeini endowed with near-mythic powers to incite his followers to violent acts.As an Egyptian writer and scholar, I have been aware of Dr. Abdul-Rahman's activities since he was a professor of theology at Assiut University in southern Egypt, where I studied in the late 1970s.

ELIZABETH W. FERNEA, 81 Mideast scholar Elizabeth Warnock Fernea, a scholar of women's studies in the Middle East who delved into the subject as a newlywed in 1956 in Iraq and whose memoir about the experience, Guests of the Sheik, was the first of several of her works that examined the role of women in the region, died Dec. 2 at a daughter's home in La Canada Flintridge, Calif., after a long illness, her family said. Ms. Fernea, was a professor emeritus of comparative literature and Middle Eastern studies at the University of Texas, Austin.

They are just a couple of sheiks staying at home to protect their fiefdom on the Persian Gulf.But this weekend their horses are running at Laurel.The battling brothers from Dubai finally are making their debut in the Budweiser International.But they won't be here to see it. In a race where the usual roster of owners could include a queen, a few lords and one or two shipping magnates, an emir can now be added.Sheik Mohammed, the youngest of the two brothers, is represented by Creator, the early-line favorite in the nine-horse lineup.

CAIRO, Egypt -- Islamic fundamentalists yesterday threatened to attack American targets if Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman is harmed.In a joint declaration, a coalition of Islamic groups warned that they would "escalate violence against American installations and interests in Egypt and worldwide if the sheik is harmed in any way by this American regime."The groups "will stand in one trench to confront these provocative acts by the American regime and its agents in Egypt . . and will not surrender regardless of what that might cost."

NEW YORK -- At the Brooklyn mosque where Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman often preached, Muslims who gathered to pray yesterday greeted the news of his indictment with disbelief and outrage, saying it was evidence of anti-Muslim bias."

The conviction of ten men for seditious conspiracy to bomb and assassinate in New York and elsewhere is a victory for the FBI and the Justice Department in the war against terrorism. They did their jobs. Americans are a little safer.Conspiracies are not easy to prove. In this one, the government had videotapes of defendants mixing bombs, audiotapes of them discussing targets and the corroboration of one defendant who had pleaded guilty.That should overwhelm any doubts caused by the use of a double agent paid to infiltrate the ring.

CAIRO -- The nourishment of Muslim fanaticism is the ra sewage that puddles the streets and the garbage fires that brand a rank haze on the air of poor neighborhoods like Imbaba.It is such a place of wretched poverty that gives followings to men with desperate solutions. Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman is such a man, and his following has grown from the poor warrens of Egypt to a New Jersey mosque that ministered to Mohammed Salameh.The Egyptian connections -- if any -- to Mr. Salameh, who is charged in connection with the World Trade Center bombing, remain unclear.

WASHINGTON -- Federal law-enforcement authorities in New York concluded that Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, the radical Egyptian cleric, knew details of the plot to detonate bombs across the city and assassinate several officials but were prevented from arresting him at the last minute by the Clinton administration, government officials said yesterday.The officials described the decision -- debated in a series of meetings last Tuesday -- as a hairline call ultimately decided by Attorney General Janet Reno on legal and tactical grounds, including Sheik Abdel-Rahman's usefulness as a powerful lens through which authorities examined the murky and violent world of Islamic extremism.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Thousands of people paid respects yesterday to the sheik credited with forging ties between Sunni tribesmen and the U.S. military, and American leaders weighed the prospects of the brother who is expected to succeed him. The U.S. military also reported that four U.S. soldiers were killed in Diyala province by an explosion near their vehicle. No names were released pending notification of their families, and no further details were available. The insurgent group al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility yesterday in a Web site posting for the killing of Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, who had persuaded Sunni tribes that once backed the insurgents to cooperate with the United States and accept arms to fight the insurgents.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A Sunni tribal leader who was among the United States' high-profile allies in Iraq was killed in a bomb blast yesterday, an assassination that could undermine U.S. attempts to recruit former foes to stabilize the country. Sheik Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha was killed 10 days after meeting with President Bush during Bush's one-day visit to Anbar province, in western Iraq. The sheik had become a symbol of the military's effort to turn one-time enemies into partners to oppose insurgents and militias.

BAGHDAD -- A suicide bomber attacked a checkpoint near a planned meeting site of tribal leaders yesterday in a village north of the capital, killing at least three people and wounding 13, the U.S. military said. Local police said at least five people were killed in the attack, mostly young men who had volunteered to defend the area as part of the Taji Tribes Awakening Council, a partnership formed in recent months between tribal leaders and U.S. and Iraqi security forces. Two men detonated a truck about 11 a.m. at the checkpoint in Jurf al-Mileh, 12 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

On one hand, there is the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, flush with oil money and eager to associate itself with the iconic brands of the world's culture, from the Louvre to Ferrari. On the other hand, there is Johns Hopkins Medicine, seeking to expand its worldwide reach to fulfill its sense of mission, add to its luster and to generate revenue. Their interests intersected this week - not for the first time, but in the biggest way yet - with the announcement that Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, ruler of Abu Dhabi and president of the United Arab Emirates, was making a "transformational" gift.

NEW YORK -- Lynne Stewart, a 67-year-old civil rights lawyer who spent a lifetime helping unpopular defendants and political causes, was sentenced yesterday to 28 months in prison for helping a blind, imprisoned Egyptian sheik unlawfully communicate with followers. Stewart, whose law license was revoked after her 2005 conviction in the case, was facing up to 30 years in prison. U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl pointed to her years of advocacy for the poor and downtrodden as a reason for a more lenient sentence.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Five bombings in Kirkuk killed 23 bystanders and wounded 76 others yesterday in what appeared to be coordinated attacks on police as well as Kurdish and Sunni Arab politicians in the oil-rich northern city, bringing the day's toll in Iraq to at least 59 dead. There has been an upsurge in attacks during recent weeks in Kirkuk, where Kurds and Sunnis have struggled for control of the city's oil wealth. Late Friday night, a bomb exploded in the Tiseen neighborhood, injuring three people.

NEW YORK -- The Justice Department has decided to arrest Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, the fiery cleric whose followers are charged with the World Trade Center bombing and with planning the destruction of the United Nations and other New York landmarks, sources said last night. He was to be taken into custody for violating immigration laws.The decision was made jointly by the Justice Department, the U.S. attorney in New York and the Immigration and Naturalization Service.Sources said the cleric was to be seized because he violated conditions attached to his being at large while he is appealing a court decision that he entered the United States illegally in 1991.

NEW YORK -- Lynne Stewart, a 67-year-old civil rights lawyer who spent a lifetime helping unpopular defendants and political causes, was sentenced yesterday to 28 months in prison for helping a blind, imprisoned Egyptian sheik unlawfully communicate with followers. Stewart, whose law license was revoked after her 2005 conviction in the case, was facing up to 30 years in prison. U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl pointed to her years of advocacy for the poor and downtrodden as a reason for a more lenient sentence.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Some clerics issued calls for calm and others issued calls to defend communities yesterday as at least 18 more Iraqis and a U.S. Marine were killed in a nation grappling with an anti-government insurgency and continuing sectarian violence between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. In the capital, during the first Muslim day of worship without a vehicle ban since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra and subsequent reprisals that left hundreds dead, Sheik Jalaladin Sagheer of the Baratha Mosque told his Shiite followers that the battle against terrorism has no limits.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates --A succession crisis in Kuwait continued yesterday, as the country's Cabinet began proceedings to remove the new emir, who is ailing. The extraordinary move occurred amid growing concern over who should lead the oil-rich city-state after the death of Emir Sheik Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah on Jan. 15. The crown prince, Sheik Saad al-Abdullah al-Sabah, believed to be 76, became emir under the constitution, and he has insisted that parliament call a special session to allow him to take the oath of office.