Jordan Government

Jordan's first parliamentary election in 22 years has deprived the government of an assured majority for the first time in the history of Jordan's Parliament, hitherto dominated by the executive branch. A government source said that 20 of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood's 26-man slate had won seats in the 80-seat lower house, along with at least 12 allied independents. He said seven Arab nationalists and four radical leftists, including one Communist, had won seats.

The bald comic strides onto the stage with a large white gauze pad taped over his left ear--and the crowd bursts out laughing. Nabil Sawalha is up to his old tricks again, poking fun at powerful people. The ear gag is an inside joke--inside Jordan, that is--but everyone here knows about the member of parliament who not too long ago bit another lawmaker's ear. That's just the opening salvo in Sawalha's not-too-subtle critique of modern Jordanian society.

The man who will replace King Hussein as head of the Hashemite dynasty, his eldest son, Abdullah, is keen to reassure listeners here and abroad that he will continue the policies of his dying father. Yet even as he speaks, 37-year-old Crown Prince Abdullah shows the markings of a new generation of rising leaders whose coming of age may one day sweep the Middle East. In a rare interview--his first since he was unexpectedly named heir to the throne Jan.

King Abdullah II dissolved parliament Saturday but did not set a date for a general election, which should be due in November, officials said, raising the possibility that it could be delayed. Lawmakers and politicians have said that the monarch will delay the next four-year parliamentary term by up to two years, under a provision allowed by the Jordanian Constitution.

King Hussein's disclosure to the Jordanian people that he is suffering from cancer has caused panic in some and denial in others. But in most cases, the illness of the 62-year-old ruler has focused people's minds on the future of the Hashemite Kingdom. In unusually candid remarks by a monarch to his subjects, Hussein confirmed Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with cancer of the lymphatic tissue but vowed that he will win his latest battle.

Near a desert oasis that once was the headquarters of Lawrence of Arabia, a Jordanian air base is quietly being reconstructed this month to host nearly 1,500 U.S. Air Force troops and 34 F-16s that will soon start flying daily sorties over southern Iraq. U.S. warplanes based in the Jordanian desert to monitor Saddam Hussein's army? The very idea would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

King Hussein, opening a new session of Jordan's Parliament, said he is postponing elections to the lower house for two years. A new electoral law passed last year increased the number of seats in the House of Representatives from 60 to 142 and lowered the voting age to 19 years from 20. While hailing the law as extending "the base of democratic participation," Hussein said that more time is needed to register voters and prepare for new elections.

King Hussein told the new Parliament in Amman that he will legalize political parties and relax martial law, opening the way to more freedom in Jordan after the first national elections in 22 years. "There is no doubt the current National Assembly represents a new phase in our life," Hussein said. Political parties have been banned for 33 years in Jordan after a coup attempt, and martial law has been in force for 22 years, since the Arab-Israeli War of 1967.

Prime Minister Mudar Badran reshuffled his Cabinet, appointing a new foreign minister and bringing five members of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood into the government. A government statement said former Foreign Minister Taher Masri would replace Marwan Kassem as minister of foreign affairs. Masri, chairman of the lower house of Parliament's foreign affairs committee, has shown strong support for Iraq's stand in the Persian Gulf crisis.

U.S. Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said Jordan is seeking tank-killing A-10 fighter jets to bolster its air force. Cohen, beginning his first visit to the Middle East as Defense secretary, spoke to reporters after meeting Jordan's Prime Minister Abdul Salam Majali in Amman, the capital. The heavily armored A-10 jets operate mainly on low-flying missions and were used to destroy large numbers of Iraqi tanks in the Persian Gulf War. They are in the process of being phased out of the U.S.

It was 2 a.m. when the police pounded on Ali abu Sukar's door, wrenching him awake, then barely giving him enough time to throw a sweater over his pajamas before they handcuffed, blindfolded and whisked him off to prison. No one has accused Abu Sukar or his six colleagues, also roused from their beds in January in simultaneous raids, of being terrorists, but in many ways they represent something just as threatening to the authorities.

In a setback for accused international terrorist Osama bin Laden, Jordanian authorities working with U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies indicted 28 of his followers Tuesday for allegedly plotting attacks against American tourists and others at sites across Jordan in December. The terrorist group allegedly planned to kill Westerners crossing into Jordan from Israel, to bomb a hotel popular with U.S.

The death of King Hussein in Jordan has many in Orange County mourning a monarch who left a legacy of being a visionary in the Middle East peace process during his 47-year reign. "He's a man who held our country together, and his departure will affect our country and the whole region," said Haitham Ahmed Bundakji, vice chairman of the Islamic Society of Orange County, a native of Jordan who lived there for 19 years.

They filed past King Hussein's flag-shrouded coffin in remarkable homage Monday, many of them sworn enemies who until recently were bent on mutual destruction. Presidents and kings, muftis and sultans, generals and spies paused to pray for the Middle East's longest-serving ruler and to salute Jordan's new monarch, Abdullah II, on the first full day of his reign.

Amid an extraordinary outpouring of international sorrow, Jordanians today mourned the death of King Hussein, the only ruler most of them have ever known and a nation-builder who came to embody their very identity.

The transition to a Jordan without King Hussein commenced Saturday when the government declared the dying monarch too sick to rule and his son and heir, Abdullah, was sworn in as acting head of state. With Hussein losing his battle against cancer and placed on life support, his 47-year reign came to an end. The duties and responsibilities of the monarchy moved to a career army officer with little political experience who was named crown prince just 11 days ago.

Jordan said that it welcomed the latest prominent defector from Iraq--an ex-army chief of staff reportedly ousted in 1990 in a dispute over Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. Lt. Gen. Nazir Khazraji directed the armed forces during the final three years of the Iran-Iraq war, making him one of the highest-ranking officers ever to flee President Saddam Hussein's regime. A Jordanian official would not confirm whether Khazraji had actually arrived in Jordan.

Jordan ordered an NBC television correspondent to leave the country after he reported that Jordan has a "tightly controlled and at times even repressive society." Rick Davis, one of a small number of American television correspondents based in Arab countries, was given a week to leave. Information Minister Hani Khasawneh said Davis' feature about Jordan on NBC's "Sunday Today" was "clearly against the country."

The United States has quietly launched an international effort to stabilize Jordan's leadership in the face of fears that Iraq might try to topple the new monarch and that economic turmoil could destabilize the country's currency, U.S. officials said Saturday. The package of measures, pitched by President Clinton in a series of messages to world leaders, includes a request to Congress to free up $300 million in U.S.

Finished with his tea and backgammon, Deeb Hamouda whipped out a Palestinian newspaper and planted a kiss on the front-page photograph of Jordan's dying King Hussein. "He was our best king," Hamouda, a farmer in his 70s, said with a smile. "But he was the cause of our disaster."