Sunday, February 7, 1999

Hussein of Jordan, Voice for Peace, Dies

Jordan crowned a new King today after Hussein, ruler of the Hashemite Kingdom since 1952 and a man admired around the world as a champion of peace, succumbed at age 63 to the cancer that had ravaged him in his final days.

King Hussein died as his heart failed in an Amman hospital at 11:43 A.M., 48 hours after he was flown home unconscious from a clinic in the United States. The palace said it had been his ''persistent wish'' to die on Jordanian soil.

Within two hours, in a somber yet seamless succession, the late King's eldest son, now King Abdullah II, appeared on television in his debut as Jordan's ruler to console a nation already in tears.

Source: New York Times

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