10A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 19, 1996 U.S. asks Kurdish warlord for policy aid NATION/WORLD Japanese charging quickly into debt -1 The Washington Post WASHINGTON - For the United States, Massoud Barzani committed the ultimate betrayal last month. The Kurdish warlord, with whom U.S. officials renewed high-level contact yesterday, sold out to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein after years and millions of dollars worth of American support - more than any other Iraqi opposition leader. His relationship with the United States was so close the CIA station was based onBarzani's turf. His security force provided American agents with protection and critical intelligence, say Iraqi dissi- dents who worked with him. Covert operations. were often launched from his territory - includ- ing a U.S.-orchestrated drone airdrop of anti- Hussein leaflets over the capital on the Iraqi pres- ident's birthday in 1994. So when Barzani, instead, balked at a U.S.- orchestrated cease-fire with his rival last month and, just days after his 50th birthday, led Hussein's elite troops in a sweep across the 36th parallel into the U.S.-declared Kurdish haven in northern Iraq, furious Clinton administration officials used terms like "quisling" and "traitor" to describe him. Yet, as one part of an attempt to salvage U.S. policy, Washington again has turned to Barzani, whose life and policies are full of contradictions. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Pelletreau traveled to the Turkish capital to meet Barzani yes- terday - and to try to win him back. "Our strong advice to the Kurdistan Democratic Party is to forego an alliance with Saddam Hussein;' State Department spokesperson Nicholas Burns said yesterday. "We'd like to see the Kurdish factions sit down and negotiate their differences." Initial signs were upbeat. Barzani, who inherited pover through the wealthiest Kurdish clan and who still dons a turban and baggy trousers despite years in the West, declared this week that his alliance with Hussein was never meant to be permanent. 0 AP PHOTO A different drummer Members of the Tai Pel Folk Dance Theater, a Taiwanese dance company, perform a dance called "The Jumping Drum" across the street from the United Nations In New York yesterday, In coordination with a cultural festival to promote Taiwan's admittance to the United Nations. East Asia plays large evolution role The Baltimore Sun BEIJING -After yielding Java Man and Peking Man earlier this century, East Asia almost dropped off the map for archaeologists searching for clues to human evolution. But the region's recent period of peace and stability has allowed archae- ologists to start digging again, turning up a series of discoveries that is forcing a fundamental reassessment of how humans evolved. Strands of evidence being gleaned from sites in China and Indonesia during the past two years now suggest that Asia played a bigger role than previously imagined - possi- bly even giving rise to modern humans, who were thought to have originated in Africa. The newly unearthed evidence has led to a debate over when an early species of human, Homo erectus, migrated from Africa to Asia, with some archaeologists even hypothesizing that Homo erectus evolved in Asia and migrated to Africa. At the very least, many mainstream archaeologists believe that Homo erec- tus arrived in Asia much earlier than pre- viously thought. "The hot point in this field is: When did early man arrive in Asia?" says Sari Miller-Antonio, a paleoanthropolo- gist from California who recently arrived at a dig in southern China. "Was it 1 million years ago or a lot earlier?" Adds Russell Ciochon of the University of Iowa: "We are witnessing a fundamental shift in the paradigm. We are able to argue that hominids were in Asia by 1.9 million years ago." For China, the new thinking in world archaeological circles confirms what its experts and cultural nationalists have long asserted: that humans evolved here much earlier than foreigners previously imagined and that human life may even have its roots in Asia and not Africa. kong proud of China's thousands of years of cultural continuity, some in China are eager to show that it is also the cradle of humanity. Government propaganda, for exam- ple, recently latched onto preliminary research to show that humans devel- oped here first. "For a long time, international anthro- pologists had believed that anthropoids originated in Africa, and later spread to other parts of the world," the govern- ment-run New China News Agency reported after the purported discovery in April of early rabbit-sized apes that lived in China 40 million years ago. Los Angeles Tunes TOKYO - At 24, Miyuki, a sweet- faced bookworm, has just applied for bankruptcy protection. Say "sayonara" to the stereotype of Japan as a nation of compulsive savers An estimated 10 percent of the popula tion - mostly young people - is deeply in debt. Japan, where people once saved u for big purchases and then paid cash, has become a credit card society. A new generation of hard-charging Japanese, raised in one of the world's most affluent societies, is borrowing. like never before - and some have a debt habit of dangerous proportions. Miyuki will have plenty of company: in bankruptcy court, a place where the Japanese traditionally have felt ashamed to set foot. Personal bankrupd cies have tripled in the past decade, hit- ting a record of 43,946 last year. She insists that she is not extrava- gant. Unlike the young Japanese women nicknamed "Chanel-ites" for their penchant for pricey designer clothes, she arrived at work recently in a baggy seersucker shirt worn untucked over khaki pants and scruffy black ath- letic shoes. Lately, she has been skip- ping lunch to save money. Three years ago, however, she bo rowed about $4,700 to pay for a move - then borrowed more to repay the credi- tors she could not appease on her mea- ger wages as a waitress in a noodle shop. Borrowing too much was easy: She had a fistful of credit cards that allowed her to make withdrawals from cash machines at any time of the day or, night. She says the lenders knew she. was borrowing new cash to pay off o debts and kept on lending. Her debts compounded at Japan's maximum legal. interest rate of 40 percent a year. Now: she owes more than $28,000. In the early 1990s, most people who declared bankruptcy were real estate speculators who went bust when the Japanese "bubble economy" popped, sending stock and property prices plunging. Lately, these victims of asset defl tion have been joined by other unfo nates: office workers. I T I A T 0 0 i 0 133MHz pe ntisL,,- A I Pentium* Processor Multimedia Computer "16 MB memory " 1.6 gigabyte hard drive " 28.8 internal fax/modem 6-speed CD-ROM drive " Pre-loaded and CD-ROM software (23426) 4 , .. ."' a .. ,. N' ,Q- pentitm. 199" Monitor not incuded MonitOr not inded 100MHz Pentium* Multimedia Computer " 16 MB memory " 1 gigabyte hard drive " 28.8 internal fax/modem " Quad-speed CD-ROM drive " Pre-loaded and CD-ROM software (2123+B) '>' } nae peflti"r 120MHz Pentium0 Multimedia a BEST Computer " 16 MB memory " 1 gigabyte hard drive " 7R R intjrnni loll :11;:;;;;- - R , I , 'l : :: !: :!:'':!:,;:!:!i,;::: !:: :: 1 ; :1 ls! m m m m mw 5.