One hundred eleven years ofedi'orial freedom i NEWS: 76-DAILY CLASSIFIED: 7640557 www michigandail y. com Thursday November 15, 2001 ~I*i ~. Opposition closes In on Taliban Jalalabad falls to northern alliance; fighting reported in Taliban stronghold of Kandahar KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The rout of the Taliban accelerated yesterday with the Islamic mili- tia losing control of Jalalabad in the east, once-loyal Pashtun tribesmen joining in the revolt in the south and many of their fighters fleeing into the mountains to evade U.S. airstrikes. The Taliban is "in retreat virtually all over the country," Vice President Dick Cheney said in Wash- ington. A day after seizing the capital, Kabul, elements of the northern alliance consolidated their power by taking over the defense and interior ministries - temporary measures, the alliance insisted, until a U.N.-supervised political settlement representing all ethnic groups. In the south, there were reports - although impossible to confirm - of fighting in the streets of Kandahar, the Taliban's birthplace. Many of Afghanistan's 23 or more Pashtun groups appeared to have risen up against the Taliban, Penta- gon spokesman Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem said. "Whether or not they're working in concert, we don't know," he told reporters in Washington. The tribal leaders were Pashtuns - members of Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, which served as the backbone of the Taliban's harsh five-year regime. "It is time for the rest of Afghanistan - particu- larly the ethnic groups in the south - to join the uprising against the Taliban and throw off their oppressive rule," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in London. "The sooner they act, the greater the benefit for all the people of Afghanistan." Cheney said the Taliban's retreat was "a very good beginning to what's likely to be a long struggle" which will end only with the capture of Osama bin Laden and the destruction of his al-Qaida terrorist network. President Bush launched airstrikes against Afghanistan on Oct. 7 after the Taliban refused to surrender bin Laden, sought in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Taliban officials insisted the Islamic movement remained intact in its southern strongholds despite its losses. A Taliban official, Mullah Abdullah, told the Afghan Islamic Press the movement's supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and his "guest," bin Laden, were "safe and well." But by other accounts, the news was not good for the Taliban. A U.S. official in Washington " speaking on condition of anonymity - said there was fighting in the streets of Kandahar between Pashtun tribes- men and the Taliban. The official asserted that the city would fall to anti-Taliban forces within days if not hours. Many Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan were fleeing to rural, mountainous province of Hel-. mand southwest of Kandahar, the official said. Yunus Khalis, a Pashtun mullah in Jalalabad, between Kabul and the Pakistan border, negotiated a deal under which the Taliban left the city in return for safe passage with their weapons, according to sources there. Khalis, who is anti-Western, deeply conservative and a friend to Arab militants, declared himself inde- pendent .of both the Taliban and the northern See AFGHANISTAN, Page 7A Residents of Kabul ride bicycles past a northern alliance tank with a soldier standing on top In the Afghan capital yesterday afternoon, a day after the Northern Alliance entered the capital after Taliban troops fled. Howard charged with causing July car crash By Jacquelyn Nixon Daily Staff Reporter Michigan cornerback Todd Howard was charged this week with a felony for his role in a July car accident that involved three vehicles. Howard, who allegedly lost control of his vehicle, 'swerved into an oncoming. lane of traffic on Packard Road, Howard striking the vehicle of a woman in her late sixties. The woman is still receiving medical care, Pittsfield Township Police Capt. Elizabeth McGuire said. Washtenaw County Magistrate A. Thomas Truesdell issued the felony charge Tuesday in 14th District Court. The 21-year-old Kinesiology senior could face two years in prison or a $1,000 fine if convicted. Howard is expected to play in Saturday's football game against Wisconsin. Howard has not turned himself into police in response to the charge, but McGuire said this is common, especially after extensive investigations. "It's not unusual for people to be notified (by letter) and allowed to Dancing away DAVID ROCHKIND/Daily Erica Mooney, Anna Schork and Lisa Wang participate in a ballet class at Studio 1. on Main Street yesterday afternoon. Estrogen nked to drugaddi schedule a time to turn themselves in," McGuire said. A pretrial hearing will be set once Howard turns himself in to police. Pittsfield Township Police spent several months conducting an inves- tigation shortly after the incident, said McGuire. "Typically a case is investigated and it is not unusual in investigation cases for the charges to be reviewed quite a long time after the accident for any number of circumstances," she said. McGuire said felonious driving is driving at a speed or in a manner that might endanger others and thereby injure a in crippling man- ner. Shaw is confident 'U' will win case By Rachel Green Daily Staff Reporter Ted Shaw, an attorney who repre- sents the interven~ors in the case chal- lenging the University's use of race in undergraduate admissions, spoke last night at the Law School, reminding students and faculty of what he sees as the inherent and thriving discrimi- nation in higher education. Noting the actions two weeks ago at Auburn University involving white fraternity members donning blackface for Halloween and dressing in Ku Klux Klan costumes, Shaw argued the importance of maintaining the use of affir- mative action in O admissions to not only provide a diverse student body, but also to remedy a history of discrimination in the United States. "These attitudes are not a thing of the past, as most people think," Shaw said. "Michigan as an institution was virtually all white until 30 years ago, with only a handful of minority stu- dents. There were no implicit laws in place, but it was a practice." A former professor in the Law School, Shaw left the University in 1.993 to become the deputy council director for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, an organization which Law School Dean Jeffrey Lehman described as "the preeminent civil rights foundation in the world." Shaw expressed his commitment to defending the University and its poli-' cy of using race in admissions, a D)AVID ROCUHKIND/Daily Muslims gathered yesterday for prayer at the Islamic Center of Ann Arbor, the city's only mosque. Ramadan, the most holy month of the year for Muslims,-begins Saturday. Ramadan takes on new significance as war rages I. I By Jeremy Berkowitz For the Daily By Lisa Hoffman Daily Staff Reporter The myth that women have a higher vulnerability to develop addictions presented itself long ago, but new research shows their susceptibility is related to hormones. "Years ago, people said that women shouldn't smoke or drink because we were more likely to become addicted," said University biopsychologist Jill Becker, who presented her research yesterday at a meeting for the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, in a written statement. "I'm a feminist and don't subscribe to old-school ideas that women are the 'weaker' sex in need of protection." Yet Becker's research shows that estrogen plays a major role in a per- son's vulnerability to addiction. Effects of estrogen alone include mood swings, improved verbal abili- ties, decrease in spatial abilities and enhances sensory and motor func- should be extremely cautious, espe- cially younger women who may be experiencing major hormonal swings," Becker said in the statement. These young people are at the age when they have to deal with the pres- sures of their peers to experiment with addictive substances, like nicotine and cocaine, she said. "Our results suggest that estrogen not only affects the acute response to cocaine, but also intensifies the long- term changes in the brain. These results are important for our under- stand of the basic neural process that lead to drug addiction," Becker said. Using rats, Becker examined the affects of estrogen on neurotransmit- ters, like dopamine, in two areas of the brain. The areas play important roles in human behaviors, including compulsive drug use, eating and sex. "My lab has demonstrated that estrogen has rapid effects that boost the amount of dopamine released. These effects are evident in sexual Ramadan, the holiest month of the Islamic year, begins Saturday. The celebration, which commemorates Muhammad receiving the Quran from Allah, will have unusual overtones this year as the war in Afghanistan continues. "American Muslims, as American citizens, will say prayers not only for Muslims, but for other people in the world especially, those soldiers fighting and defending for us," said Muhammed Essia, a professor in the Uni- versity's Near Eastern Studies Department. The sustained United States bombing campaign has also raised concern and questions for American Mus- lims. "While there is a great deal of resentment among American Muslims, they are aware of the reasons for the bombing. Therefore, their resentment is countered by the understanding of the need for counterterrorism," said Alexander Knysh, a professor of Islamic studies and chair of the Near Eastern Studies Department. The holiday is marked by a month-long fast in which Muslims do not eat or drink during daylight hours. Mus- lims will go to the mosque - at times for several hours a day - to pray for those suffering in the world. The holiday concludes Dec. 16 at the beginning of the 10th month on the Islamic calendar, Shawwal, with a three- day feast. Ramadan is traditionally considered a time not only of worship, but of contemplation and strengthening of family ties. See RAMADAN, Page 7A MSA voting slightly increases By Kara Wenzel Daily Staff Reporter Despite a glitch in the voting web- site, voter turnout for the first full day of the Michigan Student Assembly, LSA Student Government and Univer- sity of Michigan Engineering Council MSIeiections Fanl2001 Voting ends at midnight tonight. Cast your ballot at vote. www.umich.edu night today. The numbers for voter turnout, while not final, indicated that the upward trend seen in the past few years would continue. "Web-based turnout for this election has already well exceeded turnout from the fall of 1997 and appears to be i ,)