The Michigan Daily - Thursday, January 10, 2002 - 7A
Karzai outlines plai
Los Angeles Times
KABUL, Afghanistan - In his first public
address, interim Prime Minister Hamid
Karzai urged the Afghan people yesterday to
unite and work for peace in this still-troubled
country. ,.
"Dear compatriots, Afghanistan is in dire
need of peace," Karzai said near the begin-
ning of his 10-minute speech, which,
because it was broadcast on limited-range
Kabul Television, wasn't seen by much of
the country.
Since being installed Dec. 22, Karzai has
spent much of his time behind closed doors
in meetings with elders from various
provinces as well as international emissaries
and government ministers.
His first public speech staked out a clear
position in opposition to the former Taliban
regime and underscored his sensitivity to the
need to improve, as quickly as possible, the
country's deprived economy.
"The existence of armed people is a hin-
drance to the peace and security," he said,
referring to the remaining Taliban members
and fighters with the al-Qaida terrorist net-
work adrift in the country.
Afghanistan should have a national army
that can protect the country's borders from
ns for Afghanistan
incursions, Karzai said. Many of the Tal- But he also pledged his commitmen
iban's members came from outside the coun- bring a just government to Afghanistan
try, he pointed out, and the fundamentalist announced that the Afghan ConstitutionI
regime wouldn't have been able to win polit- was written during the reign of the ex
ical power if the country hadn't been split king, Mohammad Zaher Shah, which ens
into disparate territories controlled by local "social and political freedom for
commanders. Afghans." will a ain be in effect
t to
. He
that
iled
ures
all
[n speech
tribal council that Afghans traditionally use
to choose their leaders.
His top four policy priorities were:
I Protection of the country from illegal
bills that devalue Afghanistan's currency.
* Enhancement of productivity in small
factories and other business and manufactur-
ing concerns.
Job creation.
Privatization and a reduction in govern-
ment interference in business.
"I want your cooperation and the coopera-
tion and participation of every Afghan, indi-
vidually and collectively, to help in this
project," Karzai said.
Karzai's speech outlined his policy priori-
ties and emphasized the hard road ahead for
the country. In a style that was reminiscent
of President John F. Kennedy's famous
exhortation to "ask not what your country
can do for you; ask what you can do for your
country," Karzai urged every Afghan to join
in the effort to remake the country.
rnI, g .
He added that he.wants a government that
empowers the people of Afghanistan - a
sharp contrast to the many years in which
ordinary Afghans felt subjected to the
whims, successively, of the country's Soviet
rulers, feuding warlords and the Taliban.
And he assured Afghans that he is com-
mitted to the process of a "loya jirga," the
Officials close in on final
Finding peace
death toll in
NEW YORK (AP) - City officials are close to deter-
mining a final count of the people who were killed in the
attack on the World Trade Center, police said yesterday.
The city's total has stood at 2,893 for three days, decreas-
ing from near 7,000 in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11
attacks.
Officials eliminated mistakes and duplicated entries in
missing-person reports, and the tally could still be reduced
further, said police department Chief Charles Campisi, who
heads the effort.
"We're very, very close," Campisi said. "I would say
we're 99 percent there."
Included within that total are 309 missing, for whom no
remains have been found. Campisi said that number will
drop as the medical examiner's office identifies the more
than 12,000 body parts collected among the ruins of the
collapsed towers.
That process will not affect the total, because as the num-
ber of missing drops, the number of confirmed dead will
increase.
Throughout the 17 weeks since the Sept. 11 attack, the
numbers have fluctuated, sometimes drastically. The official
city count peaked at 6,729 on Sept. 24, but it dropped by
more than 1,000 six days later when then-Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani announced that cross-checks of names had elimi-
WTC attack
nated duplications.
Chasing the errors has been "labor intensive," Campisi
said.
"It was a very monumental task," he said. "We worked
diligently on it, knowing that this would be a permanent
part of history."
The errors were due in part to the flooding of the police
database with missing-person reports from a multiple
sources, including family members, the American Red
Cross, airlines, employers and law enforcement agencies.
Campisi said some victims may remain missing.
"Under a perfect system, that 309 would disappear and
become a zero," Campisi said. "But with the explosion and
intense heat and crushing of the buildings, there will be
people unaccounted for."
An ongoing Associated Press tally of people confirmed
dead and those reported dead or missing stood at 3,018 yes-
terday.
That number also includes 189 people who died in the
attack on the Pentagon and 44 who died when a hijacked jet
crashed in Pennsylvania.
AP's figure is derived from information provided by the
medical examiner, courts, funeral homes, places of worship,
death notices, employers, public agencies, families and AP's
foreign bureaus.
College grads dealt a double
blow with debt and recession
The Associated Press
Christian Miller can't get a car loan and, at age 27, has
returned to his parents' New Jersey home, forced back by the
double load of credit card debt and student loans.
Like other twentysomethings across America, he's found
that graduating from college means having to face tens of
thousands of dollars in debt. Some even drop out before they
finish school, while a growing number are declaring bankrupt-
cy.
"It stinks," says Miller, who arrived on his parents' Liv-
ingston, N.J., doorstep on New Year's Eve two years ago.
Financial experts predict this year's graduates will have-an
even tougher time. Never has a generation entered a recession-
weakened job market so debt-ridden.
"I have a negative net worth of $14,000 - it's great!" Jessi-
ca Lopez says sarcastically. '
In some ways, the 24-year-old Lopez considers herself
lucky. A senior at Florida International University in Miami,
she's saved money by living with her parents and has about
$2,000 in credit card debt - "tiny compared to some people I
know."
Still, she's already been turned down for a small business
loan to start a clothing company, even though she works a
part-time job and actually owes less than the average college
grad.
The federal General Accounting Office says students are
graduating with an average of $19,400 in student loans. Aver-
age student credit card debt rose from $1,879 in 1998 to
$2,748 in 2000, according to the student loan agency Nellie
Mae.
It is the growth of the latter statistic that has financial
experts most worried, especially since bankruptcies filed by
the under-25 crowd grew to a record 94,717 in 2000, accord-
ing to a Harvard law school study.
A third of students have four or more credit cards, picked
up everywhere from phone solicitations to the Internet. And
some universities have signed deals with particular credit card
companies, giving them exclusive rights to market on campus
and use school logos on their cards.
Delaware-based MBNA American Bank has such deals
with about 600 colleges and universities, including the Uni-
versity of Michigan, with about half a percentage point of
interest earned on the cards going to the schools.
The company stresses that it targets alumni and upperclass-
men, keeps its lines of credit at $1,000 or less and offers regu-
lar campus seminars about responsible credit card use.
"The last thing we want to do is give a college student a
credit card and they can't handle it," says MBNA spokesman
Brian Dalphon.
! Officials at Capital One, another major credit card provider,
offer a "high school credit card" to teens, 16 to 18, who get
the card guaranteed by a parent or guardian.
Diana Don, a spokeswoman for the Virginia-based compa-
ny, says parents use the cards to teach their children how to be
responsible before going to college.
But some financial experts are wary.
"It's like someone who's not educated about sugar walking
into a candy store and buying everything," says Juliette Fair-
ley, author of the book "Money Rules," a financial guide for
people in their 20s and 30s.
Bob Doyle, of the American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants, says students should be learning about financial
responsibility from their parents well before buying on credit.
He advises parents to loan money to their teen-age children,
and then make them find a way to pay it back. Too often, he
says, parents forgive loans or continually bail out their chil-
dren.
A
DAVID ROGHKIND/Daily
Rev. Haju Murray leads a meditation service at the Zen Buddhist Temple on Packard Street last night.
CRASH
Continued from Page 1A
"At least three eyewitnesses have told
us that they had heard a massive explo-
sion after a large aircraft with flames
leaping from all sides crashed into
hills," said Shoaib Suddle, police chief
for the province of Baluchistan, where
the crash occurred.
A Pakistani official speaking by
phone from the nearby town of Kharan
said that a military team in the area was
investigating unconfirmed reports about
ground fire just before the crash. The
U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla.,
which is overseeing military operations
in the war, discounted reports from the
scene citing witnesses who saw the
plane on fire before it crashed. "I don't
think that's the case at all," said Lt.
Cmdr. Matthew Klee, a Central Com-
mand spokesman.
A senior Pakistani army official at the
Pakistan army headquarters in
Rawalpindi said that initial examina-
tions "do not give any clue of an explo-
sion before the plane hit the ground....
Apparently the plane crashed due to
technical reasons because the debris is
not spread to a wide area."
A senior Pakistani intelligence offi-
cial, however, said that since the arrival
of U.S. forces at various Pakistani air
bases last fall, they had received a num-
ber of reports suggesting that some
extremist may want to target low-flying
U.S. aircraft or helicopters with Stinger
missiles.
Pakistani intelligence officials believe
that about a dozen of the shoulder-fired
missiles with workable batteries were
available to the Taliban before the war
began on Oct. 7.
U.S. and Pakistani forces struggled to
reach the crash site. "We're having diffi-
culty because of the elevation," Klee
said.
Senior Pakistani military officials in
Quetta said Pakistani troops had secured
the crash site within one hour of the
accident, but that U.S. rescue teams later
took control of the emergency opera-
tion. "It was all over before our troops
could reach the scene," a Pakistani army
colonel said.
The flight originated at Jacobabad, a
major Pakistani base being used by U.S.
forces. The aircraft was on a "multi-stop
mission," according to the Central Com-
mand.
The plane, with a crew of six and one'
passenger, was carrying cargo into
Shamsi and was on final approach when
it crashed in clear weather, officials said.
"It was a supply mission," Lapan said.
The identity of those aboard the plane
are being withheld "pending notification
of next of kin," according to a statement
from the Central Command.
"It just breaks your heart," Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told
reporters at the Pentagon.
"It is a tough, dangerous business
over there and they are doing difficult
things and they are doing them darned
well," Rumsfeld added.
The aircraft and crew were support-
ing the Marine force that's been operat-
ing at the Kandahar airport in southern
Afghanistan.
The KC-130 is a multi-role tanker
and transport aircraft that can refuel
other planes in the air, as well as carry
troops and cargo. The aircraft can also
be used to move Marines on special
operations.
Shamsi, about 30 miles from the
Afghan border, was built in the mid-
1980s by sheiks from the United Arab
Emirates who visit the area for deer
hunting and falconry.
Last week, the first U.S. soldier to be
killed by hostile fire died in an appar-
ent ambush in Paktia province near the
eastern Afghan town of Khost. An
Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed
in Pakistan on Oct. 19, killing two
Army Rangers, in the only other fatal
crash of a U.S. military aircraft during
the war.
Also yesterday, U.S. warplanes again
struck the Zhawar Kili compound near
Khost, an al-Qaida facility that was
heavily bombed by U.S. jets four times
in the past week.
Special operations troops backed by
U.S. Marines captured two senior al-
Qaida fighters among a group of fight-
ers apprehended at the site, officials said
Tuesday.
The new strikes, involving two Air
Force F-16s and one Navy F/A-18 Hor-
net, were directed at al-Qaida buildings
at the sprawling complex.
"It's a continuation of what we've
been doing for several days now," said
Lt. Cmdr Frank Merriman, a Central
Command spokesman.
"A lot of it is destroying existing
equipment," Merriman said. "It seems
to be the best way to get rid of this
equipment."
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media.
"Documentaries and shows like 'Dateline' or '20/20' did
reports on negative effects of ecstasy, and more and more peo-
ple are stopping to use it," she said. "I honestly believe that my
short term memory has been effected somewhat by ecstasy."
"Education is the greatest prevention," said Melissa Richter,
the Chelsea Arbor Treatment Center's adolescent specialist,
who added that 10 percent to 20 percent of her patients have
had ecstasy abuse problems.
"We give them a lot of education. Without the education,
they don't know what they are doing to their body. And once
they understand what ecstasy really is, many of them never
choose to use it again;' Richter said. She added that there still
needs to be much more education about drugs like ecstasy.
Ecstasy, or MDMA and more commonly called "E," which
affects the amount of seratonin released in the brain, is a
Schedule I drug along with heroin and marijuana. According
to the U.S. Drug Enforcement' Administration, Schedule I
drugs have a high potential for abuse, cannot be used for med-
ical treatment purposes and are deemed unsafe even under
medical supervision.
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