Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

Taliban say they will give up Kandahar Surrender could start today; US. opposes letting leader stay free BY KATHY CANNON ASSOCIATED PRESS KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - The Taliban agreed Thursday to sur render Kandahar, their last bas tion and birthplace, if their war riors were not punished and safe ty was guaranteed to leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who once vowed to fight to the death. America said it would not accept any deal allowing the cleric to go free. The promise to give up the city and begin handing over weapons as early as Friday marked the fi nal collapse of the militant move ment that imposed strict Islamic rule on Afghanistan for five years. Personal rivalries among anti Taliban leaders and the fate of Omar still could wreck the frag ile agreement. The head of the new Afghan transition govern ment, Hamid Karzai, refused to say whether Omar would be ar rested as Washington has de manded. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the United States would not stand for any agree ment that lets the Taliban leader go free and “live in dig nity.” Pakistani intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said radio intercepts had picked up no communica tions by Omar in three days and that he appeared to have lost con tact with senior Taliban com manders. “It seems that the final collapse of the Taliban is now upon us,” said British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Bush’s closest ally in the war. “That is a total vindication of the strategy that we have worked out from the be ginning.” The former Taliban ambas sador to Pakistan seemed to agree. When asked about the fu ture of the movement, Salam Zaeef said: “I think we should go home.” The murky surrender pact made no mention of Osama bin Laden and left unclear the fate of hundreds of Arabs, Pakistanis, Chechens and other foreign fight ers of his al-Qaida terrorist net work. After briefing members of the Senate on the situation in Afghanistan, Rumsfeld was asked whether the United States would insist on U.S. justice or would agree to let an international tri bunal deal with Omai*. “We would prefer to have Omar,” Rumsfeld replied. He said “There’s still a good deal of con fusion” surrounding the surren j_ In eastern Afghanistan, mean while, B-52s hammered suspect ed mountain hideouts of bin Laden and his fighters. About 1,500 anti-Taliban forces have been attacking the region around the Tora Bora compound for two days. In Washington, U.S. officials said al-Qaida fighters are believed to be operating from five to 10 cave complexes at Tora Bora in the White Mountains south of Jalalabad. Officials suspect bin Laden is in that area but also are on alert for his presence in the south around Kandahar. Southwest of that city, U.S. Marines went on alert and fired mortars and flares into the desert from their base after detecting what a spokesman said “appears to be a credible threat.” A UHN-1 Huey helicopter crashed near the airstrip at Camp Rhino, and Marine spokesman Capt. Stewart Upton said two ser vicemen received minor injuries, one of them on the ground. The cause of the crash was under in vestigation, but Upton said, “We are 99 percent sure that the heli copter did not crash because of enemy fire.” Time Capsule Work on project started last spring CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 and vibrant college students of the day take care of it,” he said. “The Bicentennial Committee is enthusiastic about having a time capsule because we know it’s an appropriate reflection of the excitement of this special year,” said Sally McKay, execu tive director of the Bicentennial Committee. Smith started working on the time capsule project last spring and said it has been a time-con suming effort. “It wasn’t easy, and I definitely didn’t do all of the work myself,” he said. He also said McKay, Denise Wellman of the USC Visitor Center, USC student ambas sadors and the USC maintenance staff all helped the project take shape. “It’s really amazing that this university has been around for 200 years, and it’$ a great thing to celebrate” Smith said. “Our initial focus was to brag about how great USC is in the year 2001.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com. Clause Palms reluctant to support addition CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 board’s support. Palms never took the clause to the board for approval. Faculty senate Welfare Committee chairman Daniel Sabia said the committee still doesn’t find Palms’ 1995 argu ments compelling. Palms said Wednesday that adding the clause didn’t offer legal protec tion. “I want it to be a meaning ful statement if we’re going to adopt it,” he said. Zach Scott, a College of Liberal Arts student senator, said Tuesday before faculty sen ate voted on the resolution: “I wouldn’t be surprised if it passed unanimously. It would be fool ish for any faculty member to vote against it.” But the reaffirmation faced some opposition during the meeting. Col. Chris Campbell, aerospace studies professor, questioned the “perceived need" and moral belief system Sabia re ferred to. “If you try to condone acts that are around the fringes of il legal activity... you’re not being very ingenuous,” he said, in ref erence to sexual acts against South Carolina law. Thorne Compton, a theater and speech professor, dis agreed. He said including the clause “does not speak to any thing anybody does. It speaks to what somebody is as a per son.” “It’s about what people are as people,” he said. Sabia said adding the clause was a “matter of moral princi ple” and that it would make a statement to the entire universi ty community that sexual orien tation isn’t the proper basis to evaluate the worth of human be ings. He said the policy doesn’t en dorse illegal activity but rather addresses a fear of discrimina tion. Crews said: “There are nu merous documented and un documented cases of discrimi nation on this campus. A change in policy would deter such actions in the future and ensure that any situations in the future would be handled judi ciously and fairly.” More than 350 universities na tionwide, including Vanderbilt, University of Mississippi, University of Georgia and University of North Carolina, in clude sexual orientation in their nondiscrimination policies. Richland County and Columbia also include sexual orientation in their policies. Palms said he would take the proposal into consideration. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com. Bill Senator says USC afraid of progress CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Bristow thinks the bill will be re-evaluated to eventually be amended and said it should be seen in some form again soon. The resolution was amended twice in deciding when the spending records would have to be turned in. One amendment proposed that records should be turned in every Tuesday and Thursday and another suggest ed two work days after the mon ey was spent. “Students have the right to know about people who repre sent them; everyone should have access to the knowledge about the individuals who might represent them,” Bristow said. “We can do better than what is being done right now, and I will keep on striving to make it the best it can be.” “I am not surprised about the outcome. Historically, the ’ student senate is afraid of change and progress. Thirteen members of this school’s senate wanted to give students an in side look at election processes and make information right fully known,” said Stauffer, a third-year political science student. “The elections com mittee is an ethics board — I wish our elections committee was able to do their job in cor respondence to state laws. Once again. Student Govern ment has decided to play a glo rified high school government council instead of trying to em ulate a real government.” Many thought the bill wouldn’t contribute to the process of running for office. Currently, each candidate can spend any amount of money without disclosure. Some senators who opposed the bill said it was too vague. “If it could be enforced and perfected, it would be a good thing. There are, however, a few. gray areas. I know what is in- ' tended for the future, but I don’t know how it will work out,” said Chris Odom, a senator for the College of Science and Math. “What this bill boils down to is the price tap of each candidate; conditions are vague. Should we make them clock hours? These are personal finances and should be kept personal,” said Tiffany Elser, chairwoman of Powers and Responsibility Committee and a senator for the Moore School of Business. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com. _ \w [gmaiduate '■* . at t’s hard to imagine anything more dynamic, challenging and fulfilling than a career in an advanced field of biomedical science or health care. What could be more exciting than... ■ distilling a complex disease to its most basic, ' molecular level...then developing a drug to conquer it ■ implementing state-oi-tne-art treatments and techniques to cure illness and maximize wellness ■ using your expertise, experience and enthusiasm to train the next generation of health professionals ■ making your mark on the overall health sciences environment k I These are just a few of the opportuni ties available to those who earn a graduate degree at the Medical College of Georgia. MCG, the state’s health sciences university, has master’s, doctoral and postdoctoral programs in many areas of biomedical science, the front line in conquering disease. 3 ssy Graduate programs also are -g&S available in nursing and allied health sciences, including distance programs mrougnouc me scare enaDung students to earn their advanced degrees without relocating to Augusta. Visit our Web site, www.mcg.edu/Grad Studies, to learn more about graduate studies at MCG, or visit www.mcg.edu/ students/gradpgms to apply. The future of your dreams can begin today. Campus Recreation A ^ -“-University of South Carolina A we are in search of / graduate students A who would like to... ^B * earn up to 8 A dollars an hour ^B * may be eligible for tuition ^|j reduction / * - ▼ * 3 * work in a fun and relaxed atmosphere qualifications: excellent communication skills are a must. www.sa.sc.edu/pecenter/crec.htm those interested, please call Ron Byers 777-5261 for more information.