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Housing to hold seminar, presentation on credit BY HILARY SCHRAMM THE (M.MECOCK Next Tuesday afternoon, University Housing will partner with Palmetto Solutions, a com petitive USC public relations team, to teach USC students about credit. RAs and Palmetto Solutions representatives will offer a 30 minute seminar titled “Your Credit. Your Future." The semi nar will be held in Patterson Hall at 7 p.m. in the West Lobby and possibly other residence halls on campus. The presentation includes mul timedia videos about real people with credit problems and interac tive quizzes. It also includes in formation about reading a credit report, how financing works, and what students can do to protect themselves from credit problems and identity theft. According to surveys and focus groups conducted by Palmetto Solutions, nearly all USC students recognize the importance of cred it, but few know how to get it. Omni Porter, assistant resi dence life coordinator at Patterson, has seen the Palmetto Solutions curriculum and is opti mistic about the event, especially since information on credit can be challenging to find. “The information was very ben eficial," Porter said. “It is impor tant to be aware of credit at an ear lier age because it affects how stu dents use their credit cards and take out loans and manage their other finances." Many students at USC are be ginning to realize that credit deci sions now will affect them in the near future. Credit is growing more impor tant every year, as students across the country grow increasingly de pendent upon loans and financing to pay for college. According to the State Public Interest Research Group's Higher Education Project, 64 percent of college students grad uated with student.loan debt in 1999-2000. Loan provider Nellie Mae currently charts the average student debt at $18,900. To help educate young adults about credit and prevent debt problems, the “Your Credit. Your Future." program will also be pre sented to University 101 classes aiTd area high schools. Palmetto Solutions is made up of public relations students at USC competing in the Public Relations Student Society of America Bateman Competition. If they are successful, their plan will be im plemented on college campuses across the country. **__ Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews(ngwm.sc.edu Separate roadside bombings claim lives of 3 U.S. soldiers BY MATT MOORE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BAGHDAD, IRAQ - Roadside bombs have claimed more American lives, killing three U.S. soldiers in separate attacks in Baghdad and Sunni Muslim areas to the north of the capital. At least six soldiers were injured in the at tacks, one critically. One soldier from Task Force Iron Horse was killed and four were wounded in a roadside bomb ing in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. One of the wounded was critically injured and the oth er three were in guarded condi tion, the military said. The first soldier from the Stryker brigade to be killed by hostile fire died Monday night in a roadside bombing in Tall Afar in northern Iraq. Another soldier from the recently deployed brigade was wounded in the blast. A soldier from the 1st Armored Division died and another was wounded in a bombing Monday in central Baghdad. The latest deaths brought to 541 the number of Americans who have died since President Bush launched the Iraq war March 20. Most of the casualties have oc curred since Bush declared an end to active combat May 1. Witnesses said two roadside bombs exploded Tuesday outside the Anbar Medical College and hospital in Ramadi in the Sunni Triangle, damaging a U.S. Army Humvee. It was unclear if any sol diers or civilians were injured. A third bomb was defused. The United States and its allies are preparing to hand over sovereignty to the Iraqis by July 1, despite disagreements over the best way to choose a new govern ment. Some members of the Governing Council said the U.S. favored use of caucuses was los ing support. “This system is alien to us," said Naseer Kamel al-Chaderchi, a Sunni Muslim. “It's based on city councils and the integrity of these councils is in question." He added that the Governing Council, which is sticking to the June 30 deadline for the transfer of power, hasn't had a formal dis cussion about caucuses, but said . there is an “inclination” toward rejecting them. Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish Sunni member of the council, agreed that the caucus plan has lit tle support. He said the Americans could simply hand over sovereign ty to the Governing Council but most Iraqis wouldn't accept it be cause the body was appointed by the United States. “So the second option is to hold a national conference with the wide participation of political and religious figures. A leadership will emerge from this conference to take over," he said. “Personally I prefer the second option because I think it will enjoy the greatest' support among Iraqis. They Americans are saying now that they will not block any option agreed upon by the Iraqi people." On Monday, U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer said he would move to block any effort by Iraqi leaders to put Islamic law as the foundation of legislation in the in terim constitution, which is sup posed to take effect at the end of February. Mohsen Abdel-Hamid, the cur rent president of the Iraqi Governing Council and a Sunni Muslim hard-liner, has proposed making Islamic law the “principal basis” of legislation, which many Iraql women's groups fear will threaten their legal rights. Bremer must sign all measures passed by the 25-member council before they can become law. Iraq's powerful Shiite clergy wants the interim constitution to be ap proved by an elected legislature. Under U.S. plans, a permanent constitution would not be drawn up and voted on by the Iraqi peo ple until 2005. Haitian premier appeals for international help amid national rebellion BY MARK STEVENSON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -Haiti’s premier said his country was in the throes of a coup and appealed Tuesday for international help. Prime Minister Yvon Neptune made his plea a day after former soldiers joined the rebellion, seiz ing the key central city of Hinche, burning the police station and freeing prisoners. Rebels control most roads lead ing in and out of the Artibonite, home to almost 1 million people, and have isolated the north by chasing police from a dozen towns. At least 56 people have been killed. “We are witnessing the coup d'etat machine in motion," Neptune told reporters. He said Haiti's 5,000-member police force is ill-equipped to respond and that he expects the international com munity “to show that it really wants peace and stability in Haiti.” He refused to say if that meant a military intervention, and President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Monday said he had asked the Organization of American States only for “technical assistance." U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday that “there is frankly no enthusiasm right now for sending in military or police forces to put down the violence that we are seeing." Powell, speaking on CNN, said the international community wants to see “a political solution” and only then would willing na tions offer a police presence to im plement such an agreement. In Paris, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin called an emergency meeting Tuesday weigh the risks of send ing peacekeepers and how other wise to help the impoverished is land, a former colony that is home to 2,000 French citizens. The United States has staged three military interventions in Haiti, the last in 1994 when it sent 20,000 troops to end a military dic tatorship that had ousted Aristide and halt an influx of Haitian boat people to Florida. Spokesman Ron Redmond of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said the agency was meeting Tuesday in Washington with U.S. and Caribbean officials to discuss how to cope with any flight of Haitians. So far, there has been no significant increase in Haitians fleeing for U.S. shores as they did in the 1990s. Aid officials warned of a hu manitarian crisis and a statement from several non-government or ganizations operating in Haiti warned the revolt is bringing the country “to the verge of a general ized civil war." Witnesses said about 50 rebels descended Monday on the station in Hinche and killed three officers before the police fled the city of 50,000. Hinche is about 70 miles northeast of Port-au-Prince. On Tuesday, it was impossible to reach Hinche because police and armed Aristide supporters have erected barricades blocking the road at the town of Mirebalais, just south of the city. Witnesses said the rebels were _ led by Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former soldier sentenced to death in absentia who led the feared paramilitary group FRAPH — the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti. There are not believed to be more than 100 rebels in Gonaives, where the rebellion to oust Aristide exploded Feb. 5. They re pelled a police attack to retake the city last week in fighting that killed 30 people, according to the Haitian Red Cross. At least 56 people have died as the revolt has spread from Gonaives. > ■ ■ * H ^H «~ .^_. ■ I —IN. «l I..—— I .. I ■ .1.—i .I.I — I.I.. -I.- I— ■■— l.l.l. ■— I. I ■ I ■ II ■ I I I I. ..... ■ -.1. II ■ I. ,1 — J