MONDAY,OCT.22,2001
WORLD
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 7A
Air strikes hit near front line
The Associated Press
QALAI DASHT, Afghanistan U.S. warplanes bombarded Taliban positions yesterday near a front line north of the capital, Kabul, marking what could be the start of a more aggressive campaign on behalf of opposition forces fighting the Islamic regime.
In Kabul, meanwhile, grieving neighbors pulled dust-covered bodies of seven civilians — three women and four children — from the ruins of two homes destroyed yesterday by a U.S. bomb.
In Pakistan, the U.N. refugee agency renewed appeals yesterday for Afghanistan's neighbors to open their borders to the refugees, including up to 15,000 trapped on the "no man's land" near the Pakistani town of Chaman.
The attacks yesterday marked the closest and most intense U.S. strikes so far against Taliban positions defending Kabul from northern alliance forces, which have been stalled for years 12 to 25 miles north of the city.
U. S. jets streaked over the opposition-held Panjishir Valley, and opposition officials told an Associated Press reporter in the area that they appeared to strike Taliban positions about one mile behind the front line.
several eyewitnesses, including journalists and residents, also
reported Taliban positions bombed in the area.
"We are hoping this will be a big help for the future of our forces," said Waisuddin Salik, an opposition representative.
Afghanistan's anti-Taliban forces, an alliance mostly of minority ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks, had been urging the United States to provide close air support for their forces so they could advance on the capital.
However, the United States and Britain had been reluctant to help the northern alliance seize Kabul until a broad-based government had been formed to take over from the Taliban.
Opposition groups were widely discredited in Afghanistan because of the chaos and infighting that marked their four years in power. Fighting between rival groups now part of the alliance destroyed large sections of Kabul and killed an estimated 50,000 people, most of them civilians.
Since the U.S.-led air campain began Oct. 7, U.S. attacks against Taliban front line positions were mostly limited to strikes near the strategic northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
U. S. warplanes resumed attacks yesterday in that area, striking targets in the provinces of Balkh, which includes Mazare-Sharif and Samangan to the
Haziz Ullah neighbor to Afghan hospital
"This pilot was like he was blind."
east of the city, according to the Afghan Islamic Press.
Taliban representative Mullah Amir Khan Muttai claimed Taliban forces drove back an opposition attack in the area despite the U.S. air strikes.
Afghan officials also reported more attacks yesterday near the western city of Herat and Kandabar in the south.
In Kabul, U.S. jets struck at midmorning in the Khair Khana section of the city. One bomb crashed into a residential neighborhood, destroying two houses. An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies of seven dead at the scene and later at a city hospital. All were said to be related.
At a nearby hospital, Dr. Izetullah, who like many Afghans uses only one name, wept as he pulled back bloodstained sheets to show the bodies of the four children — all boys, ages 8 to 13. Izetullah said 13 dead had been brought to the hospital.
"This pilot was like he was blind," said neighbor Haziz Ullah. "There are no military bases here — only innocent people."
WARSAW, Poland — Solidarity, the union that Lech Walesa led to victory against communism in Poland 12 years ago, acknowledged the end of an era as a political force yesterday when the leaders of its electoral arm resigned.
The Associated Press
Crushed in elections last month, party members agreed at a national congress to try to regroup next year under a new banner — one that might not even include the word "Solidarity."
"Now we have to start from the very bottom, elect new party
Polish party leaders end an era
delegates, so that they can come here and decide about a new image for our party," said Jerzy Buzek, Poland's outgoing prime minister.
Buzek quit at yesterday's congress as head of Solidarity Electoral Action Social Movement, the party that served as the political arm of the Solidarity trade union.
Solidarity's crash was nearly as overwhelming as its 1989 triumph against the hated Communists.
In national elections Sept. 23, it failed to retain a single seat in the Sejm, parliament's 460-member lower house.
Even more humiliating, voters handed the nation's political power to a party of former communists, the Democratic Left Alliance, which formally took office Friday.
"An era when the Social Movement was the political arm of the trade union has ended," said Solidarity union leader Marian Mrzaklewski.
Solidarity withdrew from day-to-day politics early this year and will carefully consider whether to support any parties in the future,he said.
Russian Soyuz spacecraft headed to International Space Station
The Associated Press
BAIKONUR, Kazakstan - A Russian-French crew blasted off yesterday for the International Space Station.
The three-person crew took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft at 12:59 p.m. Moscow time.
minutes later as it successfully reached orbit, a representative at Russia's mission control near Moscow said.
The Soyuz TM-33 separated from its booster rocket nine
The spacecraft's crew will spend eight days on the space station conducting experiments, and are scheduled to return to Earth on Wednesday, Oct. 31, aboard the old Soyuz. They are to work alongside the space station's three-person crew.
One of the crew's main objectives is to deliver the new Soyuz to the space station. The capsule not only fries astronauts to the station but also serves as its lifeboat in the event of an emergency. It is replaced every six months, according to the European Space Agency.
German elections could return power to Social Democrats
The crew has been aboard the space station since August.
The Associated Press
BERLIN — Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats swept to victory in Berlin city elections yesterday, giving them a choice of partners that could return the former East German communists to power in the capital for the first time since German reunification.
Incumbent Klaus Wowereit
the first openly gay mayor of a German city, led the Social Democrats to about 30 percent of the vote, up from 22.4 percent in the last election in 1999, according to official projections with most precincts counted.
The conservative Christian Democrats, who had dominated Berlin politics since the country's reunification in 1990, were
crushed at the polls after failing to persuade voters that a possible role for the ex-communist Party of Democratic Socialism was a taboo.
The Social Democrats were poised to become the strongest political force in Berlin for the first time in 30 years, while the Greens — their coalition partner in Berlin and at the national level
— were roughly stable at about 9 percent.
But even with the Greens, Wowereit would lack a majority in the city legislature. That opens broad possibilities in a local election with clear national repercussions less than a year before national elections.
Led by charismatic lawyer and former party chief Gregor Gysi,
the ex-communists immediately staked a claim to a share of power after returns showed them rising to more than 22 percent from 17.7 percent in 1999.
"It's a clear signal for participation in government," Gysi told supporters.
But the Social Democrats insisted they were keeping their options open, and Wowereit said
he would talk first with the Greens.
Wowereit became mayor in June after Social Democrats, Greens and ex-communists in the city legislature joined to vote out a long-serving conservative mayor weakened by a scandal at a city-controlled bank.
Sexual Violence Awareness Week October 22-26,2001
IT'S ABOUT RESPECT
*all are welcome*
Monday, October 22 The Emotional and Legal Consequences of Rape 6:30-8:00 pm Pine Room, KS Union
Tuesday, October 23
My Heart in My Throat:
Workshop on the Relationship Between Sexual Violence and Body Image 12:30-1:30 pm Pine Room,KS Union Silent Candlelight Vigil 6:30-8:00pm Campanile Hill (vigils also occurring at Haskell and Baker campuses) Healing the Hurt: Men Discussing Their Misuse of Power in Relationships 7:00-8:30 pm 4020 Wescoe
Wednesday, October 24
This is Not an Invitation to
Rape Me Poster Project and
Silent Witness Project
10:00 am-3:30 pm
Strong Hall Rotunda
Clothesline Project: T-shirts
created by survivors and
loved ones of those who
have died.
10:00 am-3:30 pm
Strong Hall lawn
Thursday, October 25
Take Back the Night March and Rally 5:00-10:30 pm Beginning at the Train Park at 7th and Kentucky (Separate men's and women's programs)
For more information about any of these programs, call the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center at 864-3552. Sponsors include: Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center, Counseling and Psychological Services, Rape Victim-Survivor Service, Watkins Health Center, Women in Law, Multicultural Resource Center, Women's Transitional Care Services, Womyn's Empowerment Action Coalition, Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence, KU Public Safety Office, Department of Student Housing, and Association of University Residence Halls.
Upcoming Events
Students programming for students
International Films Series
With A Friend Like Harry 8:00 pm October 22
Harry knew Michel in high school. They meet again by accident, and Harry inserts himself in Michel's life, then things take a sinister turn.
In French, with English subtitles.
Movies are $2. Movie card will not be accepted for this special series.
Fall Films Series
Shrek 7:00 pm October 24, 26, & 27
Beautiful princesses, handsome princes, witches, ogres, and fire-breathing dragons turn up in almost every fair tale.
They're all in this computer-animated adventure, but their roles, and the surprising plot twists are anything but expected in this fun adaptation of the children's book by William Steig. Featuring the voices of Mike Meyers, John Lilgow, Cameron Diaz, and Eddie Murphy.
Along Came A Spider 9:30 pm October 24, 26, & 27
The thrilling sequel to Kiss the Girls. Starring Morgan Freeman, and Monica Potter. A girl is kidnapped from a school by one of the teachers. She turns out to be the daughter of a senator, and the kidnapper soon makes a call to a police officer whose partner died eight months ago, involving him in the kidnapping. One of the secret service people that failed to protect the girl at the school decides to help him. But not everything is what is seems, and many surprising twists follows as the two attempt to catch the spider.
All movies shown in Woodruff Auditorium, Level 5, Kansas Union. Movies are $2 or free with an SUA Movie Card.
Pomeroy Ballroom Show October 23
Kansas Union Ballroom, level 5
Tickets sold at the SUA Office. Oboys open at 7 p.m. Show starts at 8:00 pm.
Rocky Horror Picture Show October 25
Kansas Union Ballroom
Entertainment 9:00 pm, Movie at 11:00 pm, Tickets, $5, available at the SUA Office.
Kansas Union Art Gallery October 22 – November 1
Community Murals Exhibit in Response to the Terrorist acts of September 15, 2001. Sponsored by SUA and Students from the Fine Arts Department. Exhibit Reception is open to the community and is on October 25, 2001 from 7:00 pm-9:00 pm at the Union Gallery.
College Bowl
The battle of KU's biggest and brightest brains takes place Jan. 26, 2002.
Register you team at the SUA Box Office Now.
Other Events at the Union
Brown Bag Classics October 24, 2001 12:30-1:00
Alderson Auditorium, Level 4
Planist Kathryn Koscho
Thursday Afternoon Tea 3:00-5:00
At the traditions area in the Union lobby.
If you have questions about these or other SUA events, call the SUA Office at 864-SHOW
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