6A • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
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FRIDAY,AUG.24,2001
Workers jailed for preaching gospel
Parents of missionaries ask Afghanistan officials to use compassion
The Associated Press
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The parents of two American women imprisoned in Afghanistan on charges of preaching Christianity in this deeply devout Muslim nation apologized for anything wrong that their children did, a Taliban official said yesterday.
They also made a passionate appeal to the Taliban's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, to release their children, Sohail Shaheen, a representative at the Afghan Embassy in neighboring Pakistan, told The Associated Press.
"They gave me a letter they had written to our supreme leader. It was an appeal to see their children on compassionate grounds," Shaheen said.
Gesturing to a deep brown couch, Shaheen said, "They sat right there, and the father of one of the American women said: 'We apologize if there is anything wrong that our children have done.'"
The parents did not make any reference to preaching Christianity, Shaheen said.
"They sat right there, and the father of one of the American women said: We apologize if there is anything wrong that our children have
The women, along with six other foreign aid workers and 16 Afghan staff of Shelter Now International, have not been seen since their arrest more than two weeks ago on charges of promoting Christianity. The aid group denies the charges.
done.'"
Sohail Shaheen representative of Afghan Embassy
The mother of one imprisoned woman
and the father of the other woman submitted their visa applications on Wednesday, along with the letter to Omar and several letters for their daughters. Shaheen said.
"I have personally forwarded everything to the authorities in Kabul." Shaheen said.
The women, single and in their mid-20s, have been identified as Dana Curry and Heather Mercer. The other six jailed foreigners have been identified as Germans: George Taubmann, Margrit Stebnar, Kati Jelinek and Silke Duerrkopf, and Australians: Peter Bunch and Diana Thomas.
Three Western diplomats, who returned from Kabul on Tuesday after a week of trying unsuccessfully to see the jailed aid workers, also submitted fresh visa applications.
It is unlikely authorities in the beleaguered Afghan capital will deal with the applications before Saturday, because Friday is the Muslim Sabbath.
that they have received permission from the Taliban to visit the detained workers.
Red Cross officials in Kabul denied reports
On Wednesday, a Taliban official outside the vice-and-virtue ministry in Kabul said the eight foreign aid workers have worn the same clothes for the last four days and had refused to accept a change of clothing.
They also refused to eat one day, he said, but relented when the Taliban brought food from their homes in Kabul.
He speculated that the group refused to change their clothes as a form of protest at their detention and at the Taliban's refusal to allow diplomats to visit them.
The Taliban authorities in Kabul have refused to say when their investigation will be completed, but they say it has expanded to include other aid organizations.
The U.N. World Food Program is the only other foreign aid organization mentioned by the Taliban as possibly being implicated in proselytizing charges. The agency has called the allegations "baseless."
The program said it works with 150 humanitarian groups in Kabul but does not take responsibility for any of their actions.
The WFP provides the food and aid groups distribute it to hundreds of thousands of hungry Afghans throughout the country, where a devastating drought and relentless fighting has created a humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations.
Shelter Now International is operated by Vision for Asia, a Christian organization based in Germany. Its workers were described as missionaries by the U.S.-based Shelter Now International, which shares the name but has no affiliation.
By Paul Smith Kansan staff writer
President George W. Bush impelled Congress to curb spending that was draining the federal government's budget surpluses in a speech earlier this week in Independence, Mo.
Bush watches pennies as surplus dwindles
"The federal budget will have the second largest surplus in history," Bush told 800 people at Harry S. Truman High School on Tuesday.
The president said his $1.35 trillion
Bush: Spoke about budget in Missouri
tax cut was affordable without dipping into Social Security or Medicare even with the economic slowdown.
"My No. 1 problem with Bush is that he doesn't give the details on where the numbers are coming from," said Douglas Hoang, Overland Park graduate student.
A report issued yesterday by the federal Office of Budget and Management is meant to answer
One KU student seemed skeptical of the president's tax cut.
such questions. Its surplus projection for this year is $158 billion. This figure is much less than earlier projections for the year's surplus, which will leave little left after Social Security benefits are taken from it.
The budget surplus will continue to dwindle in the next few years because of the slowing economy and Bush's tax cuts, according to The New York Times.
The budget wasn't the only issue the president spoke about. He also touted his proposal to allow religious organizations to receive federal money.
"Government should not fear faith in America," Bush said. "We ought to welcome faith-based programs."
Anna Drewry, Lawrence freshman, supports the president's faith-based initiative.
"I agree with what he is saying because he's exalting the individual in America," Drewry said. "I think we each need to take the responsibility to see the needs around us and not always expect someone else to do it."
Architectural engineering faculty, students adjust to new school
Reach Smith at 864-4810.
By Paul Smith Kansan staff writer
Architectural engineering students may lose track of some of their professors mid-semester.
Half the current faculty in the Architectural Engineering Program are scheduled to move their offices one block west from Broadcasting Hall to Learned Hall.
"The students will catch on to that really quickly," said John
Gaunt, dean of architecture and urban design.
The relocation is the only effect students will likely see of a new administrative structure implemented in the program, which is jointly owned and operated by the schools of architecture and engineering.
This fall, the School of Engineering takes full administrative responsibility for the program following a task-force recommendation to dissolve the two-school administration that operated the architectural engineering program for more than 30 years. Engineering is now responsible for the program's budget and the majority of its faculty.
Carl Locke, dean of engineering, said that the program had always operated well but that the administrative shift would "simplify the life of the faculty."
With simultaneous appoint
ments to each school and half their salary paid by each of two schools, architectural engineering faculty were sometimes unsure of where their research and tenure-track positions might lead.
Now, each professor is attached to his or her school of choice. Faculty retention is expected to improve under the new system, following the departure of two professors this summer who were headed to other universities, Gaunt said.
Four vacant faculty positions in the program are expected to be filled this year to bring the balance to six engineering professors and three in architecture.
The administrative overhaul will leave the architectural engineering curriculum untouched. The five-year undergraduate program is unique, with only two comparable programs in the
nation. Its 200 students enroll through the architecture school and spend their first two-and-a-half years studying there. Then they finish their degrees working with engineering professors and receive bachelor of science degrees in engineering.
Reach Smith at 864-4810.