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Aftershocks plague Afghanistan
GHANJI, Afghanistan (AP) -
There aren’t enough men left alive to
dig graves for all die dead in this vil
lage. It’s hard to tell this even was once
a village.
About 2,000 of the 5,000 people
who called the steep stretch of brown
hillside home are presumed dead,
crushed in an earthquake by the bricks
they formed with their hands from the
mountain soil.
Rescuers in jeeps and on donkeys
reached a handful of villages in north
east Afghanistan with desperately need
ed aid Tuesday. But another in an almost
daily series of strong aftershocks struck
in the aftermath of a devastating 6.1
magnitude quake Feb. 4.
Estimates of death tolls range from
3,000 to 5,000.
In Ghanji, the bodies that have been
found were hastily buried. The ceme
tery is spiked with crude sticks marking
new graves, each holding about 10 bod
ies.
Piles of crumbled mud bricks that
once wer^ous&anernelting in the cold
Survivors, like Abdul Romon, hud
dled in crude tents in front of the ruins of
their homes.
“The first quake destroyed us,” the
34-year-old said, watching his children
try to warm themselves at a campfire.
“But there have been three more quakes
since then. We’re still waiting for more.”
Romon’s brother and his brother’s
two children were killed, but Romon has
little time to mourn. He has to feed his
own seven children. The ovens that once
baked the village’s bread have turned
into muddy rubble.
Corpses of cows, goats and donkeys
lie everywhere, their deaths robbing vil
lagers of food and transport.
Faihi Niso, 55,dost her son and four
grandchildren. She squatted Tuesday on
a pile of mud bricks.
“Everything we had is under this
rubble,” she said quietly, still in shock.
Of the 27 remote villages destroyed
in the quake, only two have roads.
Ghanji is one of them.
But the road is little more than a
footpath. It took rescue workers nearly a
week to get here, and now that they’ve
arrived there’s little they can do.
“We have nowhere to shelter these
people,” says Sheila Hall, a medical
coordinator with Doctors Without
Borders.
The temperature is about 40 degrees
- warm enough to turn the snow to tor
rential rain and cold enough to make life
in an unheated tent dangerous.
Meanwhile, fresh snow l\iesday
blanketed the only airstrip within miles
of die quake zone - in Hajaghar - forc
ing the United Nations and the
International Committee of the Red
Cross to cancel relief flights.
But a convoy of trucks from the
World Food Program reached the quake
zone Tuesday after a tortuous two-day,
72-mile journey, carrying nearly 20 tons
of food, blankets, tents and cooking
«
The first quake destroyed us. But there
have been three more quakes since then.
We ’re still waiting for more.”
Abdul Romon
earthquake survivor
. stoves. . •
Villagers whose donkeys survived
are trying to get out Many set out on die
daylong walk for Rustaq, the regional
center 12 miles away that escaped the
worst of the damage.
The trip is not easy. In several places
the road passes through land cracked
and buckled like old timber by the
quake.
Heading die opposite direction, res
idents of Rustaq piled their donkeys
high with bread and traveled to Ghanji
to offer what they could. There are no
cars. . ‘ *'7
Unlike in most of Afghanistan,
women are visible everywhere in
Ghanji. Most villagers are devout
Muslims, and women rarely left the
house before the quake.
But now they have no houses.
Private tragedies have become pub
lic spectacles. Miro Mhat, 25, was
found Tuesday under his crumbled
home, crushed but still breathing.
Rescuers brought him into town as his
wife, veiled from head to foot, shook
silently and wept
Doctors said he was not expected to
survive.
Aid agencies raised their death toll
estimate to more than 3,000 after seeing
the devastation. Afghan officials put the
number closer to 5,000.
The new tremor Tuesday killed at
least 11 and destroyed two more vil
lages, said Masood Khalili,
Afghanistan’s ambassador to India.
Indian seismologists said it registered at
magnitude-5.
There were also fears that
Afghanistan’s civil war would disrupt
relief efforts. On Saturday, the Taliban
Islamic army, which controls 85 percent
of Afghanistan, announced a unilateral
three-day cease-fire to ease earthquake
aid.
Officials from the opposition
alliance that controls the remaining 15
percent of the country - including
Rustaq - said it was not clear if die
cease-fire would be extended. -
surplus
is likely
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
nonpartisan Congressional Budget
Office said Tuesday that a federal
surplus is likely this year if the econ
omy keeps pumping huge piles of tax
dollars into government coffers.
If true, that means that the econo
my would achieve in fiscal 1998
what President Clinton has proposed
doing in fiscal 1999 - producing the
first federal surplus in three decades.
Congressional Republicans, who
have yet to write their own spending
plan, are sure to also propose a sur
plus for 1999. Fiscal 1998 runs
through Sept 30.
CBO based its forecast on rev
enue and spending figures from the
Treasury Department. CBO said it
expected a $22 billion surplus fbr
January, which would bring the
deficit for die first four months of fis
cal 1998 to $17.7 billion. Thatwould
be $28.2 billion below the level for
the first four months of 1997, a year
that ended with a $21 billion deficit
Clinton hailed the CBO figures
Tuesday while speaking to House
Democrats gathered in Wintergreen,
Va., for a strategy retreat said admin
istration officials. He attributed the
improving budget to his work with
congressional Democrats, who with
out any Republican votes passed a
near $500 billion, five-year deficit
cutting package in 1993.
Clearly not responsible for this
year’s improved fiscal performance
is the budget-balancing deal Clinton
and Congress enacted last summer.
That package, which was aimed at
balancing the budget in 2002,
increased spending and cut taxes in
1998 and added more than $20 bil
lion to this year’s deficit
WAbHINU1UN (Ar) - Monica
Lewinsky’s mother was summoned
before a grand jury Tuesday for ques
tioning about an alleged presidential
affair and cover-up as her daughter’s
lawyer suggested the former White
House intern would testify herself if
forced to under court order.
“She has no intention of falling on
her sword,” attorney William Ginsburg
said of Lewinsky, who is scheduled to
testify on Thursday. Ginsburg, however,
continued to insist that Whitewater
prosecutor Kenneth Starr go through
with a deal to grant Lewinsky total
immunity from prosecution.
The former White House intern
“will appear before the grand jury
whenever she is ordered to appear
before the grand jury,” Ginsburg told
reporters in California. “She will not
defy either a federal court order or a
subpoena.”
Lewinsky’s mother, Marcia Lewis,
spent nearly three hours before the
grand jury after being ordered to testify
by U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway
Johnson, bhe was expected to return tor
more testimony today.
“Part ofwhat she is feeling is a lot of
pain few her daughter,” said her lawyer,
Billy Martin.
Lewis is a New Yorker who rented a
Watergate apartment in Washington
where her daughter lived while working
at the White House and Pentagon.
Lewinsky confided to her mother
about the alleged presidential affair,
according to several individuals famil
iar with the relationship between moth
er and daughter.
Lewis also was in constant contact
with her daughter over the past two
months, when Lewinsky was trying to
figure out how to avoid testifying in the
Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit
against die president, the sources said,
speaking on condition of anonymity.
In some secretly tape-recorded tele
phone conversations, Lewinsky would
put her friend Linda Tripp on hold and
consult wife Lewis, then come back on
the line with Tripp to relate her mother's
advice, according to individuals famil
mr with the tapes.
Ginsburg said Lewinsky is
“absolutely mortified” to have her fam
ily entangled in the investigation.
“It’s a terrible thing to have her
mother dragged into this,” Ginsburg
said. He added “it seems like they were
trying to squeeze us by interrogating the
brother” of Lewinsky, who was ques
tioned by ]FBI agents at his fraternity
house in Pennsylvania last week.
Ginsburg said Lewinsky, faced with
an order to testify on Thursday, would
“do what she has to do given die sifcra
tkm she finds herself in. She will not go
to jail like Susan McDougal.”
McDougal has been jailed for contempt
since September 1996 for refusing to
testify in theWhitewater investigation.
Ginsburg told reporters he would
come to Washington on Thursday or
Friday.
Asked whether Lewinsky would
invoke her Fifth Amendment right
against self-incrimination and reftrse
to answer questions, he said, “Oh,
come on.”
Alcohol offenders could lose aid
Cavalier Daily
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Va. (U-WIRE) -
Students may start thinking twice
before ordering that second round of
drinks because their behavior could
cost than a chance at in-state tuition or
financial aid, or worse.
In a statewide effort to curb alcohol
abuse on college campuses, two bills
now proposed in the state General
Assembly - one in the House and one in
the Senate - propose revoking in-state
tuition and suspending financial aid or
enrollment for students convicted of
alcohol or drug offenses.
Last semester, there were four alco
hol-related deaths at public colleges in
Virginia, including the death of fourth
year college student Leslie Ann Baltz.
Baltz, who was intoxicated and left
unattended, died in a fall during the
Thanksgiving Holiday.
Schools nationwide continue to
experience similar alcohol-related
injuries and fatalities. The
Massachusetts Institute for Technology,
for instance, banned on-campus alco
hol in response to an alcohol-related
death last year.
If passed, the first bill in the assem
bly, proposed by Republican James K.
O’Brien, would revoke the in-state
tuition status of a student convicted of a
crime involving alcohol, controlled
substances or marijuana for up to one
year.
The second, suggested by
Republican Sen. Emmett W. Hanger Jr.,
calls for the suspension of state-sup
ported financial aid or student suspen
sion due to alcohol abuse.
“When we’ve directed so much of
our resources to state colleges and uni
versities - both time and money -
(underage drinking) needs to be dealt
with so we don’t waste money,” Hanger
said. “It can destroy a learning environ
ment”
Some University officials said,
however, that the bills may prove
counter-productive.
“They would create more problems
than (they) would solve,” said William
W. Harmon, vice president for student
affairs. “The worst tiling you could do
would be to take away organization”
from a person confronting substance
abuse problems, Harmon said.
Supernova
remnant |
brightens
WASHINGTON (AP) — An
exploding star that lighted up the
southern sky in 1987 and then
dimmed is starting to brighten again
as its high-speed Mast wave creates a
ring of fire.
Though not visible from the
ground, astronomers said Tuesday,
the increasing brightness of the
supernova remnant is clearly visible
in images taken by the Hubble Space |
Telescope. They said light from the
ring of fire should intensify over the j
next 10 years.
“This is the first spark of some
stellar fireworks that will take place ■
over the next few years,” said Robert
P. Kirshner, a Harvard astronomer.
The exploding star, known as
Supernova 1987A, was first sighted
onFeb. 23,1987, in ground telescope
photo images of the Large
Macwllimir' PlnuH a email oalara rtf
stars 167,000 light years from Earth.
The star is visible only from the
Southern Hemisphere.
It’s believed the star was a red
supergiant, 20 times die mass of die
sun, that reached the end of its life
time and exploded, heating instantly
to 10 billion degrees.
High speed particles, called neu
trinos, raced out from das explosion
100 billion mdes around the star.
The glow from the explosion
faded slowly, but a shock wave of
energy, moving at about 40 million
miles an hour, is now beginning to
smash into the ring of gas. The vio
lence of the collision is heating the
gas to millions of degrees and setting
it aglow. m
Supernova 1987A is the bright- ■
est exploding star seen from Earth
since 1604. By following each step
of the violent process, astronomers 9
say they will learn more about the M
final stages of stellar evolution.
“We get to be witnesses to an *1
cvcm uiai piuiuid^s iu iui us a iui m
about the death throes of a star,” said I
Kirshner.
Richard McCray, an astronomer |fl
at the University of Colorado said
that what became Supernova 1987A I
probably evolved from a twin-star a
system that merged into a single : I
object. The merger process caused I
the formation of the invisible ring of
gas that is now being lighted up by ;a
die shock wave of the explosion, he fa
said.
“The ring is putting on a display la
the likes of which have not been seen I
for centuries,” said McCray.
In the center of the ring is what
Kirshner called “the shredded 1
remains of a massive star.”
Anne L. Kinney of the Space a
Telescope Institute said astronomers I
are fascinated by the inner workings
of a supernova because it is believed f j
that such explosions helped create I
and distribute all the heavy elements.
Early in the universe, she said,
there were only hydrogen and heli
um, the elements that bum in the 9
nuclear fusion f jnes of stars. As a star 1
bums and evolves, it creates heavier
elements, such as iron, oxygen and Jfl
carbon, that are essential to life.
When a large star bums all its hydro- II
gen and helium, it can collapse and ffl
explode into a supernova that spews jfl
out the heavy elements.
“Supernovae fertilize the galax- 9
ies with this enriched material,” said
Kinney