Karzai Sworn In / Event Passes Peacefully

[Zhukov]

Karzai sworn in as Afghanistan president

KABUL - Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president on Tuesday at a ceremony attended by two of the men most responsible for easing him into power.

Scores of foreign dignitaries, including US Vice-President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, watched as Karzai placed his hand on the Koran to take an oath of allegiance in the heavily fortified presidential palace in Kabul.

The inauguration passed off peacefully despite threats by guerrillas from the former Taleban regime that they would disrupt Karzai's investiture, which comes after he won a historic first democratic presidential election on October 9.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=9002202