Oath Of Office

KARZAI TAKES OATH OF OFFICE Hamid Karzai was sworn in yesterday as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president. Read the story and find The Sun's archived Afghanistan coverage. www.baltimoresun.com/afghan BALCO STEROIDS SCANDAL Read the latest and get archived coverage of the steroids scandal rocking Major League Baseball and track and field. www.baltimoresun.com/steroids

Four years ago, Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens promised to protect farmland, improve education and live up to high standards every day of her stewardship. At her second inaugural event, set to take place today at the Chesapeake Center for the Creative Arts in Brooklyn Park, the Democrat is expected to draw upon the same themes in outlining an aggressive agenda for the next four years. Owens will take the oath of office - which is the same for every elected official, judge and political appointee in the county - from Circuit Court Clerk Robert P. Duckworth.

MOSCOW -- As somber as ever, Vladimir V. Putin took the oath of office as Russian president yesterday in a ceremony that conjured up traditions from the imperial past and never once mentioned the war in Chechnya that propelled him to the top. With trumpets and a choir, and soldiers dressed like those who vanquished Napoleon, the Kremlin installed Russia's second elected president in a ceremony that was long on gilt and splendor but surprisingly brief....

When Parris N. Glendening takes the oath of office as governor of Maryland today, there will be some noteworthy differences from his first inaugural four years ago.There will be no lingering doubts about the results of the election. There will be no "Wind Beneath My Wings," the sentimental ballad that prompted snickers in 1995. For the first time in more than a half-century, Louis L. Goldstein will not attend the inauguration. And a new chief judge, whose appointment was a milestone in Maryland history, will administer the oath.

Maryland is losing out on casino benefitsI totally disagree with The Sun's position of "no casinos, period."Maryland politicians and The Sun must wake up and realize that casinos will bring tourists, economic growth, and if properly managed, money into the state, city and local government coffers for education, health care, etc. (In St. Louis, an admission charge to the casinos is collected and goes directly to education.)As a property owner in Dorchester County, I have seen the impact of the new and improved Route 50 and the bypasses.

WASHINGTON -- There may have been hearings and subpoenas and nasty partisan brawls in the past. There may be much more to come. But yesterday, for one day -- one long day of poetry and pageantry -- President Clinton seemed to declare to his opponents, "Truce."On a brisk, wind-chilled day, even the weather was in an accommodating mood, the sun breaking through clouds as if on cue, just as Clinton slipped out of his overcoat and took the oath of office from Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.

WASHINGTON -- William Jefferson Clinton took the oath of office for a second presidential term yesterday, calling on Americans to put division, partisanship and doubt behind them and "embrace a new spirit of community for a new century.""For any one of us to succeed," the president said, "we must succeed as one America."Clinton, 50, was sworn in at 12: 05 p.m. on the steps of the Capitol, becoming the 14th president in American history to begin a second consecutive term. His wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and their daughter, Chelsea, who turns 17 next month, were at his side.

There were no precedents, of course, for the first presidential inaugural address. Everything was up to George Washington. In 1789, there were no models anywhere for an elected head of state. There were not yet cliches.Washington took the oath of office in New York, addressing members of the Senate and the House of Representatives in Federal Hall on Wall Street. He convincingly said that he was abandoning retirement for the presidency only with the greatest reluctance. After 208 years, his remarks seem notable for their humility and their formality.

MOSCOW -- First elected as a colorful hero of democracy, President Boris N. Yeltsin is to take the oath of office today for a second four-year term with the stain of war on his hands and concern that he may be too ill to see his reform program through to the turn of the century.Scaled down to an indoor Kremlin ceremony for reasons related to finances and the president's poor health, the inauguration marks the first time a Russian leader will have taken office after a democratic re-election.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Jean-Bertrand Aristide handed over the presidency to Rene Preval yesterday in a peaceful transfer of power that embodied hopes the country will leave behind years of unrest.On the eve of the inauguration, Mr. Aristide reopened diplomatic ties with Cuba after more than three decades of estrangement, striking a characteristically independent stance and sparing Mr. Preval the annoyance of the United States, which maintains a 34-year-old embargo against Havana.The unexpected overture to Cuba stole some of the thunder from Mr. Preval's announcement that Parliament had abolished the hated Haitian army and replaced it with a civilian-run police force of 5,200.