KABUL, Afghanistan — Hamid Karzai (search) was sworn in Tuesday as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president, opening a new chapter for the impoverished country while warning that the wars against terrorism and drugs will require sustained international help.A smiling Karzai, wearing a traditional green robe and a black lambskin hat, received a standing ovation on his arrival. Vice President Dick Cheney (search), the highest-ranking American official to visit Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban (search) in 2001, was among the 600 guests.After the Afghan national anthem, sung by a children's choir, reverberated around a restored hall of the war-damaged former royal palace, Karzai placed his right hand on a copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book. He repeated an oath of allegiance read to him by Afghanistan's white-bearded chief justice, Fazl Hadi Shinwari.
