The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
NEWS BRIEFS
DAMASCUS, Syria
Hezbollah militant
killed in bombing
Imad Mughniyeh, the suspected
mastermind of dramatic attacks on
the U.S. Embassy and U.S. Marine
barracks that killed hundreds of
Americans in Lebanon in the 1980s,
has died in a car bombing in Syria.
The Islamic militant group
Hezbollah and its Iranian back-
ers yesterday blamed Israel for the
killing of Mughniyeh, Hezbollah's
security chief in the 1980s who
was one of the world's most wanted
and elusive terrorists. Israel denied
involvement.
Mughniyeh, 45, had been in hid-
ing for years. He was one of the
fugitives indicted in the United
States for planning and participat-
ing in the 1985 hijacking of a TWA
airliner in which a U.S. Navy diver
was killed.
VIENNA, Austria
Iranian devices
could be used for
nuclear warheads
Iran's new generation of ad-
vanced centrifuges have begun
processing small quantities of the
gas thatcanbe usedtomake the fis-
sile core of nuclear warheads, dip-
lomats told The Associated Press
yesterday.
The diplomats emphasized that
the centrifuges were working with
minute amounts of uranium gas.
One diplomat said Tehran has set
up only 10 of the machines - far
too few to make enriched uranium
in the quantities needed for an in-
dustrial-scale energy or weapons
program.
Still, the information revealed
details of the state of Iran's ex-
periments with its domestically
developed IR-2 centrifuges, which
can churn out enriched uranium
at more than double the rate of the
machines that now form the back-
bone of the Iranian nuclear proj-
ect.
JAINESVILLE, Wis.
Obama offers $210
billion plan to
create new jobs
Democrat Barack Obama said
yesterday that as president he
would spend $210 billion to create
jobs in construction and environ-
mental industries, as he tried to
win over economically struggling
voters.
Obama's investment would be
over 10 years as part of two pro-
grams. The larger is $150 billion to
create 5 million so-called "green
collar" jobs to develop more envi-
ronmentally friendly energy sourc-
es.
Sixty-billion dollars would go to
a National Infrastructure Reinvest-
ment Bank to rebuild highways,
bridges, airports and other public
projects.
NEW YORK
Unexpected boost
in sales calms
consumer worries
Wall Street moved sharply high-
er yesterday after the Commerce
Department reported an unexpected
increase in retail sales last month and
eased some concerns about consum-
ers' willingness to spend despite eco-
nomic uncertainty. The Dow Jones
industrials rose nearly 180 points.
The 0.3 percent rise in January
retail sales, which followed a drop
during December, alleviated some of
the market's worries that consumers
were retrenching because of rising
fuel prices, a faltering real estate sec-
tor and a choppy stock market.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
U.S. EATH 1
3,960
Number of American service mem-
bers who have died in the war in
Iraq, according to The Associated
Press. There following deaths were
identified yesterday:
Pfc. Jack T. Sweet, 19, Alexandria
Bay, N.Y.;
Spc. Michael T. Manibog, 31,
Alameda, Calif.;
Sgt. Timothy P. Martin, 27, Pix-
ley, Calif.;
Sgt. Jerald A. Whisenhunt, 32,
Orrick, Mo.;
Sgt. Gary D. Willett, 34,
Alamogordo, N.M.
LOAN
From Page 1A
do to other lenders and their loan
interest rates," Fowler said. "I'm
concerned that this will make the
credit approval criteria for private
loans a lot tougher for students,
and make it more difficult for stu-
dents to obtain financial aid."
Fowler said other loan programs
offered through the office of
Financial Aide can pickup the slack
for the funds students would've
obtained from MI-LOANs.
But if the credit market contin-
ues to tighten and interest rates
continue to increase throughout
the student loan market, she said
University students could struggle
to repay their loans.
"It's not that money is drying so
much as students will be paying
so much more for access to those
funds," Fowler said. "And if other
lenders tighten up and those rates
go up, and federal loans fall short,
what will that do to our students?"
Terry Stanton, a spokesman for
the state's Department of Trea-
sury, said that while the Michigan
Higher Education Student Loan
Authority is worried about the
suspension of the MI-LOAN pro-
gram, there is nothing it can do to
generate more capital and resume
to program.
"It does appear that we need to
watch the market to see how soon
it returns to stability," Stanton
said. "And looking at when some
of these issues may be resolved, I
thinkthat's a little bit of a wait and
see, as frustrating as that can be."
According to Economics Prof.
Matthew Shapiro, it could be a
while before the market rebounds
from its current credit woes.
"I see credit remainingtight for a
considerable period of time, which
will put pressure on borrowers of
all types, including big businesses,
small businesses and also student
lenders," Shapiro said.
He said banks are currently
trying to rebuild their credit and
build up their reserves in order to
recover from the sub-prime mort-
gage crisis. And one clear way to
do that, he said, is by issuing fewer
loans.
"We're in a situation now where
there's a high amount of caution in
the financial system, and in giving
credit to anyone," he said. "Even
to worthy companies and worthy
students."
FILE-SHARING
From Page 1A
"We're seeing that there are lots
of ways we need to address this
problem which we're doing," War-
ing said. "We're educating students,
we're enforcing the law when we
find out students have violated the
law, we've offered them alternatives
and we continue to explore with the
industry if there is a technological
answer to this problem."
Jack Bernard, the University's
assistant general counsel, who
handles legal issues surround-
ing file-sharing at the University,
said education efforts will be more
effective in stopping students from
sharing media illegally than pro-
grams meant to police file-sharing.
Bernard said Congress may be
targeting college students based
on erroneous statistics. He cited
the Motion Picture Association of
America's admission that it report-
ed incorrect statistics on illegal
file-sharing among college students.
Claiming a data processing error
in an original estimate, the MPAA
reported that college students were
responsible for 44 percent of total
revenue lost because of piracy. The
MOCK ROCK
From Page 1A
them was Kiana Stringfield, who
was Smith's roommate and team-
mate in 2005.
"I think that it's great to have
association now estimates that fig-
ure is about 15 percent. The MPAA
used the original estimate to lobby
for the provision of the bill.
Bernard said the work done by
colleges to address illegal file-shar-
ing makes the provision redundant
and burdensome. He said the Uni-
versity already has programs in
place that address the two require-
ments of the provision in the bill.
The University offers students
a legal alternative to file-sharing,
called Ruckus, that allows college
students to legally access music, tele-
vision shows and movies for free.
About 4,000 of Ruckus's 1 million
registered users are affiliated with
the University, according to Chris
Lawson, director ofcorporate devel-
opment for Ruckus Network.
Both Senate and House versions
of the legislation include require-
ments for colleges to explain to stu-
dents the consequences of copyright
infringement and the school's policy
on illegal file-sharing
The University already posts this
information on the Information
Technology Central Services web-
site and occasionally sends e-mail
notifications to students about pen-
alties for copyright infringement.
In October, University Informa-
her family here so they can see how
much we love Joi," Stringfield said.
Judges admired the tribute, and
the women's track team garnered
a perfect score of SO to win the
competition. The team dedicated
its performance "Joiful Joiful," to
Smith, altering the spelling of a
Thursday, February 14, 2008- 3A
tion Technology Central Services
launched a system called BAYU -
Be Aware You're Uploading - that
monitors uploading activity on resi-
dence hall networks.
If the system detects that a user is
uploading files with a peer-to-peer
program, it sends an e-mail message
to the student within 10 minutes
warning them their activity may be
illegal. The system does not deter-
mine what is beinguploaded or access
the uploader's hard drive. Informa-
tion collected by the program is kept
for a week and then destroyed.
Bernard said the program was
the first of its kind. Since its launch,
University officials have been work-
ing with Educause to launch similar
programs at other colleges.
ITCS spokesman Alan Levy
said the program has reduced the
number of files swapped using file-
sharing networks on computers in
residence hall networks.
Luker said programs designed to
restrict file-sharing on campuses
are often expensive and ineffective.
Students, he said, will be creative
and simply find ways around them.
"I think they are good technolo-
gies and products, they're just not
ready for prime time, yet," Luker
said.
song from "Sister Act II" to match
Smith's name.
Michael Parke, a senior on the
soccer team and one of the event's
organizers, said the event earned
about $27,000, not including walk-
up sales - up from about $19,000
last year.
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the perfect summer job
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