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. WANT TO JOIN THE NEWS STAFF? E-mail herring@michigandaily.com - , 0 1 Attention Students! the perfect summer job before other students do! .4