I The Behrend Beacon
U.S. criticizes Italian prisoner exchange plan
WASHINGTON: The U.S. Department of State and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were quick
to condemn a prisoner exchange deal with the Taliban made this week between Italy and Afghanistan.
The deal, which included the release of five prisoners associated with the Taliban in return for the
release of an Italian journalist and his Afghan civilian colleagues, was immediately criticized by State
Department officials and resulted in a direct phone call from Secretary Rice to Italian Foreign
Minister Massimo D'Alema. U.S. foreign policy does not support hostage and prisoner exchanges.
"Given the increased threat created for all of us who have people on the ground in places like
Afghanistan, we expect that concessions will not be made in the future," said State Department
spokesman Dave McCormack. "The concern. I think, is obvious in that you have individuals who are
potentially quite dangerous who have been released from prison."
Despite the increase in diplomatic communications between the U.S. and Italy and public state
ments made, officials maintain that the diplomatic ties beween the two countries remain "cordial."
North Korea abandons disarmament
BEIJING, China: Talks aimed at stopping the enrichment of uranium
and the development of nuclear weapons in North Korea were cut short
when the North Korean negotiators left the meetings over a financial
dispute.
The financial problems threaten to undo the progress made during the
negotiations since the agreement made on Feb. 13 in which North Korea
would ultimately dismantle its program and make a full disclosure of
the advancements made. Before, the negotiators from North and South
Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia were optimistic that
progress would continue to be made.
The main sticking point is $25 million in funds that was frozen by
U.S. investigators in Banco Delta Asia (BDA), a bank based in Macau.
The U.S. had actually agreed to unfreeze the North Korean assets about
a week before, but the funds still had not been released as of the begin
ning of negotiations on Thursday. The North Korean delegation refused
Behrend apartment roofs are covered in trash which adds to the string of damages like the ones in Niagara Hall
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to continue negotiations until the U.S. released the funds, though
American diplomats contend that the delay was merely a "technical
issue."
"The problem has been that the North Koreans said they must have
this BDA matter finalized before they move forward on the other issues
and that sort of sequential approach slowed us down," said chief
American envoy Christopher Hill.
However, many negotiators were confident that the so far promising
negotiations would continue otherwise on schedule and at the same
pace.
"No matter the difficulties we face in the talks, no matter how hard,
we have the capability to overcome them," Chinese representative Wu
Dawei said at a press conference.
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U.S. supports Colombian prisoner exchange plan
BOGOTA, Colombia: American officials and lawmakers are supporting a Colombian plan to exchange a
group of rebel prisoners for a group of hostages that include three American defense contractors.
The rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia4FAßC), is a roughly 19,000-strong army
of armed revolutionaries, is on the U.S. terrorist groups watch list and has executed American prisoners
before.
The Colombian government has proposed negotiations that would ask the rebel group to free at least 61
hostages in return for a yet-to-be-determined number of imprisoned rebels. FARC has not yet agreed to
negotiate, fearing that the opportunity would be used to kill or capture their negotiators. The U.S. has pro
posed sending American officials and even U.S. congressmen down to observe the negotiation and guaran
tee its legitimacy. Some members of congress have even volunteered.
"The most important thing is the offer from these Congress members to go to the negotiation zone as guar
antors," said official Colombian peace negotiator Luis Carlos Restrepo. "We believe this could help give
confidence to the FARC, which has always been afraid to enter talks."
The 61 recent hostages are thought to be a part of more than 3,000 hostages being currently held by the
rebel group.
Behrend residence halls suffer repeated continued from page 1
Most of the charges have been for relatively minor things, Lindey said. "I know there's been a lot of trash
in the recycling bins," he said. He also said that food in the trash cans and chew spit have been two of the
most common damages to the hall. However, there have been some major damages as well. "On the third
floor, someone took glass out of the fire extinguisher case and dropped it on the ground," Lindey said. "It
shattered everywhere." He also said that someone threw a rock through a window in the lobby, which was
another majoedamage to the hall.
Lindey has hadii)me suggestions on how to help students avoid some of the minor damag'es to the hall.
"I've been trying to get the recycling bins taken out," he said, referring to the damages to the hall when
students place their garbage in the recycling bins. "Housing [Services] is all insistent on having them
there."
Lindey says that the damages are caused by only "one or two people," but he understands why everyone
on the hall is charged. "I think what they charge is reasonable," he said. "They want to teach us a lesson.
There is a ridiculous amount of damages- it's unnecessary."
Biology major Jaye Menoher, a Niagara Hall resident, says he does not like how the whole hall is
charged for the damages. "The people who do them should be held responsible," Menoher said. He under
stands why the entire floor is charged, though. "They have to do it," he said, "because they don't [know
who caused them]."
The money that residents pay due to the damages does not stay here at Behrend, however. Lindey says
that all the money from damages goes to University Park.
Travel delays leave Behrend students continued page 1
Mother Nature had other plans. "The planes were freezing in Philadelphia, so the US Airways employ
ees kept pushing back our departure time, telling us the plane will eventually take off," Brown said, "We
waited from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. before they finally told us that the flight was canceled."
Along with thousands of other travelers, Brown and her travel companions found out that airlines will
not pay for hotel rooms when a flight is canceled due to weather conditions. "We paid a couple hundred
more dollars for a few hours; it wasn't even worth it," she said.
When Brown returned to the airport on Saturday, they found that leaving Jamaica was going to be no
easier than the day before. "We weren't able to get any flights out because the flight crews were stuck in
Pittsburgh. US Airways put us up in a hotel this time because it was their fault."
Brown eventually got to Charlotte, North Carolina on Monday and was supposed to fly to Cleveland at
7:30 that evening, but the plane was delayed again until 9:00 p.m. Once in Cleveland, Brown rented a car
and drove back to Erie. She got to Erie at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, four days after she was supposed
to return
Senior Kara Struski remarked, "It was just chaotic in the airport." Struski, who was traveling back to
Erie from Florida, flew Delta Air Lines. "They gave us some ridiculous excuses as to why the flights were
delayed," she said, "the best had to be that they were late because of paperwork issues."
"I got in line at the Delta counter when the line was still relatively short and I still had to wait over two
hours. The line stretched through the whole terminal. Some of those people had to have been waiting for
at least five hours," Struski said.
In total from Friday to Saturday morning, more than 3,600 flights were canceled nationwide because of
the effects of the storm in the Northeast. Jetßlue, US Airways, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines all
reported cancellations.
Students workload expands beyond the continued page 1
Rothenberg also says that he feels that having a
job while being in school helps him prepare for life
after college and learn responsibility. "Instead of
just going to class and then coming home to party
with my friends and having all the time I need to do
my homework, I have to worry about having
enough time to get everything done. I think it helps
keep my mind on what I need to be doing instead of
what I want to do."
But Rothenberg is just one case of a Behrend stu
dent working his way through school. Behrend
senior Steve Miller has been juggling work and
school since he came to college. Miller works at
Behrend's restaurant Bruno's about 25 to 30 hours
a week. Miller says that while working days and
evenings leads to some late nights of homework, he
Source: CNN.com, Yahoo! News
still manages to maintain his grades. "Working
makes for some late nights of studying but I still
manage to do well. I have learned to manage my
time really well." Miller also says that he feels
working through school also looks good to employ
ers after college. "I think they like to see that a stu
dent worked, because it shows them that person can
balance many aspects of their life, and manage their
time well."
Working while going to school is something
many college students have to deal with. Both
Miller and Rothenberg are two examples of stu
dents that not only take on the responsibility of
going to school and maintaining good grades, but
also of trying to earn a living while doing so. While
it isn't always easy, it is just what they have to do.
Friday, March 23, 2007