Kelly Finlan

The Unites States won promises for more than $13 billion in Iraqi aid funding over the next five years at a donors' conference in Madrid, Spain on Friday, Oct. 24. The money will go toward the reconstruction of power, water, and health care, among others, according to the New York Times.

An overflowing trash dumpster sits at the bottom of the stairs in Woodcrest. Flies hover aimlessly above the can and the overwhelming stench of the decaying garbage gags passers-by. "They [housekeeping] only take off the top layer so they don't overflow," Brenda Moscatell, a freshman English/communications major, said.

Senior army officers have announced that they plan to drastically cut back the number of American troops overseas in 2004. There are currently 130,000 troops in Iraq. This number will be cut to less than 100,000 by the summer and to less than 50,000 by "mid-2005," according to the Washington Post.

Mayor's personal items seized in investigation Philadelphia Mayor John Street's handheld computer, as well as other personal items, was seized on Friday, Oct. 10, by authorities investigating the possibility of corruption in city hall. The investigation came after a "sophisticated listening device" and two FBI-planted microphones were found in Street's office, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

A Palestinian suicide bomber targeting a beachfront caf

Israeli raids of the Gaza Strip and the West Banks resulted in the deaths of five Palestinians and an Israeli on the morning of Thursday, Sept. 25. Authorities are calling it one of the bloodiest days in more than two weeks, according to the New York Times.

An empty ashtray sits outside House 7. Inches from its base lay hundreds of carelessly discarded cigarette butts. Junior Shannon Carroll, an education major, within arm's length of the ashtray, flicks the inch-long remainder of her cigarette into the grass and goes back inside, just as she has done since she started smoking eight years ago.

Junior Mike Asman, a biology/premed major, sits at his computer in his dorm room, listening to his extensive collection of music on his computer, a collection that over the years has grown to more than 1,000 songs. Asman is just one of more than 37 million people sharing and downloading music in the United States.

Walking through campus, it is commonplace to see one with either a cell phone or a bottle of water in his or her hand. Bottled water is fashionable, but the disposal of the plastic carcass is becoming a bigger and bigger problem nationwide. Michelle Ward, a junior psychology and social work major, is a self-professed "bottled water drinker.