Campus Brief
Grad student raises $2,000 for Burma An AU graduate student raised more than $2,000 for Burma in a "Day of Dance" workshop she coordinated.
Simone Jacobson, a graduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she decided something needed to be done to help those who were hit by the cyclone in Myanmar.
Cyclone Nargis hit the country, previously known as Burma, in May and killed at least 146,000 people.
"I considered going there and helping but soon realized I would be more of a burden than a help so I tried to figure out what to do form here," she said.
Jacobson said she realized she could use her dancing skills to raise money and soon went into action to set up the "Day of Dance" workshop.
The workshop took place in one day at the CityDance Center at Strathmore in Bethesda, Md. The event consisted of various dance workshops ranging in skill levels from intermediate through advanced and were open to people 10 years old and older, according to Jacobson.
"We had two hip-hop master classes and one traditional Burmese dance class," she said.
Overall, Jacobson said everyone enjoyed the event.
"It was really hard [to put the workshop together], but I hope to continue to do things for Burma in the future," she said.
-ANNA TUMAN
Metro Brief
WMATA postpones further SmarTrip upgrades until 2010 Upgrades to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's SmarTrip fare cards have slowed after internal audits revealed $2 million in failure costs by contractors and agency managers, according to The Washington Post.
The new features, including the ability to compute all bus and train fares and provide passenger discounts, were set to begin in October. The office overhaul has caused WMATA to set back the upgrades until 2010, according to The Post.
Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. told The Post that the agency took immediate action to overhaul SmarTrip and "tighten oversight to ensure the work gets done."
-MAUREEN McCARTY
National Brief
Two musicians survive jet crash, four others dead Celebrity disc jockey DJ AM and former Blink-182 drummer Travis Baker were hospitalized Sunday after surviving a jet crash that killed four others in South Carolina.
The pair boarded the jet with four others around midnight Friday from Columbia Metropolitan Airport after performing a free concert together, The Washington Post reported.
Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, told The New York Times of seeing sparks coming from the jet before it jumped the end of the runway and crashed through antennas and a fence.
Four other passengers died in the crash, while DJ AM and Barker suffered severe second-and third-degree burns, according to The Post.
-M.M.
International Brief
Terrorist groups cited for deadly hotel bombing in Pakistan Taliban militants and their al Qaeda allies are the mostly likely suspects behind Saturday's truck bombing outside of a Marriot Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, according to officials.
The explosion killed 53 people, including two U.S. Defense Department employees and a Czech ambassador, reported The Washington Post.
The truck burned outside Marriot's gates for nearly four minutes before it set the hotel's forecourt on fire, The Post reported.
The attack on the American hotel is among the deadliest attacks in Pakistan to date, The Post reported.
-M.M.
