Beyond the Bubble

World News

The video of a 26-year-old United States citizen's beheading was released on an al Qaeda Web site Tuesday.

The victim identified himself on the video as Nicholas Berg of Pennsylvania. Since recovering the body, Pentagon officials have confirmed that Berg is in fact the man in the video.

Berg is seen sitting in front of five armed men in hoods. One of the men standing behind him reads a statement, then pushes Berg to the floor. In the following minutes, Berg's throat is cut and one of the captors holds up his severed head.

The captors claimed that the United States had refused to exchange Berg for prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison; however, one U.S. official told CNN that he does not believe this to be true.

Berg's captors threatened President Bush, saying, "The worst is coming and, God willing, the tough days are still to come. You and your soldiers will regret the day that you touched Iraq."

The Web site said that Abu musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of an Islamist terrorist group, was responsible for the killing.

Berg was unaffiliated with coalition forces in any way. He owned a company that cleaned and repaired communications towers in Iraq.

National News

Students at California State schools protested the higher-education budget deal Wednesday.

The deal, which was struck between Gov. Schwarzenegger and higher-education leaders, will turn thousands of qualified students away from University of California and California State University schools.

The governor, UC President Robert Dynes and CSU Chancellor Charles Reed defended the six-year plan saying that it was the best possible solution to the staggering state budget deficit. The leaders are hopeful that this plan will restore some measure of financial stability to the universities.

The agreement calls for a 14 percent increase in tuition for undergraduates and an eight percent increase in each of the next two years. Fees will increase 20-25 percent for graduate students for next year and 10 percent in each of the following years to come.

Some criticize Schwarzenegger's plan, calling it unrealistic. But the governor says the money will be there.

"We know now that the economy is coming back," Schwarzenegger said.

College News

Though graduation nears for President Bush's daughters, students who attend school with the twins at Yale University and University of Texas should not anticipate a commencement speech from the President.

Bush turned down an invitation to speak at the Texas ceremony. Instead, he will speak at three other colleges: Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, La. and Concordia University in Mequon, Wis.

Though Yale didn't issue any official statement concerning the president's decision, faculty members pointed to his most recent experience at Yale's graduation as a possible reason.

They remember protesters interrupting Bush's commencement remarks in 2001 and noted that if he were to return, he would probably face similar demonstrators again this year.

President Bush and his wife issued a statement saying that they did not want to subject other families to the disruptions of a presidential visit when Barbara graduates from Yale University and Jenna graduates from University of Texas.

Entertainment News

This week's congressional hearings will examine smoking on camera and may undo key portions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The entertainment industry has been under significant scrutiny for indecency lately and now Congress may restrict smoking on film.

The issue will be examined in both the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Commerce Committee.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada, pushed for the hearing after several recent meetings between anti-smoking advocates and entertainment industry executives.

Lobbyist Madeline Dalton, associate professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School, is scheduled to testify.

Dalton wrote a recent study claiming that smoking in movies entices young people to pick up the habit. She is currently pushing for R ratings for movies in which the actors smoke.

While Motion Picture Association of America chief Jack Valenti has been advocating an anti-smoking message, his trade group believes that it is up to the filmmaker to decide whether to have certain characters smoke or not.

-Compiled by Liz Weeker