Rosa Parks lies in state in Capitol
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- President Bush and his wife, Laura, headed a parade of mourners Sunday who passed by the coffin of Rosa Parks as she lay in state in the Capitol rotunda.
Parks' body was flown to Washington after a funeral service in Montgomery, Ala., where she helped start the civil rights movement almost 50 years ago by refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was among the speakers at St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church.
"Without Mrs. Parks, I probably would not be standing here as secretary of state," she said.
Some members of the public stood in line for eight hours or more to enter the rotunda.
"Because of her strength, courage and presence, it is more than befitting to have her final minutes with us here on earth displayed in this fashion," said Tynetta Magruder, who came from New Jersey.
The Capitol was to remain open until midnight Sunday, and then reopen for three hours Monday morning. After a service at a Washington church, Parks' body is to be flown to Detroit, where she lived for many years, for burial on Wednesday.
Bush ready to make new court nomination
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- President Bush is likely to announce a new Supreme Court nominee on Monday, The Washington Post reported.
Federal appeals Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. appears to be the frontrunner for the nomination, the newspaper said.
Republicans close to the White House say Bush is expected to pick a candidate with a long track record of conservative jurisprudence who would mollify the Republican base that opposed Harriet Miers -- who withdrew her nomination last week.
Several GOP strategists said Alito seemed to be the most likely choice, with fellow Judges J. Michael Luttig and Alice M. Batchelder also seen in the running, the newspaper said.
Any of the three would draw support from many conservative activists, lawyers and columnists who vigorously attacked Miers as an underqualified presidential crony, the Post said.
On the Democratic side, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Sunday he already has warned the White House that nominating Alito would "create a lot of problems."
Poor planning hinders Iraq reconstruction
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Government watchdogs say the U.S. government had no comprehensive policy in place for staffing the management of postwar Iraq.
Stuart Bowen, the special inspector-general for Iraq reconstruction, said the lack of planning has been exacerbated by a "general lack of co-ordination" among U.S. government agencies charged with rebuilding Iraq, the Financial Times reported.
Bowen's 110-page quarterly report to Congress says a "reconstruction gap" threatens to leave many projects planned by the U.S. on the drawing board.
While 93 percent of the nearly $30 billion the United States has appropriated for reconstruction has been committed to programs and projects, more than 25 percent of the funds have been spent on security costs related to the insurgency.
Bowen found that "systematic planning" for the post-hostilities period in Iraq was "insufficient in both scope and implementation."
Winter setting aid deadline in Kashmir
MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- United Nations officials say with winter coming on, the Kashmiri earthquake could turn from a catastrophe into a holocaust.
"We need more resources to save (2 million to 3 million) lives," U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said last week. "It's a deadline. This is a line of life or death for tens of thousands -- if not hundreds of thousands -- of people in the Himalayas."
Ann Veneman, head of UNICEF, held news conferences Sunday in Muzzaffarabad and Balakot in the heart of the earthquake zone to emphasize the need for speed, the Daily Times of Pakistan reported.
"It's very important for the world to understand how impacted this area really is, how huge this tragedy is, and how many people are still threatened because of the oncoming winter," Veneman said.
Aid officials say as many as 200,000 people have received no aid at all because of the difficult terrain. Other areas have received nothing except airdrops of food and supplies.
