Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan • Page 3

HUDSON News Editor 267-1378 IN BRIEF Hurricane floods Nicaragua, weakens to tropical storm MANAGUA, Nicaragua Hurricane Beta swirled onto Nicaragua's central Caribbean coast Sunday, ripping off roofs, toppling trees and flooding low neighborhoods before weakening to a tropical storm. Heavy rain in Honduras caused four rivers to overflow and damaged crops. No deaths or injuries were immediately reported, but officials said 10 people were believed missing after trying to escape the storm by boat. Beta came ashore about 200 miles northeast of Managua, as a category 2 hurricane with 105 mph winds, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. By mid-afternoon, it had weakened to a tropical storm as it moved inland, dumping up to 15 inches of rain.

Beta was expected to continue losing strength and weaken to a tropical depression overnight. Government misses dozens of security deadlines since WASHINGTON The Bush administration has missed dozens of deadlines set by Congress after the Sept. 11 attacks for developing ways to protect airplanes, ships and railways from terrorists. A plan to defend ships and ports from attack is six months overdue. Rules to protect air cargo from 1 infiltration by terrorists are two months late.

A study on the cost of giving anti-terrorism training to federal law enforcement officers who fly commercially was supposed to be done more than three years ago. Congress must share the blame for the department's sluggishness in protecting commerce and travel from terrorists, according to other observers. Gunmen assassinate brother of an Iraqi vice president BAGHDAD, Iraq Gunmen killed the brother of Iraq's Shiite vice president Sunday while the death toll in a major truck bombing the preceding day rose to 30. A U.S. Marine was fatally injured in another bombing.

Ghalib Abdul-Mahdi, brother of Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, died along with his driver when a vehicle pulled alongside their car on a bustling street and gunmen inside opened fire. Abc was en route to Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's office, where he served as an adviser, aides to the vice president said. The U.S. command also announced Sunday that a Marine died of injuries suffered the preceding day in a roadside bombing near Baghdad. UNICEF chief says thousands more could die in Pakistan MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan Thousands of people could die unnecessarily from disease, diarrhea and untreated injuries if a disaster-weary world doesn't help quake-ravaged Pakistan, UNICEF's chief warned during a helicopter tour of the region Sunday.

Ann Veneman said the window of opportunity to act is closing. predict a colder than usual relief officials say some 800,000 quake survivors could face it without shelter. About 80,000 people are believed to have died in the 7.6-magnitude quake Oct. 8, and 3.3 million were left homeless. Half the victims are believed to be children, according to UNICEF.

Hundreds of revelers arrested near University of Wisconsin MADISON, Wis. A weekend of Halloween celebrations popular with college students resulted in more than 400 arrests, and police used bursts of pepper spray early Sunday to break up crowds of revelers. Mayor Dave Cieslewicz suggested canceling the annual gathering. The downtown party near the University of Wis1-Madison attracts college students from the Midwest, and has turned chaotic in the past. Last year, 455 were arrested.

Most arrests were for alcohol-related offenses, including underage drinking, said Lt. Pat Malloy. The local detoxification center was filled to capacity and some people had to be taken to emergency rooms, he said. There were 269 arrests overnight and 178 the preceding night, Police Chief Noble Wray said. From wire reports NATION-2 WORLD Lansing State Journal Monday, October 31, 2005 3A Republicans push judicial conservative Dems warn against extremist nominee for Supreme Court BY HOPE YEN Associated Press WASHINGTON- -President Bush neared a decision on a new nominee for the Supreme Court as Republican lawmakers suggested Sunday he should pick a solid conservative with a track record as a judge.

But the Senate's top Democrat raised the possibility of "a lot of problems" if Bush settles on federal appeals Judge Samuel Alito to succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Others said to be under consideration include federal appeals court Judges Michael Luttig, Karen Williams, Priscilla Owen and Alice Batchelder as well as Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan. A leading Republican senator suggested a staff shake-up at the White House, saying Harriet Miers' nomination might have failed partly because there "wasn't enough consultation or enough good, strong people advising the president." Capitol Hill tribute honors Rosa Parks President orders flags at half-staff for Wednesday funeral ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON President Bush, members of Congress and ordinary Americans paid tribute to Rosa Parks under the soaring dome of the Capitol Rotunda on Sunday, honoring the woman whose defiant act on a city bus challenged segregation i in the South and inspired the civil rights movement. Parks became the first woman to lie in honor in the Rotunda, sharing an honor bestowed upon Abraham Lincoln, John 1 F. Kennedy and other national leaders.

Bush and congressional leaders paused to lay wreaths by her casket, while members of a university choir greether with "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Rep. John Conyers, D- in whose Detroit congressional office Parks Parks worked, Parks said the ceremony and public viewing showed "the legacy of Rosa Parks is more than just a success for the civil rights movement or for African-Americans. It means it's a national honor." Inside the Capitol Rotunda, a slow-moving audience of elderly admirers, children and couples holding hands reverently proceeded around the casket. Outside the Capitol, as flags flew at half-staff, thousands of people awaited the chance to pay tribute to her, some arriving before noon. Some carried signs that read, "Thank you, Rosa Parks." The crowd cheered when the motorcade, led by Parks' hearse and a vintage D.C.

Metro bus, arrived. Her casket was carried from the hearse by a military honor guard while Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick, stood with family members and friends outside the steps leading up to the Capitol and prayed. Senate chaplain Barry Black, bowing his head in prayer, said Parks' courage "ignited a movement that aroused our national conscience" and served as an example of the "power of fateful, small acts." Bush issued a proclamation Sunday ordering the U.S. flag to be flown at half-staff over all A nominee perceived by Democrats as extremely right-wing could provoke a bitter confirmation fight and possible filibuster.

"You've got to reach out and bring in more advice and counsel," said Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss. A nominee perceived by Democrats as extremely rightwing could provoke a bitter confirmation fight and possible filibuster, given the increasingly hardened positions over a woman's right to have an abortion, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman said. in honor at the Capitol Rotunda on Sunday Monday at her Detroit home. Parks upon Abraham Lincoln, John F.

Kennedy WILLIAM Free Press Grateful: Donna Wilson stands in line Sunday outside the Capitol to express her gratitude to civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks. public buildings Wednesday, the day of Parks' funeral and burial in Detroit. The president and first lady Laura Bush were joined by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, temporary House majority leader Roy Blunt, and dozens of other members of Congress. Fred Allen, 59, who grew up in segregated Halls, brought his 20-year-old son to help him understand the civil rights era. "He has no idea what it was like to grow up in the South, where you had to hold your head down," Allen said.

Respect: The casket of Rosa Parks lies sparked the civil rights movement, died the Rotunda, sharing an honor bestowed THANK YOU ROSA PARKS PEOPLES ORGANIZATION FOR PROGRESS Robert Cunningham, 65, caught a flight from Atlanta with his wife, daughter and four grandchildren so they could pay their respects. When they learned Friday night that Parks' body would lie in honor in the Capitol, Cunningham's wife said, "We have to go." "She started the movement," Cunningham said of Parks. "She was the mother of the civil rights movement by simply saying, T'm tired of giving up my seat." Parks, who died Oct. 24, was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. Among those who supported Kashmiri group says it left bombs in N.

Delhi train crash survivors washed away some of the track. Ten more bodies were found downstream overnight, raising the death toll to 110, said state Home Minister Jana Reddy. Scores of passengers remained trapped in the cars, five of which lay on their sides, partially submerged. Associated Press ing behind a black bag. When some of the passengers raised an alarm, the driver and conductor examined it and threw it out just as the blast occurred, injuring them along with seven others.

The attacks came at a "You have both sides poles apart and insistent on finding some answer to that question in advance of the hearing, which no one is entitled to," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. With the expectation that Bush probably will turn to a sitting judge, Alito's name was mentioned often on the Sunday talk shows. A judge on the Philadelphia- Loss: Mourners grieve Sunday during a memorial service for civil rights icon Rosa Parks at St. Paul AME Church in Montgomery, Ala.

ROB CARR Associated Press KIRTHMON F. Free Press in Washington, D.C. Parks, 92, who became the first woman to lie in honor in and other national leaders. Planned tributes Tributes to civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks will continue through Wednesday. A schedule of events includes: Washington 7 a.m.

-10 a.m. today: Viewing, Capitol Rotunda D1 p.m.-2 p.m. today: Public memorial service, Historical Metropolitan AME Church Detroit 9 p.m. today to 5 a.m. Wednesday: Viewing, Charles H.

Wright Museum of African American History 11 a.m. Wednesday: Funeral, Greater Grace Temple her was Dr. Martin Luther King who led the 381-day boycott of the Montgomery, bus system that helped initiate the modern civil rights movement. At St. Paul AME Church in Montgomery on Sunday, where Parks had been lying in honor at the church since Saturday, an overflow crowd including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice celebrated her life.

Rice said she and others who grew up in Alabama during the height of Parks' activism might not have realized her impact on their lives, "but I can honestly say that without Mrs. Parks, I probably would not be standing here today as secretary of based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Alito has been dubbed "Scalito" or "Scalia-lite" by some lawyers because his judicial philosophy invites comparisons to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's. "That is not one of the names that I've suggested to the president," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, told "Late Edition" on CNN. "In fact, I've done the opposite.

I think it would create a lot of problems." Reid said Bush would be making a "mistake" were he to settle on a hard-liner to appease the far right, after conservatives' wrath undermined Miers'1 nomination. Soldiers allegedly assaulted Afghan prisoners BY DANIEL COONEY Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan Two U.S. soldiers have been charged with assault for allegedly punching two detainees in the chest, shoulders and stomach at a military base in Afghanistan, the military said Sunday. The announcement came 10 days after the military launched an investigation into television footage purportedly showing a group of U.S. soldiers burning the bodies of two dead Taliban rebels.

The charges against the two soldiers include conspiracy to maltreat, assault and dereliction of duty. The allegations, if substantiated, could lead to disciplinary action, the statement said, adding that neither detainee required medical care. The military did not say when the soldiers were charged. Military spokesman Lt. Col.

Jerry O'Hara said the two soldiers were still in Afghanistan "performing their primary duties, but they have nothing to do with detained individuals." The alleged assault occurred at a base in southern Uruzgan province in early July, O'Hara said. One of the two detainees has since been released, while the other is being held at Bagram, the U.S. military's headquarters in Afghanistan, he said. O'Hara said military regulations prevented him from identifying the two detainees or elaborating on why they were detained. It was not clear if the latest abuse allegation would cause an outcry here.

Mistreatment of detainees by Afghan police and Afghan prison guards is not unusual, according to human rights advocates. "The command remains committed to investigate all allegations of misconduct," Brig. Gen. Jack Sterling, a deputy coalition commander, was quoted as saying in the statement announcing the charges. Attempts to reach Afghan government officials Sunday for comment were claim responsibility for attacks, 59 dead A man called a local news in Indian Kashmir to agency say the Islamic Inquilab Mahaz, or Front for Islamic Up- ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW DELHI A littleknown group that police say has ties to Kashmir's most feared militants claimed responsibility Sunday for terrorist bombings that killed 59 people in New Delhi.

rising, staged the bombings. The caller, who identified himself as Ahmed Yaar Ghaznavi, said the bombings were "meant as a rebuff to the claims of Indian security groups" that militants had been wiped out by security crackdowns. Authorities said they already had gathered useful clues about the near-simultaneous blasts Saturday night that ripped through a bus and two markets crowded ahead of the Hindu festival of Diwali, one of the busiest shopping seasons. Investigators reportedly raided dozens of small hotels across India's capital looking Divers search for VELIGONDA, India Army divers searched Sunday for survivors and the dead in the submerged cars of a train that derailed and plunged into a river in southern India, killing at least 110 people, officials said. The accident occurred Saturday in the town of Veligonda in Andhra Pradesh state after flash floods for possible suspects, and police said "numerous" people were being questioned.

Police in New Delhi said they were looking for a man who refused to buy a ticket on a bus and got off in the Govindpuri neighborhood, leav- particularly sensitive time as India and Pakistan hash out an unprecedented agreement to partially open the heavily militarized frontier that divides the disputed territory of Kashmir to speed relief to victims of the Oct. 8 earthquake. The agreement was finalized Sunday, and Indian officials appeared hesitant to quickly put the blame for the bombings on Pakistan-based militants. "We have lots of information, but it is not proper to disclose it yet," Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil said after an emergency meeting of the Cabinet. Fighting fires: Firemen work to put out a fire after a Saturday explosion at the Sarojini Market area in New Delhi, India.

A series of explosions shook the city, with blasts tearing through two markets jammed with shoppers ahead of an upcoming Hindu festival, officials said. SEBASTIAN JOHN Associated Press.