WASHINGTON (AP) – Challenging his candor and by implication his character, Samuel Alito’s critics are seizing on a handful of inconsistencies and omissions in the record to raise doubts about the judge’s fitness for the Supreme Court.

By themselves, the issues seem minor:

Critics of the federal appeals court judge say they detect a pattern.

“A credibility gap is emerging with each new piece of information released on Judge Alito’s record,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is to begin confirmation hearings on Jan. 9.

U.N. official asks for quake funds

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) – The World Food Program chief appealed Saturday for urgent funds to keep an airlift flying to quake-ravaged areas through the winter, calling it “the most difficult” logistical task the U.N. agency has ever faced.

Fearing a second wave of deaths, soldiers and emergency workers have been racing to get food and proper shelter for survivors of the Oct. 8 quake that killed 87,000 people in Pakistan and India. Most of the deaths from the magnitude-7.6 temblor were in Kashmir, the Himalayan territory divided between the two countries but claimed in entirety by both.

The WFP has accepted responsibility for feeding 1.3 million people, while 3 million are getting assistance from the government and 150,000 from the Red Cross.

WFP director James Morris said the agency has enough capacity to keep making aid flights to remote areas through January but needs about $65 million-$70 million to fund the air operation until April 30.

Myanmar: Time needed for charter

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar defended its haphazard efforts to draw up a constitution as delegates prepared to work on the much-delayed document, saying Saturday the country has the right to choose its own path toward democracy and the process cannot be rushed.

Meanwhile, the government confirmed for the first time that it has extended pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention by six months. The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been held without trial under an anti-subversion law for 10 of the last 16 years.

Officials said the country’s constitutional convention would resume Monday after an eight-month hiatus. It has been widely dismissed as a sham by the ruling junta’s critics, who say the delegates were mostly hand-picked by a government intent on maintaining its grip on power.

Smuggler’s body returns home

SINGAPORE (AP) – The body of an executed Australian drug smuggler returned home from Singapore in the company of his weeping mother Saturday.

Nguyen Tuong Van’s body was flown from Singapore to the southern Australian city of Melbourne, a day after Nguyen was hanged at Singapore’s Changi Prison.

His mother, Kim Nguyen, wept quietly as she sat in front of a check-in counter at Singapore’s airport, covering her face with her hands. His brother Khoa wore black, with a Catholic rosary around his neck. The family did not speak to reporters.

Nguyen, 25, was executed before dawn Friday despite numerous appeals for clemency from Australian leaders and his lawyers. He received a mandatory death sentence after being caught with 14 ounces of heroin at Singapore’s airport in 2002 and convicted of drug smuggling.

Lawyer Lex Lasry, who accompanied Nguyen’s mother and brother on their flight, said the campaign against the death penalty by advocates for Nguyen would not stop with the execution. He urged the Australian government to oppose execution in all cases, even when it was used to punish terrorists.

Australia scrapped the death penalty in 1973 and hanged its last criminal in 1967, while Singapore has executed more than 100 people for drug-related offenses since 1999. But Australia has supported the death penalty for the three militants convicted of taking part in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, saying it sends a clear message of zero tolerance for terrorism. An execution date has not been set.

“The death penalty is something we simply must oppose in every case,” Lasry said. “We can’t pick and choose anymore. If you are against it you are against it for everyone.”

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has said Nguyen’s hanging would sour his country’s relations with Singapore, but that Australia would not take any diplomatic action against Singapore.

Singapore has said its tough penalties for drug trafficking are an effective deterrent against a crime that ruins lives, and that foreigners and Singaporeans must be treated alike.

At a human-rights forum in Singapore on Saturday, opposition lawmaker Steve Chia said there was little objection to the death penalty in Singapore.

“Most Singaporeans are too caught up with making a decent living to care less about one convicted trafficker less in our society,” said Chia, who has previously called for a review of Singapore’s penal code, including the mandatory death penalty imposed on Nguyen.

AP-ES-12-03-05 1315E

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