USA
The Bush administration was finalizing plans for a postwar Iraqi government as the fight for Baghdad continued, and the Reuters news agency reported that details could be released within days. The creation of a new administration is expected to take well over six months, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz cautioned on "Fox News Sunday." National Security adviser Condoleezza Rice is in Moscow for consultations with Russian officials, who oppose the conflict, while President Bush Monday begins a two-day summit with his top ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Their talks also are expected to touch on Northern Ireland's troubled peace accord and efforts to revive the Middle East peace process.
Rescued American prisoner of war Jessica Lynch was reunited with her family at a US military hospital in Germany. But before boarding a plane in Charleston, W. Va., her father, Gregory Lynch, said, "Our hearts are really saddened" for other members of her unit and their families. Eight sets of remains recovered along with Lynch during a commando raid on a hospital in Iraq have been identified as missing US military personnel.
Two American journalists are also among the war's fatalities, although neither death was combat-related. NBC News said correspondent David Bloom collapsed and died while traveling with US troops south of Baghdad Sunday. Michael Kelly, editor-at-large for The Atlantic Monthly and a nationally syndicated columnist, was killed in a vehicle accident Thursday night.
About two dozen demonstrators, including some in Confederate Army uniforms, were on hand to protest the dedication of a statue honoring President Abraham Lincoln in Richmond, Va. The statue commemorates an April 5, 1865, visit by Lincoln to the capital of the erstwhile Confederacy, in which historian Harold Holzer said the president came "not as a conqueror, but as a friend."
A victims' rights vigil in Los Angeles Saturday drew attention to surging street violence. Homicides in the city were down in the first three months of the year, but have jumped in the past two weeks, with at least 14 killings recorded. Police suspect many were gang-related. Most of those attending the vigil at the Dolores Mission School lost family members to gang violence.
Two collisions involving more than 20 vehicles killed at least four people and closed more than 60 miles of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Saturday. Two dozen others were injured in the pileups, which occurred in dense fog near Breezewood, Pa.