Alito Confirmed as Supreme Court Justice

Samuel A. Alito Jr. was sworn in yesterday as the 110th justice in the history of the Supreme Court.

The ceremony, held at the Supreme Court in Washington, came shortly after the Senate voted 58 to 42 in favor of confirming Justice Alito. Most Democratic senators voted against the Bush nominee.

The confirmation came hours before the president’s televised State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress at 9 p.m.

Coretta Scott King, 78, dies

Coretta Scott King, the widow of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, died early yesterday at Santa Monica Hospital, in Baja California, Mexico, near San Diego. She was 78. King was admitted to the hospital last Thursday, and died about 1 a.m., said Lorena Blanco, a spokeswoman for the United States consulate in Tijuana, to The New York Times.

Bagley said that King’s body would be returned to her home, Atlanta, for entombment next to her husband, whose crypt is at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center there.

Injured ABC News Duo moved to United States

Bob Woodruff, an ABC News anchor and cameraman Doug Vogt, who were wounded in a roadside bombing in Iraq, left a military hospital in Germany for the United States yesterday.

According to The New York Times, a doctor who treated the two in Iraq stated that both had made “remarkable” progress since being admitted on Monday.

Woodruff has been able to move his fingers and toes but remains heavily sedated.

Vogt, was not as severely injured by the explosion.

China and Russia support U.N. intervention for Iran

The United States and Europe, after hours of negotiations on Iran, won support from Russia and China early Tuesday to refer Iran’s nuclear activities to the United Nations Security Council this week, according to The New York Times.

White House officials described the move as a breakthrough in the effort to press Iran to give up nuclear activities that the West suspects to be a nuclear weapons program.

Smithsonian picks location for

Museum of Black History

The Smithsonian Institute on Monday selected a prominent space on the Mall near the Washington Monument as the site of its National Museum of African-American History and Culture.

This is the institution’s first museum dedicated to a comprehensive study of the black American experience.

Golisano decides not to run for Governor of New York

Tom Golisano, the Rochester billionaire who spent $74 million of his own money on a failed bid to become New York’s governor in 2002, announced yesterday that he had decided not to enter this year’s race to succeed Gov. George Pataki.

According to The New York Times, Golisano is considering creating a political action committee to give money to candidates who endorse his priorities for overhauling state government.

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is the Democratic frontrunner for the position.

-Compiled by Albert Silvestri

with New York Times sources