The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Crew to return home, Bush visits Tarheels, stocks rebound, runoffs in California, Great Lakes may get drilled, racial protests in Cincinnati, Clintons may take vacation, Ernie's back home:

• After a 10-day standoff, the White House said today that the 24 crew members of a U.S. Navy spy plane who were being held in China will be released "soon," AP reports. Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan "said the crew would be released 'on humanitarian grounds'" and will be sent home after travel arrangements are made.
• On Tuesday the United States sent China "a formal statement of regret" in the hopes the nation "would accept it and release the crew," the New York Times reports.
• A Chinese news agency reported that the letter said "the U.S. government was 'very sorry' about the incident," FoxNews.com reports.
• The release of the crew and the "future of relations between the United States and China seemed to hinge on semantic hairsplitting over the word 'apology,'" the Boston Globe reports.
• Before today's announcement, President Bush on Tuesday described the standoff with China as a "stalemate" for the first time, the Baltimore Sun reports.

• Bush and Jordan's King Abdullah II met Tuesday, and Bush said "that resuming Arab-Israeli peace talks depends on a de-escalation of the violence that has troubled the region for seven months," AP reports.
• Bush also told Abdullah "that enacting a free trade agreement between the United States and Jordan was one of the White House's top trade priorities.... But he indicated that provisions negotiated by the Clinton administration to safeguard workers' rights and the environment might require readjustment," the New York Times reports.

• Today Bush will travel to Concord, N.C., to speak at Concord Middle School about his education plan, the Charlotte Observer reports.
• Bush will be in Greenville, N.C., tonight to give a speech about his budget and tax cut plan at Minges Coliseum, the Greenville Daily Reflector reports.
• A new poll from the Pew Research Center shows that "most Americans favor President Bush's plan for directing public money to faith-based charities, but many don't support funding Muslims, Buddhists or the Nation of Islam," the Houston Chronicle reports.

• On Tuesday the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose "above 10,000 for the first time in nearly a month," CNNfn.com reports. The NASDAQ index climbed more than 100 points Tuesday.
• "Analysts were skeptical about whether the market's strength would last," the Wall Street Journal reports.

• On Wednesday Israeli troops ventured into Palestinian territory, "razing or heavily damaging 30 homes and triggering an exchange of fire that killed two Palestinians and wounded more than two dozen," AP reports.
• European leaders said Tuesday that they will continue their attempts to ratify the Kyoto global warming treaty despite the United States' and Japan's refusal to go along with the plan, the Washington Times reports.
• Mexican President Vicente Fox on Tuesday proposed "unprecedented access for U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials to conduct security checks on their Mexican counterparts," the Washington Post reports.
• On Tuesday officials from Russia, China and North Korea spoke to the U.N. Disarmament Commission and "attacked U.S. intentions to build a national missile defense system, warning that it would threaten international security and trigger a new arms race," AP reports.

• "Attorney General John Ashcroft said Tuesday he would decide this week whether to show Timothy McVeigh's execution on closed-circuit television to Oklahoma City bombing survivors and victims' families," AP reports.
• Next year a "$122.3 million modernization" of the Supreme Court will begin, the Washington Times reports.

• The results of the special election primary in California's 32nd District show former state Sen. Diane Watson (D) leading with 33 percent of the vote, AP reports.
• In the June 5 primary, Watson will face Republican Noel Irwin Hentschel, Green Party candidate Donna J. Warren and Reform Party candidate Ezola Foster, the Los Angeles Times reports. [Note: This item earlier reported Watson would face Democrat Kevin Murray in the runoff.]
• The California Secretary of State's office has the results.
• The Los Angeles mayoral race is "headed for a June runoff election" between former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D) and City Attorney James K. Hahn (D), the Los Angeles Times reports.

• South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon (R) leads all Republicans in the 2002 gubernatorial race with $439,383 in cash on hand, but Gov. Jim Hodges (D) has "lapped the field" and now has a campaign total of $2,444,446, the Greenville News reports.
• St. Paul, Minn., Mayor Norm Coleman (R) is "seriously considering" a challenge to Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., in 2002, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports.
• Former Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Jane Swift (R) "officially became acting governor at 11 a.m." Tuesday, making history as the nation's first pregnant governor, the Boston Globe reports.
• "Even as she took the reins of power, Jane Swift could look around and see a swarm of potential Democratic rivals -- politely clapping but privately plotting to make sure her stay is a short one," the Boston Herald reports.

• "Though the deal gives" Southern California Edison "hope that it can regain financial stability, the 38-page agreement between" California Gov. Gray Davis (D) "and Edison is so complex that it gave many experts pause," the Los Angeles Times reports.
• "Michigan and Ohio officials now are discussing changing their policies" to allow drilling in the Great Lakes, AP reports.
• "No injuries were reported during the 10 hours of on-and-off protests by hundreds of people" reacting to "the shooting of an unarmed black teen by police Saturday" in Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Post reports.
• There "is no immediate end in sight for the [teacher's] strike that is dragging into its seventh day" in Hawaii, the Honolulu Advertiser reports.

• Rep. Joseph Moakley, D-Mass., "was released from the hospital yesterday after a five-day stay to treat fever and flu symptoms," the Boston Herald reports.
• Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., "told reporters Tuesday she may go on a rare vacation with her husband," former President Bill Clinton, UPI reports. They may go to the Dominican Republic.
• Bush's former cat Ernie was "reunited with his adopted family" in Los Angeles on Tuesday, "more than three weeks after he ran away from home," Reuters reports.
• Grammy-winning rapper Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Bruce Mathers III, was sentenced to two years probation yesterday and will serve no jail time "after pleading guilty to having an unloaded gun," the Detroit News reports.