The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Condit reviews, Joint Chiefs appointee, Dem tax plans, Arafat-Zemin talks, Ryan's push for Ryan, Dole's Cheney-like move:

• In an interview last night with ABC's Connie Chung, Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., said "that he had nothing to do with" Washington intern Chandra Levy's "disappearance but declined to answer questions about the nature of his relationship with the 24-year-old former federal intern," the Washington Post reports. The Post has a transcript of the interview.
• Condit "disputed the accounts of nearly everybody else involved in the case, including Miss Levy's parents, her aunt, and other women who have claimed to have had affairs with him," the Washington Times reports.
• When Chung asked about a sexual relationship with Levy, Condit said: "I've been married 34 years. I have not been a perfect man. I have made mistakes in my life. But out of respect for my family, out of a specific request by the Levy family, it is best that I not get into the details of the relationship," AP reports.
• It was the Levys' lawyer, Billy Martin, "who made that original comment in a televised interview this week, but he said last night "that the Levys had no objection to Mr. Condit's making the relationship public," the New York Times reports. On ABC's "Nightline," Martin said, "He's hiding and I wish he would answer the questions."
• "A panel of 15 voters from Gary Condit's district had mixed reactions" to the interview, the Modesto Bee reports. "Most believed he was evasive and were unsatisfied with his answers. "

• President Bush is expected to nominate Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Richard B. Myers as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during a news conference at 11:45 a.m. today, the Washington Post reports. "Without specifically naming Myers, President Bush said yesterday that the person he has selected to become the nation's highest uniformed officer is 'someone who's willing to think differently about the missions of our military.'"
• Myers "is an expert on space warfare who prides himself on finding down-to-earth solutions to problems," the Houston Chronicle reports.
• Bush said Thursday "that the United States will withdraw from the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty 'at a time convenient to America,'" the New York Times reports. He did not specify what the timetable would be.
• Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said during a Pentagon briefing Thursday that Bush "would insist that Congress approve all of his proposed $18.4 billion increase in military spending for the coming year," the New York Times reports.
• Rumsfeld "said yesterday he is not bothered by a rash of criticism over his eight-month stewardship of the Pentagon," the Washington Times reports.

• Speaking to reporters at his Texas ranch Thursday, Bush "fired back" at Democratic critics of his tax cut by "suggesting they are laying the groundwork for tax hikes," the Dallas Morning News reports.
• Congressional Democrats are not planning to seek a repeal of Bush's tax cuts, the Wall Street Journal's "Washington Wire" reports.
• Bush also visited Crawford Elementary School yesterday "to thank its staff and students for sharing space with his staff and the media during his August vacation," the Houston Chronicle reports.
• Vice President Dick Cheney will attend the Utah Republican Party convention on Saturday, AP reports. Republicans who bring loaded weapons to the convention "will be asked to put the weapons in storage lockers... while Vice President Dick Cheney is in the South Towne Exposition Center in Sandy, then retrieve them when he leaves."

• On Thursday the United States and China held talks about "assertions that China violated a pledge not to spread ballistic missile data," Reuters reports.
• Meanwhile, "Chinese military forces carried out a flight test of a medium-range nuclear missile this week as the finale to China's largest nationwide war games in years," the Washington Times reports.

• "The nation's largest fertility clinic will begin providing leftover embryos to Harvard University scientists for stem cell research, a deal that could make the Cambridge campus one of the world's top suppliers of embryonic stem cells," the Boston Globe reports.
• Some health care advocates "worry that therapies for people that came from embryonic stem cells could be limited by a Food and Drug Administration rule restricting the use of animal parts in humans because researchers use mouse cells to grow embryonic stem-cell lines," the Wall Street Journal reports.

• Palestinian President Yasser Arafat will meet with Chinese President Jiang Zemin today, CNN.com reports. Arafat is "seeking support for his people's struggle with Israel."
• Arafat said earlier today that "he was ready to begin peace talks with Israel to end 11 months of violence in the Middle East," MSNBC.com reports. "His announcement comes a day after Israel responded to a Palestinian attack by moving armored vehicles into Palestinian neighborhoods in the volatile West Bank city of Hebron in one of Israel's deepest incursions yet into Palestinian territory."
• U.S. State Department Deputy Spokesman Philip Reeker said Thursday that Israeli Deputy Minister of Public Security Gideon Ezra made "offensive and reprehensible remarks" when he "advocated killing families of suicide bombers" on Israeli television last week, UPI reports.

• Russian President Vladimir V. Putin said Thursday he is doubtful NATO troops "would be able to reconcile Macedonia's warring sides," AP reports.
• "China's government admitted the growing scale of its AIDS epidemic with rare candor Thursday, saying HIV cases nationwide had surged and confirming that hundreds of people in a single village were infected by a blood-buying operation," AP reports.

• New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Jim McGreevey (D) yesterday filed a lawsuit seeking to "overturn a ruling last week by the state Election Law Enforcement Commission that allows the RNC to pour millions into" pro-Bret Schundler ads, "so long as the committee and campaign don't coordinate their efforts," the Newark Star-Ledger reports.
• McGreevey "picked up the endorsement yesterday of the state's largest union for professional firefighters," the Newark Star-Ledger reports.
• Illinois Gov. George Ryan (R) on Wednesday "agreed to support Attorney General Jim Ryan as his successor for the Republican gubernatorial nomination and said he would urge Lt. Gov. Corinne Wood to run for another office," the Chicago Tribune reports.

• Former Charlotte Mayor Richard Vinroot (R) on Thursday "declared his candidacy" for North Carolina's Senate seat, while Elizabeth Dole (R) "was in Salisbury, getting ready to switch her voter registration" from Kansas to North Carolina "and placing numerous phone calls to GOP lawmakers and party activists to gauge support," the Raleigh News & Observer reports.
• Arkansas 3rd District candidate John Boozman (R) said Thursday "that he has found competing candidate Jim Hendren [R] to be a man of honor and character," the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. The comment came after "Hendren confessed Monday that he had a nearly year-long affair in 1999."

• Frenchman Thierry Devaux, 41, landed "his motorized parachutelike device" on the Statue's of Liberty's torch on Thursday and "was charged with disorderly conduct, reckless endangerment and making an illegal air delivery," the New York Daily News reports.