The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Stem-cell compromise, Mideast bombing, Daschle's criticisms, Illinois' other Ryan, Mueller's recovery, Katherine Graham's TV movie:

• President Bush said during a prime-time television announcement from his Texas ranch Thursday that he supports federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, but "only on existing stem cell lines, 'where the life-and-death decision has already been made,'" the Dallas Morning News reports.
• Bush's compromise decision "left many on both sides of the issue dissatisfied, others mildly heartened and some simply confused," the Baltimore Sun reports.
• The stem-cell debate now moves to Congress, the Houston Chronicle reports. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., "said the Senate will take up the issue and suggested lawmakers might broaden the president's proposal to include research on more embryos."

• Fifteen people died and almost 90 were wounded Thursday after a Palestinian suicide bomber attacked a "crowded Jerusalem pizzeria at lunchtime," AP reports. "Islamic Jihad and Hamas, militant Palestinian groups that have been carrying out bomb attacks against Israel for years, both claimed responsibility for the bombing at Sbarro."
• USA Today has an eyewitness account of the attack, which was like "a scene out of a war movie."
• Bush condemned the attack -- in which an American woman from New Jersey was among those killed -- "and demanded that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat arrest and bring to trial all those responsible," AP reports.
• Bush "left the initiative with the Palestinians and Israelis to enlist U.S. help and support if they want it, while refraining from advancing any new ideas for stopping the violence," the Chicago Tribune reports.
• After the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "ordered F-16s to strike a Palestinian police station outside Ramallah and his army to seize offices of the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization," even though Secretary of State Colin Powell called Sharon and asked him to restrain his response to the attack, UPI reports.
• Arafat said Friday that the Israeli government's response to the attack has "escalated the conflict in the region," BBCNews.com reports.

• U.S. and Mexican officials emerged from talks Thursday saying they had "reached broad agreement yesterday on the principles behind proposals to streamline Mexican immigration into the United States," Reuters reports.
• Specific details still need to be ironed out, but Powell said "that some Mexicans living in this country illegally -- those who have jobs, pay taxes and rear children who are American-born United States citizens -- would be included in an expanded temporary worker program," the New York Times reports.

• During a speech to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Thursday, Daschle said Bush "has shown a willingness to walk away from international agreements backed by America's allies during his first six months in office," AP reports.
• The White House said Daschle's "cry of isolationism rings of hypocrisy, noting that the Democratic leader has led an effort to restrict access of Mexican trucks to the United States," the Washington Times reports.

• Chinese President Jiang Zemin said during an interview with the New York Times Wednesday that he "was optimistic about the future of Chinese-American relations" and that Bush was "a president I could do business with."
• Officials said the United States will send China "$34,567 to pay for support of the crippled U.S. Navy spy plane that collided with a Chinese fighter jet in April," CBSNews.com reports.

• "Land mines killed at least eight Macedonian soldiers and wounded six others north of Skopje on Friday in an apparent attack by ethnic Albanian guerrillas which brought the conflict back to the doorstep of the capital," Reuters reports.
• A bomb exploded in a courthouse in Venice Thursday, "further heightening tensions throughout Italy after the violence-marred Group of Eight summit in Genoa," AP reports. A police officer was injured.
• The space shuttle Discovery, scheduled to head to the International Space Station Thursday, did not launch because of storms, the Houston Chronicle reports. NASA will try to launch the shuttle today.

• The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that "family members may not withdraw feeding tubes from conscious but severely brain-damaged loved ones unless they clearly show that the patient would have wanted to die," the Los Angeles Times reports.
• A California judge "ruled Thursday that a jury's $3 billion verdict against Philip Morris was excessive but the tobacco giant will get a retrial only if the cancer-stricken plaintiff won't accept a settlement of $100 million," AP reports.

• Virginia gubernatorial hopeful Mark Warner (D) said yesterday "that the Virginia State Police force is woefully understaffed" and promised "that he will fill the force's vacant positions if elected," the Washington Times reports.
• Warner's Republican opponent, Mark Earley, "is stumping side by side with" Sen. George Allen, R-Va., "across the mountainous western spine of the state," with hopes that the senator "can help him with the rural vote that's the foundation of the Republican ascendancy," the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
• Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan (R) announced Thursday that he will run for governor, "while the state's top Republicans sparred over who should lead the party and what their ideology should be," the Chicago Tribune reports. Meanwhile, retiring Gov. George Ryan (R) "made his preference for a successor obvious when he hailed" Lt. Gov. Corinne Wood (R) "as someone who 'would be an excellent governor.'"
• Rep. Jim Davis, D-Fla., filed papers Thursday to enter the Democratic primary for governor, "becoming the fifth prominent contender in the contest," AP reports. The Orlando Sentinel reports that the "three-term congressman from Tampa said Thursday he will make a firm decision about seeking the Democratic Party's nomination by Labor Day."
• Minnesota state Sen. Becky Lourey (D) "registered a campaign finance committee Thursday, taking another step toward becoming a full-fledged candidate for governor," the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

• The Massachusetts AFL-CIO announced Thursday that it would endorse state Sen. Stephen Lynch (D) in the 9th District special election, the Boston Globe reports. Lynch's opponent, state Sen. Brian Joyce (D), "today will begin airing television spots on four major channels in which he outlines his support for legislation that would provide help to families caring for elderly relatives."
• "Phantom phone calls impugning" Lynch "have voters crying foul at the apparent rogue smear tactics under the guise of a campaign poll," the Boston Herald reports.
• A forum Thursday night featured four GOP candidates running for Arkansas' open 3rd District seat, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. Jim Hendren (R), nephew to former Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R), has polls that "show him leading among likely Republican voters but lacking the number of votes needed to avoid a runoff."

• A janitor at the Georgia state Capitol "was fired after a state senator complained he was reading papers plucked from the legislator's office trash can," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. State Sen. Rusty Paul (R), a former state GOP chair who filed the complaint, "said he was just being cautious."
• "A bus carrying Chinese tourists collided with a van Thursday on an Arizona highway leading to the Grand Canyon, injuring 32 passengers -- at least four critically," the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

• Incoming FBI Director Robert Mueller "is recovering from prostate cancer surgery and will start his new job on Sept. 4," the Washington Post reports.
• Rep. Floyd Spence, R-S.C., underwent emergency surgery Thursday to remove a blood clot from his brain, Reuters reports. He "was in critical but stable condition."
• "Henry Kissinger is turning over to the State Department about 10,000 pages of transcripts of his telephone conversations while he was secretary of state between 1973 and 1976," AP reports.
• Former Rep. Bud Shuster, R-Pa., "used $194,000 in campaign funds to pay for his legal fees incurred during" an investigation earlier this year by the "House Ethics Committee for being too close to lobbyists," the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
• The July death of Washington Post executive Katharine Graham "has sparked a race to create a biopic for the small screen," Variety reports.