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Rep. Gary Condit Admits Affair
WASHINGTON (AP) - Rep. Gary Condit has kept a public silence in the Chandra Levy case in hopes of protecting his family's privacy and not jeopardizing the search for the former federal intern, his lawyer said Sunday,
Speaking a day after a source said the California Democrat had told police he had a romantic relationship with Levy, lawyer Abbe Lowell refused to discuss what his client has told investigators and said Condit has satisfied their every request for information.
Condit, 53 and married, does not know what happened to the 24-year-old California woman and has no plans to quit Congress, Lowell said.
A source familiar with the investigation and speaking on condition of anonymity said Saturday that Condit, in his third interview with Washington police and the FBI, told investigators for the first time on Friday that he had a romantic relationship with Levy, who has not been seen since April 30.
Police have said Condit is not a suspect. They are investigating Levy's disappearance as a missing persons case, not a crime.
Lowell parried questions about the relationship during appearances on three talk shows and went on the offensive about coverage of the case.
"It's not important that you know the nature of the relationship. It's important that the police do, and the police have what they need to see if it helps them find Chandra Levy," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
"What he told the police about what his relationships were with her or anybody else is not the news," Lowell said on CNN's "Late Edition." "You're making it the news. It's not helping find Chandra Levy."
Lowell contended the media focus has obscured the search and invaded the Condit family's privacy.
"He's a public figure who still believes that a public figure can have a private life," Lowell told CNN.
Condit has given police "every shred of information" they have sought, has not received any subpoenas and has no more meetings scheduled with investigators, Lowell said. Should authorities want something else, "We'll find the means to get the information into the hands of the police," he said.
Lowell said disclosing anything the lawmaker has provided investigators could make it harder to find Levy, whose Modesto, Calif., home is in Condit's district.
"I think being a little bit more cautious as to feeding this media frenzy is something that the congressman has tried to do," the lawyer said on CNN. "People don't quite get it. That why we are here trying to explain."
The lawmaker "doesn't have a particular idea one way or the other" about what has happened to Levy, Lowell said.
Lowell was asked if he had any reason to believe Condit, who was elected to Congress in 1989, would not complete his term or run again.
"I have no reason to think that's on his brain, radar screen, purview, constellation," Lowell said on ABC's "This Week." On CNN, Lowell added that he thinks Condit's constituents "would like him to serve, and he wants to continue."
Once the investigation is over, Lowell said, "I'm sure the congressman will talk to his constituents in a way that makes sense."
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West Nile Found In Florida
A dead crow found in a backyard in Florida has tested positive for West Nile virus, marking the virus' first appearance in the state.
The Florida Times Union first reported the finding today. The dead crow was found about a month ago in a backyard near Monticello, Florida, east of Tallahassee. A resident found the bird and reported it to a testing program Florida officials set up after the virus infected residents in New York, according to the Times Union.
"We have one crow that was detected and confirmed yesterday afternoon by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and our department of Health Lab in Tampa identified the virus," said Lisa Conti, a Florida State Public Health veterinarian.
West Nile has infected 82 people and killed nine in the New York area over the past two summers. The disease causes inflammation of the brain.
Mosquitoes spread the virus by eating the blood of infected birds, which circulate the virus in their system.
"To date, this is the only indication that we've had that West Nile is in our state," Conti said.
Symptoms of the virus include headache, fever, fatigue, dizziness, weakness and confusion.
People cannot spread the virus to each other. Mosquitoes spread the virus by ingesting the blood of infected birds, which circulate the virus in their system.
No Florida residents are known to be infected, officials said, but the discovery comes at the height of the state's mosquito season, according to the Associated Press.
Dr. Steven Wiersma, acting state epidemiologist, told the Associated Press that West Nile may pose a threat to Floridians.
"All the human cases of this disease have been located in New York and New Jersey, yet the virus has been found in several other states," Wiersma told AP. "I think we all anticipate it will move through the entire state."
West Nile is believed to have originated in Africa and has been identified in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland outside of Washington, D.C., besides New York.
Most Feel Flu-Like Symptoms
The elderly are most at risk of the illness.
Healthy people generally feel mild flu-like symptoms, or none at all, when bitten by an infected mosquito. Researchers estimate only one in 100 West Nile infections causes symptoms, according to AP.
"The best protection is personal protection," Conti said. "People need to take precautions to keep safe. They have measures to try to reduce mosquitoes in their areas."
Some of those measures include:
Avoiding outdoor activities between dusk and dawn, when mosquitoes are most likely to feed on blood.
Wearing shoes, socks, long pants and long-sleeved shirts if you are outdoors during that time.
Eliminating stagnant water in birdbaths and other places where mosquitoes might breed.
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Shark Attack at Florida Beach
An 8-year-old boy remains in critical condition after surgeons worked through the night to reattach his arm, which was bitten off during a shark attack in Pensacola, Florida yesterday.
Officials say the attack happened around 8:30 p.m. as the boy swam at the Gulf Islands National Seashore with his aunt and uncle.
A park service official said the boy's uncle dove into the water and pulled the boy and the 250-pound, six and a half foot shark to the shore. The uncle then wrestled the shark on the beach where a park ranger shot it three times in the head.
The child was airlifted to the hospital. Shortly after, his arm, which was pulled from the shark, was rushed by ambulance to the hospital where surgeons reattached it. A park ranger pried the shark's mouth open with a police baton and a lifeguard pulled out the limb with forceps.
Doctors spoke at a news conference today and said that it was too soon to know whether the child suffered neurological damage due to severe blood loss.
"Amazingly this was a clean cut," said Dr. Ian Rogers, a plastic surgeon who participated in the operation.
"Shark bites you don't anticipate will be clean cuts and this was surprisingly good and surprisingly clean."
The boy's parents declined to comment and did not want to identify him or themselves.
Officials say they believe that visibility may have played a part in the attack. Sharks have poor vision and when its dark or the water is murky they have a hard time distinguishing what is a threat and what isn't.
Shark experts say shark attacks on humans are rare, but bull sharks, the species that attacked the boy, are one of the most aggressive sharks and are responsible for some of the most serious injuries because of the way their jaws are constructed.
There were 79 recorded shark attacks worldwide last year, with nearly half taking place in Florida. Only ten of those attacks were fatal.
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Two People Stabbed in Race Riots
A fresh explosion of racial violence flared early this morning in the northern English city of Branford, where at least two men were stabbed, 120 police were injured and 36 people were arrested.
The violence erupted after police banned a rally by the white supremacist group National Front. Witnesses say the fighting broke out between groups of whites and South Asian youths, and that riot police that intervened were pelted with bricks and gasoline bombs, damaging several pubs and shops in the city center.
Police believed lives were at risk as hundreds of officers battled around 1,000 youths of Bangladeshi and Pakistani origin who threw petrol bombs and missiles and stabbed a police horse during the violence that began on Saturday.
"Police officers have come under attack from groups of youths with bricks, baseball bats, hammers and petrol bombs. More than 80 officers have been injured, two police horses have been injured, one of them has been stabbed," police Chief Superintendent Stuart Hyde of the West Yorkshire Police told reporters.
"There is damage to cars, to a public house, to shops and other premises. What we are seeing is wanton violence which is putting lives at risk. There are large groups of young men intent on disorder."
Joyriders drove cars into police lines, some rioters pushed burning cars and shopping trolleys towards the police as firecrackers and other missiles bounced off their riot shields.
A man who said he was a relative of Bradford said he did not recognize the rioters and suspected many were troublemakers from elsewhere.
"They're not from here," the Bradford resident said. "They're from out of town, you know. We live in this area here and we we you know we'd be stupid to destroy our own area."
Bradford is 30 miles from the town of Oldham, another depressed area that was the scene at the end of May of Britain's worst race riots for a decade.
The government had banned political marches in Bradford this week, hoping to prevent more race riots.
The troubles in the northern cities follow relatively strong June national election performances by candidates belonging to another far-right group, the British National Party, which calls for repatriation of non-white ethnic minorities.
Residents not involved in the violence seek answers to end the tension.
Michael Taylor, a 23-year-old travel agent, said the town centre was like a war zone.
"You've never seen anything like it in your life, I'm sickened and appalled by what I've seen tonight, so are my Asian friends," he said.
"We need to ask questions," said another witness to the violence in Branford. "[Like] where the police information came from, why did the police not check the pubs in the city to identify trouble causers and ask the police what are they doing."
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