NATIONAL BRIEFS

WASHINGTON: Condit rebuffs Chandra questions

Former congressman Gary Condit repeatedly refused Monday to say whether he had an "intimate" relationship with Chandra Levy but insisted he had nothing to do with her murder. In an extended courtroom confrontation, he acknowledged that he used to talk with her "a few times a week." He added that "she came by the apartment a few times." Condit appeared on the fifth day of testimony during the trial of Salvadoran immigrant Ingmar Guandique, accused of killing Levy on May 1, 2001, during an attempted sexual assault in Rock Creek Park. Since losing his House seat in 2002, Condit, 62, has largely laid low, save for an occasional defamation lawsuit against tabloid newspapers.

TEXAS: Opening statements in DeLay trial

Prosecutors said in opening statements Monday that Tom DeLay took part in a scheme to illegally channel $190,000 in corporate money into Texas legislative races. DeLay's attorneys countered in the former U.S. House majority leader's money laundering trial in Austin that no corporate money was given to Texas candidates and that the only thing the once-powerful but polarizing ex-lawmaker is guilty of is being a good politician.

PENNSYLVANIA: Woman guilty in bank bomb plot

A woman was convicted Monday of participating in a bizarre plot in which a pizza delivery driver was forced to rob a bank wearing a metal bomb collar that exploded, killing him. The jury convicted Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, 61, of Erie, of armed robbery, conspiracy and using a destructive device in a crime of violence for her role in the plot that killed Brian Wells, 46. She faces a mandatory life sentence. It was the final piece of the puzzle in a complicated plot. Wells walked into a PNC bank on Aug. 28, 2003, with a metal collar bomb locked onto his neck. He walked out with $8,702 but was stopped by police, who waited for a bomb squad. The bomb exploded, killing Wells. Prosecutors revealed later that they believed the crime had been plotted by five people.

Charge: Stealing ill son's drugs

A mother visiting her terminally ill son has been accused of injecting herself with his drugs. Authorities say Karen Remsing, 42, was visiting her 15-year-old son at UPMC's Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh when she unhooked his intravenous line, siphoned out a sedative using a syringe and injected herself with it. The Vancouver, Wash., resident was charged with child endangerment, theft, criminal mischief and other counts.