Republican US senator to resign Saturday

A Republican US senator arrested in a police sex sting in an airport men's bathroom will resign from the Senate amid a furor over his arrest and guilty plea, Republican officials said Friday. Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig will hold a news conference at 10:30 a.m. MDT (1630 GMT) Saturday and say that he will resign effective Sept. 30, three state Republican officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Word of the resignation came five days after the disclosure that Craig had pleaded guilty to a reduced misdemeanor charge arising out of his June 11 arrest during a lewd-conduct investigation at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The three-term Republican senator had maintained that he did nothing wrong except for making the guilty plea without consulting a lawyer. But he found almost no support among Republicans in his home state or Washington.