Florida

Judge extends stay on removing feeding tube

A judge Wednesday extended an order keeping brain-damaged Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube in place, saying he needed time to decide whether her parents should be allowed to pursue further efforts to keep her husband from removing her life support.

In Clearwater, State Circuit Court Judge George Greer extended until 5 p.m. Friday an emergency stay that was to expire Wednesday afternoon. He said he needs to decide whether her parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, can have more time to determine whether she has greater mental capabilities than previously thought.

The Schindlers also are seeking to have her husband, Michael Schiavo, removed as her legal guardian.

Terri Schiavo’s parents have been in a long, bitter struggle with Michael Schiavo, to keep her alive. She collapsed 15 years ago Friday, when a chemical imbalance caused her heart to stop beating and cut off oxygen to her brain.

Washington, D.C.

Author says he regrets publishing Bush tapes

An old friend of President Bush who secretly recorded their private conversations and released them to the media said he has regrets and is turning the tapes over to Bush.

Doug Wead allowed journalists to hear and broadcast the tapes in the past week as he promoted his new book on presidential parents. But he said he canceled plans to be on “Hardball” on MSNBC Tuesday night to talk about his regrets because “it would only add to the distraction I have caused to the president’s important and historic work.”

On the tapes, recorded over the course of the two years before Bush became the Republican presidential nominee, Bush discusses strategy for his presidential run and appears to acknowledge past drug use. He says he will refuse to answer questions about using LSD, cocaine and marijuana because “I don’t want any kid doing what I tried to do 30 years ago.”

The White House said Bush did not dispute the content of the tapes.

Washington, D.C.

U.S. arrests suspect in Honduras massacre

A reputed gang leader suspected of masterminding a bus massacre in Honduras that killed 28 people was arrested this month in Texas, U.S. and Honduran officials said Wednesday.

Authorities described the man, Ever Anibal Rivera Paz, known as “El Culiche” — The Tapeworm — as the leader of the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, gang in Honduras.

The violent Central American gang has members in the United States, and U.S. officials are concerned that they might help sneak al-Qaida terrorists into the country.

Rivera Paz was arrested Feb. 10 by the Texas highway patrol about 100 miles north of the U.S.-Mexican border. He was turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol for processing.

Rivera Paz, 26, had been under arrest on charges of masterminding the massacre of bus passengers in San Pedro Sula, about 125 miles north of the Honduras capital, Tegucigalpa, last Dec. 23. He escaped from a prison near the capital on Jan. 23