USA
Desperate to keep the life of their daughter, Terri Schiavo, from slipping away, Bob and Mary Schindler said they'd appeal to the Supreme Court to restore the feeding tube that has kept her alive for more than a decade. Although the high court has limited experience in handling so-called right-to-die cases, the Schindlers hope it will hear their appeal after two federal courts rejected attempts Tuesday to overturn Florida state court rulings in the long-running dispute. Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband, insists she told him she never wanted to be kept alive artificially, as she has been since 1990. By court order, her feeding tube was removed last Friday. Doctors have said that Schiavo, who's in a "vegetative state," could survive a week or two without food or water.
President Bush was to begin a three-country summit in Texas with Mexican leader Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. During their discussions, which will be held in both in Waco and at Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch, the three are expected to sign an agreement aimed at improving the security and economies of their countries. On the security front, a joint task force has advocated creation of an "outer security perimeter" that would coordinate visa and asylum regulations and set up a "marine defense command" to protect North American ports.
Red Lake High School in northern Minnesota remained closed Wednesday as officials assessed the need to counsel students after the nation's worst school shooting rampage in six years. "Come back to school, and we'll get through this together," principal Chris Dunshee said about coping with the horrors of Monday, when 16-year-old Jeff Weise stormed the Indian reservation school, killing seven and wounding seven others before apparently fatally shooting himself. Authorities, who are searching for a motive, were attempting to verify reports that Weise, who preferred to dress in black and who wrote stories about zombies, posted messages on a neo-Nazi website.
Hoping to transform Mississippi's low-achieving educational reputation, Jim Barksdale, the former chief executive officer of Netscape, said Tuesday he would reward some students up to $10,000 each for graduating from high school and college. Before establishing the program, state lawmakers would have to agree to three conditions, all of them related to spending more money on the public schools.
As it had previously done six times since June, the Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate Tuesday another quarter-point to 2.75 percent. The interest rate is what banks charge each other. Hiking it is a way to offset inflation pressures, which the Fed says are rising. Soaring energy prices, analysts worry, could stoke broader inflation.