Mild economic data gave Wall Street a moderate gain today as stocks survived a round of profit-taking ahead of the Labor Department’s June employment report. A favourable court ruling for Altria Group Inc lifted the Dow Jones industrials.

The Florida Supreme Court today rejected a €113.6bn punitive damages award against tobacco companies for injuring smokers, saying it was excessive.

Their hopes fading and legal options exhausted, Terri Schiavo’s parents appeared quietly resigned to watching her die, but could claim one Easter victory: The severely brain-damaged woman received a drop of communion wine on her tongue – her only sustenance in nine days – after her husband allowed her to receive the sacrament.

A WRENCHING dispute over the fate of Terri Schiavo neared its end yesterday as the brain-damaged Florida woman moved closer to death and her parents gave up their long and bitter legal battle to prolong her life.

Terri Schiavo’s parents asked supporters to return home to spend Easter Sunday with their families as the couple’s severely brain-damaged daughter went a ninth day without food or water.

The US Supreme Court refused today to reinstate a Florida law passed to keep a severely brain-damaged woman hooked to a feeding tube, clearing the way for it to be removed.

THE Florida Supreme Court yesterday struck down a law that was rushed through the legislature last fall to keep a severely brain-damaged woman hooked up to a feeding tube against her husband’s wishes.

SIX days after Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube was removed at the request of her husband, a hospital began again pumping fluids into the brain-damaged woman on orders from Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

A sex fiend who wants to be executed had his wish thwarted at the eleventh hour last night while officials probed a claim that another prison inmate had carried out a murder he was on death row for.

A HOSPITAL has begun giving fluids to a brain-damaged woman, six days after her feeding tube was removed in one of America’s longest and most bitter right-to-die battles.

A JUDGE postponed debate on Wednesday night over whether a guardian should be appointed for the six-month-old foetus of a mentally disabled rape victim, in a case that has attracted the involvement of Governor Jeb Bush and pro-choice activists.

Sobbing that ‘‘there’s no sense in keeping me alive’’, one of the first known female serial killers in the United States won a court victory in Florida in her bid to sack her lawyers and hasten her execution.