The lawyer for Terri Schiavo’s husband says he’s confident the long-awaited autopsy report on the brain-damaged woman will show no evidence she was abused before she lapsed into a persistent vegetative state.

Terri Schiavo’s body was cremated yesterday as disagreements continued between her husband and her parents, who were unable to have their own independent expert observe her autopsy.

PROTESTERS were gone yesterday from the hospice where Terri Schiavo died, but the feud between her parents and husband raged, with the families planning separate funerals.

TERRI SCHIAVO, the severely brain-damaged Florida woman who spent 15 years connected to a feeding tube in an epic legal and medical battle that went all the way to the White House and Congress, died yesterday.

A FEDERAL appeals court agreed to consider an emergency bid by Terri Schiavo’s parents for a new hearing on whether to reconnect her feeding tube, raising their fading hopes of keeping the severely brain-damaged woman alive.

THE husband of brain-damaged Florida woman Terri Schiavo has ordered an autopsy after she dies to silence allegations his plan to cremate her body is aimed at hiding something, his lawyer said yesterday.

An autopsy will be performed after Terri Schiavo dies to show the extent of her brain damage, her husband’s lawyer said.

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.

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.

A US government appeals court panel refused to order the reinsertion of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube, hours after her father said she was weakening and down “to her last hours”.

AS Terri Schiavo’s health waned, a judge yesterday refused to order the reinsertion of her feeding tube, thwarting another legal move from the brain-damaged woman’s parents.

A judge today refused to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube, yet another setback for the parents of the brain-damaged woman in their battle against her husband to keep her alive.

As Terri Schiavo’s health waned, her parents pressed on today to restore the brain-damaged woman’s feeding tube after the nation’s highest court and judges in Florida defeated their latest legal appeals.

A seven-year legal battle was drawing to a tragic end for the parents of Terri Schiavo tonight, as last ditch efforts to have her feeding tube re-inserted were blocked yet again by the courts.

FOR the second time in less than a day, a federal appeals court yesterday rejected a bid by Terri Schiavo’s parents to have her feeding tube re-inserted.

Their options dwindling after losing two consecutive court appeals, Terri Schiavo’s parents vowed today to take their fight to the US Supreme Court as their brain-damaged daughter was in her fifth full day without a feeding tube.

A US federal appeals court in Atlanta today refused to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube, denying an emergency request by the severely brain-damaged woman’s parents.

A lawyer for the husband of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman at the centre of a life-or-death legal battle, says he expects a court ruling today.

A US federal judge yesterday refused to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube, denying an emergency request from the brain-damaged woman’s parents.

A US judge has reserved his decision on the fate of a brain-damaged woman at the centre of an extraordinary political battle.

A US federal judge weighed the fate of a brain-damaged Florida woman yesterday, acting hours after the US Congress and President George W Bush intervened to push the highly charged right-to-die case back into court.

THE husband of a brain-damaged American woman at the centre of a bitter right-to-life battle plans to argue in court next week that Governor Jeb Bush’s order that led to her feeding tube being reinserted is unconstitutional.

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.