Israel’s Sharon gets feeding tube

Doctors inserted a feeding tube in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s stomach on Wednesday, according to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital, where he is being treated for a massive stroke.

Sharon, 77, has been in a coma since he suffered a stroke on Jan. 4 and the stomach procedure was further evidence that he is likely to be incapacitated for a long time.

Long-term care specialists and a U.S. authority on comatose patients have examined Sharon in recent days. Experts say his chances of regaining consciousness or a meaningful level of activity are slim.

Washington

Police apologize to Sheehan

Capitol Police dropped a charge of unlawful conduct against anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan on Wednesday and apologized for ejecting her and a congressman’s wife from President Bush’s State of the Union address for wearing T-shirts with war messages.

“The officers made a good faith, but mistaken effort to enforce an old unwritten interpretation of the prohibitions about demonstrating in the Capitol,” Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said in a statement.

“The policy and procedures were too vague,” he added. “The failure to adequately prepare the officers is mine.”

The extraordinary statement came a day after police removed Sheehan and Beverly Young, wife of Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young, R-Fla., from the visitors gallery Tuesday night. Sheehan was taken away in handcuffs before Bush’s arrival at the Capitol and charged with a misdemeanor, while Young left the gallery and therefore was not arrested, Gainer said.

“Neither guest should have been confronted about the expressive T-shirts,” Gainer’s statement said.

McAllen, Texas

Indictments issued in Rita deaths

A tour company and its owner were charged Wednesday with conspiracy and other crimes in the deaths of 23 nursing home residents whose bus caught fire as they fled Hurricane Rita.

Global Limo Inc. and James H. Maples were accused in a federal indictment of conspiring to falsify driver time records and failing to inspect the company’s fleet to make sure its buses were safe. Maples, 65, was arrested and released on a $75,000 unsecured bond. He was not required to enter a plea.

The bus caught fire Sept. 23 on a freeway near Dallas while carrying evacuees from a Houston nursing home as Rita churned in the Gulf of Mexico.

Washington

Evangelicals split on warming issue

The National Association of Evangelicals said Wednesday that it has been unable to reach a consensus on global climate change and will not take a stand on the issue, disappointing environmentalists who had hoped that evangelical Christians would prod the Bush administration to soften its position on global warming.

Over the past four years a growing number of evangelical groups have embraced environmental causes, urging Christians to engage in “Creation care” and campaigning against gas-guzzling SUVs with advertisements asking, “What would Jesus drive?”

In October 2004 the leadership of the NAE declared that mankind has “a sacred responsibility to steward the earth and not a license to abuse the creation of which we are a part.” At about the same time, the umbrella group’s president, the Rev. Ted Haggard of Colorado Springs called the environment “a values issue.”

But this fledgling movement has also met internal resistance. In a letter to Haggard last month, more than 20 evangelical leaders urged the NAE not to adopt “any official position” on global climate change because “Bible-believing evangelicals … disagree about the cause, severity and solutions to the global warming issue.”