Padilla hearing postponed a week

Former "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla returned to court Friday, but a judge agreed to postpone hearing his plea and deciding whether he should be granted bail.

Padilla's lawyers asked for the delay, saying they needed more time to sort through the complex case. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Garber set a new hearing for Thursday.

Padilla, 35, is accused of being part of a North American terrorism-support cell seeking to provide money, material and fighters for violent Islamic extremists around the world.

Padilla was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in May 2002 and held without criminal charges on suspicion of plotting to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" inside the United States.

Battered city starts Mardi Gras party

The first Carnival season since Hurricane Katrina officially began in New Orleans on Friday, despite objections from people who say it is too soon to throw a Mardi Gras party in the battered city.

Mayor Ray Nagin said the decision to proceed with Mardi Gras, although with an abbreviated parade schedule, would send a message that the city was unified in its determination to rebuild. Carnival season officially begins 12 days after Christmas and culminates on Fat Tuesday, Feb. 28.

Also Friday, the Interstate 10 bridge over Lake Pontchartrain that was torn apart by Katrina reopened fully to traffic.

Archdiocese agent, 3 others indicted

A top purchasing agent for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York was indicted along with his wife and two others on federal charges of pocketing $2 million while buying food, from lettuce to pancakes.

The indictment said the four marked up prices by up to 138 percent on the items for more than 1,000 churches, schools and other institutions, and required numerous vendors to pay money, supposedly as commissions, on their orders.

Vincent Heintz was general manager of Institutional Commodity Service from 1992 until March 2004, said the indictment, handed up Thursday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Also named as defendants were Heintz's wife, Nanette Melera, the food-service director; and Joseph DeRusso and Michael J. O'Shaughnessy, who were consultants and representatives to the service.

City pension officials face fraud charges

A federal grand jury on Friday indicted five current or former San Diego pension-fund officials on 20 counts of fraud and conspiracy.

Ron Saathoff, Terri Webster and Cathy Lexin — three former trustees on the board overseeing the city's retirement fund — were named in the indictment along with the fund's former administrator, Lawrence Grissom, and current general counsel, Loraine Chapin.

The five were accused of concealing information from fellow board members about a crucial 2002 vote that allowed San Diego to escape payments to the retirement fund and, at the same time, enhance pension benefits.

The 2002 vote and a similar move in 1996 were largely to blame for a pension deficit that has swelled to $1.37 billion.

Compiled from The Associated Press and Reuters