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(Photo: AP file)
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Arizona jail officials say polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs is eating normally and no longer needs to be force-fed through a tube.
Mohave County sheriff's spokeswoman Trish Carter says a feeding tube that had provided Jeffs with liquid nutrition for about a week was removed on Friday. She says Jeffs has resumed eating regular meals and is taking vitamins.
Jail officials began force-feeding Jeffs on July 31 after a period of self-imposed fasting left his health at risk and a doctor said she feared he could die. Jeffs' fasts are part of the way he practices his religion.
Head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Jeffs is in the Kingman jail awaiting trials on criminal charges related to alleged underage marriages of sect girls.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
