From staff and wire reports

                  MIAMI -- The U.S. government will meet its 9:30 a.m. EDT Friday deadline to
                  respond to a temporary court order blocking the removal of 6-year-old Elian
                  Gonzalez from the country, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department has
                  confirmed.

                  Carol Florman said the deadline would be met to respond to the temporary stay
                  issued Thursday by U.S. Judge J.L. Edmondson of the 11th Circuit Court of
                  Appeals in Atlanta

                  Florman said she believes the motion by Elian's Miami relatives is on a "fast-track" for action by
                  the appeals court and Justice officials have hinted that the case could end up at the U.S. Supreme
                  Court with the losing side seeking an emergency injunction.

                  Meanwhile, the issue of where Elian Gonzalez should eventually live appeared to distance father
                  and son, after a video was released which shows the 6-year-old telling his father, Juan Miguel
                  Gonzalez, that he does not want to go back to Cuba.

                  INS now has legal custody of Elian

                  The federal court stay came shortly after the boy's Miami relatives on Thursday afternoon
                  defied the Justice Department's order to hand Elian over to federal officials.

                  However, late Thursday, the Justice Department said that the Immigration and Naturalization
                  Service now has legal custody of Elian even though he remains in the home of his great-
                  uncle.

                  When parole in the care of Lazaro Gonzalez was revoked Thursday at 2 p.m. EDT, legal custody
                  reverted to the INS. "At the appropriate time, we will transfer it to the father," an INS official said.

                  The temporary stay order issued by Judge Edmondson applies not only to federal
                  immigration officials but to the boy himself and to "any and all persons acting for, on behalf of, or in
                  concert with Elian Gonzalez," the order states.

                  The order has to be confirmed or rejected by a three-judge panel that will meet to consider it,
                  perhaps as early as Friday.

                  That same court is considering a petition from Elian's Miami relatives for an injunction blocking
                  any government attempt to take the boy away from his U.S. relatives until the family's appeal --
                  arguing that Elian should be given an asylum hearing -- is settled.

                  Earlier, the Justice Department, at the court's request, agreed not to remove Elian from the
                  Little Havana home of his Miami relatives until the court rules on the U.S. relatives' petition for an
                  injunction.

                  Florman said the ruling renders the earlier agreement moot, meaning federal authorities
                  could now take custody of Elian if directed to do so.

                  But she indicated such action is not likely before the three- judge panel rules.

                  Deadline passes; Elian stays in Miami

                  Elian's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez defied the 2 p.m. Thursday deadline from the
                  Justice Department to surrender Elian at the Opa-locka Airport near Miami so the
                  boy could be taken to his father.

                  Lazaro met with some of the thousands of his supporters outside his home,
                  shaking hands like a politician at a campaign stop. His daughter, Marisleysis,
                  gave protesters cups of water.

                  Shortly after the deadline passed, 200 Miami-Dade police officers who had taken
                  up positions to guard the general aviation airport disbanded.

                  About two hours before the deadline, Attorney General Janet Reno had said
                  defiance by Elian's U.S. relatives would be met in a "reasonable, measured way."

                  "We have the authority to take action," Reno said. "But responsible authority
                  means not only being able to take action, but knowing when and how to take that
                  action."

                  After Reno and the relatives failed Wednesday to reach a handover agreement,
                  the attorney general ordered them to deliver Elian to the airport or to turn over
                  the boy to federal officials at their home for delivery to his father, who is in the
                  Washington area.

                  Reno has returned to Washington.

                  Miami kin lose state court fight

                  In a separate development, a Florida family court judge rejected the Miami
                  relatives' request filed earlier this week to intercede and prevent the INS from
                  taking the boy. Judge Jennifer Bailey said she had no jurisdiction.

                 In Washington, U.S. President Bill Clinton said he supported Reno's position.
                 "This case is about the rule of law," Clinton said. "It is our responsibility to
                  uphold the law."

                  Reno, who has met Elian, said that no matter how the case turns out, she would like the
                  opportunity to see him again.

                 "I would like to see the day ... where I can meet Elian, wherever he is, and sit down
                 and talk to him, not about the tragedy and trauma that he has been through, but about
                 himself and what his interests are," Reno said. "He is obviously a wonderful little boy."

                  'I don't want to go to Cuba'

                  The home video released by the U.S. relatives shows Elian addressing his father
                  in Spanish, saying: "Dad, I do not want to go to Cuba. If you like, stay here. But
                  I do not want to go to Cuba."

                  Sitting on a bed, Elian holds up an index finger, as if to make a point.

                  It is not clear who was in the room with Elian or if he was being coached on
                  what to say. The Miami relatives said the tape was made after the collapse of
                  Reno's talks with the family and that the words were his own.

                  Also Thursday, Gregory Craig, the U.S. lawyer for Juan, told reporters that his
                  client is having "to live the nightmare that he most dreaded."

                  Craig said, "While waiting here for his son to be returned to him, he has been
                  forced to watch Elian exploited by those who have him in their care. On the
                  morning shows on national television, in the streets of Miami and now most
                  recently in a videotape taken of Elian in his own bedroom."

                  Craig said the U.S. relatives have "emotionally damaged and exploited this most
                  wonderful little boy."

                  Craig accused Lazaro of breaking the law by defying the handover deadline, and
                  the lawyer insisted that the attorney general enforce the law.

                  Juan, who arrived in the United States a week ago to get his son and return him
                  to Cuba, has been staying at the home of a Cuban diplomat in the Washington
                  suburb of Bethesda, Maryland.

                  Father says he got $2 million offer

                  Juan said on Thursday he has been offered $2 million, a house, car and job
                  to remain in the United States and not return to Cuba, a former U.S. senator
                  told reporters outside the suburban house.

                  Dennis DeConcini, former Democratic senator from Arizona, paid a visit to
                  Elian's father and said he asked Juan Gonzalez if he had been offered money
                  to remain in the United States. "He said, 'Yeah, a couple million.'"

                  "He said he was offered by the great-uncle down there -- he left me with
                  the impression that the money came from other sources, besides the uncle --
                  and that it would be a house and a car and a job and $2 million if he would
                  stay here in the United States."

                  Asked by reporters how the father was able to turn down such an offer,
                  DeConcini said, "He said, 'I have only one objective, and that is my son.
                  There is no price for my son.'"

                  "He said, 'I have no reason that I would want to leave Cuba. I love Cuba, my
                  family is there, I have a job there,'" said DeConcini, who works with the Alliance
                  for a Responsible Cuba, an organization pushing for the easing of sanctions
                  against Communist Cuba.

                  DeConcini said he was convinced the father was speaking from his heart and
                  deeply wants to be reunited with his son after more than four months apart.

                  'We will not turn this child over'

                  Lazaro has defiantly insisted that he would not relinquish custody of the boy he
                  has cared for since Elian's mother drowned off the Florida coast more than four
                  months ago.

                  "We will not turn this child over, not in Opa-locka, not in any 'locka,'" he said in
                  Spanish after Wednesday night's 2 1/2-hour meeting with Reno and INS Director
                  Doris Meissner. "They will have to take this child from me by force."

                  Moments later, however, Manny Diaz, an attorney for the family, took a less
                  defiant tone, saying, "If there is a legal mandate, they will follow the law."

                  Family spokesman Armando Gutierrez said that if authorities show up, "Lazaro
                  will open the door and say, 'Come on in.'"

                  First, though, they would have to get past protesters who threaten to link arms
                  and form a human chain around the house, using passive resistance in an attempt
                  to block any attempts to remove Elian.

                  Gutierrez said the family will allow a TV pool camera inside the home to record
                  the arrival of plainclothes U.S. marshals and INS agents should they come to the
                  house.

                  "We want to prove to the world this family will not defy authorities," the
                  spokesman said.

                  Reno's meeting Wednesday with Lazaro, his daughter, Marisleysis, and other
                  relatives -- including Elian -- was held at the gated Miami Beach home of Sister
                  Jeanne O'Laughlin, the nun who was host of a January meeting between Elian
                  and his grandmothers from Cuba.

                  O'Laughlin told CNN that Lazaro won't take the boy to a transfer point because
                  he feels it would be a betrayal of a child who already lost his mother and now
                  stands to be separated from Marisleysis, the 21-year-old cousin who regards
                  herself as a mother figure to Elian.

                  O'Laughlin, who had been neutral in the case but now sides with the Miami
                  relatives, also said Elian "is afraid to see his father and that has been said (under
                  circumstances that indicate) we know it was not coached."

                  But it was not clear if that meant Elian feared physical harm or just that he didn't
                  want to be separated from the Miami relatives.

                  O'Laughlin said Elian is petrified of travel, thinking it means he'll have to get on a
                  raft and ride on water. The child spent 50 hours floating on an inner tube off the
                  Florida coast before his rescue last November.

                  "He knows that something very serious is happening and when he hears about
                  anything that looks like he might have to go away, he becomes very sad,"
                  O'Laughlin said.

                  Elian was rescued by two fishermen while clinging to an inner tube in the
                  Atlantic Ocean on Thanksgiving Day. His mother and 10 other people fleeing
                  Cuba drowned when their boat sank. Elian was one of three survivors.

                  Since then, his Miami relatives have been caring for him while fighting in court
                  for Elian to have an asylum hearing. The Clinton administration has ordered Elian
                  back to his Cuban father, saying only Juan can speak for the boy on immigration
                  matters.

                  A federal judge affirmed that decision and the family has appealed.