News

MARKSVILLE, La. A state lawmaker faces a simple battery charge after an altercation at a casino earlier this month.

PROVIDENCE - Voters are one step closer to deciding whether Rhode Island should have a casino to compete with those in neighboring Connecticut.

AFP - Britain's Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott gave up his grace-and-favour country estate, saying his free use of the posh pad had become a matter of controversy and criticism.

Reuters - World powers meet on Thursday to
finalize incentives for Iran to halt nuclear activity that
could help make bombs, an overture given new political muscle
by a U.S. offer to talk to Tehran, Western leaders said.

MARKSVILLE, La. - A state lawmaker faces a simple battery charge after an altercation at a casino early last month, authorities said. State Rep. Mickey Frith, D-Abbeville, on May 7 visited Paragon Casino and Resort, which is owned by the Tunica-Biloxi Indians in Marksville.

Reuters - Two Darfur rebel groups refused on
Thursday to sign a peace deal ahead of a deadline set by the
African Union to end the three-year-old conflict that has
killed tens of thousands in Sudan's remote west.

A SCOTTISH councillor is to be investigated by the Standards Commission for failing to declare an alleged conflict of interest before voting on a casino’s licence applications.

AFP - The United States, in a major policy shift, offered Wednesday to join talks on Iran's nuclear program in an apparent deal to win Russian and Chinese backing for UN sanctions against Tehran if needed.

AFP - President George W. Bush said he was "troubled" by allegations that US Marines killed unarmed civilians in Haditha, Iraq, and vowed that if crimes were committed, the guilty would be punished.

Reuters - Iran's official news agency IRNA said on
Thursday that an offer by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice to join European nations in talks with Iran if it suspends
uranium enrichment was a "propaganda move."

It’s looking like voters will see a question on this Fall’s ballot about a proposed casino in West Warwick. The Senate takes the issue up Thursday. Jim Hummel reports.

Reuters - New York State's highest court
started hearing a case on Wednesday that gay rights activists
hope will overturn as unconstitutional a state law defining
marriage as the union of a man and a woman.