(NNPA) - As oil from a massive spill caused by an oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico continued to pour into Louisiana's ecologically rich wetlands, elected officials and experts wondered about the long-term ecological and economic effects the accident will have on the state and its inhabitants.

(NNPA) - A fourth former New Orleans police officer has pleaded guilty to helping cover up deadly police shootings of unarmed residents after Hurricane Katrina. Robert Barrios faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Nashville police chief Ronal Serpas will return to his native New Orleans to take over the city's scandal-plagued police department, becoming the department's first white chief since the early 1980s.

In Pakistan on Thursday, security officials said U.S. law enforcement officers have joined them in questioning four alleged members of the militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammad, which has been linked to the 2002 killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, over possible links to New York car bomb suspect, Faisal Shahzad.

COVINGTON, Louisiana (AP) -- The leader of a Ku Klux Klan group pleaded guilty Wednesday to killing a woman -- an erratic recruit who a witness said yelled "I want out" the day after her initiation into the White supremacist group.

PHOENIX (AP) - The Rev. Al Sharpton, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and Hispanic leaders will led a Wednesday evening march to the Arizona State Capitol in a protest against the state's new law targeting illegal immigration.

Extra help is on the way for family members who give up their jobs to become caregivers for severely wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, courtesy of a bill signed Wednesday by President Barack Obama.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Liberals fear that after they helped elect President Barack Obama he'll abandon them when he nominates a Supreme Court justice, choosing a consensus-building moderate rather than a liberal in the mold of retiring Justice John Paul Stevens.

Oumou Wague has been braiding hair in her Chicago shop for more than a decade, carrying on a tradition passed down for generations in her native Senegal. To braiders, her talent for weaving women's hair into elaborate styles isn't just a livelihood, it's an art form. But in the eyes of state regulators, it's also illegal.