Venezuelans to elect 165 members of National Assembly on Sunday
 
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Opponents and supporters of President Hugo Chavez held their final rallies on Thursday ahead of legislative elections that both of Venezuela’s political camps view as a critical test. Venezuelans on Sunday will elect 165 members of the National Assembly, which has been almost entirely pro-Chavez since opposition parties boycotted the last vote in 2005 citing concerns about possible irregularities.
 
Peru thieves nab mayor’s late father’s skull before elections
 
LIMA, Peru (AP) — Foes of a small-town mayor in Peru said they have dug up the skull of his late father and won’t give it back unless he drops out of next month’s election. Police in San Cristobal said unknown thieves unearthed the remains of Juan Vizcarra Quispe, who died in 1978.
 
Texas sues Feds over $830M in education aid
 
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas officials filed a lawsuit Thursday against the U.S. Department of Education, seeking to overturn the federal agency’s rejection of the state’s application for more than $830 million in aid that has been tied up in political wrangling. A state-specific provision inserted into a federal law by a Democratic Texas congressman requires that Republican Gov. Rick Perry promise Texas will maintain certain education spending levels through 2013 in order to get the funds.
 
Nicaragua diplomatic official found dead in NYC apartment
 
NEW YORK (AP) — A Nicaraguan diplomat was found dead Thursday with his throat slashed in his blood-spattered apartment and a knife by his side, hours before he was to attend the United Nations General Assembly’s annual meeting, officials said.
Cesar Mercado, 34, who had worked at the Nicaraguan consulate as acting consul general, was found at 10:35 a.m. in his apartment in the Bronx by the driver who came to pick him up to attend the meeting, police said. The driver found the door ajar and Mercado’s body lying just inside, police said.
“The knife was found on the floor next to him,” said Paul Browne, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner for public information.
 
Pakistani sentenced to 86 years for firing at US troops
 
NEW YORK (AP) — A U.S.-trained Pakistani scientist convicted of trying to kill U.S. agents and military officers in Afghanistan was sentenced Thursday to 86 years in prison after she delivered a message of peace and forgave the judge. During a three-hour hearing in federal court in Manhattan, Aafia Siddiqui claimed she had evidence Israel was behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and warned more plots were in the works. She also tried to dispel rumors she was tortured while in New York.
 
Some still left out of recovery aid 5 years after Rita
 
CAMERON (AP) — First Baptist Church in this southwestern Louisiana town is finally celebrating its reopening, five years after the community was nearly obliterated by one of the most destructive storms in U.S. history: Hurricane Rita.
It took that long for the church’s members to raise money to repair the double dose of damage from Rita and then from Hurricane Ike in 2008.
On Saturday, they will sing a theme song they adopted in Rita’s aftermath, “Standing on the Promises.”
Like the church, some coastal communities in Rita’s path have faced a slow recovery — and many people have been left behind.
In Louisiana and Texas border towns like Cameron, the people who survived Rita sometimes feel as though their suffering became an afterthought in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
 
4 groups apply for final riverboat casino license in La.
 
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana gambling regulators received four applications Thursday for the state’s 15th and final riverboat casino license, with three companies wanting to locate in the Texas-oriented market of Lake Charles and the fourth proposing a boat near New Orleans.
The applicants include major operator Penn National Gaming Inc., which is proposing a second casino in the New Orleans suburb of Harvey, and Creative Casinos LLC, owned by former Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. chairman Daniel R. Lee, who is targeting Lake Charles.
 
Murder suspect shoots self after standoff, still in critical condition
 
LULING (AP) — St. Charles Parish sheriff’s Capt. Patrick Yoes  says a 52-year-old Luling man remains in critical condition, a day after a six-hour standoff ended with an apparent suicide attempt.
Sheriff Greg Champagne says Gary Farrell called Wednesday to tell deputies he had killed his girlfriend and left her body in a car at a hospital. Deputies soon found her body. An autopsy will decide what killed Ginger Mongrue of Luling.