Campbell Robertson

Five former police officers involved in the shooting deaths of unarmed people here in the days after Hurricane Katrina, a case that drew national outrage and intense scrutiny to the city’s police force, pleaded guilty in federal court on Wednesday and received significantly less prison time than they originally faced.

At least 16 people were injured, 10 of them hospitalized, after a shootout Sunday night in a park here where hundreds of people had gathered for the filming of a music video, the New Orleans Police Department said.

Facing a backlash from businesses and gay rights advocates, Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas on Wednesday urged lawmakers to rework legislation billed as a religious freedom measure to ensure that it mirrors federal law.

The Arkansas Legislature on Tuesday passed its version of a bill described by proponents as a religious freedom law, even as Indiana’s political leaders struggled to gain control over a growing backlash that has led to calls to boycott the state.

In a setback for BP as it deals with the aftermath of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a U.S. appeals court ruled Monday that the company would have to stick to its agreement and pay some gulf businesses for economic damage without their having to prove it was caused by the spill.