National and State News-Thursday, April 26th

BAGHDAD (AP) - At least ten Iraqi soldiers have been killed in a suicide car bomb attack at a checkpoint in a province north of Baghdad. It's the same province where nine American soldiers were killed Monday. Sunni militants are believed to have flocked there because of the ongoing security surge in Baghdad.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush promises to veto war-funding legislation expected to get a final congressional nod in the Senate today. The measure includes the first timetable for withdrawal. A veto would coincide with the fourth anniversary of Bush's Iraq "victory" speech delivered on the deck of an aircraft carrier.

BAGHDAD (AP) - The commander of a military police unit at the main U-S prison camp outside Baghdad has been arrested and charged with a number of offenses including aiding the enemy. Charges against Army Lieutenant Colonel William Steele include providing an unmonitored cell phone to detainees and fraternizing with a detainee's daughter.

BEIJING (AP) - China says it has banned melamine from food products after it was found in protein shipped to the U-S. China denies that's what poisoned pet food but the Food and Drug
Administration suspects otherwise. China says it's cooperating in an investigation.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The man behind the "Girls Gone Wild" videos is in more legal trouble. Joe Francis is charged with misdemeanor sexual battery for allegedly groping an 18-year-old woman. Francis was indicted earlier in Nevada on federal tax-evasion charges.

NEW CASTLE, Pa. (AP) - A preliminary hearing is scheduled today for a New Castle man charged in the death of a woman whose body was found dumped in a parking lot. Lawrence County authorities charged 44-year-old Gaylord Spell after D-N-A tests tied him to blood and
semen found on the body of 40-year-old Sueann Brest.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Trial is under way for three men accused of gunning down a Carrick High School student outside the Allegheny County school two years ago. A prosecutor told jurors yesterday that Jheri Matthews, Howard Kelley and Shawn Wilmer pulled up next to a car carrying 17-year-old Keith Watts Junior and fired a gun at him on March 16th, 2005. Watts was killed.

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) - A Philadelphia man on trial in Williamsport has denied shooting another man two years ago in a car on a city street. Twenty-four-year-old Jonathan Mitchell is charged with shooting 28-year-old Idreis Jones, also of Philadelphia, on May 24th, 2005. According to a police report, Jones was one of several men who assaulted Mitchell in Philadelphia in 2000.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - People in the Harrisburg area who ride Capital Area Transit will be paying higher fares July first. The base fare will go up a dime to one dollar, 60 cents -- and the
increases could be even bigger if the state does not increase its allocation to the agency.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The state Supreme Court has denied a plea by the city of Philadelphia to modify its order stopping a casino referendum. A lawyer for the city says the way things stand, even if the city prevails, there won't be time to get the question on the May 15th ballot. That's because the election must be advertised once a week in the three weeks preceding the primary.