The Associated Press

Entergy New Orleans says its workers are trying to restore electrical service to several thousand customers in the city.

Entergy spokeswoman Charlotte Cavell said the cause of Friday's power outages wasn't immediately known.

Between 10,000 and 12,000 customers in New Orleans lost power. Entergy estimates most of the outages will be restored by 9 p.m.

New Orleans Police have found a body in Lake Pontchartrain near the University of New Orleans campus.

Shortly before 11 a.m. Thursday authorities received reports that a body had been found in the water.

Witnesses told The Times-Picayune that the body was found floating face-up in the water and bystanders were crying as it was pulled out of the water.

Authorities have not identified the body to determine whether it is that of 21-year-old Ksanwy Chavez, who went missing Tuesday after trying to rescue a friend.

A five-judge state appeal court panel must decide whether to uphold a ruling that thousands of New Orleans public school employees were wrongfully fired after Hurricane Katrina shut down the city and its schools in 2005.

A lawyer for the fired workers told the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal panel Thursday that the Orleans Parish School Board and the state violated the rights of teachers and school workers fired after the storm. She urged the panel to uphold last year's ruling by Judge Ethel Simms Julien.

Anthony Davis scored 20 points, Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson added 17 apiece and the New Orleans Hornets handed the Phoenix Suns their franchise-record seventh consecutive home loss, 95-92 on Sunday night.

Luis Scola scored 17 for the Suns, losers of a season-worst nine straight overall and 15 of their last 17. Markieff Morris and Jared Dudley scored 15 apiece for Phoenix.

Greivis Vasquez scored 25 points and Ryan Anderson added 23 to lead the New Orleans Hornets to a 112-92 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday night.

Anthony Davis had 17 points and 10 rebounds, Brian Roberts scored 15 and Eric Gordon 14 for the Hornets, who snapped a two-game losing streak, including a blowout loss to Miami on Friday. Davis' double-double was his 17th, tops among NBA rookies.

A former BP engineer charged with deleting text messages about the company's response to the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico faces new allegations that he also deleted voicemails from his phone.

A superseding indictment handed up Wednesday by a federal grand jury in New Orleans accuses Kurt Mix of deleting about 40 voicemails from a supervisor and roughly 15 voicemails from a BP contractor.

An Iberia Parish lawmaker again is seeking to put term limits on all statewide elected officials, after voters overwhelmingly supported such limits for school boards.

Republican Rep. Simone Champagne has filed the proposal to limit statewide elected officials to three consecutive four-year terms. Lawmakers will consider the measure in the legislative session that begins in April.

The New Orleans Inspector General's Office has issued a report critical of the way the Orleans Parish coroner has paid some of its employees and independent contractors.

However, the report also commends Coroner Frank Minyard for seeking the review of the practices. And it notes that Minyard has been taking steps to improve the way such payments are made.

The Army Corps of Engineers has approved the third and final phase of the St. Charles west bank hurricane levee, which means all three phases of the levee project have corps approval to move toward construction.

At the St. Charles Parish Council meeting on Monday night, Parish President V.J. St. Pierre said the Corps of Engineers approved a permit green-lighting the design and construction of Phase III Ellington, the last permit necessary to authorize the project. The other two phases had already been approved.

The FBI says a former minister wanted in Kansas City, Mo., on molestation charges has been arrested in New Orleans.

Spokeswoman Mary Beth Romig said Monday that 48-year-old George Spencer is accused of child molestation and forcible sodomy against a girl at the Greater Works CME Church, where he was an associate pastor.

She says he was arrested Friday by the FBI New Orleans' Violent Crime Task Force, which got information about his likely whereabouts from the bureau's Missouri office.