The 35-year-old rapper and hip-hop icon -- real name Calvin Broadus -- had been due to attend the MTV Australian Video Music Awards this weekend.

But Snoop failed the character test required to enter Australia and his visa was cancelled, Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said.

"He has a whole string of convictions and just two weeks ago he was convicted of a number of charges again, sentenced to three years jail, two on another, with five years probation and a suspended sentence," Andrews said.

"He has been denied entry into the United Kingdom because he was caught with others causing affray at Heathrow Airport," the minister told Australian radio.

"He doesn't seem the sort of bloke we want in this country."

Andrews said Snoop's reputed gang ties were also taken into consideration.

"This man has been a member of a Los Angeles gang -- and is still associated with it apparently -- that's been involved in murder, robberies and drug dealing in the LA area," he said.

Australia, a former penal colony which was largely populated by criminals in the early days of European settlement, has adopted tough immigration controls under conservative Prime Minister John Howard.

article from www.yahoo.com

The federal lawsuit seeks unspecified damages on behalf of six band members, including bassist Alan Longmuir and drummer Derek Longmuir, the brothers who started the group in Edinburgh in 1967.

The band says in the lawsuit, filed Tuesday, that Arista owes it royalties on millions of dollars. That was money generated by selling albums, compact discs, multimedia licenses and merchandise, along with rights to commercials, movies and even telephone ring tones.

The band says in the lawsuit that Arista has taken the position that it has held royalties from the band members until it receives clear instructions from them as to how the money should be distributed.

The lawsuit says a payment of $254,392 in September 1997 was the only one made to the band, well short of the millions of dollars the band believes it is owed.

"Arista's claim over the last 25 years that it does not know who to pay is and always has been a pretext intended to deprive the Rollers of the royalties to which they are entitled," the lawsuit says.

A telephone message left with a lawyer for Arista was not immediately returned Tuesday.

The band, first known as the Saxons, sought a less English-sounding name and found it after throwing a dart that landed on a map near Bay City, Mich., the lawsuit says.

In the United States, the group scored a No. 1 hit with "Saturday Night" and rose high on the charts with "Money Honey," "You Made Me Believe in Magic" and "I Only Want to Be With You" before breaking up in 1981.