LA Times News

LA Times News

China is loath to condemn North Korea

Posted: 24 Nov 2010 05:31 PM PST

But the U.S. presses Beijing to use its influence in the wake of Pyongyang's attack on Yeonpyeong island.

The Obama administration on Wednesday urged China to use its influence with largely isolated North Korea to help control tensions in the region after an artillery attack that killed four South Koreans and wounded at least 18 on a Yellow Sea island.

U.S.-Russia: A side meeting, and then a breakthrough

Posted: 25 Nov 2010 12:00 AM PST

Nobody was expecting much from a meeting between Obama and Russian President Medvedev at a small Asian summit, but it set the ball rolling for Russia to join a NATO missile shield plan.

As he flew to Yokohama, Japan, this month, President Obama was on the way to the sleeper event of the fall, a peripheral get-together almost entirely overlooked amid a battery of colossal global summits.

Longtime Seoul residents respond to island attack with a shrug

Posted: 24 Nov 2010 01:15 PM PST

Visitors and foreigners are worried, but after decades of threats from North Korea, locals call it 'life as usual.'

Kalyn Taylor was on a sightseeing trip with her in-laws at Seoul Tower, a tourist hot spot with a panoramic view of South Korea's capital, when she saw the television images showing billowing smoke and licking flames from North Korea's attack on a South Korean island.

Mexico drug gang leader arrested

Posted: 24 Nov 2010 02:27 PM PST

The arrest of Carlos Montemayor marks a fresh blow against the remnants of the once-formidable Beltran Leyva gang, battered by arrests, deaths and vicious internal fighting.

Mexican authorities Wednesday announced they had arrested the new leader of the drug gang formerly run by suspected kingpin Edgar "La Barbie" Valdez Villarreal.

'Final' Afghan election results announced

Posted: 24 Nov 2010 02:29 PM PST

But quarrels over the outcome of the vote for parliament are likely to remain a chief feature of the country's political landscape in the weeks or months to come, further blurring a clouded picture.

Afghanistan's main electoral body Wednesday released what were billed as the final results of September's trouble-plagued parliamentary election. But as is so often the case here, "final" does not mean "finished."

As South Korean death toll rises, U.S. scrambles to limit hostilities

Posted: 24 Nov 2010 10:05 AM PST

The South Korean government announces that two civilians were killed when North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong island. Washington and allies begin trying to round up support for a U.N. Security Council statement that would condemn North Korea for the attack, which also killed two soldiers. The U.S. hopes to enlist China's aid.

As Seoul threatened retaliation for North Korea's deadly shelling of a South Korean island, U.S. officials scrambled Tuesday to avert any catastrophic escalation of hostilities after one of the most serious confrontations on the Korean peninsula in decades.

Afghanistan releases 'final' election results

Posted: 24 Nov 2010 02:34 AM PST

Results for Ghazni province are withheld because a fair tally is considered impossible. Protests break out over the disqualification of some candidates.

Afghanistan's main electoral body on Wednesday released what were billed as the final results of September's trouble-plagued parliamentary election. But as with so many things here, final doesn't mean over with.

Second blast at New Zealand mine; all 29 believed dead

Posted: 23 Nov 2010 08:37 PM PST

All 29 workers missing underground in a New Zealand coal mine are believed to have died after a second explosion, police said.