LA Times News

LA Times News

U.S. now in Afghanistan as long as Soviets were

Posted: 27 Nov 2010 12:00 AM PST

The last Red Army troops left in 1989, driven out after nine years and 50 days by U.S.-backed fighters known as mujahedin. Despite contrasts, the U.S. and Soviet wars have common narrative elements.

As wartime days go, Friday was a fairly quiet one in Afghanistan. Helicopters skittered across the sky; convoys rumbled along desert roads; soldiers in mountain outposts scanned the jagged peaks around them.

Change in Egypt may lie with ruling party

Posted: 26 Nov 2010 02:45 PM PST

It is in the ruling party, not in street protests, that power plays lie. The parliamentary election campaigns have highlighted the split between the party's old guard and the rising business elite.

This ancient city of congenial smiles is cranky.

As the rest of the world turns, Mexico's eyes are riveted on a wedding

Posted: 26 Nov 2010 02:42 PM PST

The marriage of Enrique Pena Nieto, governor of Mexico state and potentially the country's next president, to soap opera star Angelica Rivera is Topic No. 1.

If it were a soap opera (and it sure feels like one), Saturday's big event would be the pull-out-the-stops season finale. The script calls for wedding bells.

Federal offficials find another drug-smuggling tunnel

Posted: 25 Nov 2010 09:36 PM PST

Greece on tough economic path

Posted: 27 Nov 2010 12:00 AM PST

The IMF's mission chief in Greece, Poul Thomsen, sees much to be optimistic about as Athens makes painful budget cuts and takes fiscal measures to rein in debt and climb out of recession.

The International Monetary Fund and the European Union six months ago patched together a $146-billion bailout package for Greece, which was on the verge of bankruptcy while struggling with its worst recession in years.

North Korea's artillery, rhetoric keep tensions high

Posted: 26 Nov 2010 05:28 PM PST

Explosions from training drills in North Korea send residents of Yeonpyeong Island scurrying for cover. North Korea issues threats amid tension over joint U.S.-South Korea war games beginning Sunday.

The distant rumble of artillery practice in North Korea sent shell-shocked residents of Yeonpyeong Island scurrying to their bomb shelters Friday as a U.S. aircraft carrier cruised toward the region for military exercises this weekend.

North Korea warns region is on brink of war

Posted: 26 Nov 2010 06:50 AM PST

North Korea warned Friday that U.S.-South Korean plans for military maneuvers put the peninsula on the brink of war, and appeared to launch its own artillery drills within sight of an island it showered with a deadly barrage this week.

Teenagers adrift in Pacific for 50 days reach land

Posted: 26 Nov 2010 04:00 AM PST

The boys tell rescuers they survived on rainwater, coconuts, raw fish and a seagull that landed on their boat.

Three teenage boys who spent 50 days adrift in a tiny boat in the South Pacific walked ashore on shaky legs Friday after their chance rescue -- celebrated on their home island hundreds of miles away as a miracle that brought them back from the dead.