LA Times News

LA Times News

Haitians violently protest announced election results

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

Protesters throw rocks and Molotov cocktails, burn down buildings and paralyze the capital, alleging the government of President Rene Preval stole the election for his party's favorite, Jude Celestin.

Cholera now throughout Haiti, U.S. says

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

A cholera outbreak that has sickened more than 91,000 people and killed more than 2,000 has spread to all of the island nation and into the neighboring Dominican Republic, the CDC says.

A cholera outbreak in Haiti that has sickened more than 91,000 people and killed more than 2,000 has spread to all of the Caribbean nation and into the neighboring Dominican Republic, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. Nearly half of the ill were hospitalized.

U.S. bans contractor from further aid programs

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 06:14 PM PST

The U.S. bans an American firm from being awarded new federal contracts due to evidence of 'serious corporate misconduct' uncovered in an investigation of its work in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The U.S. government Wednesday took the unusual step of banning an American firm from being awarded new federal contracts due to evidence of "serious corporate misconduct" uncovered in an investigation of the company's work on aid programs in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

WikiLeaks dispute sparks cyber wars

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 05:02 PM PST

A group called Anonymous temporarily disables the websites of Visa and MasterCard after they said they would no longer handle donations to WikiLeaks. A rival 'patriotic' hacker, the Jester, fights back.

A worldwide dispute over WikiLeaks' release of classified information raged online Wednesday like a tale from a comic book: The Jester battled a hacker network calling itself Anonymous that claimed responsibility for taking down the websites of several major corporations.

Gates says troop infusion is making a difference in Afghanistan

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

Despite receiving sobering updates on Taliban resistance in the south and a potent insurgency in the east, the Defense secretary says progress 'has exceeded my expectations.'

After two days in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said he was convinced the massive infusion of American troops over the last year is turning around the 9-year-old war, even as U.S. soldiers remain locked in a grinding fight to control many parts of the country.

Mitchell will proceed with Mideast talks despite breakdown

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

The U.S. peace envoy plans to head back to the region despite the decision to give up efforts to halt Jewish settlement construction.

— U.S. Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell will head back to the region next week after Obama administration officials vowed Wednesday to continue the push for peace despite a breakdown in direct negotiations.

India rocked by mobile license scandal

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

The telecom minister is forced to resign over charges that he took bribes to rig the auction of mobile phone licenses in 2008. Leaked tapes of phone calls suggest widespread corruption in government and the growing influence of corporate lobbyists.

While the world frets over the WikiLeaks revelations, India is far more interested in Raja, Radia and Dutt. They are major players in a series of homegrown leaks that hint at widespread and corrosive corruption involving government, big business and the news media.

After decades, German Turks still feel like outsiders

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

As an anti-immigrant mood rises in the country, even second-generation German Turks say that years of trying to fit in have not paid off. Some are looking for opportunities in Turkey.

Eleven years of trying to fit in have yet to pay off for Yazay Eminaga.

Mullen rebukes China for failing to curb North Korea

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 05:58 AM PST

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says in Seoul that Beijing's inaction gives tacit approval to its ally's aggression.

The most senior U.S. military official delivered a sharp rebuke to China on Wednesday, blaming Asia's top power for failing to rein in its North Korean ally in the escalating dispute over the fate of the Korean peninsula.

Fire kills 81 at prison in Chile

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 05:04 AM PST

A fire broke out at a prison in the Chilean capital early Wednesday, killing 81 inmates and injuring many more, including a firefighter, prison officials said, in the worst-ever accident in the country's jail system.

U.S. dropping demand that Israel freeze settlement building, official says

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

U.S. negotiators no longer believe such a move is the best way to advance peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the official says. The three parties are to meet next week.

The Obama administration is dropping its demand that Israel reimpose a temporary freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank, a U.S. official said Tuesday, a setback for President Obama and the Mideast peace talks he is seeking to push forward.