LA Times News

LA Times News

Senate vote on nuclear treaty may be defining moment for Obama

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

President Obama could build on a New START victory as he turns to other foreign policy challenges. Failure might be regarded abroad as confirmation that the administration is too weak to put its stamp on world affairs.

The upcoming Senate vote on a U.S.- Russia nuclear arms treaty may turn out to be a defining moment for the Obama administration's foreign policy.

Kidnapped Mexican politician released after seven months

Posted: 20 Dec 2010 03:58 PM PST

Wealthy lawyer and former presidential candidate Diego Fernandez de Cevallos, who appears healthy, declines to talk about his ordeal in detail.

Onetime Mexican presidential candidate Diego Fernandez de Cevallos was freed Monday, seven months after being kidnapped from his ranch in a stunning strike at an icon of the country's rich and powerful.

North Korea does 'not feel any need to retaliate'

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

South Korea's live-fire military exercises were 'not worth reacting' to, Pyongyang says. The U.S. says that response is in line with normal international behavior.

Despite days of provocative language, North Korea on Monday said it would not retaliate against South Korea's live-fire military exercises, saying the drills were "not worth reacting" to.

In Argentina, a death breathes political life into president

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

If ex-President Nestor Kirchner's death shattered the political plans of Argentina's most powerful duo, it also spurred support that could resuscitate the fortunes of his wife, the current president.

This is a nation in mourning.

Acclaimed Iranian filmmaker sentenced to six years in prison

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

Jafar Panahi is also barred from making films for 20 years, his lawyer says. He was accused of making an unauthorized movie about the protest movement in Iran.

A celebrated Iranian filmmaker and opposition supporter has been sentenced to six years in prison and barred from making films or participating in political activity for two decades, his lawyer said Monday.

12 terrorism suspects arrested in Britain

Posted: 20 Dec 2010 03:45 PM PST

A Scotland Yard official declines to give details of any alleged terrorist plot but says the arrests 'were absolutely necessary in order to keep the public safe.'

Police in Britain arrested 12 men Monday in early-morning raids that they said were necessary to head off a potential terrorist attack.

West hasn't adequately armed Afghan forces, Karzai spokesman says

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

The remarks come in the wake of the deaths of 14 Afghan soldiers and security force members. The spokesman also said the West's military effort needs to focus more on developing Afghanistan.

A day after 14 Afghan police officers and soldiers were killed in a pair of attacks by insurgents, President Hamid Karzai's spokesman said Monday that the West has not provided Afghan security forces with adequate weaponry.

South Korea conducts artillery drills; North Korea says it won't retaliate

Posted: 20 Dec 2010 07:38 AM PST

Residents of the tiny island of Yeonpyeong waited anxiously to see if North Korea would carry out its threat to resume shelling. But the North said the exercises were not worth reacting to.

South Korea on Monday conducted an hourlong live-fire artillery drill on an island at the center of recent tensions on the Korean peninsula, but North Korea, which had pledged to attack the South if the exercises took place, later said that it would not retaliate. The exercises, the North said, were not worth reacting to.

British police arrest 12 in suspected terror plot

Posted: 20 Dec 2010 08:38 AM PST

The arrests, which follow several weeks of surveillance, are the most high-profile antiterror raids in Britain since April 2009.

British police on Monday arrested a dozen men suspected of plotting a large-scale terror attack -- the biggest anti-terrorist sweep since April 2009, when 12 men were detained over an alleged al-Qaida bomb plot in the northern city of Manchester.