LA Times News

LA Times News

Ivory Coast power struggle deepens; state TV disrupted

Posted: 24 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

The U.N. recognizes Alassane Ouattara, the challenger of incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo, as the winner of the November vote, and accepts the credentials of Ouattara's choice for ambassador.

Ivory Coast state television disappeared from the airwaves outside the nation's largest city on Thursday, a blow to the incumbent president's attempts to cling to power in the bloody aftermath of an election most of the world says he lost.

China has a lot of peacemaking to do

Posted: 23 Dec 2010 05:19 PM PST

After the Nobel mess, a row with Japan and other diplomatic missteps, Beijing is trying to mend ties with its neighbors and the West.

Now for the damage control.

France's popular holiday pate even goes down market

Posted: 23 Dec 2010 05:26 PM PST

The French may be tightening belts when it comes to buying presents, with shopkeepers bemoaning sluggish holiday sales. But their taste for the traditional and once rare delicacy is undiminished.

Christmas is coming, and the goose is getting fat; or, more precisely, its liver is piling on the pounds.

Turkey builds on regional ties

Posted: 24 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

As it takes over leadership of a regional economic bloc, analysts say Ankara's star is shining: balancing warm and commercially beneficial ties with Syria and Iran on one hand while remaining a NATO member and ally of Israel on the other.

Turkey took over the rotating leadership of a trade organization that includes Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asian states on Thursday in a post that highlights the country's increasing economic and political clout.

Iraqi city struggles to understand student's slaying

Posted: 24 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

Witnesses say a 14-year-old boy in Najaf was beaten to death by classmates who styled themselves after toughs on a popular TV show. Elders bemoan a popular culture of violence.

The 14-year-old boy, Ali, had refused to give up his stationery to the teenage bullies, witnesses said, so the youths waited for him after school. They gripped pencils, protractors and rocks. Instead of just beating him up, they allegedly proceeded to kill him as dozens of classmates watched.

2 injured in bomb blasts at Swiss, Chilean embassies in Rome

Posted: 24 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but police suspect anarchist movements. One victim is in danger of losing one, if not both, hands.

Two parcel bombs exploded inside the Swiss and Chilean embassies in Rome on Thursday, wounding two men in attacks that bore similarities to a wave of diplomatic letter bombs in Greece last month.

2 injured in blasts at 2 embassies in Rome

Posted: 23 Dec 2010 09:11 AM PST

Package bombs exploded at the Swiss and Chilean embassies in Rome on Thursday, wounding the two people who opened them, in attacks that bore similarities to bombings by anarchists in Greece last month.

Blasts at Swiss, Chile embassies in Rome, 2 wounded, all embassies alerted

Posted: 23 Dec 2010 06:41 AM PST

ROME (AP) — Rome's police chief says all embassies have been informed about a pair of package bombs that exploded at the Swiss and Chilean embassies, injuring two people who opened them.

North Korea threatens nuclear retaliation if South attacks

Posted: 23 Dec 2010 04:26 AM PST

The communist regime's anger has been piqued by South Korea's staging of live-fire drills on Yeonpyeong Island, which was shelled by the North last month.

North Korea threatened Thursday to launch a "sacred" nuclear war against South Korea if it attacks, as Seoul staged military exercises that have raised already high tensions on the peninsula.