LA Times News

LA Times News

8 Americans killed in Egypt bus crash

Posted: 27 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

The tourists were headed to the Abu Simbel tombs near Aswan, southern Egypt, when their tour bus hit a parked truck. At least 23 are injured.

A tour bus heading to an archaeological site in southern Egypt crashed Sunday, killing eight Americans, Egyptian and American officials said.

Afghanistan denounces deadly NATO-led raid

Posted: 26 Dec 2010 03:48 PM PST

The nighttime incident, which killed two guards, violated an agreement to clear such operations in advance, the government says. NATO says it was responding to a 'credible threat.'

The government of President Hamid Karzai on Sunday denounced a NATO-led night raid on a compound in Kabul that killed two men, accusing Western forces of violating agreements governing security in the Afghan capital.

Pakistan's blasphemy law seen as tool of oppression

Posted: 27 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

In a country with countless ethnicities and religious minorities, the 1980s law against insulting Islam is used to settle scores, critics say. The case of a Christian woman sentenced to death has led to renewed calls for its repeal.

Muslim cleric Muhammad Salim isn't worried that a court or Pakistan's president might spare a Christian woman from this village who has been sentenced to death on blasphemy charges.

Indians in tears over skyrocketing onion prices

Posted: 27 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

Neighbor Pakistan steps in with emergency shipments as a shortage causes prices of the humble staple to more than double. Politicians scramble to contain the damage.

There is much that divides India and its traditional rival Pakistan: families long separated by partition, divided Kashmir, fear of a fourth war between the nuclear adversaries. But when it comes to the Great Onion Crisis of 2010, grateful India has found a friend across the border.

Egypt bus crash kills 8 American tourists

Posted: 26 Dec 2010 03:54 AM PST

A bus accident in southern Egypt on Sunday left eight American tourists dead and 21 injured, the official MENA news agency reported.

Burmese music is fading out

Posted: 26 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

Listeners turn to foreign genres, rejecting folk songs often associated with the military regime. A school, though, is scrambling to save what's left of a rich tradition.

U Tin cut his teeth as a musician playing Burmese folk songs for silent movies, which in this time warp of a country remained popular well into the 1950s.

Suicide bomber kills 45 in Pakistan

Posted: 26 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

An assailant wearing a burka strikes at a food aid center in the tribal region of Bajaur, near the border with Afghanistan. The attack comes as Pakistani troops clash with militants in nearby areas.

A suicide bomber dressed in an all-enveloping burka struck at a crowded food distribution center in Pakistan's volatile tribal region Saturday, killing at least 45 people and injuring more than 60, officials said.