LA Times News

LA Times News

Some Shiites express alarm over cleric Sadr's return to Iraq

Posted: 10 Jan 2011 12:00 AM PST

A number worry that the firebrand cleric will once again spark violent confrontations and question whether he has really changed.

Even as supporters of firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr rejoiced at his return to Iraq, some in the country's Shiite Muslim majority population expressed alarm Sunday about the implications of his homecoming.

U.S. urges continued pressure on Iran

Posted: 09 Jan 2011 05:50 PM PST

Visiting Persian Gulf states, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says revised estimates of Iran's ability to build a bomb should not mean easing sanctions and other efforts.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday that there is growing evidence that Iran has suffered a setback in its suspected nuclear weapons program, but insisted that world powers must continuing tightening their economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

South Africa's dancing stallions keep a tradition alive

Posted: 10 Jan 2011 12:00 AM PST

The famed Lipizzaners continue to charm audiences with their ballerina-like grace, though the equestrian center, the only foreign one affiliated with Vienna's Spanish Riding School, has hit hard times in recent years.

When they retired the small, impossibly beautiful stallion named Favory Merlin, he went off his food. He grew thin, and his glossy white coat became dull.

Palestinian-American fights to buy Jerusalem housing project

Posted: 10 Jan 2011 12:00 AM PST

The West Bank native offers to purchase a debt-burdened company that has been building the units, but right-wing Jewish groups have vowed to kill the deal.

A wealthy Palestinian-American businessman is fighting to take over a troubled real estate firm that builds Jewish-only housing units in Arab-dominated East Jerusalem, but right-wing Jewish groups have vowed to kill the deal.

Southern Sudan votes on secession

Posted: 10 Jan 2011 12:00 AM PST

In a land marked by destitution, ethnic hate and a long history of civil war, the mostly Christian and animist voters of the south are expected overwhelmingly to favor seceding from the predominantly Muslim north.

They walked in their best clothes past villages and down dirt roads until they came to the church to fold away the pain of war and redraw the map of Africa in a referendum that began Sunday on independence for southern Sudan.

Loud noise rattles vigil at Gabrielle Giffords HQ

Posted: 08 Jan 2011 07:29 PM PST

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A loud noise rattled more than 100 people attending a candle light vigil on Saturday near the headquarters of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, where authorities were investigating a suspicious package hours after she was wounded in a shooting rampage in Tucson.

U.S. denies Iranian report of American's arrest

Posted: 09 Jan 2011 12:00 AM PST

An Iranian security official says a woman he describes as an American spy has been arrested, but the U.S. State Department denies that the woman is in Iranian custody.

Confusion continued to surround the fate of a woman described as an American spy Saturday by a high-ranking Iranian security official who said she had been arrested. The U.S. State Department, however, denied the woman was in Iranian custody.

Defense Secretary warns China over stealth fighter

Posted: 09 Jan 2011 12:00 AM PST

Gates, headed to Beijing for talks, voices hope that the U.S. will be able to persuade Chinese military leaders to cut back on their pursuit of advanced weaponry.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates warned Saturday that China's development of advanced missiles and a new stealth fighter could endanger U.S. naval and air forces, and he said the Pentagon would "respond appropriately."

Residents of Colombia oil patch complain boom is passing them by

Posted: 09 Jan 2011 12:00 AM PST

Every day, 150 crude-laden semitrailer trucks grind over a town's dirt road, raising dust and spewing oil. A rancher and his neighbors want a paved road to mitigate noise and environmental damage.

Weather-beaten rancher Leonardo Bautista brings to mind the character in a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel who waited years in vain for a pension. Only Bautista is waiting for a new road, or any other benefit to filter down to those who live at ground zero of Colombia's oil boom.