LA Times News

LA Times News

Young Egyptians mount unusual challenge to Mubarak

Posted: 27 Jan 2011 05:49 PM PST

A Facebook-fueled youth movement has called for more protest, challenging a government that says it won't tolerate it. Security forces have blocked activists' Twitter accounts but not their anger.

Draped in a scarf and smoking a water pipe, Ahmed Maher sat in an outdoor cafe, looking too relaxed to be an often-jailed dissident and the leader of a youth movement that has shaken the Egyptian government by rallying thousands of protesters into the streets this week.

Obama overrated India's progress, analysts say

Posted: 27 Jan 2011 07:42 PM PST

Some in India say they're living in a country nowhere near as accomplished as President Obama says. Chronic poverty, government bureaucracy and education problems persist despite high-tech gains, they say.

During his State of the Union address this week, President Obama urged Americans to reboot the country's struggling economy through innovation, education, a streamlined government and a can-do spirit, citing impressive achievements in India and China.

Guerrero election kicks off weighty Mexico political year

Posted: 27 Jan 2011 07:42 PM PST

The balloting Sunday in Guerrero, which except for Acapulco is an impoverished rural state, kicks off elections in six states across Mexico that will set the tone for the 2012 presidential campaign.

A bouncy Madonna tune thumps from loudspeakers on a campaign truck, an incongruous anthem for a political race draped in tension.

U.S. debates how to respond to Arab world turmoil

Posted: 27 Jan 2011 05:23 PM PST

Obama administration officials hold differing views on how far these governments should go in granting concessions to demonstrators who may prefer regime change to gradual improvements, officials say.

With demonstrations intensifying across the Mideast, Obama administration officials are debating how quickly to push Arab allies toward reforms that could stabilize their governments — or usher in new leaders less friendly to the United States.

In Yemen, tens of thousands march against president

Posted: 27 Jan 2011 06:41 PM PST

Demonstrators angry over unemployment and oppression under President Ali Abdullah Saleh demand political change. The unrest worries the U.S., which has been working with the government to defeat an Al Qaeda offshoot.

The current unrest in the Middle East spread to impoverished Yemen on Thursday as tens of thousands of protesters angry over unemployment and political oppression marched in the capital against President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Tunisia names 12 new ministers to Cabinet

Posted: 27 Jan 2011 04:44 PM PST

Tunisian Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, who served under ousted President Zine el Abidine ben Ali, is among the few to keep their jobs. Public pressure forced the removal of ministers with ties to the former regime.

Facing mounting public pressure and the demands of a powerful labor union, Tunisia's interim government named 12 new ministers to the Cabinet late Thursday and removed those with ties to ousted authoritarian President Zine el Abidine ben Ali.

U.S. consulate employee shoots dead 2 armed men in Pakistan, police say

Posted: 27 Jan 2011 02:43 PM PST

The U.S. employee in Lahore says he fired when two men approached on a motorcycle, one of them brandishing a pistol. A bystander is killed by another consulate vehicle arriving at the scene. The shooting could spark an anti-U.S. backlash.

An employee of the U.S. consulate in Lahore shot and killed two armed Pakistani men on a motorcycle Thursday in what the employee told police was an act of self-defense after the men approached his car and one of them brandished a pistol, authorities said.

Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei returns to Egypt

Posted: 27 Jan 2011 05:45 PM PST

ElBaradei, the former head of the U.N. nuclear agency, now leads a group seeking constitutional reforms. His return could further energize protests against President Hosni Mubarak.

Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who formerly headed the U.N. nuclear regulatory agency, has returned to Egypt in a move expected to increase political pressure on President Hosni Mubarak as a new wave of nationwide protests are called for Friday.

Iraq car bombing kills 48

Posted: 27 Jan 2011 10:11 AM PST

The explosion targets a funeral tent in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad and at least 121 are wounded. Nearly 200 people have died in a series of bombings targeting both Shiites and Sunnis in the last 10 days.

At least 48 people were killed Thursday when a car bomb exploded next to a funeral tent in a Shiite Muslim neighborhood of Baghdad, police said, as a fresh wave of violence continued in Iraq.

Car bomb at funeral tent kills dozens in Iraq

Posted: 27 Jan 2011 05:15 AM PST

It's the deadliest in a series of attacks that leaves at least 40 dead.

A car bomb ripped through a funeral tent in a mainly Shiite area of Baghdad on Thursday, the deadliest in a series of attacks that killed at least 40 people.

Tens of thousands demonstrate for ouster of Yemen's president

Posted: 27 Jan 2011 05:37 AM PST

The protests led by opposition members and youth activists are a significant expansion of the regional unrest sparked by the Tunisian uprising.

The unrest in the Middle East spread to impoverished Yemen on Thursday as tens of thousands of protesters angry over unemployment and political oppression marched through the capital against President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

U.S. missionary fatally wounded in Mexico

Posted: 26 Jan 2011 10:24 PM PST

A U.S. missionary died at a southern Texas hospital Wednesday after her husband rushed her, mortally wounded, over the Rio Grande from Mexico.