LA Times News

LA Times News

Disappearances up the ante in Tahrir Square

Posted: 04 Feb 2011 07:55 PM PST

Even before the uprising in Egypt, secret detentions by police were common. Anti-Mubarak protesters know that if they lose, they are marked men and women.

He was almost too shaken by sobs to speak, this thin-shouldered man with missing teeth. Finally he was able to choke out the words: "I am afraid my son is dead."

In Cairo, trudging to the work of revolution

Posted: 04 Feb 2011 07:54 PM PST

Anti-Mubarak Egyptians pour in to Tahrir Square determined to do their own small part — forever, they say, if necessary.

Emad Mohammed's morning commute these days is a five-mile trudge through the streets at dawn.

Pakistan to trim large Cabinet

Posted: 04 Feb 2011 08:01 PM PST

The ruling Pakistan People's Party says it will unveil a new, smaller Cabinet within a few days in response to pressure from those who say its size is an impediment to economic reforms.

Pakistan's ruling party Friday authorized a sweeping overhaul of the country's Cabinet that probably will mean a marked reduction in the number of ministers, a response to critics who have called the bloated government's size an impediment to economic reform.

France rocked by news of aid to Tunisia and Egypt

Posted: 04 Feb 2011 05:35 PM PST

France trained Egyptian police officers in crowd control and sent tear gas to Tunis. And its foreign minister vacationed in Tunisia after the uprising, using the jet of a man linked to the ousted president.

As French officials continue to grapple with the fallout of their African foreign policy, they have been rocked by new disclosures about aid to security forces in Tunisia and Egypt, and calls for the foreign minister's resignation over her holiday in Tunisia during the uprising there.

'Thanks to the young people ... we are free'

Posted: 04 Feb 2011 05:04 PM PST

A town near Cairo, Kerdasa, revels in a newfound freedom from the hated police, though witnesses say five people were killed in the protests. Residents take responsibility for their own security.

Even the elders of this small Egyptian city in the shadow of the great pyramids of Giza could not remember weekly prayers like this one.

Iran's supreme leader calls uprisings an 'Islamic awakening'

Posted: 04 Feb 2011 03:36 PM PST

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says the upheaval in the region is a defeat for the U.S., and a 'liberating Islamic movement.' But Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood rejects his statement, calling it the 'Egyptian people's revolution.'

Iran's supreme leader called for the end of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's rule, saying Friday that the political upheaval in the Arab world was part of an "irreversible defeat" for the United States and an "Islamic awakening" in the Middle East.

Israel is popular stop for possible Republican presidential candidates

Posted: 04 Feb 2011 02:59 PM PST

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is the third potential GOP presidential contender to travel to Israel this year, following on the heels of Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney. The trips provide an opportunity to beef up foreign-policy credentials and woo Jewish voters in the U.S.

Though the U.S. presidential primaries are still a year from now, a different sort of contest is underway in Israel.

Obama urges Egypt to go into transition process 'right now'

Posted: 04 Feb 2011 01:35 PM PST

President Obama, taking his first questions from the press on Egypt, stops short of urging President Hosni Mubarak to step down but says the Cairo government must undertake 'an orderly transition process, right now.'

President Obama on Friday stopped short of urging President Hosni Mubarak to step down from power but made it clear that suppression and violence would not be effective in dealing with Egypt's ongoing protests.

Mubarak's power grows more in doubt

Posted: 04 Feb 2011 05:27 PM PST

Some of the Egyptian president's key allies make symbolic appearances with his opponents in Cairo's Tahrir Square. The Obama administration presses opposition leaders to join in transition talks.

The pressure on Hosni Mubarak to release his 30-year grip on Egypt escalated on a day when some of his key allies appeared at a largely peaceful anti-government rally and the Obama administration leaned on opposition leaders to join negotiations to discuss proposals to strip the president of power.

Egyptian throngs have a word for Mubarak: 'Leave!'

Posted: 04 Feb 2011 05:13 AM PST

Thousands turn out after Friday prayers to rally in Tahrir Square on the day demonstrators had designated as the president's departure deadline. A robust military presence guards against violence.

Thousands of anti-government demonstrators rallied in the capital's center demanding their president step down after days of protest and violence that have shaken the Arab world.

Haiti officials exclude ruling party candidate from runoff

Posted: 03 Feb 2011 04:46 PM PST

Former First Lady Mirlande Manigat will face singer Michel Martelly instead of technocrat Jude Celestin in the second round of presidential balloting.

Facing international pressure, Haiti's electoral council Thursday dropped the ruling party candidate from the presidential runoff, a move expected to ease tensions generated by the disputed first round of voting in November.

Tens of thousands turn out for rival rallies in Yemen

Posted: 03 Feb 2011 06:07 PM PST

Anti-government protesters in Sana are met with a competing rally across town by the president's supporters, who get logistical support from the army.

Large competing rallies for and against the longtime leader of Yemen unfolded Thursday without incident in one of the Arab world's poorest, most volatile and violent nations.

Egypt government supporters attack foreign journalists

Posted: 03 Feb 2011 04:50 PM PST

News groups around the world say their reporters have been beaten up or detained in Cairo. The U.S. condemns 'a concerted campaign' of intimidation.

Loyalists of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak attacked foreign journalists Thursday, drawing Washington's censure and international rights groups' accusations that the beatings and detentions were desperate moves by a teetering regime trying to cling to power.

American students in Egypt get a crash course in politics, unrest and revolution

Posted: 03 Feb 2011 11:05 PM PST

Many of the roughly 1,000 U.S. students enrolled in programs in Egypt have fled the country since anti-government protests broke out last week. But others have chosen to stay.

UCLA senior Layesanna Maria Rivera had been at her school's archaeological dig in central Egypt for only three weeks when regional police told organizers that Rivera and the 10 other students there would have to leave.