LA Times News

LA Times News

Mubarak's end came quickly, stunningly

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 05:20 PM PST

A generation's pent-up anger proved the president's downfall. The Egyptian leader's maneuverings as the protests swelled proved no match for youth-based dissent that spread to all corners.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak brushed off political enemies and crushed opposition voices for 30 years. But his network of oppression unraveled in a mere 18 days, the pent-up anger of a disillusioned younger generation exploding in protest, overwhelming the police state and forcing the military to push him aside.

Iranians rally to mark 1979 revolution, Egyptian uprising

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 06:08 PM PST

Thousands march in several cities as officials celebrate the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, casting them as part of a wave of anti-U.S. upheaval in the region.

Chanting anti-U.S. slogans, thousands of Iranians marched in Tehran to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution that toppled the shah — and to celebrate the Egyptian uprising that resulted in President Hosni Mubarak's ouster Friday.

Single day's death toll in Ciudad Juarez is 18

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 06:18 PM PST

The worst incident was at a bar on a low-end commercial strip in a rough neighborhood. Men with assault rifles fired on people inside, killing eight and seriously wounding three.

On an especially deadly day in Mexico's most violent city, gunmen barged into a beer joint and killed eight people, six of them waitresses.

Egypt 'outside the rules'

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 04:44 PM PST

Questions abound as the military seems to be ignoring the constitution: Will the document be amended or scrapped; will the opposition get to help in nation-building and when will elections be held?

Through the days leading up to President Hosni Mubarak's resignation, there was much hand-wringing over how to force the president to resign when only he, under the Egyptian Constitution, could preside over such crucial democracy-building steps as dissolving the parliament and reforming the political system.

Celebrations spread across Middle East

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 05:47 PM PST

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's resignation is met with joy in Lebanon, Jordan, Iran, the West Bank.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's resignation is met with joy in Lebanon, Jordan, Iran, the West Bank. Ben Can any of the regimes still holding on to power and riches by way of their massive police apparatuses hope to avoid a similar fate?

Euphoria in Cairo – 'the tyrant is gone'

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 04:41 PM PST

Tahrir Square erupts in cheers and later song and fireworks as people celebrate a hard-won victory. 'We have our dignity again,' says one. For some, a hint of melancholy creeps in at the thought of the community of protesters disbanding.

First a deafening cheer erupted and echoed to the minarets. Then protesters leaped in the air, kissed strangers, banged on barricades like steel drums, and fell to their knees in prayer. A dozen burly men saluted the Egyptian flag and sang the national anthem, tears streaming down their faces.

Julian Assange's lawyer says Sweden's prime minister has made fair hearing impossible

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 03:37 PM PST

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's comments on Julian Assange's attempts to avoid extradition have turned Assange into 'public enemy No. 1' in Sweden, a lawyer for the WikiLeaks founder says.

A lawyer for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Friday accused Sweden's prime minister of creating a "toxic atmosphere" that made a fair hearing for his client on sexual-abuse allegations impossible.

Obama says 'Egypt will never be the same,' praises protesters' nonviolence

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 01:40 PM PST

President Obama hails the demonstrators who drove Hosni Mubarak from power after three decades of repression, and compares their nonviolence to that of Gandhi and King. He cautions that difficult days may lie ahead.

WASHINGTON -- Welcoming the fall of Egypt's authoritarian regime, President Obama on Friday celebrated the protesters who succeeded in driving Hosni Mubarak from power and cast their struggle as one of the epic democratic movements in world history.

Pakistan accuses U.S. Consulate staffer of 'coldblooded murder'

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 11:58 AM PST

Police investigators rule out self-defense as a motive for Raymond Davis' shooting of two men in Lahore last month. The finding escalates a diplomatic crisis between the U.S. and an important ally.

The fatal shooting of two Pakistani men by a U.S. Consulate employee last month was "coldblooded murder" and not self-defense, police investigators said Friday, escalating a diplomatic crisis between the United States and an important ally in its fight against terrorism.

Hosni Mubarak resigns, military takes control in Egypt

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 04:36 PM PST

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak steps down and hands power to the military, Vice President Omar Suleiman announces on state TV. The announcement sparks celebrations in Cairo, Alexandria and elsewhere.

Less than 24 hours after a patronizing speech in which he insisted he wouldn't resign, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak fled his palace by helicopter and left it to his newly appointed vice president to tell the nation he had turned power over to the military.

Israeli officials: Mubarak wants honorable exit

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 04:21 AM PST

The Egyptian president 'wants to end it on his feet and not on his knees,' a former Israeli defense minister says.

Hosni Mubarak realizes he must step down and is looking for an honorable way out, a former Israeli Cabinet minister who has long known Egypt's embattled leader said Friday.

Egypt's military backs Mubarak

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 03:05 AM PST

The statement by the Armed Forces Supreme Council is a blow to protesters who had hoped for Mubarak's ouster. Crowds swell, but soldiers take no action to stop demonstrations.

Egypt's military threw its weight Friday behind President Hosni Mubarak's plan to stay in office through September elections while protesters fanned out to the presidential palace in Cairo and other key symbols of the authoritarian regime in a new push to force the leader to step down immediately.

American's fatal shooting of 2 Pakistanis was murder, police say

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 02:45 AM PST

Embassy official Raymond Davis did not act in self-defense, authorities say. His best hope now is his claim of diplomatic immunity, but that could spark unrest.

The fatal shooting of two Pakistani men by a U.S. Embassy official last month was "cold-blooded murder" and not self-defense, police investigators in Pakistan's second largest city said Friday, escalating a diplomatic crisis that threatens to rupture relations between the U.S. and a vital ally in the war on terror.

Israelis divided on how to respond to Egypt turmoil

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 01:15 PM PST

Critics say Israel's leaders have seemed unprepared to react to the likelihood of a leadership change in Egypt, whose landmark 1979 peace treaty with Israel has been a cornerstone of Israel's stability.

As Israel faces what many fear could turn into its most serious national security threat in decades, fault lines are widening over how it should respond and some critics say the government appears ill prepared.

Protesters remain wary of police, security forces

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 12:13 AM PST

The security services' pledge of a gentle approach is taken with a grain of salt by many who have experienced the oppression of Egypt's police establishment.

In the din of frantic phoning and texting that has characterized these tense days in Cairo, unusual messages arrived this week that left many Egyptians squinting at their cellphones:

Egypt awaits Hosni Mubarak address

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 09:41 AM PST

Protesters in Cairo, who have demanded Hosni Mubarak resign, are told their demands will be met. CIA Director Leon Panetta says it is assumed Hosni Mubarak will hand over power to Vice President Omar Suleiman.

President Hosni Mubarak is set to address Egypt in the next hours after an Egyptian army general spoke to the thousands of anti-Mubarak protesters gathered in Tahrir Square in Cairo, telling them that their demands would be met.

Egypt's Omar Suleiman emerges from the shadows

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 08:52 PM PST

Suleiman, a loyal aide to Mubarak who headed Egypt's intelligence service, moves into the spotlight, so far offering a rigid response to the protests.

Omar Suleiman has always been at the vortex of power. As Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's most trusted loyalist, he headed his country's intelligence service and handled its most sensitive dealings with Israel and the Palestinians. His relentless pursuit of Islamic radicals in Egypt made him a natural ally of the Bush and Obama administrations.

In Myanmar, colonial-era buildings risk demolition

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 08:53 PM PST

The British colonial-era buildings in Yangon are in dire need of repair after years of neglect. Activists seek to preserve the structures, which they fear will be leveled by Chinese property developers.

They stand like ghosts from a bygone era, struggling to maintain a shabby dignity in the face of creeping foliage and years of neglect, all the while fueling a debate: Should they be protected as rare treasures or leveled as worthless junk?

Obama calls Mubarak moves inadequate, warns against crackdown

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 08:27 PM PST

In his strongest criticism of Egypt's government, Obama aligns more firmly with protesters. His statement doesn't mention Mubarak but shows a deeper divide between the U.S. and the Egyptian leader.

Caught off guard by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's efforts to cling to power, President Obama on Thursday condemned Mubarak's latest concessions to protesters as inadequate and again warned against a violent crackdown.