LA Times News

LA Times News

Human deaths raise calls for more hunting regulations in Italy

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 07:42 PM PST

During the last hunting season, about one person a week was accidentally shot to death. A denser population and liberal rules about hunting on private property raise the risks.

They came from opposite directions, two avid hunters tracking the same wild boar.

U.S. tries to line up aid to help stabilize Egypt

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 06:57 PM PST

Eager to show they are helping a key ally and amid fears that continued economic hardship could stoke further unrest, U.S. officials are working with allies to cobble together an aid package, possibly in the hundreds of millions.

As anti-government protests threaten additional change across the Middle East, the Obama administration and its allies have been quietly collaborating on plans to shore up Egypt's fragile transition government with a transfusion of economic aid.

New breed of Islamists emerges in Egypt

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 05:15 PM PST

They are deeply pious but want to work with secularists, and they may or may not be members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Mohammed Sharaf Eldin and Ahmed Usama joined the Muslim Brotherhood as young men in the belief that the organization's vision of political Islam was the way forward for Egypt.

Russian judge's superiors issued verdict against ex-tycoon, aide says

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 02:19 PM PST

Judge Viktor Danilkin was given a different version to read after his initial verdict was rejected by Moscow City Court officials, the aide says. Mikhail Khodorkovsky was ordered to remain in prison until 2017.

The Russian judge who found former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky guilty of embezzlement in late December read a verdict written by superiors after they had rejected his own version, an aide disclosed Monday.

In Iran, Bahrain and Yemen, protesters take to streets

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 07:31 AM PST

In the Persian Gulf region, protesters inspired by the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia take part in street marches. Thousands of demonstrators in Iran are met by riot police. Smaller groups rally in Bahrain and Yemen.

Three more Middle Eastern governments came under assault from thousands of street demonstrators, a sign of widening reverberations from the pro-democracy movement that upended repressive governments in Egypt and Tunisia.

Suicide bombing in Kabul kills two

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 05:37 AM PST

The second high-profile attack in Afghanistan's capital in less than three weeks represents a setback for Western military commanders. The Taliban claims responsibility.

A suicide bomber struck a hotel and shopping complex in the heart of Kabul on Monday, killing at least two people in the second high-profile attack in Afghanistan's capital in less than three weeks.

Palestinian officials to dissolve Cabinet

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 03:12 AM PST

A new Cabinet will be named within three weeks, a move intended to address growing unrest and demands for democratic reform. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad will retain his posts.

In a second shakeup in three days, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Monday that he would disband his Cabinet and form a new one within three weeks.

Egypt: First the government, next the arts?

Posted: 13 Feb 2011 06:35 PM PST

With Hosni Mubarak's repressive regime gone, filmmakers, musicians and others hope freedom of expression will thrive. Some already have crossed old boundaries.

The largely peaceful revolution that ended Hosni Mubarak's regime in Egypt also has the potential to reshape the repressive cultural climate in the country and perhaps elsewhere in the Arab world, according to filmmakers, musicians and other cultural figures who have been watching and participating in the uprising in Cairo.

Middle East nations scramble to contain unrest

Posted: 13 Feb 2011 08:23 PM PST

Governments step up political concessions, dole out benefits or prepare the riot police in attempts to keep order after the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, which showed people that strongmen may not be needed to protect against sectarian violence or Islamic extremism.

To track the growing political movements gaining strength from the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia across North Africa and the Middle East, one would be well advised to get a planner.

A 'living virgin goddess' comes down to earth in Nepal

Posted: 13 Feb 2011 08:23 PM PST

In a centuries-old tradition, a little girl becomes a goddess linked to the king, but her reign is over when she hits puberty. One former kumari, as they are known, seeks to ease that difficult transition for others.

Being a "living virgin goddess" isn't all it's cracked up to be.