LA Times News

LA Times News

Kim Jong Il's guard set himself free

Posted: 19 Feb 2011 07:33 PM PST

For one of Kim Jong Il's former guards, hard farm life is preferable to living a lie in a luxurious villa.

Lee Young-guk is a struggling duck breeder in muddy work clothes, shepherding 10,000 feathered wards at his rural family-owned spread near the North Korean border.

Leaders of Libya and Yemen meet protests with deadly force

Posted: 19 Feb 2011 01:36 PM PST

As revolt spreads through the Arab world, Libyan President Moammar Kadafi and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh take brutal steps to retain power.

Two of the Arab world's most ruthless leaders have moved to crush revolts threatening their power in Libya and Yemen as security forces and thugs intensified attacks on dissidents and protesters dug scores of fresh graves amid the rattle of gunfire.

Taliban gunmen and bombers storm bank in Afghanistan, kill 18

Posted: 19 Feb 2011 08:56 AM PST

Insurgents open fire on people waiting in line and two bombers detonate explosive belts at a Kabul Bank branch in the city of Jalalabad. The Taliban say the latest in a series of strikes targeted soldiers who draw their pay from the bank.

It was lunchtime, and it was a Saturday, the first day of the Afghan workweek. In the city of Jalalabad, as elsewhere, plenty of people needed to make a stop at the bank.

Bahrain protesters celebrate as police, soldiers withdraw from Pearl Square

Posted: 19 Feb 2011 08:45 AM PST

Confrontations give way to a massive party as protesters gather in square where hours earlier a bloody crackdown was staged by security forces. Crown Prince Salman ibn Hamed Khalifa tells CNN that he had ordered the removal of the military from the square and that protesters would be allowed to gather and voice their concerns without fear.

Protesters celebrated Saturday in Bahrain when police and soldiers withdrew from Manama's symbolic Pearl Square, allowing young Shiite Muslims eager for a larger role in Bahraini society to take back their central stage.