LA Times News

LA Times News

Belgium protesters are not anti-government; they just want one

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 06:10 PM PST

More than eight months after inconclusive elections, Belgians realize the lack of a government could hurt their economy. Some think a semi-naked protest or a sex strike could prod negotiators.

If a government falls and practically nobody hears it, does it make a sound?

Thousands march in Morocco to seek reform

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 10:32 AM PST

Thousands of people marched in cities across Morocco on Sunday, demanding a new constitution to bring more democracy in the North African kingdom amid the wave of Arab world upheaval.

Thousands of people marched in cities across Morocco on Sunday, demanding a new constitution to bring more democracy in the North African kingdom amid the wave of Arab world upheaval.

Libyan regime defiant as protests swell

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 09:23 AM PST

Kadafi's son airs a statement that security forces will fight 'to the last bullet' to put down the protesters. Rallies and protests are held in Morocco, Yemen and Bahrain as a wave of unrest builds.

Protesters in Libya have seized control of the country's second-largest city and several eastern towns, Moammar Kadafi's son acknowledged in comments broadcast early Monday, but he vowed that security forces would fight "to the last bullet" against efforts to end his father's four decades in power.

China tries to stamp out 'Jasmine Revolution'

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 10:13 AM PST

Authorities detained activists, increased the number of police on the streets, disconnected some cell phone text messaging services and censored Internet postings about the call to stage protests in Beijing, Shanghai and 11 other major cities.

Jittery Chinese authorities wary of any domestic dissent staged a show of force Sunday to squelch a mysterious online call for a "Jasmine Revolution," with only a handful of people joining protests apparently modeled on the pro-democracy demonstrations sweeping the Middle East.

Afghanistan says 50 civilians killed in Western battle with insurgents

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 08:18 AM PST

Afghan officials say 22 civilian women were among those killed in the confrontation in a remote part of eastern Afghanistan. NATO has a very different version. The Western military says three dozen armed insurgents died but promises to continue investigating.

Afghan officials and the NATO force on Sunday offered starkly differing accounts of a confrontation between foreign troops and insurgents last week amid the jagged peaks of eastern Afghanistan, with the provincial governor alleging that more than 50 civilians had been killed. The Western military said its findings indicated three dozen armed insurgents had died but promised to continue investigating.

Kadafi's son says Libyan unrest threatens civil war

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 03:56 PM PST

Eyewitness reports trickling out of the isolated country where the Internet has been largely shut down and journalists cannot work freely suggested that protesters were fighting back more forcefully against the Middle East's longest-serving leader.

After anti-government unrest spread to the Libyan capital and protesters seized military bases and weapons Sunday, Muammar Kadafi's son went on state television to proclaim that his father remained in charge with the army's backing and would "fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet."

China's annual long march

Posted: 19 Feb 2011 09:27 PM PST

Chinese New Year brings the world's largest migration as millions of city workers head home to their villages, reconnecting briefly, and awkwardly, with families and a life they barely know.

Li Guangqiang rises early and pulls on his sharpest city clothes: dark jeans fashionably distressed, puffy down coat, black pouch slung over one shoulder. An outfit carefully chosen to announce: I am not a farmer or a villager. Not anymore.

Bahrain protesters back at Pearl Square despite violence

Posted: 19 Feb 2011 06:28 PM PST

Some of the thousands parading express belief that they have journeyed too far to stop their uprising now, and seem to have found resolve in their grief. 'Now the fear has disappeared,' one says.

Ali Mahmoud was one of the first to retake Pearl Square.

Revolution might not be a cure for Egypt's extreme poverty

Posted: 19 Feb 2011 09:27 PM PST

Over three decades, the nation has become far more dense and has fewer fields along with more mouths to feed. Food prices have shot up, and desperate families no longer have enough to share.

I returned to a country far different and very much the same.

Nepal caught between China and India

Posted: 19 Feb 2011 09:27 PM PST

Beijing pours money into the Himalayan country, a historical buffer between the two giant rivals, worrying New Delhi.

A recent recording making the rounds in Nepal featured a Maoist party leader speaking to a man with a Chinese accent. During the 12-minute tape, the Chinese voice offers $6.9 million to bribe 50 Nepali legislators for help in forming a Maoist-led government that would favor China over India.