LA Times News

LA Times News

Kadafi's last refuge, fear, is collapsing

Posted: 21 Feb 2011 07:05 PM PST

Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi's vanity and reliance on repression led him to underestimate Libyans' anger against him.

Moammar Kadafi's many vanities led the Libyan leader and his intelligence network into miscalculating the breadth of outrage against him in his own land. Long one of the Arab world's most perplexing personalities, Kadafi has traveled the globe with a tent, warning against foreign intervention while polishing his image at home as the country's "Brotherly Leader."

Libya's regime launches military assault in Tripoli

Posted: 21 Feb 2011 11:18 AM PST

Security forces fire live rounds and tear gas to regain control of the city's main square from demonstrators, according to witnesses and media reports. Independent Libyan news websites report that 150 to 200 people are killed in the day's violence.

Moammar Kadafi's embattled regime unleashed a military assault in the heart of the Libyan capital in an effort to crush a popular protest like those that have already toppled two North African rulers and now threatens the longest-serving leader in the Arab world.

Pakistan detainee Raymond Davis works for CIA

Posted: 21 Feb 2011 03:07 PM PST

Pakistani and U.S. authorities say U.S. Embassy worker Raymond Davis, who killed two alleged robbers in Lahore, works for the CIA. U.S. officials describe him as a contractor with the agency and insist he has diplomatic immunity and should be freed.

The U.S. citizen who shot to death two motorcyclists in the eastern city of Lahore last month works with the CIA, Pakistani and U.S. officials said Monday — a revelation that could further aggravate anti-American sentiment in the nuclear-armed nation and complicate Washington's efforts to secure his release.

Mumbai's high court upholds death penalty against gunman

Posted: 21 Feb 2011 06:00 AM PST

The Bombay High Court in Mumbai reaffirms the death penalty against Ajmal Amir Kasab, the sole survivor among 10 militants who killed 166 people in India's financial center in 2008.

Mumbai's high court on Monday reaffirmed the death penalty against the lone surviving gunman in the 2008 terrorist attack in which 166 people were killed and India's financial center came to a standstill for nearly three days.

Suicide bomber kills 30 in Afghanistan's north

Posted: 21 Feb 2011 04:51 AM PST

The blast at an Afghan government administrative center kills civilians waiting for ID cards or other documents, officials say. It follows a string of insurgent attacks aimed at so-called soft targets.

A suicide bomber struck a government administrative center in northern Afghanistan on Monday, killing about 30 people, many of them civilians who were trying to obtain identification cards or other official documents, the provincial government said.

Clashes, fires reported in Libya's capital

Posted: 21 Feb 2011 03:28 AM PST

The government building known as People's Hall is one site reported ablaze. The violence comes hours after Kadafi's son airs a statement that security forces will fight 'to the last bullet' to put down the protesters. Rallies are held in Morocco, Yemen and Bahrain as a wave of unrest builds.

Anti-government protests raged Monday for the first time in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, with unconfirmed media reports of pro-regime snipers firing into crowds, bloody clashes on the city's main square and fires blazing in key government buildings.

Tens of thousands march peacefully for reforms in Morocco

Posted: 21 Feb 2011 12:59 AM PST

The mass rallies in Rabat and other cities are aimed at expanding democratic rights under the monarchy, which at times has been oppressive.

In what is being called an unprecedented show of political unity and strength, tens of thousands of protesters from various political strains marched peacefully in cities and towns across the country Sunday demanding rapid political reform.

Libyan regime defiant as protests swell

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 06:17 PM 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 have seized control of Benghazi and several other eastern towns, Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi's son acknowledged in comments broadcast early Monday, but he vowed that security forces would fight efforts to end his father's four decades in power "to the last bullet."

Anti-Semitism flares in Greece

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 09:48 PM PST

Greece, more than many European nations, continues to wrestle with strong anti-Jewish feelings. Such sentiments have been revived amid the angst and anger of the Greek economic crisis.

Nearly 70 years later, Athens, one of the last European capitals to commemorate those who perished at the hands of Nazi forces, finally has a Holocaust memorial.

China police show up en masse at hint of protest

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 08:57 PM PST

Pre-announced demonstrations in 13 Chinese cities bring plenty of paramilitary, uniformed and undercover police, but not many protesters. Six people are reportedly detained overall.

In military terms, it might be called a disproportionate preemptive strike, one that underscored how nervous the Chinese government is about pro-democracy demonstrations taking place thousands of miles away in the Middle East.