LA Times News

LA Times News

Foreigners in Libya report being beaten, robbed

Posted: 26 Feb 2011 06:09 PM PST

Guest workers from Egypt, Tunisia and other nations tell of being attacked by Libyan security forces, robbed and accused of being traitors and inciting the uprising against Moammar Kadafi.

Paying $200 for a government-sponsored taxi ride to the Tunisian border sounded like a bad deal. But Tunisian laborer Amr Soltan had no idea just how bad until he and his friends were driven instead to a prison, locked up for five days, robbed of their cellphones by police and beaten by guards.

Libyans remain fearful of Kadafi's wrath

Posted: 26 Feb 2011 05:16 PM PST

Even in cities that are no longer under his control, residents live in dread of potential repercussions.

For all the rowdy anti-government protests and people saying they're ready for martyrdom, the fear that Moammar Kadafi has sown for 41 years doesn't disappear in the few seconds it takes to fire off a round of celebratory gunfire.

Rights groups say Egyptian prison guards are gunning down inmates

Posted: 26 Feb 2011 05:16 PM PST

Egyptian human rights group and Amnesty International say that guards at several prisons have killed at least 200 prisoners, and that those who try to administer medical aid or move the bodies are fired upon as well.

Prison guards indiscriminately fired on inmates during the recent unrest in Egypt, sometimes gunning down men who were carrying the dead or even staging escapes that ended in new volleys of bullets, human rights groups and inmates charge. At least 200 prisoners were killed, the groups say.

After revolution, Arabs regain dignity and hope

Posted: 26 Feb 2011 04:12 PM PST

Many Arabs believe that the changes underway herald the dawn of a new epoch after centuries of repression and humiliation under colonialism and despotic leaders.

His hands thick, the color of pewter, he bends steel rods in the city dust.

Egyptian military council apologizes for use of force on protesters

Posted: 26 Feb 2011 01:18 PM PST

Subordinates acting without authority are blamed after military police use truncheons and electric shock batons to disperse a late-night rally in Tahrir Square, the first direct confrontation between the protesters who toppled President Hosni Mubarak and military authorities who have governed since.

Egypt's ruling military council apologized Saturday after military police used truncheons and electric shock batons against late-night protesters in Tahrir Square, birthplace of the country's nascent democracy.

In Libya, Kadafi tightens hold on Tripoli

Posted: 26 Feb 2011 08:05 AM PST

Moammar Kadafi clears streets of protesters and deploys tanks to block entry to the capital, but he appears to be losing a key western city. Meanwhile, British aircraft carry out a daring mission into Libya to rescue 150 oil workers and others.

Moammar Kadafi retained his grip on the Libyan capital Saturday, blocking entry to Tripoli with tanks and clearing the streets of protesters, but the strongman found himself beset by challenges to his control in the west of the country, and even his airspace.

Online call for protests in China prompts crackdown

Posted: 26 Feb 2011 05:52 AM PST

Authorities have responded to the anonymous campaign calling for pro-democracy demonstrations across China with detention of human rights activists, greater Internet censorship and pressure on foreign journalists

An anonymous online campaign calling for pro-democracy demonstrations across China on Sunday has been met with the detention of human rights activists, greater Internet censorship and even veiled pressure on foreign journalists.

Kadafi is arming civilian backers, Libyans say

Posted: 26 Feb 2011 04:09 AM PST

The U.N. Security Council will meet today to consider an arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze.

The embattled regime of Moammar Kadafi is arming civilian supporters to set up checkpoints and roving patrols around the Libyan capital to control movement and quash dissent, residents said Saturday.

Refugees flood into Tunisia

Posted: 25 Feb 2011 10:11 PM PST

Tunisian and U.N. officials scramble to avert a refugee crisis as people fleeing the Libyan unrest fill the roads out of the border crossing at Ras Ajdir. Many Tunisians help as volunteers.

At first it was dozens of foreigners, most of them Egyptian laborers, teetering under the weight of plastic-wrapped boxes or suitcases they carried on their backs as they made their way past customs guards and immigration officers into relative safety in Tunisia.

In New Zealand, a centerpiece becomes a tomb

Posted: 25 Feb 2011 09:14 PM PST

The Canterbury TV building in Christchurch housed a local station, a medical clinic and a language school full of foreign students. After it crumbled, scores were rescued. But the miracles are over.

Veteran television producer Rob Cope-Williams was out in the field Tuesday, working on his weekly farm report, downing a lunch of French fries and a pint of beer at a countryside hotel, when he felt the jolt.