LA Times News

LA Times News

Emaciated director's death prompts dialogue in South Korea

Posted: 27 Feb 2011 07:16 PM PST

The 32-year-old's plight has raised questions about how an artist who had won awards for her movies could die of starvation in such an advanced nation.

The recent starvation death of an aspiring South Korean filmmaker is prompting a vigorous public dialogue here over compensation for artists in the nation's burgeoning movie industry.

Tunisian interim prime minister resigns

Posted: 27 Feb 2011 06:24 PM PST

The premier, who served in the same post under deposed President Zine el Abidine ben Ali, bows to public pressure and street protests demanding that all traces of the old regime be removed.

The interim prime minister of the North African country that inspired the ongoing uprisings throughout the Arab world resigned Sunday after a new round of daily protests resulted in three weekend deaths.

Blasts kill 10 in Afghanistan

Posted: 27 Feb 2011 06:24 PM PST

Two bombs target a group of spectators at a dogfight in a village near Kandahar city, injuring more than a dozen. President Hamid Karzai calls the attack wicked and un-Islamic.

A pair of explosions tore through a group of spectators at an illegal dogfight Sunday in southern Afghanistan, killing at least 10 people and injuring more than a dozen others in the latest in a string of deadly insurgent attacks in crowded public places.

Libyan city grapples with self-rule

Posted: 27 Feb 2011 05:21 PM PST

Having broken free of Kadafi's rule, but with no government to replace it, the residents of Benghazi are making their own piecemeal efforts to keep city services running and provide security.

In Benghazi, the center of the eastern rebellion that broke free from 41 years of despotic rule a week ago, everyone is in charge — and no one is in charge. But everyone seems to have claimed a piece of the revolution.

French minister quits over ties to ousted Tunisian regime

Posted: 27 Feb 2011 02:18 PM PST

Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie had faced mounting criticism after she offered to send French forces in January to help quell the uprising in Tunisia and the revelation that she had vacationed there as the unrest spread.

French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie resigned Sunday after weeks of growing criticism over her links to the former government of Tunisia.

Blasts at Afghan dogfight kill 8

Posted: 27 Feb 2011 06:01 AM PST

It's the latest in a string of deadly attacks on crowded sites. NATO and Afghan officials say the Taliban and other militants are feeling squeezed militarily and are retaliating with urban terror.

A pair of explosions tore through a group of spectators at an illegal dogfight in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing eight people and injuring more than a dozen in the latest of a string of deadly insurgent attacks carried out in crowded public places.

City near Tripoli falls to Kadafi opponents

Posted: 27 Feb 2011 08:21 AM PST

Clashes loom as anti-government forces position tanks and anti-aircraft guns in Zawiya, while Kadafi forces surround the outskirts.

Moammar Kadafi's weak hold on Libya loosened further Sunday as the city closest to the capital fell firmly into the hands of his opponents.

An old Jerusalem road gets a high-tech makeover

Posted: 26 Feb 2011 10:34 PM PST

A light-rail train is making trial runs down the venerable main street. It will 'revolutionize transportation and the city too,' one official says.

Jaffa Road has witnessed empires come and go, watched camel caravans give way to stagecoaches and automobiles, seen pilgrims and pioneers, businessmen and bombers. Now change is coming once again to the iconic Jerusalem route.

Telling Libya's story over the Internet

Posted: 26 Feb 2011 08:22 PM PST

An ad hoc network of information smugglers uses social media, accessed from across the border in Egypt, to share videos and firsthand accounts of the violence.

Suleiman Zjailil is a modern-day town crier. He spends his days driving his battered car back and forth across the border with Egypt, smuggling out grainy cellphone videos so the world can see the news from his quarantined land.

Iran reports safety concerns at nuclear plant

Posted: 26 Feb 2011 08:22 PM PST

Fuel rods are being withdrawn from the Bushehr facility because of safety concerns. Some experts have expressed fear of risk of a Chernobyl-like accident at the plant.

Fuel that would power Iran's first nuclear energy facility is being removed from the reactor this weekend because of unspecified safety concerns, Iranian officials have disclosed, a setback for the country's controversial nuclear program.

British military secretly flies into Libya to evacuate foreign nationals

Posted: 26 Feb 2011 08:00 PM PST

In a hush-hush rescue mission, British planes land in the desert to take 150 oil workers and their families to Malta. A Royal Navy frigate is expected to arrive in Benghazi on Sunday to pick up some of the 300 Britons believed to still be in Libya.

In a dramatic rescue, a pair of British military planes plucked about 150 oil workers and others from the desert in eastern Libya and flew them out of the violence-torn country, officials here said Saturday.