LA Times News

LA Times News

Libyan rebels appear to take leaf from Kadafi's playbook

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 08:44 PM PDT

Opposition officials in Benghazi, whose wide sweeps to detain alleged Kadafi supporters have drawn criticism, take journalists on a tightly controlled tour of detention centers. Many detainees say they're immigrant workers and deny fighting for Kadafi.

The rebels of eastern Libya have found much to condemn about the police state tactics of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi: deep paranoia, mass detentions, secret prisons and tightly scripted media tours.

Kadafi forces step up attacks amid allied airstrikes

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 08:14 PM PDT

Libyan troops intensify attacks on rebel-held cities, exploiting the allies' refusal to strike in urban areas to avert civilian casualties. In Misurata, tanks close in on a hospital that serves as a rebel gathering point.

Col. Moammar Kadafi's forces intensified attacks in opposition-held cities, creating panic in the western town of Misurata, even as U.S. and allied warplanes broadened their airstrikes across Libya, U.S. military officers and witnesses said Wednesday.

Japan's fishing industry a major casualty of nuclear crisis

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 06:12 PM PDT

In harbor towns hit by the March 11 quake and tsunami, residents worry that radioactive contamination of the seafood chain may cost them their livelihoods.

Standing on the deck of his 91-foot trawler, veteran fisherman Tomoyuki Kondou winces over reports that radioactivity from Japan's damaged nuclear power plant in nearby Fukushima has contaminated the local food supply after this month's deadly earthquake and tsunami.

Libya rebels coordinating with West on air assault

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 05:02 PM PDT

Leaders of the opposition national council, in Benghazi and in Europe, are helping allied commanders identify targets for strikes. Allied officials walk a fine line as the U.N. mandate bars them from actively helping the rebels in their goal to oust Moammar Kadafi.

Leaders of the opposition national council in rebel-controlled eastern Libya say they are making regular, secure contacts with allied military representatives in Europe to help commanders identify targets for the U.S.-led air assault.

U.S. finds no organized Al Qaeda presence in Libya opposition, officials say

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 04:46 PM PDT

Eastern Libya, the rebels' base, has a history as a breeding ground for Islamic militants, but an intelligence-gathering effort has not uncovered a significant number of extremists, officials say.

Despite fears that Islamic extremists may be playing a hidden role in the rebellion against Moammar Kadafi, the U.S. intelligence community has found no organized presence of Al Qaeda or its allies among the Libyan opposition, American officials say.

Syria crackdown on protests continues; 15 killed

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 04:09 PM PDT

Security forces raided a mosque in the city of Dara where demonstrators had sought shelter, witnesses say. The government says it stepped in only after a doctor and two others were killed by armed groups.

Fifteen people were killed by Syrian security forces, witnesses said, as a bloody campaign to end political protests continued Wednesday in the southern city of Dara.

Many rural Libyans look to Kadafi

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 04:01 PM PDT

Libya leader Moammar Kadafi's populist largess doled out disproportionately to rural people has won the loyalty of large swaths of citizens. And the countryside shows the signs of his attention to it.

The gift for his family's loyalty, service and sacrifice was an AK-47 assault rifle.

Yemen protesters speak of march on president's palace

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 03:09 PM PDT

Such a provocation would challenge the power of President Ali Abdullah Saleh at a time many of his supporters are abandoning him after his security forces killed more than 50 protesters last week.

Tanks shadowed street corners and rival soldiers kept watch in Yemen's capital, Sana, where protesters Wednesday plotted a possible march on the palace of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has refused to step down after weeks of demonstrations and defections by generals and government officials.

U.S., allies attack targets across Libya but haven't stopped Kadafi

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 04:19 PM PDT

Despite strikes by foreign forces and calls by President Obama to withdraw, Moammar Kadafi loyalists are stepping up efforts to put down the rebellion.

Col. Muammar Kadafi's forces intensified attacks in opposition-held cities, creating panic in the town of Misurata, even as U.S. and allied warplanes broadened their airstrikes across the country, U.S. military officers and eyewitnesses said.

New Israeli laws will increase discrimination against Arabs, critics say

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 11:12 AM PDT

One legalizes 'admissions committees' in towns to vet would-be residents on their social 'suitability.' The other imposes fines for commemorating Nakba Day, seen as a protest of Israel's independence.

Israel's conservative-led Knesset adopted two controversial laws Wednesday that critics warned will worsen discrimination against the nation's Arab minority and make it easier to prevent Arab citizens from moving into hundreds of Jewish towns and villages.

Bomb blast kills one in Jerusalem

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 09:35 AM PDT

One woman is killed and about two dozen people are wounded in the Jerusalem attack, the first there in four years and the latest sign of escalating violence. Israel vows a strong response.

The first bombing to rock Jerusalem in four years killed an Israeli woman and wounded two dozen people Wednesday, the latest sign of escalating violence between Israelis and Palestinians since short-lived peace talks collapsed last year.

Tokyo tap water not safe for infants, officials warn

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 02:54 PM PDT

Levels of radioactive iodine found to be about double the safe levels for children under age of 1. Black smoke billows from a reactor at the stricken Japanese nuclear plant.

Reporting from Tokyo -- Infants in Tokyo and five surrounding cities should not be allowed to consume tap water, the city's government said Wednesday after elevated levels of radioactive iodine from a crippled nuclear plant were detected at a water treatment plant.