LA Times News

LA Times News

Kadafi government rebuffs Libya rebel cease-fire offer

Posted: 01 Apr 2011 08:40 PM PDT

After rebels refused for weeks to negotiate with Moammar Kadafi's regime, a rebel leader offers a cease-fire if Kadafi agrees to withdraw his forces from besieged cities and permit peaceful protests.

Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi's regime brusquely swatted down a truce offered by rebels Friday and continued to pummel opposition positions in both the eastern and western sections of the country.

Libyan rebels seek to bring order to chaotic ranks

Posted: 01 Apr 2011 08:40 PM PDT

Opposition forces trying to hold the front line against Moammar Kadafi's army try to bring discipline and order to their efforts. But panic ensues as they come under rocket attack.

Libyan rebels began their Friday with new discipline as they hauled up antitank rockets, imposed rigorous checkpoints and assigned fighters to strategic locations along their front line against Moammar Kadafi's forces in eastern Libya.

Wary of unrest, China cracks down on dissent

Posted: 01 Apr 2011 07:59 PM PDT

Unlike the usual cycles of suppression, this crackdown has lasted a while, possibly signaling a power struggle between reformers and hard-liners in the Communist Party.

At first, it seemed to be just another fleeting moment of paranoia, one of those seasonal episodes in which the censors work overtime and the usual suspects are rounded up.

4 shot dead as thousands join protests across Syria

Posted: 01 Apr 2011 04:00 PM PDT

Police fire on a crowd in a suburb of Damascus, killing four people, as activists organize a 'Day of Martyrs' to honor the more than 70 people killed in recent unrest.

Thousands of Syrians flooded the streets of several major cities Friday for a new round of antigovernment protests, defying security forces who used gunfire and tear gas to disperse them.

On the Nile, Egyptian fishermen saw a nation adrift

Posted: 01 Apr 2011 04:53 PM PDT

Two who grew up on the water say they don't know much about politics, but they know that fish were scarce under Hosni Mubarak.

Oars skim the marsh grass and men slip their nets upon the water.

Some in Germany critical of decision to sit out Libya operation

Posted: 01 Apr 2011 04:48 PM PDT

Critics say Berlin has lost credibility and risks an isolationism it can ill afford. One former defense minister called the decision to break from longtime allies a 'mistake of historic dimensions.'

As NATO takes full command of the jet fighters cruising over Libya, one member of the Western alliance continues to be conspicuous by its absence: Germany.

Ancient tablet bears writing, to scientists' surprise

Posted: 01 Apr 2011 04:43 PM PDT

A 2-inch-by-3-inch clay tablet is older than expected — dating to 3,350 years ago — and is found at a site in Greece where researchers did not expect to find writing.

Archaeologists have found a clay tablet bearing the earliest known writing in Europe, a 3,350-year-old specimen, which makes it at least 150 years older than other known tablets from the region.

Libya rebel leader offers cease-fire

Posted: 01 Apr 2011 12:27 PM PDT

After a meeting with a U.N. envoy to Libya, opposition national council leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil offers a cease-fire if Moammar Kadafi withdraws his forces from besieged cities and permits peaceful protests.

After refusing for weeks to negotiate with Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, the top representative of the rebel movement here offered a cease-fire if Kadafi withdraws his forces from besieged Libyan cities and permits peaceful protests.

Ivory Coast president battles on as rival's forces close in

Posted: 01 Apr 2011 10:38 AM PDT

Fighters loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, the Ivory Coast leader who refused to step down after his election loss, make a stand in Abidjan. Rival Alassane Ouattara's troops have attacked Gbagbo's home, the presidential palace and two military bases.

Ivory Coast's defeated president, Laurent Gbagbo, staged a last stand in the commercial capital of Abidjan on Friday as his rival's forces attacked his home, the presidential palace and two military bases.

Japan to convene earthquake rebuilding council as massive search for bodies is mounted

Posted: 01 Apr 2011 10:03 AM PDT

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan says he will convene a national earthquake-rebuilding council within 10 days. U.S. and Japanese troops mount a massive search for the bodies of more than 16,000 missing . High radioactivity readings at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are scrutinized.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Friday he would convene a national council on rebuilding within 10 days as U.S. and Japanese forces launched a massive effort to locate the bodies of more than 16,000 people still listed as missing three weeks after the giant March 11 tsunami and earthquake.

Mob kills 7 U.N. workers in Afghanistan

Posted: 01 Apr 2011 04:57 PM PDT

Officials say a crowd at a mosque sermon angered by a U.S. church's recent burning of the Koran set upon the U.N. compound in Mazar-i-Sharif. Similar sermons also sparked protests in Kabul and Herat.

The burning of the Muslim holy book by a Florida church last week went largely unnoticed in the U.S. But it enraged a mob that stormed U.N. offices in a normally placid area of Afghanistan, an outbreak of violence that also signaled broadening anti-American sentiment and the difficulty of handing security responsibility back to Afghans.

Venezuelan baseball dreams survive political tensions

Posted: 01 Apr 2011 12:19 AM PDT

Despite the country's tense relations with the U.S., the number of Venezuelans on MLB rosters has increased, and several teams still have academies to groom talent.

As Eugenio Suarez took some practice swings in the batting cage at the Detroit Tigers' baseball academy, the anti-U.S. bluster of President Hugo Chavez couldn't have been further from his mind. He was too intent on his coach's instructions to keep his hands tight, take a short stride and turn his hips quickly through his swing.