LA Times News

LA Times News

Violence against aid workers has surged, report says

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 07:56 PM PDT

Violent attacks against humanitarian aid workers have tripled during the last decade, with more than 100 deaths reported annually, according to a study commissioned by the United Nations.

Violent attacks against humanitarian aid workers have tripled during the last decade, with more than 100 deaths reported annually, according to a study commissioned by the United Nations.

U.S. continues airstrikes in Libya

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 07:56 PM PDT

Defense officials acknowledge that the U.S. military has hit three ground targets in Libya since an announcement that the U.S. had halted airstrikes soon after handing control to NATO.

American warplanes have bombed three ground targets in Libya since the Obama administration announced this month that the United States was shifting to a support role in the NATO-led air campaign, the Pentagon acknowledged.

To Japan quake survivors, temporary homes feel like heaven

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 04:58 PM PDT

After a month without a hot shower, Mika Terui and her family move gratefully into the first units to be built in a quake-devastated region.

For Mika Terui, unit 5-2 of this devastated community's newest housing complex was home, finally home.

Mubarak's arrest a watershed moment for Egypt

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 04:42 PM PDT

Even if the former president and his sons are eventually cleared, the fact that they are being brought before the law means the world to many Egyptians.

For almost three decades he wielded unquestioned power, a seemingly invincible figure ruling with a sense of privilege and ruthlessness that epitomized autocrats across the Middle East.

Afghan Taliban intelligence network embraces the new

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 03:32 PM PDT

The Taliban uses its intelligence skills to probe for weak spots that leave an opening for suicide bombers, to monitor Western and Afghan forces and to stymie efforts to improve public services.

The Taliban has deepened its infiltration of Afghan institutions and sharpened its surveillance of Afghan and foreign troops as it seeks to exploit an edge in the information war that will help decide the fate of the insurgency.

Israel Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman may face fraud charges

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 03:34 PM PDT

The move by Israel's attorney general to indict raises questions on the political future of the ultranationalist foreign minister and the stability of Premier Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition.

Israel's attorney general moved Wednesday to possibly indict Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on fraud and other corruption charges, capping a decade-old investigation into the leader of the hawkish Yisrael Beiteinu party.

Syria protesters demand release of detainees

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 03:55 PM PDT

As hundreds near the village of Baida block a roadway, chant slogans and shake olive branches, symbolizing peaceful protest, security forces threaten violence, witnesses say.

The women and children blocking a roadway outside the north Syrian coastal village of Baida shook olive branches as symbols of peaceful protest and demanded the release of their sons, brothers and husbands.

U.S. airstrikes in Libya continue despite announced shift to NATO

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 02:48 PM PDT

WASHINGTON – U.S. warplanes have bombed three ground targets in Libya since the Obama administration announced earlier this month that America was shifting to a support role in the NATO-led air campaign, the Pentagon acknowledged.

Afghan tribal elder killed in suicide bombing

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 11:35 AM PDT

Elder Malik Zareen was 'struggling for peace,' Afghan President Hamid Karzai says, condemning the attack in Kunar province, which killed a dozen people, including five children.

A suicide bomber killed a dozen people, including a leading tribal elder and five children, after a meeting Wednesday in an eastern province of Afghanistan where U.S. forces have battled insurgents in recent weeks.

2 confess in Belarus subway bombing, president says

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 05:27 AM PDT

The blast in Minsk killed 12 and wounded about 200.

Two suspects have confessed to carrying out the deadly subway bombing in Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko announced Wednesday, claiming that his political opponents might know who "ordered the attack."

Death toll in mass graves in Mexico reaches 116

Posted: 12 Apr 2011 09:55 PM PDT

As authorities unearth 28 more bodies in Tamaulipas state while investigating bus kidnappings, the federal government sends in more troops to monitor highways. Officials have arrested 17 people in the case.

Mexican authorities Tuesday reported the discovery of 28 more bodies in a northeastern state, bringing to 116 the number of dead unearthed since officials began investigating mass kidnappings of bus passengers.

Debt worries stymieing U.S. financial aid to help Arab nations in transition

Posted: 12 Apr 2011 05:14 PM PDT

U.S. lawmakers not only have shut the door on new spending to stabilize countries rocked by the so-called Arab Spring. They have resisted proposals to shift money from other foreign aid programs.

The Obama administration's efforts to use foreign aid to help Middle East and North African nations undergoing democratic transitions have been stopped short by a Congress focused on paring federal debt and other spending priorities.