LA Times News

LA Times News

Europe ponders letting bailed-out nations default

Posted: 15 Apr 2011 05:50 PM PDT

Advocates say it's the best way to help the economies of Greece, Ireland and Portugal recover, and to keep the debt crisis from spreading.

The unthinkable has become the inevitable three times in Europe's debt crisis: First Greece, then Ireland and now Portugal have all appealed to their neighbors to bail them out after insisting they would never do so.

Body of kidnapped activist found in Gaza City

Posted: 15 Apr 2011 07:22 PM PDT

The body of a pro-Palestinian activist from Italy is found after a small Islamist group said it was holding him in exchange for its leader. The group later retracted its claim of responsibility but defended the killing, which Hamas condemned.

The body of kidnapped Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni was discovered in an abandoned house just hours after a radical Islamist group announced that it was holding the Palestinian advocate in exchange for the release of its leader, Gaza officials said Friday.

Syria protests swell as tens of thousands turn out

Posted: 15 Apr 2011 07:22 PM PDT

Demonstrations are reported across the country, including in Damascus, a day after concessions from President Bashar Assad. 'People are not afraid anymore,' says a human rights lawyer.

Antigovernment demonstrations sweeping Syria appeared to have crossed a threshold in size and scope, with protesters battling police near the heart of the capital and the protest movement uniting people from different regions, classes and religious backgrounds against the regime.

Body count from mass graves in Mexico rises to 145

Posted: 15 Apr 2011 10:47 AM PDT

Sixteen police officers are arrested for allegedly providing cover to drug-cartel gangsters suspected in the slayings. The graves were found near the northern Mexico town of San Fernando, where the arrested officers worked.

The number of bodies pulled from mass graves in northeastern Mexico has risen to 145, officials said Friday, following the arrest of 16 police officers for allegedly providing cover to drug-cartel gangsters suspected in the grisly slayings.

Taliban suicide bomber kills Kandahar police chief

Posted: 15 Apr 2011 10:50 AM PDT

The provincial chief had been targeted in three previous assassination attempts. Security in Kandahar province has been a high priority for NATO forces.

A suicide bomber killed a prominent police chief and his bodyguard Friday in Kandahar, stunning Afghanistan's second-largest city, where security has been a top priority for NATO forces.

Iraq army raid on Iran exiles killed 34, U.N. says

Posted: 14 Apr 2011 08:36 PM PDT

The April 8 raid targeted Mujahedin Khalq, which seeks to overthrow Iran's clerical leaders. The group won refuge under Saddam Hussein but is an irritant to Iraq's Shiite government.

— An Iraqi army raid last week on Camp Ashraf left 34 Iranian exiles dead, according to a U.N. spokesman who on Thursday offered the first independent death toll for the attack that drew sharp rebukes from Baghdad's Western allies.