LA Times News

LA Times News

Palestinian teens held in brutal West Bank slayings

Posted: 17 Apr 2011 10:15 AM PDT

Israeli authorities say two cousins, ages 17 and 18, confessed to the March 11 killings of five members of a Jewish family, including three children, as they slept in their home. Palestinian officials say they suspect the confessions were coerced.

Israeli security officials said Sunday they had arrested two Palestinian teenagers as suspects in the grisly slayings last month of five members of a Jewish family, including three children, as they slept in their West Bank settlement home.

President Assad's promises fail to quell Syrian protests

Posted: 17 Apr 2011 12:03 PM PDT

Violent clashes with government forces erupt across the country as thousands of Syrians take to the streets in defiance of a warning by President Bashar Assad, who a day earlier had offered to enact reforms.

In a rebuke of concessions made by their ruler a day earlier, thousands of Syrians took to the streets Sunday for another day of anti-government demonstrations, clashing with club-wielding plainclothes government operatives in cities around the nation.

Plan devised to stabilize crippled Japanese nuclear plant

Posted: 17 Apr 2011 09:41 AM PDT

A two-phase plan that involves first plugging leaks and cooling the reactors then shutting them down by the beginning of 2012 is the most concrete timetable offered yet for resolving Japan's worst nuclear crisis. Secretary of State Clinton visits to help forge a reconstruction blueprint.

The operator of the stricken Japanese nuclear power plant said Sunday that it hoped to stabilize the facility's reactors by the beginning of next year in a state known as a "cold shutdown."

Libyan rebel's story shows links to Taliban, Al Qaeda, NATO

Posted: 17 Apr 2011 01:23 AM PDT

'We are Libyans fighting for Libya,' said the rebel fighter, whose life led him to all sides so he could continue his battle against Kadafi.

He once lived under the Taliban's protection, met with Osama bin Laden and helped found a group the U.S. has listed as a terrorist organization. He died in a secondhand U.S. military uniform, ambushed by Moammar Kadafi's men as he cleared a road after an airstrike by his new NATO allies.

Nigeria out to prove something with presidential election

Posted: 17 Apr 2011 01:23 AM PDT

For Nigeria, this vote is about respect. The most populous African country and a major oil producer, it has been a big player in U.N. peacekeeping. But it is known for corruption and flawed balloting.

The morning radio presenter, silkily persuasive, had a lesson for his listeners as Nigerians prepared to elect a president: How to lose.

Philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy speaks of his role in France's push against Kadafi

Posted: 17 Apr 2011 01:23 AM PDT

The public intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy is credited with a key role in persuading French President Nicolas Sarkozy to spearhead a drive for military intervention in Libya. He invoked the flag.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy shocked the world by leading the push for a United Nations resolution to use force against Moammar Kadafi in his battle with rebels, and then unleashing French jets to launch the first airstrikes against the Libyan leader's forces.

In Tunisia, where record keeping is good, some seek to preserve documents of tyranny

Posted: 16 Apr 2011 03:38 PM PDT

In Tunisia, undergoing a transformation from dictatorship to possible democracy, some make an effort to collect and preserve regime archives, very few of which have been made public.

The unassuming whitewashed building is crammed full of explosive material potentially more damaging, or vital, to Tunisia's democratic experiment than any incendiary device.

Douglas Kmiec resigns as U.S. ambassador to Malta

Posted: 17 Apr 2011 01:23 AM PDT

Ambassador Douglas Kmiec rejects the inspector general's conclusion that his interfaith advocacy is outside his official mission

The American ambassador to Malta resigned his post Saturday after criticism from the State Department's inspector general that he was devoting too much time to promoting better relations between religions.