LA Times News

LA Times News

In the Chernobyl disaster zone, life — and death — is still bleak

Posted: 23 Apr 2011 07:29 PM PDT

Twenty-five years after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor spewed its deadly shower of radioactive isotopes, the Russian village of Stary Vyshkov, home to post-Soviet refugees, is still paying the price.

After Svetlana Ivanova and her husband moved to this village in southwestern Russia 17 years ago, they laughed when they found out what locals called the $4 monthly payment for living in the contaminated Chernobyl zone: funeral money.

Japan fears post-quake rise in suicides

Posted: 23 Apr 2011 07:29 PM PDT

Officials are concerned that a lingering sense of hopelessness among quake victims may drive them to take their own lives. Authorities have provided hotlines, therapy and counseling in hopes of averting more deaths.

Naoko Sugimoto has heard the news through the nation's fledgling mental health grapevine, ominous reports of suicides in the region devastated by last month's magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami.

Libya rebels in Misurata claim huge gains

Posted: 23 Apr 2011 06:21 PM PDT

The fighters say they have ousted Moammar Kadafi's forces from all but one base in the battle-scarred western port city.

Rebel fighters drove Moammar Kadafi's loyalist forces from all but one base in Misurata on Saturday and appeared to be on the verge of expelling all government troops from the besieged port city.

Yemen's president agrees to step down

Posted: 23 Apr 2011 05:19 PM PDT

Ali Abdullah Saleh accepts a plan to leave office in exchange for criminal immunity for his deadly crackdown on street demonstrations. But protesters may not go along.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has agreed to an internationally negotiated plan to step down within 30 days in exchange for criminal immunity for his deadly crackdown on protests that have tipped the nation perilously close to civil war, Yemeni officials and opposition leaders said Saturday.

NATO helicopter crash-lands in Afghanistan

Posted: 23 Apr 2011 02:18 PM PDT

A crew member is killed. Taliban forces claim responsibility for downing the helicopter in eastern Kapisa province. Forces arriving to rescue the two crew members aboard are fired upon by insurgents.

A NATO helicopter crew member was killed when the aircraft crash-landed in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, authorities said.

Syrian bloodshed continues as regime turns guns on mourners

Posted: 23 Apr 2011 01:15 PM PDT

Protesters mourning those killed the day before are fired upon by security forces loyal to President Bashar Assad. Activists say 107 people were killed Friday. Anti-government protests move closer to Damascus.

Syrian security forces opened fire Saturday on protesters mourning the scores of demonstrators killed a day earlier in a deadly repeat of violence against an increasingly bold anti-government movement.

Syria security forces fire on mourners

Posted: 23 Apr 2011 05:29 AM PDT

Government forces shoot at crowds who turned out for the funerals of protesters killed Friday. A general strike has been called, and another crackdown is expected.

Syrian security forces opened fire Saturday on thousands of angry mourners pouring into the streets in politically charged funeral marches for some of the scores of people shot dead at nationwide mass demonstrations a day earlier, according to witnesses and amateur video footage posted online.

NATO chopper crash-lands in Afghanistan; 2 rescued

Posted: 23 Apr 2011 02:15 AM PDT

The Taliban claims responsibility, but the cause of the "hard landing" in Kapisa province is unclear.

Two NATO helicopter crew members had to be rescued Saturday after their helicopter crash landed in eastern Afghanistan, a NATO spokesman said.

Libyan rebels firmly in control in mountainous west

Posted: 22 Apr 2011 09:36 PM PDT

The famed warriors of the Western Mountains decisively beat back Moammar Kadafi's forces in a battle last month. It all started when the regime came asking for help.

Moammar Kadafi's forces came by the thousands with tanks, armored vehicles and rocket launchers to quell an uprising in the forbidding Western Mountains region of Libya.