LA Times News

LA Times News

Obama moves to shuffle top security posts

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 06:09 PM PDT

Petraeus will be the new CIA chief, replacing Leon Panetta who is being tapped to take over at the Pentagon when Robert Gates steps down. Also, former Ambassador Ryan Crocker will return to Kabul.

President Obama is overhauling his national security team with both foreign policy challenges and domestic politics in mind, but the personnel moves illustrate an effort chiefly to build a team that can regain the initiative in the unpopular war in Afghanistan.

Afghan women train for Olympic boxing

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 07:26 PM PDT

At a stadium where the Taliban used to publicly execute women, young boxers in head scarves jab and hop. A few are talented enough to try to make it to the Games.

Young athletes in flowing head scarves bob and weave, jabbing the stale air of their darkened training room here at Ghazi National Olympic Stadium.

Royal wedding likely to be a drag on British economy

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 05:43 PM PDT

The gloom on the economic effects stems largely from setting aside Friday as a holiday, at a cost of nearly $10 billion in lost productivity, not insignificant when slowly emerging from recession.

Roslynd Hadley is enough of a royalist that she's happily hosting a garden party Friday to celebrate the much-anticipated marriage of Prince William to his college sweetheart, Kate Middleton.

Afghan who says he joined prison escape gives details

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 06:33 PM PDT

The account provides a picture of how at least 488 inmates made their dramatic escape in Kandahar this week in what the Taliban has hailed as a major victory.

The great escape from Sarposa prison began with a knocking beneath the floor.

European nations condemn Syria's violent crackdown on protesters

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 01:27 PM PDT

Five European nations are involved in the apparently coordinated effort to condemn Syria's violent suppression of protests. Meanwhile, Syrian security forces surround key cities before an expected round of protests after Friday prayers.

In a coordinated rebuke, five European nations summoned Syrian diplomats to condemn Damascus' violent suppression of protests, even as security forces in the Middle East nation surrounded key cities before another anticipated round of violent confrontations after Friday prayers.

Palestinian rivals Fatah, Hamas to share power

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 11:21 AM PDT

After several days of secret meetings, the two Palestinian factions agree to end a four-year rift in which Fatah has controlled the West Bank and Hamas the Gaza Strip. They will form a caretaker government and hold new elections in 2012.

Rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas have reportedly reached an agreement to end their four-year rift by forming a caretaker government and holding new elections next year, according to Palestinian officials and a statement from Egypt's intelligence service, which helped broker the talks.

Afghan military pilot kills 9 Americans in Kabul

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 03:02 AM PDT

The Taliban claims responsibility for the attack at a meeting at the Afghan air force headquarters, in which eight U.S. troops and an American contractor are killed. The gunman is killed when NATO forces return fire.

Eight U.S. troops and an American contractor were killed early Wednesday when a veteran Afghan military pilot fired on trainers during a meeting in a military compound near Kabul International Airport.

Afghan official blames local and international forces for allowing prison break

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 10:02 PM PDT

Justice minister says Afghan security forces should have noticed the tunnel when they searched a nearby house 2 1/2 months ago, but he also faults Canadian and U.S. troops. Meanwhile, NATO reports death of Al Qaeda figure.

The mud house where insurgents began digging a long tunnel that at least 488 inmates used to flee an Afghan prison had been searched about 2 1/2 months before by security forces, who failed to notice anything amiss, authorities said Tuesday.