LA Times News

LA Times News

Nazi camp guard gets 5-year sentence in Germany

Posted: 12 May 2011 07:08 PM PDT

Former Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk, 91, is found guilty of accessory to murder. About 28,000 Jews were killed at Nazi-occupied Poland's Sobibor concentration camp while he was a guard there during World War II.

John Demjanjuk, a 91-year-old retired autoworker from Ohio, was found guilty of accessory to murder and sentenced to five years in prison by a German court Thursday for his part in the killings of about 28,000 Jews at a Nazi concentration camp during World War II.

Mandela gun a draw at South Africa home auction

Posted: 12 May 2011 06:40 PM PDT

South African icon Nelson Mandela hid a gun in the 1960s before his arrest. It hasn't been found, but when a house was put up for auction, hopes were raised.

He has an illegal Soviet gun and 200 rounds of ammunition. He's just returned from a military training camp in northern Africa and he's planning to blow things up.

NATO strikes Kadafi's compound after his TV appearance

Posted: 12 May 2011 06:00 PM PDT

Jets again target Libya leader Moammar Kadafi's complex in Tripoli. Western warships foil an apparent attack on the rebel-held city of Misurata, and an Italian official says an arrest warrant for Kadafi is imminent.

The embattled regime of Libya's Moammar Kadafi suffered a series of new blows Thursday as NATO jets hit his compound in Tripoli, Western warships thwarted an apparent seaborne attack on the rebel-held city of Misurata and an Italian official said an arrest warrant for the Libyan leader was imminent.

Yemen government forces, protesters clash again

Posted: 12 May 2011 06:34 PM PDT

More protests calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh's immediate departure are expected Friday. Persian Gulf nations and the U.S. press for a deal to allow him to leave office with immunity.

Yemeni security forces and antigovernment protesters clashed violently again Thursday, as Persian Gulf and U.S. officials pressed for a deal that would allow longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh to leave office with immunity.

Mexico immigration agency fires top officials amid reports of collusion with kidnappers

Posted: 12 May 2011 03:43 PM PDT

The agency chief announces steps to tighten and speed screening of immigration agents and other functionaries in states traversed most often by Central American migrants en route to the United States.

Mexican authorities fired seven regional directors of the country's immigration agency Thursday after allegations that its officers in northern Mexico had delivered Central American migrants to kidnapping gangs.

India's diplomatic ties with Afghanistan worry Pakistan

Posted: 12 May 2011 11:28 AM PDT

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in a high-profile visit with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, promises financial aid and support for making peace with the Taliban, steps likely to stoke Pakistani suspicions about India's attempts to influence Afghanistan.

With a high-profile political visit and a promise of more aid, India moved Thursday to cement its ties with the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai — overtures that are all but certain to raise hackles in Pakistan, which has long sought to limit Indian influence here.

Pakistani president can't be party chief too, court rules

Posted: 12 May 2011 01:59 PM PDT

Opponents of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari's holding both posts argue that the constitution forbids the president from engaging in political activity. The ruling may be appealed.

A provincial high court Thursday barred Asif Ali Zardari from maintaining dual roles as Pakistan's president and head of the ruling party, a potential setback for a leader who has reeled from one crisis to another since taking office in 2008.

Demjanjuk convicted, gets 5 years in prison

Posted: 12 May 2011 05:55 AM PDT

The Ohio man, 91, faced 28,060 counts of accessory to murder, one for each death at the Sobibor camp in Poland while he allegedly was a guard.

Retired U.S. autoworker John Demjanjuk was convicted of thousands of counts of acting as an accessory to murder at a Nazi death camp and sentenced on Thursday to five years in prison, a groundbreaking verdict that closed one chapter in a decades-long legal battle.

Osama bin Laden's journal contains his thoughts on killing Americans

Posted: 11 May 2011 08:27 PM PDT

In one passage, he wonders how many Americans would have to die on U.S. soil to force the government to withdraw from the Arab world, and concludes that it would require another mass murder on the scale of Sept. 11, an official says.

Osama bin Laden kept a personal journal in which he contemplated how to kill as many Americans as possible, including in terrorist attacks against Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, according to U.S. officials.