LA Times News

LA Times News

Yemen peace deal falters

Posted: 22 May 2011 07:00 PM PDT

President Ali Abdullah Saleh refuses to sign the accord for him to step down with immunity, and a regional council says it is ceasing efforts for a deal. Saleh backers besiege an embassy where envoys had gathered to witness the signing.

Hundreds of armed supporters of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh trapped Western and gulf diplomats inside an embassy in the capital for hours Sunday to prevent them from brokering a deal for the longtime leader to step down within a month.

Insurgents attack Afghan police outpost, killing 6

Posted: 22 May 2011 08:10 AM PDT

The four gunmen and suicide bombers, who wore police uniforms to gain entry, also died after storming the traffic-police compound.

In what has become a near-daily drumbeat of insurgent attacks on Afghan government and security installations, a team of gunmen and suicide bombers on Sunday stormed a police outpost in an eastern city, killing six people, most of them Afghan police and soldiers.

10 Iraqi police are among 16 dead in a wave of bombings

Posted: 22 May 2011 05:40 AM PDT

A suicide bomber kills the officers at the site of a failed car bombing north of Baghdad. Six people are killed in explosions in the capital.

A suicide bomber Sunday killed 10 police officers and wounded 19 others who had gathered at the site of a failed car bomb attack on the U.S. military just north of Baghdad, while six people were killed by a wave of bombings in the nation's capital, Iraqi security sources said.

Iceland closes main airport amid volcano eruption

Posted: 22 May 2011 01:24 PM PDT

An ash plume covers the island nation and is blowing toward Greenland. Trans-Atlantic flights are being diverted, but one expert sees no repeat of last year's widespread delays.

An Icelandic volcano flung ash, smoke and steam miles (kilometers) into the air Sunday and dropped a thick layer of gray soot in an eruption far more forceful -- but likely far less impactful -- than the one that grounded planes across Europe last year.

Afghan insurgents storm police outpost, kill 3 officers

Posted: 22 May 2011 01:34 AM PDT

The four attackers also die. The assault in the city of Khost continues a pattern of strikes targeting symbols of government authority.

In what has become a near-daily drumbeat of insurgent attacks on Afghan government and security installations, a team of gunmen and bombers on Sunday stormed a police outpost in an eastern city, killing three police officers. The four assailants died as well, officials said.

Iceland's Grimsvotn volcano erupting

Posted: 21 May 2011 02:03 PM PDT

Scientists have been expecting a new eruption and have said this volcano's eruption will be small and isn't expected to lead to the air travel chaos caused by ash from the Eyjafjallajokul volcano.

Iceland's most active volcano has started erupting, scientists said Saturday -- just over a year after another eruption on the North Atlantic island shut down European air traffic for days.

Iran's supreme leader and president wrestle for power

Posted: 21 May 2011 09:26 PM PDT

The dispute between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ignites concern inside the nation that the infighting weakens Iran's ability to project power internationally amid historic instability across the Mideast.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wanted to send his onetime protege Mahmoud Ahmadinejad an unmistakable message: You're replaceable.

In Egypt, anger grows over Mubarak's health reports

Posted: 21 May 2011 09:26 PM PDT

The former president insists, with the help of state medical evaluations, that he has a heart condition too complex to be treated in prison. Activists say the medical reports in question can't be trusted.

It has been more than three months since former President Hosni Mubarak was ousted and more than a month since he was detained, yet he has not set foot inside Tora prison, where his two sons have been held during a corruption probe.

Tripoli's medina is the heart of the Libyan capital

Posted: 21 May 2011 09:26 PM PDT

But the medina is no museum piece. The old city still pulsates. At Ramadan, young people fill its growing number of cafes into the night. Before weddings, mothers and daughters scour the gold market.

 

U.S. soldier to plead guilty in killing of Taliban prisoner

Posted: 21 May 2011 08:51 PM PDT

Army Pfc. David Lawrence makes a plea deal for a reduced sentence, even though psychiatrists say he suffered severe mental illness at the time.

An Army private accused of killing a Taliban prisoner last year in Afghanistan has agreed to plead guilty, according to his attorney, even though several military psychiatrists concluded he was suffering severe mental illness at the time.