LA Times News

LA Times News

Obama invites Libya rebels to open Washington office

Posted: 24 May 2011 06:15 PM PDT

In London, he seeks to reassure Britain that the U.S. plans to do more to help NATO drive Moammar Kadafi from power.

The White House made a new overture to Libyan rebels and promised more pressure on leader Moammar Kadafi, steps that came as President Obama prepared to face British lawmakers impatient for a bigger U.S. role in the 2-month-old NATO air campaign in Libya.

In speech to Congress, Israel's Netanyahu offers few concessions

Posted: 24 May 2011 06:17 PM PDT

The Israeli leader says he's ready to make 'painful compromises,' but he sets requirements for peace talks that vary little from previous views.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a joint session of Congress he was prepared to make "painful compromises" for peace but he offered few of the concessions that President Obama has sought as a way to revive moribund Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Obama greeted warmly in London, U.S.-British differences notwithstanding

Posted: 24 May 2011 06:17 PM PDT

As President Obama makes an official state visit with the queen, his disagreements with Prime Minister David Cameron – however slight – are certain to come up in days ahead. The two leaders, however, publish a joint letter affirming that their relationship is not only 'special,' but 'essential.'

The pomp is the same, but the circumstance is different.

Libyan parents hope for long-sought answers in HIV mystery

Posted: 24 May 2011 04:49 PM PDT

More than 400 children were infected with the AIDS virus at a children's hospital in the 1990s. Moammar Kadafi called it a deliberate act by foreign workers, but some now openly question his role.

The families have become close, sharing confidences and grief as their children, some now young adults, come to terms with a poisoned future — a lifetime of medications, anxiety and enduring stigma in a traditional Muslim society where their conditions remain cloaked in shame.

A newspaper unplugged in Japan's quake zone

Posted: 24 May 2011 05:07 PM PDT

The magnitude 9 quake and tsunami destroyed the Ishinomaki daily's computers and presses. But reporters hit the streets and the publisher handwrote the day's news on large sheets of paper to be posted around town.

Moments after the massive earthquake struck this northeastern Japan town, editor Hiroyuki Takeuchi gazed about his tiny newsroom and took stock: His computers were worthless; his printing press on the floor below would soon be flooded by the tsunami.

Thousands more flee fighting in Sudan's oil-rich Abyei region

Posted: 24 May 2011 05:10 PM PDT

Hundreds of children are separated from their parents in the chaos, officials say, as the north and south battle for control of Abyei.

Thousands of residents of Sudan's disputed oil-rich Abyei region continued to flee south Tuesday, along with humanitarian groups attempting to prepare clinics and shelters before the rainy season strands the displaced and renders mostly dirt roads impassable.

Battles between tribal and government forces continue in Yemen

Posted: 24 May 2011 04:33 PM PDT

Antiaircraft fire and mortar shelling sound across part of Yemen's capital as a second day of fighting pits President Ali Abdullah Saleh's forces against opponents, including the head of his tribe.

Heavy shelling and gunfire rocked the northern district of Yemen's capital for a second day, as tribal forces clashed with government troops, leaving at least 34 men dead.

Hosni Mubarak to stand trial, prosecutors say

Posted: 24 May 2011 12:17 PM PDT

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will be tried on charges of conspiring in the deaths of protesters, authorities say.

Egypt will put Hosni Mubarak, its president for three decades, on trial in connection with the deaths of protesters during the uprising that forced him from office, prosecutors said Tuesday, raising the prospect that the region's push for reform would force a modern Arab strongman to face justice before his own people.

Israel's Netanyahu addresses Congress as an old friend

Posted: 24 May 2011 10:21 AM PDT

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sounded a 'we stand together' theme multiple times as he was warmly received by Congress. On the thorny issue of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, he says Israel will make some sacrifices but not others.

Speaking to a friendly and enthusiastic congressional audience, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday gave his vision of the Middle East, based on a strong Israel irrevocably linked to the United States and willing to make some, but not all, sacrifices for peace with the Palestinians.

Explosion hits Iranian refinery just before Ahmadinejad speech

Posted: 24 May 2011 03:31 AM PDT

Authorities blame a gas leak and say there was no sabotage. At least one person is killed, but the president's appearance goes on.

An explosion blamed on a gas leak struck a newly inaugurated section of an oil refinery Tuesday just before President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at the facility's ribbon-cutting ceremony, state media reported.

Israel cannot return to pre-1967 boundaries, leader insists

Posted: 24 May 2011 04:32 AM PDT

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to a pro-Israel lobby, again criticizes the plan President Obama offered for peace talks. Netanyahu says it would jeopardize Israel's security.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday repeated his criticism of President Obama's plan for peace negotiations with Palestinians, saying that his country could not return to the boundaries it had before 1967 because of the risks it would pose to Israel's security.

Obama cites peace in Northern Ireland, alluding to Middle East

Posted: 23 May 2011 08:10 PM PDT

President Obama does not mention the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but his remarks on Northern Ireland are an appeal for peace talks.

Lauding the ability of former warring sides to "reimagine their relationships," President Obama paid tribute to the Northern Ireland peace process during a visit to this once-troubled island, a thinly veiled allusion to the possibility that peace is attainable even in such unlikely places as the Middle East.

British, French attack helicopters en route to Libya

Posted: 23 May 2011 08:10 PM PDT

The helicopters will be more precise than fighter jets and may carry out attacks targeting Moammar Kadafi's regime separate from NATO's auspices. Their deployment represents an escalation by some Western governments.

British and French attack helicopters are headed to Libya in an escalation of the role some Western governments plan to play in the fighting between forces loyal to Moammar Kadafi and rebels seeking his ouster, according to a French official and media reports Monday.

Sudan's Abyei region descends into chaos

Posted: 23 May 2011 08:10 PM PDT

The oil-rich central area claimed by both the north and south is burned by looters, and troops continue to move in. The main town is nearly deserted.

Sudan's disputed oil-rich central region spiraled further into chaos Monday, as armed looters set fire to the main town in the Abyei area, residents and humanitarian groups fled and northern troops dug in for what could be a prolonged conflict with southern forces.