LA Times News

LA Times News

Ultranationalist Serbs protest Mladic's arrest

Posted: 29 May 2011 06:24 PM PDT

Thousands rally in Belgrade against the arrest of war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic, saying he is being unfairly singled out. Mladic's son denies his father ordered the 1995 Srebrenica massacre during the Bosnian war.

Thousands of supporters of war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic rallied Sunday to protest the arrest of the man whom they revere as a national hero but whom much of the West considers a mass murderer.

Afghan officials say NATO strike killed 14 in residential area

Posted: 29 May 2011 03:18 PM PDT

The victims of the airstrike in Helmand province included women and children, officials say. The attack comes hours after a statement from President Karzai calling for an end to night raids that carry a high risk of civilian casualties.

A new dispute over civilian deaths erupted Sunday when Afghan officials claimed an errant NATO airstrike had killed 14 people, women and children among them.

Syrian forces kill 9 during attacks on towns

Posted: 29 May 2011 02:21 PM PDT

Syrian troops and security forces enter several towns as protests continue against President Bashar Assad's regime. Protesters have taken as a battle cry the name of Hamza Khatib, 13, whom Syrian security forces allegedly tortured and killed.

Syrian forces attacked several towns Sunday, killing at least nine people as protests continued against the embattled regime of President Bashar Assad, activists said.

Al Qaeda group said to take over major Yemeni city

Posted: 29 May 2011 02:21 PM PDT

The political opposition blames Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh for losing control of Zinjibar; some even allege it's a set-up. But others fear Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has managed to exploit months of protests.

Yemen's beleaguered government claimed Sunday that the capital of Abyan province in the south had been overrun by the country's Al Qaeda affiliate, while the political opposition and dissident generals blamed the president for losing control of the city.

China tries to avert Inner Mongolia protests

Posted: 29 May 2011 11:14 AM PDT

Armed police are sent to calm tensions boiling since the death of a Mongolian herder, apparently in a confrontation over land use. Internet and telephone connections have been blocked in advance of protests planned Monday.

Chinese authorities Sunday blanketed volatile towns in Inner Mongolia with armed police, blocked Internet and telephone connections, and confined students to their campuses and activists to their homes in an effort to forestall protests scheduled Monday over the death of a Mongolian herder during a confrontation over land use.

Iran's supreme leader endorses Ahmadinejad, trying to calm political turmoil

Posted: 29 May 2011 08:18 AM PDT

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tries to avert a crisis between Iran's conservative clergy and the firebrand president. The pronouncement also is seen as a warning to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad not to overstep boundaries.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, endorsed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Sunday as Khamenei looked to resolve a months-long rift among the country's conservative power elite.

Mladic denies ordering massacre, his son says

Posted: 29 May 2011 09:27 AM PDT

'Whatever was done in Srebrenica, he has nothing to do with it,' Darko Mladic says.

Ratko Mladic -- charged with genocide by a U.N. war crimes court -- claims he did not order the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica when it fell during the 1992-1995 war, his son said Sunday.

Afghans say NATO airstrike killed civilians

Posted: 29 May 2011 04:23 AM PDT

Western officials say the incident in Helmand province is under investigation. Hours before the attack, Karzai had called for an end to raids on residential compounds.

A new dispute over civilian deaths erupted Sunday when Afghan officials claimed an errant NATO airstrike had killed 14 people, women and children among them.

Amid Egypt's border easing, Gazans feel rare hope

Posted: 28 May 2011 09:36 PM PDT

The step by Egypt offers relief to a Gaza Strip long bottled up by an Israeli-led blockade and is another sign of the changes shaking the Mideast — and pressing Gaza's ruling Hamas toward moderation.

Egypt eased border restrictions for residents of the Gaza Strip long bottled up by an Israeli-led blockade of the seaside enclave in another potent sign of the changes shaking the status quo across the Middle East — and pressing Gaza's ruling militant group, Hamas, toward moderation.

Parent anger plays role in Japan's reversal of raised radiation limits at schools

Posted: 28 May 2011 09:36 PM PDT

Japan's Education Ministry has pulled an about-face, returning exposure limits for schoolchildren 1 millisievert a year. Officials will also pay for removing surface soil from affected schoolyards.

The parents were furious: Why, they demanded, had Japanese officials raised the acceptable level of radiation exposure for schoolchildren near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant?

Europe tour shows Obama feeling more comfortable at the top

Posted: 28 May 2011 08:38 PM PDT

The president seems much more confident during this Europe trip than on his last, in 2009. He's not afraid to lose a game of ping-pong on TV, and is relaxed enough to joke around with another leader.

President Obama played a game of doubles table tennis alongside British Prime Minister David Cameron in London the other day, in a display of awkward athleticism that ended when it was apparent they couldn't beat their opponents — a pair of middle-school boys.

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya returns from exile

Posted: 28 May 2011 08:38 PM PDT

Two years after the coup, the former leader is greeted by a large crowd and pledges to reengage in politics. His return is a condition to reinstating Honduras to the Organization of American States.

Manuel Zelaya, the president of Honduras ousted in a military-led coup nearly two years ago, returned home from exile Saturday, greeted by a large, heated crowd and a nation still bitterly divided by tension and violence.