LA Times News

LA Times News

Obama weighs scale of Afghanistan pullout

Posted: 12 Jun 2011 06:19 PM PDT

Amid growing doubts in Congress over the war's cost, the Obama administration begins an internal debate this week on how many troops to bring home, and when.

The Obama administration opens an internal debate this week on the size of a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan amid growing doubts in Congress about the cost and purpose of the decade-long war and public pressure to bring it to a rapid end.

Libyan officials and rebels give conflicting reports on Zawiya fighting

Posted: 12 Jun 2011 06:19 PM PDT

The government downplays the attack in the western town, whereas rebel officials say fierce battles continued late into the day.

The Libyan government said Sunday that it had reopened a major highway from the capital to the Tunisian border after routing rebel fighters on the road near the strategic town of Zawiya.

British fear 'American-style' healthcare system

Posted: 12 Jun 2011 05:24 PM PDT

As leaders debate ways to reform healthcare, politicians repeatedly tell a worried public that Britain will not turn the National Health Service into an 'American-style' private system.

Two years ago, Britons were outraged when U.S. politicians like Sarah Palin, in the debate over healthcare reform, turned this country's National Health Service into a public whipping boy, denouncing it as "evil," "Orwellian" and generally the enemy of everything good and true.

Raid puts Mexican casino mogul in role of victim

Posted: 12 Jun 2011 05:24 PM PDT

With authorities dropping most charges against Jorge Hank Rhon, the Tijuana mayor long suspected of criminal ties, some are speculating the recent raid was a politically motivated bid to set back the PRI in 2012 elections.

The Mexican soldiers stormed the casino mogul's Tijuana estate, rousting him out of bed and allegedly recovering a cache of 88 weapons, among them a revolver engraved with his name: Jorge Hank Rhon. Still in his pajamas, Hank was whisked to Mexico City to be questioned by federal investigators.

Turkey's Islamist-based AKP keeps majority in parliamentary election

Posted: 12 Jun 2011 01:28 PM PDT

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, riding a wave of support from the pious poor and Muslim middle class, garners a majority of parliamentary seats, setting up a third term for Erdogan.

No pressing matter of state like the economy or foreign policy compelled Alayrettin Ayyaldiz to head to a polling station in his modest Istanbul neighborhood Sunday and cast his ballot for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party. It was a vote of faith and emotion.

Fighting ramps up in Sudan border regions

Posted: 12 Jun 2011 12:31 PM PDT

Weeks before southern Sudan gains independence, President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir's troops attack towns around a contested area rich in oil reserves.

Fears of another civil war are playing out in Sudan as troops led by President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir have overrun towns and attacked tribesmen loyal to the south around a contested border region of oil reserves and well-armed militias.

Turkey elections likely to reshape constitution

Posted: 12 Jun 2011 01:47 AM PDT

The suspense over today's vote centers on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and whether his party makes enough gains to solidify his status as leader.

Millions of Turkish voters headed to the polls Sunday for critical parliamentary elections that will likely shape the country's constitution, its conflict with a restive Kurdish ethnic minority and its definition of citizenship.

Badi women of Nepal are trapped in a life of degradation

Posted: 12 Jun 2011 12:40 AM PDT

Sometimes called untouchables among the untouchables, they have for decades been doomed to supporting their impoverished families through prostitution.

Bina Badi tends her garden behind a picket fence. Goats leap. Boys fly kites. Water buffalo laze in the river. Idyllic, except for the used condoms that litter the road and the fact that men have visited her house virtually every day for 28 of her 38 years to enjoy her body, and she sees no escape.

Protesters may not get a say in Yemen's future

Posted: 12 Jun 2011 12:40 AM PDT

Despite their tenacity and desire to fashion a new order, protesters face a threat that it is the contest between President Saleh's family and a rival clan that will decide what change, if any, comes.

For months, the protesters have made their home in Change Square, a colorful patchwork of improvised tents, generators with snaking wires, bags of mildly narcotic khat leaves slung over handles of ceremonial daggers and stalls selling the ubiquitous snack of egg-and-potato sandwiches.

Dozens die in Pakistan blasts

Posted: 11 Jun 2011 11:47 PM PDT

In Peshawar, twin bombings designed to lure rescue workers and police kill 34 and injure 98.

— Two explosions went off minutes apart in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar on Sunday, killing 34 people and injuring nearly 100 in one of the deadliest attacks since the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden last month, officials said.