LA Times News

LA Times News

World leaders look for way out of Libya

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 04:06 PM PDT

Russia and Turkey join the discussion as concerns about the NATO campaign's sustainability and a pending ruling by the International Criminal Court add to the urgency.

With questions growing about NATO's air war and international arrest warrants threatening to close off a diplomatic solution, new players are joining the search for a way out of the Libya conflict. But the efforts have stumbled so far on Moammar Kadafi's insistence that he remain in the country.

Syrian crackdown fans sectarian flames

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 04:06 PM PDT

The Alawite-dominated Syrian regime's assault on mostly Sunni and ethnic Kurdish protesters has sharpened sectarian and ethnic divisions that may spill, along with refugees, into neighboring countries.

President Bashar Assad's intensifying crackdown against a three-month-long democratic uprising has become more than a question of who rules Syria.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou offers to resign as austerity protests swell

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 01:12 PM PDT

Violence breaks out in Athens as thousands of Greek workers swarm downtown to protest a package of budget cuts and tax increases for the financially strapped nation.

Angry protesters pushed the Greek government close to collapse Wednesday, putting Europe on notice that deep budget cuts to tame the region's debt crisis face heavy public resistance and could crash on the rocks of national politics.

Pakistan's detention of suspected CIA informants stems from Bin Laden raid frustrations, analysts say

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 11:43 AM PDT

Five Pakistanis believed to have aided the CIA in the operation that killed Osama bin Laden are in custody. The detentions are seen as a reaction by security officials who were embarrassed by the U.S. raid, and a reflection of the widening rift between the two nations.

The detention of five Pakistanis suspected of supplying information to the CIA in advance of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden reflects the deep embarrassment within their country's military and intelligence circles over the unilateral U.S. operation, analysts said Wednesday.

Report describes gun agents' 'state of panic'

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 06:30 PM PDT

Federal gun agents, concerned about weapons sales to Mexican drug suspects, begged to make arrests but were rebuffed, according to a congressional report on a controversial investigation.

Federal gun agents in Arizona -- convinced that "someone was going to die" when their agency allowed weapons sales to suspected Mexican drug traffickers -- made anguished pleas to be permitted to make arrests but were rebuffed, according to a new congressional report on the controversial law enforcement probe.

In Mexico, ex-Tijuana mayor freed but faces new charge of murder

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 09:19 PM PDT

Jorge Hank Rhon is released from detention after a federal judge throws out weapons charges against him. He is now charged in a woman's killing, but a local judge orders him freed and the case appears to be unraveling.

The Mexican government's efforts to prosecute former Tijuana Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon collapsed Tuesday after a federal judge tossed out weapons charges and another judge blocked authorities' last-ditch efforts to keep him under arrest on a new murder charge.