LA Times News

LA Times News

Top Kadafi aide survives NATO airstrike

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 07:24 PM PDT

Libyan government officials say 15 people, including three children, were killed in the strike on Khweldi Hamedi's home west of Tripoli. NATO defends the attack as a 'a precision strike on a legitimate military target.'

He is a man of peace, the Libyan government says, one of a group of junior officers who, with Moammar Kadafi, overthrew Libya's king more than four decades ago and set out to create a more egalitarian society.

Syrian protesters fill streets after president's speech

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 05:09 PM PDT

Bashar Assad promises political reforms but offers no concrete steps toward democracy.

Thousands of antigovernment demonstrators took to the streets Monday immediately after Syrian President Bashar Assad delivered his first public address in two months, a speech promising political reforms but offering no concrete steps toward democracy demanded by a burgeoning protest movement.

Europe delays $17-billion payment to Greece

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 05:09 PM PDT

Eurozone ministers say they will release the bailout funds only if the Greek Parliament approves a controversial austerity program that faces strong opposition at home.

European finance officials Monday postponed a decision on handing debt-laden Greece its next installment of emergency loans, increasing the pressure on Athens to enact new austerity measures and fueling market fears of a national default.

Mexican journalist, family slain

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 05:12 PM PDT

Gunmen kill a columnist in Veracruz, who wrote about corruption and drug violence. His wife and son are also slain.

A newspaper columnist known for writing about corruption and drug violence was slain early Monday — along with his wife and son — by gunmen who broke into the family home as they slept.

North, south Sudan agree to pull troops from Abyei

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 05:09 PM PDT

Leaders agree to demilitarize the disputed oil-rich region after talks in Ethiopia. U.N. peacekeepers will be sent to patrol the area.

Leaders of northern and southern Sudan agreed Monday to demilitarize the disputed border region of Abyei after an incursion by northern forces, which still occupy the region.

Under pressure, Syria's Assad pledges reforms

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 04:13 AM PDT

The embattled president mentions a possible change in the constitution to allow political parties, but opponents say he offers no concrete steps toward democracy.

In his first public address in over two months, Syrian President Bashar Assad, facing international and domestic pressure for rapid change, promised to open the country's political system and allow for a change of the constitution, but he unveiled no concrete new reforms and continued to blame unspecified foreign conspiracies for the violence perpetrated by his security forces.

Yelena Bonner dies at 88; wife of Andrei Sakharov was a Soviet human rights activist

Posted: 19 Jun 2011 10:44 PM PDT

Bonner and her husband, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, led and inspired the human rights movement in the former Soviet Union.

Reporting from Moscow -- Yelena Bonner, human rights activist and widow of Soviet dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov, has died. She was 88.

South Korean pastor tends an unwanted flock

Posted: 19 Jun 2011 07:55 PM PDT

In a country that prizes physical perfection, Pastor Lee Jong-rak, his eyes opened after caring for his own disabled son, has been taking in unwanted infants, who if not for his drop box would be left in the street.

The drop box is attached to the side of a home in a ragged working-class neighborhood. It is lined with a soft pink and blue blanket, and has a bell that rings when the little door is opened.