LA Times News

LA Times News

India on verge of eradicating polio

Posted: 25 Jun 2011 06:32 PM PDT

A more effective vaccine and billions of dollars spent to spread the message and get children inoculated repeatedly is bearing fruit, with reported cases falling drastically.

Scientists, health workers and community outreach officials in India believe they're finally on the cusp of a major milestone, the defeat of polio throughout the country.

Iran slams U.S. at conference on fighting terrorism

Posted: 25 Jun 2011 06:32 PM PDT

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lashes out at the U.S. for drone strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan that have resulted in civilian deaths, saying it has 'a black record in terrorist behavior.'

A battered Peugeot sedan greeted visitors Saturday to a conference hall in north Tehran.

Suicide bombing outside Afghanistan hospital kills 27

Posted: 25 Jun 2011 06:08 PM PDT

The attack east of Kabul levels the hospital's maternity ward, killing many women and children. 'This is a despicable attack,' a U.N. special representative says.

A suicide car bomber killed at least 27 people at a hospital in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, many of them women and children in the maternity ward.

Drug trafficking on the rise through Ecuador

Posted: 25 Jun 2011 05:32 PM PDT

A decade ago, it was a relatively small law enforcement problem. An undercover narcotics officer describes how much worse the streets have gotten.

To hear a 20-year veteran of the force tell it, the streets of Ecuador are a lot meaner for undercover cops these days.

Hundreds rally to protest of rejection of new political party in Russia

Posted: 25 Jun 2011 12:13 PM PDT

The government refuses to register the People's Freedom Party, or PARNAS, which seeks to unite Russia's fractured opposition, citing flaws in its charter. Hundreds turn out to protest that action in Moscow's Pushkin Square, calling it a political maneuver.

Hundreds of people turned out in Moscow's Pushkin Square on Saturday to protest the government's refusal to register a new party that seeks to unify Russia's fractured opposition.

Suicide car bombing at Afghanistan hospital kills at least 15

Posted: 25 Jun 2011 04:27 AM PDT

A Taliban spokesman denies responsibility. Elsewhere, explosives on a bicycle kill 10.

A suicide car bombing outside a hospital in eastern Afghanistan killed at least 15 people Saturday and injured 45 others, just a day after a bomb attached to a bicycle killed 10 people at a market in the northern province of Kunduz.

Zimbabwe diamond export ban ends, despite objections

Posted: 24 Jun 2011 08:07 PM PDT

The international group that monitors 'blood diamonds' OKs exports from the Marange mining fields despite rampant human rights abuses. The U.S., Canada and European Union are protesting the decision.

The international organization that monitors conflict diamonds has agreed to allow Zimbabwe to export diamonds from its vast Marange mining fields despite rampant human rights abuses in the area.