LA Times News

LA Times News

Making ends meet in a fragile Egypt

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 07:39 PM PDT

A knife sharpener and his son walk the streets looking for scarce work in a nation where the economy has yet to recover from the revolution.

He walks the streets of the rich with a grindstone on his back and his son at his side.

Greece passes austerity package

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 03:21 PM PDT

The Greek Parliament votes 155-138 in favor of $40 billion in painful budget cuts and tax increases over the next few years as street protests rage on.

Greece took a step back from imminent default Wednesday by passing a stinging new austerity package but failed to dispel fear that its mounting debt is becoming unsustainable and, sooner rather than later, will still have to be restructured.

With President Hugo Chavez in Cuba, Venezuela cancels summit

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 07:39 PM PDT

Chavez, who was to have presided over the Latin America and Caribbean Summit on Development and Integration next week, is recovering from surgery in Cuba; there has been little information about his illness.

Casting more uncertainty on the health of President Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's Foreign Ministry announced Wednesday that it has canceled a summit of foreign leaders scheduled for next week that Chavez was to have presided over to mark Venezuela's bicentennial independence celebration.

Mexico's ex-ruling party is back to its autocratic ways, opponents say

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 06:44 PM PDT

The PRI, whose seven decades in power ended in 2000, is accused of using state money to buy votes. Rival parties want a gubernatorial election voided even before votes are cast.

State elections this weekend in Mexico are shaping up as a revealing test of whether the once-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party, on a steady march to retake the presidential palace, has changed its old autocratic ways.

Sudan President Bashir scrambles to save regime

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 06:44 PM PDT

Short of cash and increasingly isolated, Bashir orders his soldiers to overrun towns in the oil-rich Abyei region while he flies to Beijing to woo a powerful partner.

His nation on the verge of shrinking, and trouble unfolding in every direction, Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir is playing warrior and diplomat in efforts to keep his supporters loyal and his economy from collapsing under huge debt.

Afghan Taliban sends message with hotel attack

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 03:47 PM PDT

If the Taliban was trying to play on unease among Afghans and Western governments about the ability of the police and army to safeguard the country, it chose the right target and time.

Nazeer Amiri, an ex-cop out for a leisurely late dinner with friends at a hilltop hotel, could hardly believe his eyes.

Egyptian protesters demanding brutality trials continue to clash with police

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 07:43 AM PDT

Several hundred protesters battle security forces outside the Interior Ministry, demanding swifter trials for officials accused of brutality during the revolution. The violence reveals continued Egyptian mistrust and anger toward the state and its police.

Several hundred Egyptian protesters hurling rocks and battling through tear gas clashed with security forces for a second day Wednesday outside the Interior Ministry as the demonstrators pressed for swifter trials for officials accused of brutality during the revolution that ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

Greece approves austerity bill, setting in motion brutal budget cuts

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 06:33 AM PDT

Greek lawmakers vote, 155-138, to approve the controversial austerity measure, authorizing $40 billion in budget cuts as well as tax hikes.

Greece has approved an austerity bill that helps pull the debt-ridden country back from the brink of an immediate default. After days of public unrest and impassioned debate, the Greek parliament voted 155-138 on Wednesday in favor of the controversial bill, which authorizes $40 billion in brutal budget cuts and tax hikes over the next several years for a nation already reeling from previous belt-tightening measures.

Attackers kill 8 at landmark Afghan hotel

Posted: 28 Jun 2011 10:39 PM PDT

Gunmen and suicide bombers strike the tightly secured Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, which has a large foreign clientele. The eight attackers are also killed.

A team of gunmen and suicide bombers struck a landmark hotel in the Afghan capital Tuesday evening, Afghan officials said, killing eight civilians and and setting off an hours-long battle that ended only after NATO helicopters swooped in to help. All eight attackers also died.

French travel back to simpler time

Posted: 28 Jun 2011 04:16 PM PDT

The open-air dance halls that thrived on the rivers around Paris a century ago find new life as people seek relief from the stress of modern times.

A few feet from an overgrown path that hugs the banks of the still, green Marne River, two fishermen doze in a small wooden boat under the buzzing wings of insects. Awakened on a humid late afternoon, they raise a beer and shout, "Bonjour!"