LA Times News

LA Times News

Syria rebels report fierce battle for Aleppo

Posted: 24 Jul 2012 05:49 PM PDT

Rebels say they are pushing toward the center of the northern city, an apparent attempt to establish a haven close to Turkey. The government responds with warplanes, reports say.

BEIRUT — Fierce fighting was reported in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Tuesday as rebels said their forces were pushing toward the center of the nation's business and financial hub.

Egypt president names new prime minister, a surprise to many

Posted: 24 Jul 2012 05:00 PM PDT

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi names Hesham Kandil, an obscure bureaucrat, to the post of prime minster. Enormous challenges await him.

CAIRO — Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi surprised the nation Tuesday by naming an obscure bureaucrat as his new prime minister to form a government that probably will be held in check by military leaders during an unsteady transition to democracy.

Britain charges 8 in phone hacking scandal

Posted: 24 Jul 2012 04:23 PM PDT

News of the World executives Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson are among those charged in the scandal involving media mogul Rupert Murdoch's British newspapers.

LONDON — Britain'sphone hacking scandal took a dramatic turn Tuesday with the filing of criminal charges against eight people, including a onetime confidant of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and a former senior aide to Prime Minister David Cameron.

Scientists make curing HIV a priority

Posted: 23 Jul 2012 07:20 PM PDT

Once seen as impossible, a cure is now viewed as a realistic goal by more and more researchers, who argue the epidemic cannot be contained through treatment and prevention alone.

An influential group of scientists gathered this week at the International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C., is committing to a goal that just five years ago would have seemed ludicrous: to cure HIV.

Social deprivation hurts child brain development, study finds

Posted: 24 Jul 2012 12:00 AM PDT

Kids who grow up in institutions instead of with families are more likely to have problems, say researchers who tracked Romanian orphans.

Children who grow up in institutions instead of with families have major deficits in brain development, a study of Romanian orphans has shown.

Oswaldo Paya dies at 60; Cuban anti-Castro activist

Posted: 24 Jul 2012 12:00 AM PDT

Oswaldo Paya gained global recognition as top organizer of the Varela Project, seen as the biggest nonviolent campaign to change Cuba's communist system.

Cuban activist Oswaldo Paya, who spent decades speaking out against the communist government of Fidel and Raul Castro and became one of the most powerful voices of dissent against their half-century rule, died Sunday in a car crash in Cuba. He was 60.