LA Times News

LA Times News

French gag on California foie gras ban

Posted: 10 Aug 2012 05:19 PM PDT

Though France isn't directly affected by California's foie gras ban, chefs and politicians there want to make sure the idea doesn't spread. One lawmaker calls for a boycott of California wine.

PARIS — Chef Laurent Delarbre shook his head in disbelief and leaned over a pristine white tablecloth in the dining room of La Tour d'Argent, one of France's oldest and most iconic restaurants.

Whistle-blower in Chinese murder case may face trial

Posted: 10 Aug 2012 05:30 PM PDT

Underlings of former Chongqing Police Chief Wang Lijun go on trial for allegedly helping Gu Kailai, wife of ousted party official Bo Xilai, cover up the killing of British businessman Neil Heywood.

BEIJING — The flamboyant police official who blew the whistle onChina's most sensational murder case by fleeing to a U.S. Consulate appears headed for prosecution himself.

Democratic foreign policy figures press for intervention in Syria

Posted: 10 Aug 2012 05:23 PM PDT

Former Defense Secretary William Perry and former Obama administration officials Ann-Marie Slaughter and Dennis Ross add to pressure on the White House from regional allies and Republican rivals.

WASHINGTON — President Obama's vow to limit U.S. involvement in the Syrian civil war is being criticized from a usually sympathetic quarter: the Democratic foreign policy establishment.

Uniformed man kills 3 U.S. troops in Afghanistan

Posted: 10 Aug 2012 03:54 AM PDT

The Taliban says that after the shooting, the attacker joined the insurgency. He is identified as a member of the Helmand police.

A man in an Afghan army uniform shot and killed three American service members on Friday morning in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military command said, the third attack on coalition forces by their Afghan counterparts in a week. The Taliban claimed the shooter joined the insurgency after the attack.

Syria rebels moving ahead and apart

Posted: 09 Aug 2012 07:04 PM PDT

Even as opposition fighters in Syria have gained firepower and territory, serious divisions and suspicions threaten to hold them back.

ALEPPO, Syria — On a city street where shops once stayed open late selling computers and electronics, children in flip-flops and dusty clothes clambered over the charred, twisted mass of a tank. The hatch hung open and a few kids peered inside, the soldiers' bodies now gone.

In China, Gu Kailai confesses in murder trial, court says

Posted: 09 Aug 2012 08:52 PM PDT

The wife of a fallen Chinese political star and an aide confessed to poisoning a British friend, a court official says after an hours-long trial.

BEIJING — AfterO.J. Simpson was acquitted of murder in 1995, a well-connected Chinese lawyer pointed to the case as proof of the failure of the American judicial system.

France clears out Roma camps, prompting criticism of Hollande

Posted: 09 Aug 2012 04:44 PM PDT

Police in France break up two illegal camps in Lille in the latest raid targeting Roma. Critics say President Francois Hollande is acting like his predecessor.

PARIS — French police on Thursday cleared out two illegal settlements of Roma in Lille, provoking the fury of immigrant organizations that accused the country's new Socialist leader of reneging on election promises and behaving like his conservative predecessor.

Mo Farah spreads thrill of Olympic victory to Mogadishu

Posted: 09 Aug 2012 03:30 PM PDT

Runner Mo Farah's gold medal in the London Games symbolizes enormous hope for Somalis yearning for a normal, peaceful country.

MOGADISHU, Somalia — They came to the stadium in late afternoon, a sprinkle of rain mixing with their sweat as they pounded around the rough sand track.