LA Times News

LA Times News

U.S. rebuffs Israel on 'red lines' over Iran nuclear program

Posted: 10 Sep 2012 06:03 PM PDT

U.S. officials say they do not intend to set 'red lines' or deadlines. Skeptics say such moves could limit U.S. options and risk drawing the nation into a war.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is rebuffing Israeli pressure to sharpen its threats to Iran over its disputed nuclear development program.

India cram schools offer a chance at upward mobility

Posted: 11 Sep 2012 12:00 AM PDT

In Kota, students cram for the grueling engineering entrance exam that could earn them a spot in one of 15 elite Indian Institutes of Technology, or IITs.

KOTA, India — The fourth of seven children of illiterate parents, Mohammad Ahmad grew up on his family's two-acre farm with barely enough to eat. Now that farm, which supports two dozen people in his extended family, is being used as collateral for a chance to score big here in India's cram school capital.

Academic, civic activist is elected Somalia president

Posted: 11 Sep 2012 12:00 AM PDT

Hassan Sheik Mohamud, a former UNICEF official and founder of the opposition Peace and Development Party, is seen as a progressive.

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Lawmakers overwhelmingly elected an academic and civic activist as president of Somalia on Monday, in a United Nations-backed effort to put the country's lawless past behind it and forge its first stable central government in more than two decades.