LA Times News

LA Times News

Widows, India's other 'untouchables'

Posted: 15 Oct 2012 06:04 PM PDT

Nearly 15,000 have settled in the city of Vrindavan, filling charity-run ashrams. Many have come to escape abuse by in-laws. Others were simply banished.

VRINDAVAN, India — Lalita Goswami was married only a few years when her husband, a Hindu priest who beat her and abused drugs, died of an apparent overdose. She was left with three young children.

Colombia rebels' post-conflict role a key issue in peace talks

Posted: 15 Oct 2012 05:44 PM PDT

In Oslo, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and the government will also focus on agrarian reform and victims' rights, among other issues.

BOGOTA, Colombia — Among the many thorny issues to be hammered out in peace talks beginning Wednesday in Oslo between Colombia's government and the country's largest rebel group is what sort of post-conflict political role will be afforded to the insurgents.

Scotland to hold independence referendum in 2014

Posted: 15 Oct 2012 05:49 PM PDT

Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and British Prime Minister David Cameron agree on a vote that could see the biggest British political shake-up in a century.

LONDON — The people of Scotland will decide in 2014 whether to stay yoked to England and Wales or become an independent nation after more than 300 years of sometimes resentful marriage.

Tension escalates along Turkey-Syria border

Posted: 14 Oct 2012 11:58 PM PDT

Many fear the region could become the starting point of a regional war that no one seems to want but that appears to be closer than ever.

HACIPASA, Turkey — The turrets of Turkish armored vehicles rise from the cotton fields outside this border village, guns trained toward Syria.

One Kenyan's online crusade against corruption

Posted: 15 Oct 2012 01:24 AM PDT

Bribery for government services is so pervasive that Anthony Ragui started a website to let people report instances. The goal: Empower them to say no.

NAIROBI, Kenya — The euphemisms for bribery in Kenya are as quaint and unthreatening as an honest policeman's smile: "something small," "facilitate," "do the necessary," "tea money."