LA Times News

LA Times News

Farewell to Afghanistan, with sadness and affection

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 05:04 PM PDT

A Times correspondent ending a three-year assignment reflects on the fears and horrors, but also on the beauty and people that will make her miss Afghanistan.

KABUL, Afghanistan — After years of comings and goings, almost everything about leaving Kabul is familiar: the ride through dusty dawn streets, skirting past old men on bicycles and boys in horse-drawn carts, the long airport trudge through four luggage screenings and pat-downs, the way the plane's wingtips seem to almost scrape the jagged peaks surrounding the city.

Russia accuses U.S. of human rights abuses

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 04:39 PM PDT

At hearings, Russian officials say the U.S. uses rights issues to meddle in other nations' business while committing the very acts it is 'moralizing' about.

MOSCOW — Prisoners detained without charges. Prisons operating outside the legal system. Limits on free speech and the Internet. Legitimate voters prevented from casting their ballots. Sanctioned kidnappings. Witch hunts and torture.

One shady operator provides glimpse of supply line to Iran

Posted: 21 Oct 2012 10:04 PM PDT

An Austrian who stays a step ahead of the U.S. is accused of being part of a global maze of illicit suppliers who are finding gaps in the sanctions campaign.

WASHINGTON — Austrian-born Daniel Frosch was only 23 when U.S. officials first realized that he had become a small but important cog in Iran's illicit weapons programs.