LA Times News

LA Times News

Deadly car bombs shake Syrian city of Dara

Posted: 10 Nov 2012 06:24 PM PST

Toll is unclear in the blasts in Dara as the government and rebels release conflicting information. In Qatar, Syria's main opposition group is at an impasse.

BEIRUT — Several car bombs rocked the southern Syrian city of Dara on Saturday, a day in which opposition activists meeting abroad failed again to reach agreement about the shape of a government-in-exile acceptable to the United States and other nations sympathetic to the rebellion against President Bashar Assad.

Spain's Basque Country bouncing back quickly from recession

Posted: 11 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PST

The Basque Country's bad reputation shielded it from the construction bust, and its blue-collar strength has provided stability.

BEASAIN, Spain — The Spanish countryside is littered with unfinished condos, stillborn reminders of the country's disastrous construction boom gone bust. But the verdant valleys and Atlantic cliffs of the northern Basque Country are virtually free of that blight.

The Nile, Egypt's lifeline in the desert, comes under threat

Posted: 11 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PST

Poor African capitals are increasingly challenging Cairo for the river's water, without which Egypt's economy would wither and die.

CAIRO — Overwhelmed by cascading economic and political problems since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, this nation teeters from within even as it biggest threat may lie hundreds of miles away in the African highlands. Buried in the headlines is the future of the Nile River — and thus the fate of Egypt itself.

Canada looks to lure energy workers from the U.S.

Posted: 10 Nov 2012 03:42 PM PST

In its quest to increase oil production, Canada is lobbying job fairs and air waves for laborers. California has become a prime target.

EDMONTON, Canada — With a daughter to feed, no job and $200 in the bank, Detroit pipe fitter Scott Zarembski boarded a plane on a one-way ticket to this industrial capital city.

Guards testify in Afghanistan massacre case

Posted: 10 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PST

One says he saw a U.S. soldier returning to camp after midnight on the night 16 Afghans were massacred in their homes. Another saw a soldier leaving again later.

JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. — An Afghan guard testified Friday night that he was "shocked" to see a U.S. soldier returning to the remote Army camp he was guarding around 1:30 a.m., the same night 16 Afghan civilians were shot to death in their homes.