LA Times News

LA Times News

Eurozone slips back into recession

Posted: 15 Nov 2012 04:03 PM PST

Growth in core countries such as Germany and France couldn't counteract the plunges in long-struggling nations such as Spain and Italy. Portugal took an especially nasty 0.8% dive.

The Eurozone is back in a recession, its first in three years, as gross domestic product for the debt-plagued 17-nation bloc contracted 0.1% in the third quarter from the earlier quarter.

Obama will tout nations' progress on three-day Asia tour

Posted: 16 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PST

Visits to Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia are part of his goal of shifting focus from the Middle East to the Asia-Pacific region and engaging formerly isolated nations.

WASHINGTON — Coming off his victory on the home front, President Obama is headed abroad for a quick trip through a trio of Southeast Asian countries, a tour aimed at highlighting what the administration views as seeds of foreign policy successes.

In Nairobi, Kenya, biogas from human waste wins over few cooks

Posted: 16 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PST

A sanitation initiative that provides clean toilets and cheap fuel is seeing limited success.

What if someone decided to clean up Nairobi's slums and dispense with what locals call the "flying toilet," a plastic bag of feces thrown into the choked, filthy gutters?

Death toll grows as Israel-Gaza violence escalates

Posted: 15 Nov 2012 04:36 PM PST

Hopes for a quick resolution fade after Palestinians cross a long-standing Israeli red line by using newly acquired long-range rockets to fire at Tel Aviv.

GAZA CITY — The rapidly escalating conflict between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip was defined on its second day by images of its most helpless victims.

China's new party leader eschews predecessors' rhetoric

Posted: 15 Nov 2012 04:30 PM PST

Xi Jinping's speech omits mention of Marxism-Leninism or Mao Tse-tung. Instead, he focuses on the need to improve the people's well-being and tackle corruption.

BEIJING — No references to Marxism-Leninism or Mao Tse-tung. A speech lasting all of 16 minutes.

Suu Kyi's piano tuners play small but key part in Myanmar history

Posted: 15 Nov 2012 05:45 PM PST

During democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi's years under house arrest, a small band of technicians cared for her beloved but decrepit instrument and helped lift her spirits.

YANGON, Myanmar — Ko Paul had been warned that the old Yamaha piano in the upstairs sitting room of the dilapidated lakeside mansion was in bad shape.

Stone-tipped spear invented earlier than thought, researchers say

Posted: 15 Nov 2012 06:43 PM PST

Homo heidelbergensis developed the weapon 500,000 years ago, long before Neanderthals and Homo sapiens made them, a study finds.

It was among early man's greatest technological feats: a fully engineered weapon that combined a wooden shaft, mixed adhesives and a stone that had been chiseled to a lethal point.

China unveils new leaders

Posted: 14 Nov 2012 11:41 PM PST

Xi Jinping is named party general secretary, making his ascension to president next year official. The Standing Committee roster signals little political change.

BEIJING — China on Thursday unveiled the men who will lead the country for the next decade after a Communist Party congress that was more about pomp and pageantry than real political change.