LA Times News

LA Times News

Pakistan military adversary recounts violent backlash

Posted: 21 Nov 2012 06:10 PM PST

The lawyer who takes on the powerful military says he has been beaten and his car burned. Despite risks, he says he'll keep fighting because no one else will.

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — Inam ul Rahiem has made himself a nettlesome adversary of Pakistan's powerful military. The lawyer and retired army colonel has represented families who claim their loved ones have been secretly abducted by security forces. More recently, he has taken on Gen. Ashfaq Kayani with a legal claim that the army chief must step down because he has reached retirement age.

India says execution not end to justice efforts in Mumbai attack

Posted: 21 Nov 2012 06:22 PM PST

New Delhi wants Pakistan to hand over senior insurgents believed to have planned the 2008 attack that killed 166.

NEW DELHI — India's execution Wednesday of the only surviving gunman in the 2008 attack on Mumbai that killed 166 people won't deter its ongoing effort to bring the planners to justice.

Israel-Hamas cease-fire gives each side enough to claim success

Posted: 21 Nov 2012 04:55 PM PST

Israel agrees to end hostilities on land, sea and air and to halt targeted assassinations of militant leaders. Palestinians agree to stop rocket and border attacks.

GAZA CITY — An Egyptian-brokered cease-fire agreement to end eight days of clashes between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip relies heavily on the goodwill of two of the Middle East's bitterest enemies, but gave each enough to claim success.

In Myanmar, returning exiles show capacity for forgiveness

Posted: 21 Nov 2012 06:29 PM PST

Thousands of dissidents and student leaders freed from prison or invited back to Myanmar, also known as Burma, are able to put aside vengeful feelings.

YANGON, Myanmar — Maung Thura, a comedian known as Zarganar, is a barrel of a man, stocky with a shaved head and a deep, forceful voice that seems out of place among the fluorescent lights and office furniture of the Home media group he recently helped found.

Tel Aviv bus bombing shatters any illusions of safety

Posted: 21 Nov 2012 05:00 PM PST

Attack leaves 21 injured in the Israeli city, which has enjoyed a relative sense of security in recent years.

TEL AVIV — A bus bombing in downtown Tel Aviv, the first in the city in years, injured 21 people Wednesday, shattering windows, nerves and illusions.

Gaza City's Mukhabarat building defies Israeli airstrikes

Posted: 21 Nov 2012 04:59 PM PST

The former home of Fatah's intelligence service has been bombarded by Israel repeatedly but won't fall down.

GAZA CITY — It's the building that refuses to die.

Hillary Clinton joins efforts to halt Israel-Hamas fighting

Posted: 21 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PST

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrives in the Mideast for talks. A cease-fire agreement appears close but elusive. The toll climbs on both sides.

GAZA CITY — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pressed for an end to rocket attacks on Israel and a durable regional peace as she arrived in the Middle East to join efforts to end a week of fighting between Israel and the Islamist militant group Hamas.

Intelligence officials edited talking points on Libya attack

Posted: 21 Nov 2012 12:26 AM PST

Intelligence officers, with CIA input, removed the terms 'attack, 'Al Qaeda' and 'terrorism' from the Benghazi talking points used by Susan Rice, an official says.

WASHINGTON — Authorities with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, in consultation with the CIA, decided to remove the terms "attack," "Al Qaeda" and "terrorism" from unclassified guidance provided to the Obama administration several days after militants attacked the U.S. mission in Benghazi, a senior official said Tuesday.

Palestinian Authority sidelined in Hamas-Israel conflict

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 07:56 PM PST

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has had no role in efforts to broker a cease-fire between Israel and the militant group Hamas, leading to questions about his relevance.

RAMALLAH, West Bank — The hostilities in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas have raised sympathy among many Palestinians for the Islamist militant group and elevated its status at the expense of the rival Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, observers say.