First full Edgar Degas retrospective in nearly 30 years shows an artist who liked to be in control
By Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times
Bob Dylan first musician to win Nobel for literature
“Well, Shakespeare, he’s in the alley
This $5,900 chair may be tech world’s new key to productivity
SAN FRANCISCO—Che Voigt believes his company has solved problems that have plagued the working world since the advent of typing.
Deadly Syria air strikes, shelling hamper aid efforts
CAIRO—Air strikes rocked Syria on Tuesday, killing more than a dozen people in rebel-held areas of the besieged northern city of Aleppo, and the shelling of a government-held area in a southern city killed at least six more people, activists and state media said.
‘Eastern Aleppo turning into another Rwanda’
Rebel-held eastern Aleppo could be “totally destroyed” by year’s end if a campaign of ferocious bombardment of the Syrian city by Russia and Syria continues, a senior United Nations envoy warned on Thursday.
Got kidney stones? Try riding a roller coaster to dislodge them
JUST ask any one of the 300,000 Americans who, in any given year, develop kidney stones: What if the excruciating pain of passing one of those little devils could be prevented by strapping yourself into a make-believe runaway mine train, throwing your hands in the air and enduring G-forces as high as 2.5 for about three minutes? Would you do it?
Boko Haram releases new video of kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls
JOHANNESBURG—Some of the 276 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram have been killed in Nigerian air force bombings, the group said in a video released on Sunday.
Three vaccines block Zika virus in monkeys
One day after US health officials announced an early start to a clinical trial to test a Zika vaccine in humans, researchers reported in the journal Science that three different types of vaccines designed to block the virus all worked to perfection in monkeys.
Looting, unrest roiling Venezuela
CARACAS, Venezuela—Venezuela, where anger over food shortages is still mounting, continued to be roiled this week by angry protests and break-ins of grocery stores and businesses that have left five dead, at least 30 injured and 200 arrested, according to various news reports.
Where Yahoo!’s media play went wrong
SAN FRANCISCO—When Yahoo! announced last year that it had lost $42 million reviving NBC’s TV series Community and launching two other original shows, the company framed it as a failed experiment. It didn’t work, so Yahoo! was cutting its losses.
Trump clinches GOP nomination
Hours after effectively clinching the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump vowed on Thursday to withdraw the United States from the historic Paris Agreement among 195 nations to cut greenhouse-gas emissions in an effort to stop global warming.
Officials: Terrorism more likely in EgyptAir crash
CAIRO—Nearly four hours into a flight from Paris to Cairo, an Egyptian passenger plane with 66 people aboard abruptly swerved and plunged thousands of feet before vanishing from radar screens over the Mediterranean Sea, officials said.
California’s undocumented immigrants allowed to practice their professions
SACRAMENTO, California—In Mexico, Marco Nava was a trained cosmetologist working in a salon. He specialized in hair styling and coloring. But for eight of the nine years since he came to the United States illegally he toiled in the shadows, working as a field hand harvesting grapes.
13.1 million US coastal residents face flooding
As many as 13.1 million people living along US coastlines could face flooding by the end of the century because of rising sea levels, according to a new study that warns that large numbers of Americans could be forced to relocate to higher ground.
‘Ultra-processed’ foods dominate American diet
Researchers who have analyzed America’s eating habits say they can sum up what’s wrong with our diet in just two words: ultra-processed foods.
Syrian peace talks in ‘temporary pause’
GENEVA—The United Nations special envoy for Syria on Wednesday announced a pause in peace talks in Geneva, Switzerland, temporarily derailing the major diplomatic initiative aimed at ending the country’s almost five-year-old war.
Expectations low at Syrian peace talks
GENEVA—There will be no opening ceremony; the guest list remains secret; and strenuous efforts are in place to ensure that rival delegates are never in the same room.
Ramadi’s capture marks strategic victory over IS
CAIRO—The Iraqi military said on Monday that its forces have recaptured the main government complex in Ramadi from Islamic State (IS) fighters who have occupied the city since May, providing a strategic victory and a morale boost to the country’s struggling security forces.
China landslide buries buildings, 91 missing
SHENZHEN, China—At least 91 people were missing on Monday, a day after a man-made mountain of excavated soil and construction waste buried dozens of buildings when it swept through an industrial park in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.
Theme parks beef up security
ANAHEIM, California—Disneyland has long promoted itself as a magical refuge from the worries of everyday life.
Pope Francis enters mosque in heart of sectarian conflict
JOHANNESBURG—The final hours of Pope Francis’s African tour might well have been most dangerous moments of his papacy, as he visited a volatile Muslim neighborhood in the Central African Republic’s capital, Bangui, followed by an open air Mass at a stadium.
Hickory-smoked baby back ribs
By Noelle Carter / Los Angeles Times
UN: Create special court to investigate ‘horrific’ violence in Sri Lanka civil war
MUMBAI, India—Detailing “horrific levels” of violence and likely crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka’s long civil war, the United Nations’s human-rights commissioner called on Wednesday for a hybrid court with international prosecutors and judges to investigate and punish perpetrators.
Mexico to Egypt: Investigate attack that killed 12 tourists
BEIRUT—The Mexican government on Monday demanded an explanation for an apparently mistaken attack by Egyptian forces that killed 12 members of a tourist convoy in the desert southwest of Cairo.
Mayweather insists he’s content at 49-0, unless…
By Lance Pugmire / Los Angeles Times
Egyptian Islamic State group beheaded Croatian hostage
CAIRO—In what could mark an ominous shift in tactics, the Egyptian affiliate of Islamic State (IS) on Wednesday posted a gruesome online image purportedly showing the beheaded body of a Croatian man who was abducted last month on the outskirts of Cairo.
IS in Egypt threatens to kill Croatian captive
Islamic State’s (IS) Egyptian affiliate released a video on Wednesday threatening to kill a Croatian hostage in 48 hours if Muslim women aren’t released from Egypt’s jails.
Taliban leader Omar is dead–Afghan government
MUMBAI, India—As US-backed forces closed in on southern Afghanistan in late 2001, the Taliban leader who lost an eye fighting the Soviet occupation decided not to stay and fight another invader.
Yemen starts truce on Friday
SANAA, Yemen—Yemen’s warring sides have agreed to a temporary halt in hostilities to allow desperately needed aid to reach civilians in the Arab world’s poorest country, the United Nations announced on Thursday.
Oliver Sacks’s ‘On the Move’ a memoir of an extraordinary life
By Heller Mcalpin / Los Angeles Times
Top CEOs lower their economic outlook, plan less spending and hiring
WASHINGTON—Chief executives at the largest US corporations lowered their outlook for economic growth and planned less spending and hiring amid reduced expectations for sales during the next six months, according to a new survey.
Madonna and her ‘Rebel Heart’
MADONNA opens her strong new album with “Living for Love,” a jubilant house jam about moving beyond a debilitating breakup. But love, of course, is only one of the things that pop’s most paradoxical superstar is living for these days.
Russia arrests two in Nemtsov killing
MOSCOW—Russian investigators have arrested two men from the restive North Caucasus region as suspects in the brazen slaying of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov more than a week ago, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSS) chief announced in a televised statement on Saturday.
Obama’s immigration move leaves millions still facing deportation
LOS ANGELES—Minutes after Armando Ibanez heard President Barack Obama tell the nation that millions of people in the country illegally would be allowed to work and live openly in America, the 32-year-old excitedly scrambled to call his aunt, uncle and friends to deliver the good news: They would finally be shielded from deportation.
Spread of Western-style diet bad for health, climate, study says
OVER the next 35 years or so, the populations of the world’s wealthiest nations are expected to be joined at the banquet table by the growing populations of countries undergoing rapid development.
Violence erupts in West Bank; Palestinian killed
JERUSALEM—Fresh clashes erupted on Tuesday in the West Bank, leaving at least one Palestinian demonstrator dead, as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of fomenting a “destructive religious war” over a contested holy site.
Finding the balance: Bryant can’t carry the load by himself
LOS ANGELES—There used to be whoops of fun and frivolity from the Los Angeles Lakers when they were a championship-caliber franchise.
What’s really going on in North Korea
It was a news story that read like the plot of a Peter Sellers or Mike Myers picture: Vertically challenged dictator of a starving populace, overweight and addicted to imported Swiss cheese, falls off his high heels and breaks both ankles. He is sent off to rehab and, in his absence, rivals jostle for preeminence as the world anxiously looks on and speculates.
Apec summit measures leave Beijing with cleaner air
BEIJING—Forget driving every day, and don’t plan on getting married. Don’t think about applying for a passport, or a visa, or registering your business either—those offices will be closed. You won’t be able to purchase fireworks, or go to a gas station with a jerrycan and buy fuel.
Dallas nurses on Ebola hospital care: ‘There was no protocol’
DALLAS—A Liberian man who arrived by ambulance at a Dallas hospital with symptoms of Ebola sat for “several hours” in a room with other patients before being put in isolation, and the nurses who treated him wore flimsy gowns and had little protective gear, nurses alleged on Tuesday as they fought back against suggestions that one of their own had erred in handling him.
US-led coalition boosts air strikes on Islamic State in Kobani, Syria
MURSITPINAR, Turkey—The US-led coalition arrayed against Islamic State (IS) fighters conducted its most extensive air assault to date on Tuesday against the extremists besieging a northern Syrian city, which Turkey’s president described as being on the verge of collapse.
At CounterPunch Studios, actors’ digital doubles come to life
LIKE a scene in a science fiction movie, actor Robbie Amell stands inside a giant aluminum globe, staring into hundreds of bright lights and a half-dozen cameras pointed at him.
HK protests stem from fear of Chinese reunification
CHINA frequently accuses the West, and the United States in particular, of stirring up trouble and fanning fears of China. From foreign-funded non-governmental organizations that spread ideas about human rights and constitutional government, to Western journalistic exposés of the wealth of Chinese officials, the West seems bent on humiliating China, as it has since the early 19th century.
Ukraine cease-fire unraveling; 11 killed
AT least 11 adults were killed in Ukraine on Wednesday when artillery shells struck a schoolyard and bus stop in suburban Donetsk on the belated first day of school for the city at the center of a pro-Russia rebellion against rule from Kiev, Russian and Ukrainian news agencies reported.