By Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from London— With the U.S. handing off responsibility for military action in Libya, scores of diplomats and international officials gathered in London to start plotting the country’s future and declared their resolve to maintain pressure on Moammar Kadafi until he stops attacking his own people.

But there were no Libyans included in the blue-ribbon guest list Tuesday. Nor was there a consensus among NATO countries taking command of the military …

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The announcement came as a coalition of Western and Arab nations prepared for air strikes against Libyan forces.

Before the ceasefire announcement, heavy fighting was continuing.

Rebels said government forces had been bombarding the western city of Misrata. There are claims this has continued despite the ceasefire announcement.

Military action short of an occupation was sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council on Thursday evening.

UN Security Council Resolution 1973 gave broad backing to taking military action against all …

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By Patrick Marley, Don Walker and Jason Stein

Madison — Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi issued a temporary restraining order Friday, halting Gov. Scott Walker’s law that would sharply curtail collective bargaining for public employees.

Sumi’s order will prevent Secretary of State Doug La Follette from publishing the law – and allowing it to take effect – until she can rule on the merits of the case. Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, a Democrat, …

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By Ralph Vartabedian, Los Angeles Times

Small amounts of radioactive isotopes from the crippled Japanese nuclear power plant are being blown toward North America high in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean and will reach California as soon as Friday, according to experts.

A network of sensors in the U.S. and around the world is watching for the first signs of that fallout, though experts said they were confident that the amount of radiation would be well …

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Nick Fielding and Ian Cobain

The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media using fake online personas designed to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.

A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with the US Central Command (Centcom) to develop what is described as an “online persona management service” that will allow one serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities at once.

The contract stipulates each …

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As the world’s attention remains focused on the nuclear calamity unfolding in Japan, American nuclear regulators and industry lobbyists have been offering assurances that plants in the United States are designed to withstand major earthquakes.

But the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, which sits less than a mile from an offshore fault line, was not required to include earthquakes in its emergency response plan as a condition of being granted its license more than a quarter of …

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By Linda Sieg and Chisa Fujioka

TOKYO – Japanese military helicopters dumped water on an overheating nuclear plant on Thursday while the United States expressed growing alarm about leaking radiation and said it was sending aircraft to help Americans leave the country.

Survivors react after collecting their belongings at their destroyed house in a village hit by an earthquake and tsunami in Otsuchi, northeast Japan March 17, 2011. (Lee Jae-Won, Reuters) Engineers tried to run power …

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By NORIMITSU ONISHI, DAVID E. SANGER and MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: March 17, 2011

TOKYO — Amid widening alarm in the United States and elsewhere about Japan’s nuclear crisis, military fire trucks began spraying cooling water on spent fuel rods at the country’s stricken nuclear power station late Thursday after earlier efforts to cool the rods failed, Japanese officials said.

The development came as the authorities reached for ever more desperate and unconventional methods to cool …

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n the past 24 hours, pilots loyal to Muammar Qaddafi have peppered rebel positions on the eastern front of the Libyan war, creating few casualties but feeding the growing unease of an uprising that has stalled.

“If we didn’t have to fear the planes, we’d be advancing much more quickly,” claims Mohammed Abdel Salim, one of hundreds regular army soldiers who defected from Qaddafi’s regime in mid-February and is now helping to organize the civilian militia …

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COLUMBUS, Ohio — The bargaining rights of public workers in Ohio would be dramatically reduced and strikes would be banned under a bill narrowly passed by the Ohio Senate on Wednesday.

The GOP-backed measure that would restrict the collective bargaining rights of roughly 350,000 teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public employees squeaked through the state Senate on a 17-16 vote. Six Republicans sided with Democrats against the measure.

Firefighters and teachers shouted “Shame!” in the chamber …

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