Government

I've covered a few natural disasters in my time, and the evacuation scenes looked something like this: rooms abandoned in a hurry, filled only with ghosts. Mail piled up, unopened. Phones that kept ringing, with nobody left to answer. The latest civic emergency comes not with a rush of flames or jolt of earth. It has crept up slowly in an unexpected place: the Los Angeles County Hall of Administration press room.

Half a dozen Republicans decamped from Washington to Southern California this weekend to get away from the crowds, the cold and the Barack Obama bobbleheads. They've rented a house in Palm Springs with a heated swimming pool, a hot tub and an outdoor fire pit.

Two well-known physicians accused of taking part in a plot to overthrow the Islamic Republic were given stiff prison sentences Wednesday, their lawyer said. Arash Alaei was sentenced to six years in jail and his younger brother Kamiar got three years, attorney Massoud Shafaei told The Times, adding that he would appeal the verdict within the 20-day limit. Also Wednesday, human rights activists identified a third defendant in the case: Sylvia Hartounian, 33, a reproductive medicine specialist.

The Obama administration is preparing a comprehensive strategy to address the escalating financial crisis, stem home foreclosures and jump-start the overall economy, signaling that the president hopes to deal with the problems systematically instead of case by case. The plan probably will not be delivered for several weeks, Timothy Geithner, the nominee for Treasury secretary, said Wednesday.

If the Obama campaign represented a sleek, new iPhone kind of future, the first day of the Obama administration looked more like the rotary-dial past. Two years after launching the most technologically savvy presidential campaign in history, Obama officials ran smack into the constraints of the federal bureaucracy Wednesday, encountering a jumble of disconnected phone lines, old computer software and security regulations forbidding outside e-mail accounts.

A new constitution that voters are expected to approve today would give more power to Bolivia's indigenous communities, promote agrarian reform and allow President Evo Morales to seek reelection to another term. But analysts warn that passage of the new constitution also could worsen Bolivia's polarization, throw its legal system into chaos, and discourage investment in the natural resources that are its main ticket to prosperity.

President Obama's first week in power was a whirl of activity, but the orders and pronouncements flowing from the White House had little to do with the central mission of his presidency: overhauling healthcare, weaning the nation from foreign oil and fixing the economy. Obama's early moves carried huge symbolic value. On his first full day he called in top military advisors and pressed them for a faster timetable for withdrawing combat troops from Iraq. He announced that he would close the U.S.

The suicide attacks and car bombs don't strike daily in Iraq anymore. People are venturing out at night. But that doesn't mean voters are satisfied with their leaders. In fact, ask them to list their most important issues in local elections Saturday, and security takes a back seat to basic services, the economy and culture, if interviews with more than 20 Iraqis across the country are anything to go on.

Lee Jung-hee recalls the precise moment when all hell broke loose -- the tie-yanking, headlocks and neck-wringing, the thud of sledgehammers and, ominously, the sickening whine of a chain saw. The 39-year-old had witnessed plenty of violent protests in her native South Korea, where rowdy demonstrations are a Saturday newscast staple. These combatants, however, weren't blue-collar workers or student protesters, but dozens of blue-suited national lawmakers.

Abu Mujahid brags that he bombed a U.S. Army Humvee and wounded two American soldiers just last month. Now he's stumping for Sunni candidates and talking matter-of-factly about the importance of safety as Iraqis head to the polls today. "This is something like a truce so the elections will be implemented in a secure environment," said Abu Mujahid, an active member of the 1920 Revolution Brigades, an armed Sunni Arab group.