Mediation

Government and opposition negotiators agreed Friday to work toward a raft of electoral and constitutional reforms, but remained bitterly divided over how Kenya's presidential rivals might settle their differences and share power in a coalition. Former U.N.

Complaining that efforts to resolve Kenya's political crisis have stalled, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday suspended mediation talks and called upon the nation's presidential rivals to work with him directly. "We cannot continue on the current basis," Annan told reporters Tuesday evening after a daylong session with government and opposition negotiating teams ended in insults and acrimony. "We were turning around in circles." Also Tuesday, U.S.

Four days after actors called for bringing in a federal mediator to resolve stalled contract negotiations, the studios finally delivered a response: OK, but don't expect much. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which bargains on behalf of the studios, said in a statement Thursday that "we are, of course, willing to meet with a federal mediator in the hopes of achieving our fifth guild agreement this year."

A beleaguered Los Angeles high school is awash again in controversy as teachers, students and parents continued Wednesday to demand the removal of the school's hard-driving principal amid allegations that he improperly meddled with academic courses. School district officials said Wednesday that they have agreed to bring in the city's human relations commission for mediation at the Santee Education Complex to discuss the future of Principal Vince Carbino.

With a strike deadline looming, negotiators for the Writers Guild of America and the major Hollywood studios made limited headway in contract talks Tuesday as they met for the first time with a federal mediator. After a months-long stalemate, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the writers union met until the early evening at the alliance's headquarters in Encino. Previously, talks typically adjourned in the afternoon.

Hollywood's film and television writers went on strike early this morning after last-ditch efforts to negotiate a deal with the major studios failed Sunday. Despite the aid of a federal mediator and back-channel talks between top writers and studio executives, the sides were ultimately too far apart to bridge the massive divide between them and avert the first writers strike in nearly two decades.

It was 9:15 p.m. on Sunday and negotiators for the major studios and TV and film writers had spent nearly 10 hours holed up in the Sofitel Hotel in West Hollywood trying to sew up an eleventh-hour deal. Studio officials who had been huddling among themselves were about to return to the bargaining table when the bombshell hit: East Coast writers had sent out an e-mail telling the world that the strike had begun in their time zone, at 12:01 a.m.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa seem perfectly positioned to help resolve the Hollywood writers strike. But so far the former movie star and the onetime labor negotiator are at best bit players in the 4-day-old walkout that threatens the region's economy and, possibly, the political fortunes of the two elected leaders. Schwarzenegger had spoken with writers and producers over the weekend and was monitoring the strike, an aide said.

Halfway through his second season in the NFL, Reggie Bush already ranks among the most recognizable and profitable faces in the league. For that he owes thanks to Mike Ornstein, the sports marketing agent who guided him to millions of dollars in endorsement contracts for products ranging from sneakers to submarine sandwiches. Ornstein is also the man Bush fired last week.

A state appeals court has upheld a law allowing a mediator to impose the terms of an initial labor contract if a grower and its employees can't reach an agreement -- a ruling that could increase the clout of farm unions in California. Labor leaders said the ruling would force growers to end what they called a pattern of delaying tactics to avoid signing bargaining agreements.