WORLD
September 2, 2011 | By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times
They huddle beneath dry-docked boats at the edge of the Mediterranean, petrified that the rebel gunmen who now own the streets will confuse them with mercenaries for the despot. "We are workers, we are not soldiers," said Godfrey Ogbor, 29, voicing a plea shared by hundreds of men from sub-Saharan Africa trapped at this makeshift coastal camp 15 miles west of Tripoli. "We don't know politics. We have no guns. " But the new masters of Tripoli suspect that many are something else: shock troops for a reviled regime, collaborators who deserve no pity.
WORLD
March 4, 2011 | By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times
About a dozen African men stood lined along a hallway of the courthouse in the eastern city of Benghazi. The men were suspected of being mercenaries fighting on behalf of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi and had been rousted from their homes in the morning, turned in by residents responding to a rebel campaign urging them to report "suspicious people. " We are construction workers, one of the men said, pleading his innocence to a Times reporter visiting the courthouse, which now serves as the headquarters of the rebel government.
NEWS
February 28, 2011 | By James Oliphant and Christi Parsons, Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday denounced Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi for using "mercenaries and thugs" against his own people and called on the embattled ruler to step down immediately. She said the Obama administration was considering every option against Kadafi and that nothing was "off the table. " Addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Clinton said governments of the world must support the push for democracy in the Middle East.
WORLD
February 24, 2011 | By Raja Abdulrahim, Los Angeles Times
On walls across Libya's second-largest city are the same scrawled graffiti: Game Over. Days after protesters took control of Benghazi after fierce attacks by Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi's militia and alleged mercenaries left many dead and injured, demonstrations continued at the courthouse where they began a week ago. People called for Kadafi's resignation and expressed support for anti-government efforts in the capital, Tripoli, and other cities....
BUSINESS
August 20, 2010 | By Ben Fritz, Los Angeles Times
Hollywood is releasing a family comedy, a romantic comedy, a teen-targeted spoof, a cheesy 3-D thriller and an African American-targeted comedy this weekend. But more moviegoers may stick with the same old action heroes. Director and star Sylvester Stallone's "The Expendables" has the best chance to be No. 1 for the second weekend in a row, said people who have seen surveys of potential moviegoers. The aging-mercenaries tale is projected to sell $15 million to $17 million worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada, down a little more than half from its strong opening weekend.
ENTERTAINMENT
August 13, 2010 | By Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times Film Critic
How expendable is "The Expendables"? That depends on who you are and why you're asking. If that sounds a little Zen-like, that's because the new action opera co-written and directed by and starring Sylvester Stallone exists in a "Twilight Zone" dimension of its own outside of normal critical time and space. In other words, if you want to see old-fashioned nonstop mayhem with stars so venerable that "The Leathernecks" (and I don't mean Marines) might be an alternative title, reviews are going to be superfluous.