Raza

In response to Morning Report's "Plaza to Lose Leader" (March 26) about Gema Sandoval leaving her post as executive director at Plaza de la Raza, The Times states that she leaves "during a period of turmoil." The Board of Directors of Plaza de la Raza takes exception to that statement. Plaza de la Raza has never been more prolific in its programming, more active in its community and more visible in the arts and culture area. We service more than 600 children a week through our after-school program.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Raza Gul trudges the half-mile to work through a maze of brick and mud homes, sewage streams and toddlers running naked. She's two months pregnant, and her lower back aches as she steps over ditches and eyes speeding cars. Her sister-in-law, a frail woman, shadows her. They say little. The slight wind chills Gul and she thinks about the cost of wood to heat her home and keep her four children warm. She is certain that her husband is already prowling their neighborhood hillside, hunting his first hit of opium for the day. She knows he'll walk to one of the local dealers, then sit alone in their crumbling house, roll his stash in foil and smoke.

Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, today amid tensions over U.S. military strikes against militants near that country's border with Afghanistan. Mullen was also scheduled to talk with Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gillani.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan's Supreme Court convicted Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday of contempt for failing to revive a long-standing graft case against President Asif Ali Zardari, a ruling that could eventually result in the premier's ouster and ramp up political tension in an important but troubled U.S. ally. The court opted not to sentence Gilani to a maximum six months in prison. However, under Pakistani law, a conviction could entail disqualification from the office he has held since 2008.

The commentary by Frank Sotomayor on AIDS education (Dec. 5) was right on! You are correct. We can't pretend AIDS does not exist. We have to educate ourselves and our children. Come on, Raza! The life you save may be your own. JOHN J. HERNANDEZ Highland Park

Senior U.S. envoys have traveled to Pakistan's volatile North-West Frontier Province to visit U.S.-funded border guards who are struggling to secure an area where Osama bin Laden may be hiding. Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte and Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher arrived in the capital, Islamabad, on Tuesday, as newly elected Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gillani was taking his oath of office. Gillani's civilian government has pledged to roll back the powers of President Pervez Musharraf and review U.S.-backed counter-terrorism policies, though he has said the fight against terrorism would continue.

As gang violence increases from San Clemente to La Habra, gangs have become a growing concern throughout Orange County and a Priority for police and the district attorney's office. Gangs of all kinds operate within the county. Some are so-called "territorial" or "turf" gangs, whose members believe they control specific areas; others are considered "nomadic," operating in various places in he county with no special turf. Some are considered violent; some are not.

A national Latino civil rights organization said it is pulling its 2009 convention from Kansas City because a member of a group opposed to illegal immigration was appointed to the city's parks board. The National Council of La Raza said its board came to the decision unanimously after being unable to reach an agreement with Mayor Mark Funkhouser over his appointment in June of Frances B. Semler, a member of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps.

Theater troupe Culture Clash presents "An Intimate Evening of Revolutionary Comedy," Friday at 7 p.m. at UCLA's Freud Theatre, to benefit Raza Graduation Fundraiser. Following the performance, Culture Clash members Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza will participate in a question-and-answer session with the audience; the evening also will include a raffle for original artwork by Self-Help Graphic Artists. Suggested donation is $10.

A dispute between Plaza de la Raza administrators and two employees sparked picketing and a news conference Friday by a Latino group that accused the organization's leaders of losing touch with the community they are supposed to serve.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday sought to secure help from Pakistani leaders in facilitating peace talks with Pakistan-based Afghan Taliban leaders, while the militant group denied any interest in negotiating with an "impotent" administration. Karzai's visit to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, came amid reports that he had said in an interview that the U.S. and Afghan governments had begun secret talks with the Afghan Taliban. In recent months, U.S. officials have been meeting with Taliban envoys to discuss the establishment of a Taliban office in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar.

  Pakistan'sSupreme Court on Monday indicted Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on contempt charges, accusing him of repeatedly ignoring its orders to revive long-standing corruption proceedings against the nation's president. Gilani must now brace for a trial in coming weeks that could end in his conviction, his disqualification from holding office for five years and a prison term of up to six months. Appearing in the packed courtroom, Gilani could have forestalled the indictment by telling the seven-judge panel that he would comply with its order to write a letter to Swiss authorities asking that they reopen a money laundering case against President Asif Ali Zardari.

Dealing a heavy blow to Pakistan's embattled government, the Supreme Court on Monday initiated contempt proceedings against Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani for refusing to revive a long-standing corruption case against the nation's president. Gilani, a top ally of President Asif Ali Zardari in the ruling Pakistan People's Party, must appear before the court Thursday, when the justices will listen to his explanation for not going ahead with the case. If the court moves forward with the contempt proceedings and Gilani is convicted, he could be disqualified from office and forced to step down.

A key party that had defected this week from Pakistan's ruling coalition returned to the government Friday, a move that averts a major political crisis at a time when Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani's embattled administration is struggling to overcome mounting economic turmoil and a resilient insurgency. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement's decision to rejoin the coalition, led by Gilani's Pakistan People's Party, came just a day after Gilani told the nation he was reversing his decision to impose fuel price increases as high as 9% that had kicked in Jan. 1. The highly unpopular increases had been harshly criticized by a broad spectrum of political leaders, and MQM officials had cited them Sunday as a prime reason the party was leaving the ruling coalition and joining the opposition.

The assassination of a prominent lawmaker in Karachi, Pakistan, triggered a wave of revenge attacks that had claimed at least 45 lives as of Tuesday and raised fears of a new cycle of reprisal killings in Pakistan's largest city. So-called targeted killings, often motivated by political feuds and sectarian divisions, have plagued Karachi for years. This year, however, their number has risen sharply, with an estimated 170 people slain in targeted killings and reprisal attacks. Last year, the total was 152, according to government figures.

Senior Indian and Pakistani officials pledged Thursday to improve frosty relations between their nations following a meeting between their prime ministers at the periphery of a regional summit in Bhutan. Lowering the temperature between the wary nuclear neighbors has been a key goal of the United States in its broader bid to root out terrorism in South Asia. As Washington sees it, the more troops Pakistan can shift from its border with India to the porous divide it shares with Afghanistan, the better are the odds of it routing Taliban and Al Qaeda insurgents operating in its lawless tribal areas.

The Latino Theatre Lab, for merly an affiliate of Los Angeles Theatre Center and then the Mark Taper Forum, moves into Plaza de la Raza in full force this week, opening a revival of the group's 1987 LATC production of "La Victima" on Wednesday as a fund-raiser for the campaign against Proposition 187. The production will kick off a year in which the Lab and the Plaza will explore ways to fund a permanent residency for the Lab at the Plaza.

A stint behind bars doesn't always have to be an ignominious coda to a politician's career. In the case of Yusaf Raza Gilani, it became a badge of honor. Gilani was an opposition party stalwart in 2001 when Pakistan's then-President Gen. Pervez Musharraf gave him and other supporters of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto a choice: switch over to the general's side, or spend time in prison. "Some gave in, but Gilani refused," said Syed Nazimuddin Shah, a provincial lawmaker and a friend of Gilani since childhood.

President Obama has nominated Arizona federal trial court Judge Mary H. Murguia to serve on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, the court announced Friday. Murguia, 49, is the president's second nomination to the nation's largest and busiest appeals court, with UC Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu named last month to one of three vacancies on the court with 29 judgeships. Confirmation hearings for Liu had been scheduled this week but were scrapped by Republicans within the Senate Judiciary Committee registering their displeasure over passage of the healthcare bill.