ENTERTAINMENT
March 22, 2012
Breakout British boy band One Direction made history Wednesday as its Stateside debut, "Up All Night," bowed at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart after selling more than 176,000 copies last week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That made it the first British group to take the top spot in the United States with its debut release. "Up All Night" is only the second disc of 2012 to unseat the chart-topping run by One Direction's Columbia Records label mate Adele following Bruce Springsteen's "Wrecking Ball.
ENTERTAINMENT
January 30, 2012
What legendary Oscar-winning film actor's first of five wives, Josephine Dillon, was 17 years older than him? Clark Gable
NATIONAL
January 19, 2012 | By Mark Z. Barabak and Maeve Reston, Los Angeles Times
In one of the wildest days of a tumultuous presidential campaign, one candidate quit, another was stripped of his victory in Iowa and a third was scalded by an ex-wife in a brutal national television interview. By the close of Thursday, however, the contours of the Republican race remained about where they were 24 hours earlier: with a jostling field of contenders vying to emerge as the alternative to front-runner Mitt Romney by scoring a breakthrough in South Carolina. In that way, the upheaval served only to underscore the dynamic of a contest that has been unsettled for months, save for one constant: Romney's good fortune as a series of twists has kept any single opponent from gaining desperately needed traction.
WORLD
December 21, 2011 | By Sergei L. Loiko, Los Angeles Times
As hopes faded Tuesday for the rescue of 39 workers still missing after an oil rig capsized in a fierce winter storm off the east coast of Russia, the wife of one of the men called the towing of the platform through icy waters a suicide mission. The multi-ton Kolskaya oil and gas drilling platform sank Sunday in the Sea of Okhotsk about 146 miles off Sakhalin Island while being towed to its new destination in Vietnam. Fourteen crew members were rescued and 14 were found dead Sunday, officials said.
NEWS
November 2, 2011 | By Lisa Mascaro and Kathleen Hennessey
When all else fails, try breaking bread together. As the White House and congressional Republicans continue on a seemingly endless loop of political partisanship, Vice President Joe Biden has invited Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the House Majority Leader, to dinner this evening. The two seemed to hit it off earlier this year, an odd couple of sorts as they holed up in negotiations on a bipartisan deficit-reduction proposal. But Cantor abruptly bolted from those talks and it became clear compromise was not to be found.
WORLD
October 23, 2011 | By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times
Libya's new leaders declared their nation "liberated" on Sunday, paving the way for elections and a constitution that the revolutionary government says will put the country on a path to its first representative democracy. The long-awaited pronouncement came with a heavy dose of Islamist sentiment, as Mustafa Abdul Jalil, leader of the transitional government, embraced the Muslim code known as Sharia law as a foundation for future legislation. During his more than four decades in power, Moammar Kadafi viewed Islamists as a threat and jailed hundreds of suspected religious militants.