U.S., Afghan diplomats work toward long-term agreement

KABUL, Afghanistan — Diplomats from the United States and Afghanistan met formally Saturday for just the second time since the two countries signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement a year ago as they sought to hammer out a pact defining Washington's 10-year commitment to the war-ravaged country.

A senior diplomat from each nation spoke of progress afterward, but the talks come at a time of tension over Afghan President Hamid Karzai's criticism of U.S. actions in his country as the NATO combat mission winds down.

L.A. County officials worried about costs of immigration overhaul

WASHINGTON — Few regions will absorb the impact of future immigration reforms more than Los Angeles County, home to an estimated 1.1 million people in the country illegally, one-tenth of the nation's total.

As the Senate Judiciary Committee began debating the bipartisan immigration bill last week, county officials voiced concerns that local taxpayers will be "left holding the bag" to pay for the brunt of healthcare and other services for multitudes of immigrants who apply for citizenship.

Congress speaks with a loud, muddled voice on Syria

WASHINGTON — Sen. Dianne Feinstein made headlines recently by demanding a forceful U.S. response to Syria's use of chemical weapons against its population.

Less noticed was that the California Democrat wasn't urging deeper military involvement or other dramatic steps, but only a new push for action by the United Nations Security Council, which has already rejected Western-backed resolutions on Syria three times.

Five killings at Camp Liberty in Iraq: Calculation or despair?

JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, WASH. — The court-martial of Army Sgt. John Russell concluded Saturday with a military judge asked to decide whether the 14-year Army veteran was deluded by depression and despair as he shot five fellow service members in Iraq, or was executing a calculated plan of revenge against psychiatrists who had blocked his hopes for an early exit from the Army.

In closing arguments after a week of testimony, Judge David L. Conn was presented two starkly different views of what drove Russell, 48, to seize his escort’s M-16 rifle and gun down five people at the Camp Liberty combat stress center at the Baghdad airport on May 11, 2009.

Bank robbery suspect in San Diego arrested after hailing a cab

A 57-year-old man was arrested Saturday on suspicion of bank robbery after being spotted leaving the bank in a cab, San Diego police said.

Andrew Geils was arrested minutes after a robbery at a Citibank branch in downtown San Diego. Witnesses reported to police that Geils left the bank and hailed a cab.

Ban on hypnotism to be lifted in Huntington Beach

The Huntington Beach City Council has approved the introduction of an ordinance that would repeal a law prohibiting hypnotism.

Brought to the dais by Mayor Pro Tem Matthew Harper and Councilwoman Jill Hardy, the item passed unanimously Monday after council members made light of the city law that was adopted in 1979.

Teen guilty in murder of mother, stepfather

Jury deliberates three hours in the murder trial of Cynthia Alvarez, 16, for her role in her parents' slayings in Compton in 2011.

A 16-year-old girl was found guilty Friday of murdering her mother and stepfather, capping a two-week trial in which the teen admitted driving to buy party supplies while her mother's decomposing body was in the back of her vehicle.

Crime alerts for Mid-Wilshire, Exposition Park and 14 other L.A. neighborhoods

Crime reports are up significantly in 16 L.A. neighborhoods, according to an analysis of the latest week of LAPD data by the Los Angeles Times’ Crime L.A. database.

Nine neighborhoods reported a significant increase in violent crime. Mid-Wilshire (A) was the most unusual, recording 11 reports compared with a weekly average of 2.6 over the last three months.

Exposition Park (J) topped the list of eight neighborhoods with property crime alerts. It recorded 29 property crimes compared with its weekly average of 17.4 over the last three months.

One neighborhood triggered alerts for both violent and property crime.

Alerts are based on an analysis of crime reports for April 29–May 5, the most recent seven days for which data are available.

Violent crime up significantly

Neighborhood	Average	Reports
Mid-Wilshire	2.6	11
Mid-City	3.8	8
Woodland Hills	1.7	5
East Hollywood	7.0	15
Echo Park	1.8	4
Harvard Heights	2.7	5
Studio City	0.6	3
Silver Lake	1.1	3
Jefferson Park	3.1	7

Property crime up significantly

Neighborhood	Average	Reports
Exposition Park	17.4	29
Westlake	32.1	49
Glassell Park	4.9	10
Playa del Rey	3.1	6
Sunland	4.7	10
Mid-City	20.2	28
Harbor City	9.9	14
Fairfax	12.7	20

3 killed, 1 seriously injured in Harbor Gateway shooting

L.A. police believe the incident at an apartment complex was 'an argument gone wrong.'

Three people were shot to death, and a was fourth wounded, in a dispute that may have been over drugs at a Harbor Gateway apartment complex, officials said.

Makeup artist describes a frail, ailing Jackson

Michael Jackson's diminishing figure — so thin that a costume designer claimed he could see the pop star's heartbeat through his skin — failed to even concern his own manager, according to testimony given Friday.

"Get him a bucket of chicken," Frank DiLeo replied when told of the singer's dramatic weight loss, Karen Faye said.

Naked airport protester still in hot water with TSA

The man who stripped naked at a Portland, Ore.,  airport last year in protest of what he saw as overly invasive security measures successfully defended himself against a charge of indecent exposure.

But John Brennan hasn’t yet put the incident behind him.

Letters: Safer with guns

Re "Beliefs on gun crime way off," May 8

How can The Times manage to mention that "some researchers" attribute the significant reduction in gun crime in the United States to the reduced use of lead in gasoline (other causes mentioned were the decline in crack cocaine use and high incarceration rates), but not the fact that the number of violent crimes involving guns has decreased coincidentally with the increase in the rate of gun ownership in this country?

Teen guilty in murder of mother, stepfather

A 16-year-old girl was found guilty Friday of murdering her mother and stepfather, capping a two-week trial in which the teen admitted driving to buy party supplies while her mother's decomposing body was in the back of her vehicle.

Jurors quickly rejected defense arguments that Cynthia Alvarez was an innocent victim of horrific abuse who had been helpless as her violent teenage boyfriend killed her parents in her Compton mobile home in October 2011.

Judge again rejects limits on emergency contraception

In yet another scathing critique of government health officials, a federal judge refused Friday to stay his order making emergency contraceptives available to consumers of all ages without a prescription.

Calling government efforts to restrict the sale of drugs such as Plan B "frivolous and taken for the purpose of delay," U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman of New York wrote that the medications would be available to all unless the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled otherwise by noon Eastern time on Monday.

First responder in Texas blast is held on pipe-bomb charge

HOUSTON — A paramedic who responded to the devastating fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, last month was arrested Friday after federal investigators said they discovered he had the makings of a pipe bomb.

It was not clear whether the arrest was connected to the April 17 explosion, which killed 14 people and injured more than 160 others in the small McLennan County town about 70 miles south of Dallas. The explosion had been investigated as an industrial accident, but officials said Friday they had started a criminal investigation.