Staff announcement: Changes on the Foreign desk

Following is a memo sent by Foreign Editor Marjorie Miller on Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2008:

I am pleased to announce two changes on the foreign staff:

KEN ELLINGWOOD will move to our Mexico City Bureau next month after four remarkable years in Jerusalem that saw: the second Palestinian initfada, the evacuation of Israeli settlements from Gaza, the rise of Hamas, an Israeli war in Lebanon and the end of the Mideast Titans Yasser Arafat and Ariel Sharon.

A fluent Spanish speaker, Ken is already knowledgeable about many of the bilateral issues affecting the United States and Mexico, having spent a tour covering the border. He is the author of "Hard Line: Life and Death on the U.S.-Mexico Border."   

We look forward to having him train his energy and eye for stories back on Latin America, along with Bureau Chief Hector Tobar and the rest of the Mexico crew.

ASHRAF KHALIL will move to our Jerusalem Bureau. Ashraf started with the Los Angeles Times as a contract reporter in Iraq and after 1½ years of harrowing work moved to the Metro desk. As a general assignment reporter there for the last 1½ years, he has covered fires, skid row homeless, an E. Coli outbreak and many other important stories.

Ashraf will work with Bureau Chief Richard Boudreaux to cover Israel, the Palestinians and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We are fortunate to be adding an Arabic speaker at a time when the intra-Palestinian struggle is such a large part of this epic story.

Before joining The Times, Ashraf was a freelance reporter in Egypt for the San Francisco Chronicle, Baltimore Sun and other publications.  He grew up in Chicago and earned a BA in journalism and political science from Indiana University's Ernie Pyle Journalism School.