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...majority of both publics still support the goal of "two states for two peoples," but years of stalemate have sown deep pessimism about the possibility that it will ever come about. A joint survey of Israeli and Palestinian public opinion taken last December found that while 75% of Israelis say they support the establishment of a Palestinian state, only one-third expect it to happen in the next five years. Among Palestinians, 70% believe the chances that an independent state will emerge in the next five years are slim to nonexistent. Two-thirds no longer think a final-status agreement...
Some Haitians say they were jaded on elections in the best of times - and certainly aren't in the mood to go through the exercise during a period of catastrophe. "Elections have done nothing for me," says Jean Bernard Thomas, 45, who has been voting since Haiti's first democratic election, in 1990. "There has to be development along with elections. My kids still can't go to school, and I can't keep them fed. Why bother to vote again...
Guatemalan officials say Portillo's efforts paid off - at least in his case. Wednesday night, a panel of judges approved Portillo's extradition to the U.S. on charges that he laundered tens of millions of dollars that he had embezzled while he was President, including $2.5 million in donations from the Taiwanese government that was meant for children's schoolbooks. Portillo, who was captured by authorities in January near Guatemala's Caribbean coast days after a U.S. indictment was handed down, denies the accusations and calls them a political witch hunt by the U.S. and U.N. But to analysts like...
...prosecutors portray Portillo, 58, as a man ready to exploit his presidency for illicit gain from the moment he took office. Preet Bharara, a U.S. attorney in Manhattan, says Portillo turned "the Guatemalan presidency into his personal ATM." Guatemalan media, quoting Guatemalan government sources, have reported that Portillo's alleged take was approximately $70 million. Aside from the Taiwanese funds, he's also accused of embezzling about $4 million from Guatemala's Defense Ministry. He allegedly laundered the money through accounts in Guatemala and through U.S. and European banks. It was a financial shell game that involved overdrafts so massive...
...institutions are in Guatemala, where an astonishing 96.5% of crimes are never solved. The country's murder rate is eight times that of the U.S. - a plague that was underscored on Wednesday when Portillo's extradition hearing was delayed because the judges had received telephoned death threats. Crime watchers say Portillo, elected in 1999 from the conservative Guatemalan Republican Front Party, presided over much of the deterioration of law and order despite his anti-corruption pledges. "Portillo was the person in charge of weakening the national police," says Mario Polanco, a Guatemalan human-rights activist...