Israeli Political Crisis Overshadows Rice's Trip — JERUSALEM — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held a series of talks on Israeli-Palestinian peace here on Sunday, saying she believed an accord was attainable by year's end. But the process was overshadowed by an intensifying police investigation
Corruption eats away at Afghan government The man considered by many observers to be the most powerful and feared figure in the Afghan south is Ahmed Wali Karzai, appointed by his brother, President Hamid Karzai, to represent Kandahar province in Kabul. A U.S. government document leaked to ABC News two years ago accused him of being the central figure in the region's vast opium-export market, which produces the majority of the world's opium and heroin. This week, senior U.S. and British officials said in interviews that they believe he enables, and likely profits from, opium shipments across southern Afghanistan to Iran, and prevents opium crops of those who support him from being eradicated... A campaign is underway to get the former mujahedeen fighter Gul Agha Sherzai, removed from the same office. Mr. Sherzai had admitted to receiving $1-million a week from his share of import duties and from the opium trade, and was considered violent and dangerous. He was immediately made governor of U.S.-led Nangarhar province in the east. U.S. officials said that they believe he has a net worth of $300-million from his time running Kandahar.
Seized funds often not used for crime war --Hundreds of thousands of RICO dollars went for uses other than law enforcement Pima County law enforcement agencies seized almost $24 million from criminals over the last five years under state and federal forfeiture laws. The vast majority of that money was channeled back into the war on crime... But an Arizona Daily Star investigation of how those funds were spent over the last five years found hundreds of thousands of dollars that could have been spent on law enforcement or crime prevention went instead for banquets, promotional items such as golf tees and polo shirts, expensive office furniture and funeral flowers.
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