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While
Most Americans Still Believe It Was Right to Invade
Iraq, Only 27% of Public Confident That U.S.
Policies Will be Successful
Public
attitudes to Iraq are becoming somewhat
schizophrenic. The latest Harris Poll of Americans
on Iraq contains both good and bad news for
President Bush.
The good news
for the White House includes:
* By 55% to 32%, a clear majority still
believes that taking military
action against Iraq was the
right thing to do.
* Most people with an opinion (and 15%
are not sure) think that we should
be prepared to keep large
numbers of U.S. troops in Iraq for three
years or more.
The list of bad news for the president is
longer:
* A 46% to 27% plurality of all adults
is not confident that U.S.
policies in Iraq will be
successful.
* By almost two-to-one (50% to 28%), a
strong plurality favors the U.S.
handing over control of
Iraq to the United Nations.
* By 54% to 23%, a majority thinks that
most people in Iraq see the U.S.
troops there more as
occupiers than as liberators.
* By 51% to 47%, a slender majority now
gives President Bush negative
rating on his handling of
Iraq over the last several months.
* Those who believe that the level of
U.S. casualties in Iraq is
unacceptable have been
rising slowly. In this new survey they are tied
(47% to 47%) with those who
think that the level of U.S. casualties is
unfortunate but acceptable.
This survey by Harris
Interactive was conducted online with a nationwide
sample of 2,306 adults surveyed between September 16
and 23, 2003, using the same methods employed by
Harris Interactive to forecast the 2000 elections
with great accuracy.
Brazil invests in Cuban tourism industry
Brazil has taken a major stake in the Cuban tourism industry after a meeting between Brazil's President Lula da Silva and Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Tourism is becoming a major business in Cuba and is about to get bigger.
The Brazilian Foreign Ministry has announced Brazilian companies will invest $US165 million in 2,500 hotel rooms.
There could also be ethanol plants and Brazilian buses on the streets of the capital Havana.
The announcements came after President Lula da Silva signed trade and investment deals with Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Cuba is hoping to attract two million foreign tourists this year, despite a United States trade and travel ban.
Honduran president takes tough stance on fighting gangs:
Controversial new law can punish young offenders
with long prison terms
Tegucigalpa, Honduras -- Honduran police have been making a regular practice in recent weeks of descending upon gang-ridden neighborhoods at dawn. As helicopters whir overhead, teams of heavily-armed lawmen in black ski masks and gray camouflage uniforms burst into homes of young suspects, hauling them off to jail.
President Ricardo Maduro, who assumed power last year on a tough anti-crime platform five years after his son Ricardo Ernesto was killed in a botched kidnapping attempt, frequently shows up at the scene to see and be seen.
The biggest weapon at the disposal of the police in these early morning raids is a controversial new anti-gang law passed last month that makes it illegal for any youth to belong to a gang and punishes its leaders with nine to 12 years in prison and fines up to $12,000. Rank-and-file members can receive six to nine years in jail.
The new law is popular in this crime-weary nation of 6.6 million inhabitants, and some observers say it could mark the start of a trend across Central America. Legislatures in El Salvador and Guatemala, which also have serious gang problems, are considering bills modeled after the Honduran legislation.
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