‘Dramatic’ decision promised in talks
JERUSALEM – Israel will make “dramatic decisions” to reach a final peace agreement that will end the conflict with the Palestinians, Israel’s chief negotiator said Tuesday while warning that hawks inside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition are making her job more difficult.
Tzipi Livni’s remarks came as a senior Palestinian official said that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met for their second round of peace talks Tuesday. The first round was held last week in Jerusalem.
The Palestinian official, who is close to the negotiations, said the sides held two rounds of talks in Jerusalem but refused to disclose the precise location. He spoke on condition of anonymity because both sides promised U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry not to discuss details with the media.
But she predicted there would be “dramatic decisions in the end,” and lamented the lack of support from elements in the coalition.
Drug cartel ‘queen’ back in Mexico prison
MEXICO CITY – Purported drug cartel operator Sandra Avila Beltran, known as the “Queen of the Pacific,” was returned to Mexico from the U.S. on Tuesday and quickly taken to prison to face money-laundering charges.
Avila Beltran, known for her good looks and saucy attitude when she was arrested in 2007, looked haggard and had gray streaks in her once-black hair in a photograph published by local media when she was taken off a plane at the Mexico City airport.
The Attorney General’s Office later said in a statement that she had been quickly whisked off to a prison in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit to await trial on the money-laundering charge.
Avila, 52, has been in custody since 2007 when she was charged with conspiracy to traffic drugs and organized crime. A Mexican judge acquitted her of those charges in December 2010, but she remained in custody and was extradited to the U.S. a year ago.
She pleaded guilty in April to being an accessory after the fact in a criminal organization that included Juan Diego Espinosa Ramirez, her boyfriend at the time. Espinosa pleaded guilty in 2009 to cocaine trafficking charges.
Associated Press
