The Bush Administration has announced it will participate in an upcoming international conference on the Middle East conflict. In the meantime, negotiations will go forward, "to create two peaceful states side by side," President Bush said. 

One analyst says she expects more of the same, and that is not very good. Heidi Shoup, executive director of the Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine says there is little hope of the United States making much headway toward a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

She cites the overwhelming support of Israel in the U.S. Congress with a leading member even advocating the removal of Palestinians from the West Bank. 

"This back and forth does not seem to be getting us any closer to peace or security for either people or resolution of the conflict overall. In the meantime, it is putting America in a situation of looking ridiculous all over the world," she said. "The impression is either Sharon is not listening to Bush or it is all kind of a theater, and [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon is actually doing what [President] Bush wants him to do." 

As evidence, Heidi Shoup notes the United States stood idly by while Israeli forces systematically destroyed the Palestinian Authority and then caved in to Israel's refusal to let the United Nations investigate its attack on the Jenin refugee camp. 

"I am more optimistic, " said Kenneth Katzman, a senior analyst at the Congressional Research Service. Just back from consultations in Europe, he believes progress is possible. 

"If the parties came as close as they did at the Taba talks in January 2001, which all sides acknowledge was very close to what could be accepted, or at least the Labor Party in Israel acknowledges that, and the Palestinians believe that, then I think inevitably these parties can get back to that framework," he said. 

Mr. Katzman says this will take time and perhaps leadership changes in both camps. 

The Bush administration says it is engaged in multiple levels of conversations on the issue. In what is known as the Quartet, U.S. Secretary of State Powell is meeting with Russian, U.N. and EU leaders. The Saudis are also deeply involved. 

Mr. Katzman says there is a definite road map ahead. 

"There is going to be a focus on reconstructing the West Bank, providing aid to the Palestinians, maybe resuming some sort of security cooperation to make sure we do not get radical factions sabotaging the progress with another big suicide bombing," he said. "There is a lot of work that is going to go on before that big conference." 

Mr. Katzman says members of the U.S. Congress are understandably concerned about the dangers to Israel, which has suffered from violence along with Palestinians. 

Heidi Shoup says the U.S. Congress may encourage Prime Minister Sharon's resistance to a settlement, but President Bush enjoys high poll ratings among the American people. Like Presidents before him, he can draw on that support. 

"He is in probably in a position to be able to say, 'OK, I am commander in chief here, not the people on Capitol Hill, and I speak for the national interest, and this is what we are going to do.' At some point, one has to think that America's vital interest and America's position in the world have to be judged apart from short-term political considerations by any party," she said. 

Both Heidi Shoup and Kenneth Katzman say the Middle East conflict should be carefully distinguished from the war on terror. Different strategies apply, highly complex in each case. 

World Press Freedom Day has been marked by an assessment of conditions journalists face in their reporting. Two reports by journalism organizations say that press freedom has been in crisis since the September 11 attacks, and journalists are increasingly under threat. 

Daniel Pearl (Wall St. Journal photo)

Marianne Pearl

 Two watchdog groups, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Border based in Paris agree - press freedom is under assault. Both organizations have released reports describing deteriorating conditions for journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists says 37 news reporters died doing their jobs last year.

 Reporters Without Borders found that last year, 500 journalists were arrested, more than 700 were threatened or physically attacked and nearly 400 media outlets were censured. All those figures increased from the previous year.

 Committee to Protect Journalists Director Ann Cooper says military campaigns that followed the September 11 attacks created a climate that further threatened press freedom in both authoritarian regimes and democratic countries. Ms. Cooper says that eight journalists were killed covering the war in Afghanistan, where she says the U.S. government often hampered independent reporting.

 "Globally, what journalists are facing now is a worldwide press freedom crisis. And much of it does stem from the attacks on September 11 and the subsequent U.S. military actions taken in the name of fighting terrorism," she said. "We've just been seeing a general deterioration in press freedom conditions and more governments willing to use the fight against terrorism as an excuse to crack down the press."

 Ms. Cooper says obstacles journalists face in the West Bank is a striking example of violations of press freedom during so-called campaigns against terrorism. The West Bank tops the group's list of the 10 most dangerous places to be a journalist. 

"And the very worst situation of them all has been in the West Bank, particularly in the last few weeks, where we've seen the Israeli government put a ban on all journalists from the areas where it launched its military incursion," she said. "We've had cases of the Israeli Defense Force using threats, intimidation and sometimes even potentially lethal force to prevent journalists from covering those military operations."

 The Committee to Protect Journalists singled out Colombia as the second most dangerous place to be a journalist. It says 29 journalists were killed in the last decade in Colombia, where reporters face serious risks covering drug trafficking, corruption and violence by leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary groups. 

The third most dangerous place is Afghanistan, and Eritrea, is number four. Since September, the private press has been banned there and at least 13 reporters are behind bars. 

Although press freedom has improved in Yugoslavia since the fall of Slobodan Milosevic, the Committee to Protect Journalists says reporters continue to face enormous challenges in Belarus, Burma, Zimbabwe, Iran, Kyrgystan and Cuba.

 Chairman of the World Press Freedom Committee James Ottaway Jr., a vice president of the company that owns The Wall Street Journal, spoke of the loss of reporter Danny Pearl at the United Nations for World Press Freedom Day. Mr. Ottaway says press freedom is a basic human right that must be safeguarded.

 "Press freedom is the oxygen of human freedom. And like oxygen in the air we take it too much for granted in advanced democratic nations," he said. "We do not condemn often enough the constant violations of free speech and basic press freedom in roughly two-thirds of the countries which are members of the U.N."

 Mr. Ottaway says that only 20 percent of the world population enjoys a completely free press. That, he says, is a very sad statistic.

French President Jacques Chirac appears to be set for a landslide victory this Sunday when he faces extreme-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen, whose success in qualifying for the presidential run-off sent shivers through the political establishment in France and across Western Europe. A stunned French electorate seems to be rallying behind Mr. Chirac to make sure Mr. Le Pen does not pull off another surprise.

 The latest polls indicate that Mr. Chirac will obtain between 75 and 82 percent of Sunday's vote. But the polls were wrong before the first round of elections on April 21, when they predicted a run-off between Mr. Chirac and Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. Pollsters now say that everything depends on how big the abstention rate is this time around, and whether people who normally vote for leftist parties will actually turn out to support Mr. Chirac.
 
 

Jean-Marie Le Pen

 Mr. Chirac is trying to portray himself as the candidate of national unity and, in a television appearance Thursday night, sought to reach out to voters of all stripes. He says that, once voters have expressed themselves democratically, the president becomes the president of all the French people, without exception.

 Analysts say that many French voters supported Mr. Le Pen in the first round because they felt mainstream politicians like Mr. Chirac were out of touch with the issues that matter to them the most, such as rising crime, immigration and political corruption.

 Mr. Le Pen has painted himself as the champion of the so-called "little people," who worry about those issues, unemployment, and what they see as France's loss of sovereignty to the European Union and to global business.

 The far-right leader dismissed Wednesday's massive mobilization against his candidacy, saying he listens to voters, not to demonstrators. And, at his own May Day rally in Paris, he charged that what he describes as a self-serving political establishment is out to crush him any way it can.

 Mr. Le Pen says his opponents include the street, the political parties, the labor unions, the freemasons and a handful of Marxist bishops. And, he says, they have regimented athletes, actors and intellectuals to come out against him.

 But what Mr. Le Pen claims is the mobilization of voters against him seems to be having some effect. Odile Meurvet, a housewife in Bordeaux, says Mr. Le Pen must be stopped. She says that, even though she doesn't particularly like Mr. Chirac, she will vote for him because it is necessary to keep Mr. Le Pen's percentage of the vote as small as possible.

 Mr. Chirac has been tainted by allegations of corruption going back to his days as mayor of Paris, and he is detested by the French left. Some leftists say they will wear surgical gloves when they vote for him or put clothes pegs on their noses to make the point that they have no other alternative.

 Mr. Le Pen's faithful will turn out in force to vote for his populist mix of anti-immigrant, pro-employment and law-and-order promises. Claude Askalovitch, who has written books about the French far-right explains just who these people are.

 "They are French fundamentalists. France above all. The France that never really existed," he said. "If France comes back, well [they think], we'll have jobs and a post office next door, and the teachers will be better off."

 Le Pen supporters, like Marseilles secretary Josiane Lopez, say Mr. Le Pen is the only candidate who can save France from decline. "The only candidate we haven't tried out is Jean-Marie Le Pen, and I think his program would help sort out all the things that keep getting worse," she said.

 Even someone as anti-Le Pen as Marseilles community activist Alain Manouche says the concerns about crime voiced by Le Pen supporters must be addressed by mainstream politicians. "If someone does something bad, he's got to go to jail," he said. "We've got to say that very frankly...even if he's Arab, if he's Jewish, if he's poor, it's not an excuse."

 Mr. Manouche says Mr. Le Pen's National Front could gain further support if the political mainstream fails to deal with the problems that turned his fringe candidacy into a political force.

 Mr. Le Pen himself, even if he stands no chance of winning Sunday's run-off, has promised to fight on in parliamentary elections next month, and for as long as he can. 

But the Cuban American National Foundation, an influential lobbying group, is expressing support for former President Jimmy Carter's upcoming visit to the island as an opportunity to push human rights issues.
 
 

AP
Jorge Mas Santos

 "President Carter has a great opportunity in Cuba," he said. "We think he can take advantage of that."

 Mr. Mas says the ground rules established for President Carter's visit make the trip palatable to his organization.

 "That he is going to have unfettered access to the Cuban people, through Cuban television and Cuban media; that he is going to be able to speak and move about the island freely," he said. "We think this could have a very positive impact." 

Former President Carter has, for years, expressed opposition to the long-standing U.S. economic embargo of Cuba, which the Cuban American National Foundation views as a critical tool to force democratic change on the island. Speaking with reporters recently, Mr. Carter gave no indication that his views have changed on the matter. 

Jimmy Carter VOA Photo - G. Flakus

 Observers say Mr. Carter's trip comes at a time when Cuban exiles are making a concerted effort to appear less strident and inflexible in staking their positions. The exile community was heavily criticized for intransigence amid the upheaval surrounding Cuban shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez two years ago, when overall U.S. public gradually swung in favor of reuniting the boy with his Castro-loyalist father. 

The Cuban American National Foundation says Mr. Carter's trip to Cuba should focus on human rights and democratic change, not U.S.-Cuban policy. 

"We have to advocate a position, opening a space for those in Cuba who cannot speak for themselves," CANF Chairman Jorge Mas Santos said. "It should not be a referendum on U.S.-Cuba policy, but advocate for freedom and human rights in Cuba."

 However, many exiles doubt Mr. Carter's trip will, by itself, bring change to Cuba. They note that Fidel Castro remains staunchly committed to a socialist path, and has flatly rejected suggestions of reform from other high-profile visitors, most notably Pope John Paul II, who made a pilgrimage to Cuba in 1998. 

Former President Carter will be in Cuba from May 12 through the 17, traveling as a private citizen. He will be the most prominent U.S. official to visit the island since Fidel Castro came to power in 1959. 

Marc Ravalomanana

Five of Marc Ravalomanana's top aides issued a statement saying he will form a government aimed at reconciling the Malagasy people. The aides say this government will work to ensure what they call "the best democratic outcome" to the island's political crisis.

 Earlier this week, the High Constitutional Court declared Mr. Ravalomanana the winner of December's disputed presidential election, after the court recounted the ballots. The recount was part of a deal signed in Senegal last month by both Mr. Ravalomanana and his rival for the presidency, incumbent President Didier Ratsiraka.
 
 

Didier Ratsiraka

 But Mr. Ravolomanana's aides say he will take the oath of office Monday. He had originally scheduled his inauguration for Friday, but delayed it apparently at the request of the Organization for African Unity, or OAU. An OAU delegation is in Madagascar for talks with both sides, trying to broker a solution to the standoff.

 Meanwhile, the provincial governor of Mahjanga announced he was declaring his province to be independent from the capital. Four provinces, all led by supporters of Mr. Ratsiraka, have essentially seceded from the nation since the court declared Mr. Ravalomanana the winner. The governors say they are forming a confederation, although they cannot legally withdraw from the nation of Madagascar.

 The dispute has been simmering since the original election results were announced in January, giving neither man an absolute majority and sending the election into a second round.
 
 

VOA Photo - C. McDonough

The two men have run rival governments since then, with Mr. Ravalomanana based in the capital city of Antananarivo, and Mr. Ratsiraka in the port city of Toamasina, also known as Tamatave.

 Mr. Ratsiraka's supporters have blockaded the capital, keeping fuel and other vital supplies from reaching the opposition stronghold. The incumbent president has refused to lift the blockades, despite agreeing to do so in Senegal.

 Early Friday, saboteurs believed to be supporters of Mr. Ratsiraka blew up another bridge leading to the capital. It is the fifth bridge destroyed since the blockade began. 

 As Marvel comic book fans around the world know, teenager Peter Parker, bitten by a radioactive spider, gains superhuman strength and agility, but still has to deal with the angst and anxiety of adolescence. In the long-awaited film version, it's updated to a bite from a genetically engineered spider that gives young Peter his powers. There are other changes, but director Sam Raimi says his goals were to make an entertaining film and to stay true to the spirit of the original.
 
 

AP
Spider-Man director Sam Raimi poses with his two sons, Lorne, left, and Henry

Raimi cast Tobey Maguire as the hero, who first appears as a reed-thin, glasses-wearing weakling, always the target for abuse by his muscular classmates. After the fateful spider bite, he squeezes into a skin-tight red-and-blue bodysuit and mask to become New York's ultimate swinger: literally swinging through the city on strands of super-strong spider web that his genetically changed body now produces. Although much of the web swinging is computer-enhanced or performed by stunt doubles, Maguire says he felt it was important that he be in the Spider-Man suit and mask as much as possible when the character is on screen.
 
 

AP
Actor Tobey Maguire at Spider-Man premiere

Of course, the other familiar comic book characters are all here: Rosemary Harris as Aunt May and Cliff Robertson plays gentle Uncle Ben; J.K. Simmons is J. Jonah Jamieson, the blowhard editor of the tabloid Daily Bugle; Kirsten Dunst dons a red wig to play Peter's sexy girlfriend Mary Jane "M.J." Watson.
 
 

AP
Kirsten Dunst

There are plenty of high-energy action scenes and fights, but director Raimi, a longtime fan of the comic book, says he was always conscious of the young audience.

 "I didn't want to have too much bad language or violence in the picture, " he says. "I knew it was a big superhero picture and, good or bad, I knew that millions of children would go to this movie and point at the guy in the mask and want to be like him; so we would have all this unearned admiration for the person on the screen. I felt a tremendous amount of responsibility to provide somebody on the screen.... a character... worthy of that admiration," he stresses. "I not only wanted to make the parents feel okay about it, I also did not want to provide a disservice to the children by providing a bad role model. I actually wanted to have somebody worthy of their respect and admiration." 

It wouldn't be Spider-Man without a fantastical villain and drama veteran Willem Dafoe fills that spandex suit as the megalomaniac "Green Goblin." 

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