Elections

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's long-shot effort to form a majority bloc in parliament and become Israel's next prime minister appeared to be fading Thursday, despite final returns upholding her centrist party's narrow first-place finish in national elections. After a second day of postelection lobbying, Livni had failed to win the support of any other party to thwart a rival leadership bid by conservative opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

Putting aside concerns over a worsening economy, rising crime and increasing social polarization, Venezuelan voters gave President Hugo Chavez a resounding victory Sunday on a constitutional amendment that will allow him to run for reelection indefinitely. With 94% of votes counted, the National Electoral Commission said "yes" votes outnumbered "no" by nearly 1 million, 54.3% to 45.7%.

A plan to restrict overnight parking won the strong support of Venice residents in a nonbinding election over the weekend. The plan still needs approval from the California Coastal Commission, which is expected to take it up in June.

As recently as two months ago, David R. Hernandez said, he didn't even know what Facebook was. Today, he uses the popular Internet social-networking site to help spread the word about his steeply uphill campaign for Los Angeles mayor in Tuesday's municipal primary.

For much of the 16 months he's been campaigning to become El Salvador's first leftist president, Mauricio Funes seemed headed for a landslide victory. But three days before Salvadorans vote, there are signs that the outcome is far from certain as tensions rise throughout this violent, polarized country. Funes, a former television reporter, is the widely popular candidate of the onetime guerrilla movement that fought U.S.

For nearly three decades, Nestor Bonilla was a loyal soldier in the Salvadoran army. Trained by U.S. military advisors, he rose to the rank of colonel. He fought in the civil war as a commander of El Salvador's elite and feared special forces. Today he is stomping the campaign trail in behalf of the guerrilla movement he once battled. "It is time for a change," he says in what can only be called an understatement.

A moderate held Iran's presidency for eight years before the 2005 election of conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and reformist ideas -- among them a belief in liberty, rule of law and government accountability -- remain lodged deep in the psyche of many Iranians. Now reformists are attempting a comeback, with two from their ranks competing against Ahmadinejad in the June 12 presidential election. One of those candidates is a former speaker of parliament, Mehdi Karroubi, who came in third in 2005.

Christopher Sadiki is convinced that Jacob Zuma, the president-in-waiting for the ruling African National Congress, is guilty of corruption. But that won't stop the 21-year-old from choosing the ANC when he votes for the first time this week. "Corruption is everywhere," he said, shrugging. "They're all corrupt." And don't ask him about the opposition -- he doesn't want to know. "I don't support them. I don't know anything about them.

In the four years since he became mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa has thrown his weight behind an array of politicians and would-be officeholders, working to elect candidates to the school board, the Legislature and even president of the United States. But Tuesday's election may present the greatest test to his clout, as he pushes for his closest ally at City Hall, Councilman Jack Weiss, to defeat former prosecutor Carmen Trutanich in the competitive race for city attorney.

A reformist challenger to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized the hard-liner's denial of the Holocaust, saying it has served Israel's interests and pushed Iran deeper into international isolation, a newspaper reported Saturday. Moderate cleric Mehdi Karroubi is one of two reformist candidates hoping to unseat Ahmadinejad in the June 12 presidential election.