Supermarket Magnate Wins Panama Election

A conservative supermarket owner won a landslide victory in Panama's presidential election, in a rare win for the political right in the region. Ricardo Martinelli, a multimillionaire who financed his own campaign, vowed to expand investment in the Panama Canal and introduce a flat tax. "We can't continue to have a country where 40% of Panamanians are poor," he said in his victory speech. (More Panama stories.)