BOGOTA, Colombia — To help curb the problem of illegal drugs, President Bush has decided to "make an unprecedented investment in demand reduction" in the United States, says John Walters.

He is director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Walters, speaking at a press roundtable here, told reporters that the United States intends to "begin to radically reduce the demand for drugs in our nation" as part of a comprehensive policy that addresses issues of domestic drug consumption as well as predominantly foreign sources of supply.

To that end, the president will pledge $1.6 billion over a five-year period to fund treatment programs for drug addicts, Walters said. He noted that "we are also going to expand our prevention efforts" in the United States, and President Bush "wants to be personally involved in leading some of those efforts."

Moreover, Walters added, the United States will work closely with its partners and allies around the world to coordinate counter-drug strategies on all levels, including law enforcement and alternative-development initiatives. He pointed out that drug trafficking — inevitably accompanied by bribery, corruption and violence — seriously undermines the ability of democratic institutions to function properly. In response, the United States will strongly support measures to bolster democracy "where we have partners and opportunities," he said.

Increased cooperation on counter-drug policy throughout the Western Hemisphere will help 
 

"I think our own president and leaders now are interested in attacking the demand-and-supply problem in a way that has not been possible before, [which] gives us an historic opportunity to reduce this threat to both the well-being of our peoples and the democratic institutions" of the hemisphere, he said. "I also think the bottom line is if you are in the drug business, it's time to get out."

In a related development, the White House reported Wednesday that illicit drug use drained $143 billion from the U.S. economy in 1998. As further data is calculated, losses for the year 2000 could mount to more than $160 billion.

"Drug use results in lower productivity, more workplace accidents and higher health care costs — all of which constrain America's economic output," the report said.

Lost productivity accounted for the greatest economic drain of any single category, according to the report. In 1998, the report cites $98.5 billion in economic losses due to incarceration of otherwise productive individuals, premature death, drug abuse-related illness, hospitalization and other factors.

The study only examined the estimated costs stemming from the abuse of illicit drugs. Economic losses that may be accrued through the abuse of alcohol or legal pharmaceutical drugs are not included in this analysis.

The study is available in full at http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/
publications/pdf/economic_costs98.pdf

The United States will set up a special visa designed for white slavery victims who cooperate with law enforcement against those responsible for their enslavement.

In a prepared statement Thursday, Attorney General John Ashcroft said the so-called T visa, created by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, allows victims who would suffer "unusual and severe harm" if returned to their home countries to remain in the United States.

"After three years in T status, these victims of human trafficking may apply for permanent residency," Ashcroft said. In addition, subject to some limitations, the regulation allows victims to apply for non-immigrant status for their spouses and children.

The attorney general said the latest action sends a powerful signal that human freedom will be protected in the United States, where it's estimated that 50,000 people, overwhelmingly women and children, are brought illegally from other countries each year.
 

Anti-money laundering
task force meets soon

The Financial Action Task Force, an international group of countries devoted to fighting money laundering, will meet next Wednesday through Friday in Hong Kong to assess members' progress towards denying terrorists and their supporters access to the international banking system, the group announced.

Members include 29 governments plus the European Commission and the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Prompted by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the United States, the group held an emergency session in Washington in late October and adopted eight recommendations designed to break up terrorist funding networks. These include criminalizing the financing of terrorist organizations; freezing and confiscating terrorist assets; reporting suspicious transactions linked to terrorism; strengthening customer identification measures for wire transfers, and ensuring that non-profit organizations cannot be misused to finance terrorism.

In addition to reviewing their anti-terrorism provisions, members will discuss and update the list of countries and territories that are deficient in their anti-money laundering systems or are unwilling to co-operate in anti-money laundering efforts.

 The task force will also release its annual survey of money laundering trends and techniques.

Teachers in France
are out on strike

PARIS, France — Almost one-third of France's teachers have gone on strike demanding better working conditions and more staff.  The walkout forced a quarter of France's primary schools to close. 

Earlier, France's national health service and one union representing family doctors reached a pact aimed at ending walkouts by medical workers. However, the government stressed a final agreement had yet to be worked out that would include the union representing the largest number of French doctors. Thousands of French family doctors went on strike Wednesday demanding higher fees for office and home visits.
 

Six border jumpers
die in boat mishap

At least six people have died after their boat hit a rock and sank in the Usumacinta River dividing Guatemala and Mexico. At least five of the 23 people on the boat survived the accident. 

Mexican officials said Wednesday they had recovered six bodies along the banks of the river. A survivor of the accident said the group of Central Americans had embarked Saturday to cross the river to Mexico. Most of the passengers are still unaccounted for.  The survivor said each person had paid $300 dollars to board the boat. Authorities believe they were trying to reach the United States.  At least five of the confirmed dead are believed to be Salvadorans.
 

Quake was a 3.2 pointer

A small earthquake Monday had a magnitude of 3.2 on the Richter Scale, according to the Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica.

The tremor at about 10:36 p.m. was located at a depth of about 22 kms. (about 13 miles) below a point some eight kilomters (five miles) west of San Marcos de Tarrazú, the observatory staff said. The quake was blamed on a local fault there.
 

A spacelink will join English teachers in San José with their colleagues in the Dominican Republic and Cuba today for a roundtable with an American University professor in Washington.

The link is being sponsored here by The Costa Rican-North American Cultural Center in Los Yoses. The professor is Bock Brady, who teaches courses in Language teaching and testing, cultural issues in the English-as-a-second-language classroom and Curriculum and Materials Development. 

An announcement by the U.S. Embassy here noted that this would be the first time that teachers in Cuba participated in such a program.  The hookup and discusion will begin about 12:30 p.m., said the announcement.

The emphasis of the seminar is how teachers can be more efficient in teaching students the English-language tools they will need to be members of the global community, said the release. There is a cultural emphasis, too.

Brady’s research interests include cross-cultural discourse analysis, pronunciation, assessment, and distance learning. He is advisor of the Korean Writing Project, a faculty/student research group and the English Literacy Project, designed to provide English tutoring for custodial workers at American University.

A Fulbright Scholar and former Peace Corps volunteer, Brady has taught in Korea, Paris, and Togo, W. Africa. In the United States he has directed short-term intensive ESL programs for several universities and taught community college ESL classes for refugees. From 1993 to 1997 he managed English teaching programs for the U. S. Information Service at American cultural centers in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and Cotonou, Benin, where in addition to directing language courses, he established professional translation services, according to the university.

Menem investigated
in Iranian bribe case

BUENOS AIRES— A published report says former Argentine President Carlos Menem is under investigation for allegedly taking bribes from the Iranian government to hide its link to a July 1994 bombing. 

Thursday's Los Angeles Times newspaper says Argentina asked Switzerland to join the probe, suspecting Iran paid Mr. Menem $10 million through a Swiss bank. 

The paper says that Iran allegedly wanted Menem to remain silent about its involvement in the July 18, 1994, bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed at least 85 people. 

The paper also says Menem, who is of Syrian descent, obstructed investigations into the attack so he could hide his government's links to Middle Eastern terrorism and organized crime. Leading members of Argentina's Jewish community have blamed Lebanese-based Hezbollah guerrillas and Iran for the attack. Iran denies involvement. 

The paper also says a Swiss judge began pursuing the case based on testimony given to Argentina by a former Iranian spy. The former president, for his part, denies taking bribes and says he does not own a Swiss bank account. 

A Geneva judge said he had blocked two bank accounts in October allegedly linked to Menem, who held office from 1989 until 1999. 

Swiss authorities say those two accounts had been frozen amid charges Menem was involved in the covert delivery of weapons to Croatia and Ecuador in the 1990s. At the time, both nations were under an international arms embargo. The former president spent five months under house arrest in connection with the arms scandal.

Child dies in fire

A child, Marilu Irbina Reyes, 1 1/2, died in her bed about 7:30 Wednesday night when a candle fell into some plastic and ignited a blaze in the family dwelling in Precario Jasmin in Alajuelita, according to investigators. 

The mother was in a nearby home with another child when the fire broke out. Investigators have termed the death accidental.

Neighbors beat,
shoot suspect

Neighbors thought they saw someone breaking into a home about 8 p.m. Wednesday, so they caught the burglar, beat him and then shot him in the stomach, according to investigators.

The event took place in Barrio Nazaret in Ipís de Guadalupe. The shooting victim was identified as Heiner Arias Salazar, 16.

Strangely, someone took the youngster after he was shot to San Antonio de Escazú where rescue workers located him and took him back to San José to San Juan de Dios Hospital, according to the Judicial Investigating Organization.