José Roman Garcia isn’t one for pictures. He turned and smiled for a second to appease a reporter’s request for one, but otherwise his mind was on the pupusas that were frying up in front of him. Roman Garcia seemed nice enough, but he was focused on those pupusas.

Roman Garcia runs a small soda downtown on Avenida 1, between Calles 3 and 5. His shop, "La Reina de las Pupusas" or queen of the pupusas, specializes in the small Salvadoran treats.

Pupusas aren’t much to look at, sort of like thick pancakes that are thrown onto the griddle. The little treats are exactly what you would expect from peasant food, however: surprising taste from an ordinary package.

Roman Garcia barely looked up as the cakes continued to sizzle away on the griddle. He answered every question with a one-word answer and bustled about the small stand fixing up the reporters order. "Where are you from," the reporter asked. "Here," Roman Garcia answered in a business-like matter.

Pupusas are a traditional dish from Salvador. Made from shredded pork, beans and cheese, these simple little treats are simply wonderful. The snacks are made from cornmeal dough that is filled with the pork, beans and cheese, and then flattened out into a disk that is about a half inch thick. They cook just like pancakes on a griddle and only take a few minutes to brown on each side.

Roman Garcia lifted the last pupusa off the grill, wrapped it in foil and tossed it into a bag. "Mucho Gusto," he said as he passed the bag over in exchange for 500 colons, a little more than $1. The pupusas had barely made it across the counter, before Roman Garcia was back to work, rolling out more pupusas, frying empanadas and stocking the shelves. Roman Garcia takes his pupusas seriously, and they are worth every business-like minute. 
 

Sulfur emissions targeted

Sulfur emissions from diesel will be reduced in the next two years. This is according to the Refinadora Costarricense de Petroleo. 

The process of reducing sulfur emissions began in 2003 when the amount went from 0.50 percent to 0.45 percent. The refineries aim is to get the level down even further by the end of 2008. 
 

Robbers kill bus worker

An early morning robbery Monday cost the life of a man who washed buses at a station in Curridabat.

Investigators said the 40-year-old man, identified by the last name of Hernández, died when robbers shot him about 2:30 a.m. A guard at the site, identified by the name of Duarte, suffered a bullet wound to the stomach. He was in Hospital Calderón Guardia.
 

Elderly man died in fire

An 80-year-old man died early Monday  when his home caught on fire in Quesada Durán on San José’s southwest side. The man, identified by the last name of Mora, was using candles for illumination, said investigators.
 

A Florida sex tourism company is a Federal Bureau of Investigation operation used to catch pedophiles. The bureau uses the Ft. Lauderdale-based costaricataboovacations.com, and Costa Rica is promoted as a lure where travelers can have romantic interludes with children.

A.M. Costa Rica first reported about the company Monday, in a story about the conviction of George Clarke, a former New Jersey middle school teacher. Clarke was arrested on a Costa Rican-bound plane in Miami after he made reservations through the bureau-operated Web site. 

Information regarding the bureau’s involvement with the sex tour agency was released during Clarke’s trial. During the course of the trial, the court revealed that the company was an FBI front that was used to gather evidence against Clarke. 

A representative from Taboo Vacations, Richard Baxter, declined Monday to comment on the firm’s involvement with the FBI. The spokeswoman at the bureau’s Miami 

Clarke’s lawyer, David Markus, said that the bureau’s practice of operating as a false company and offering these tours bordered on illegal entrapment. "The FBI can’t be allowed to fabricate these types of cases," he said during a telephone interview Monday.

The Web site for the company featured a picture of the Amón Plaza Hotel in San José. The assistant of the president at the hotel, Kritle Fallas, was not aware of the bureau’s involvement in the case. "We noticed the picture several months ago and took action to remove ourselves from the Web site," she said Monday at the hotel. "We do not condone those types of activities, and we do not want to be associated with them."

However, the photo is still there giving the impression the Amón Plaza is a place where sexual activity takes place with underaged individuals. The sex tour Web site offers airfare, hotel stay and "taboo companions." The site’s confidential information form asks for personal data as well as tour interests, including the preferred age of a companion. The site lists preferences that include ages 12 and under.

The Pacheco government will try to jump start its flagging morality campaign this week.

Ana Helena Chacón Echeverría, vice minister of Seguridad Pública, said she will send letters to the Ministerio de Salud and the Municipalidad de San José asking them to enforce a presidential decree.

President Abel Pacheco issued a decree last April 26 in which he set strict standards for Internet cafes and set up a certification program for those Internet locations that filter all their computers against pornography.

However, little has been done until now. The program also requires massage parlors to employ persons trained and certified in massage and to use only the 

Minister Chacón said that enforcement of the presidential decree is basically in the hands of the municipality that oversees licensing standards. However, certain  aspects are responsibilities of the Ministerio de Salud.

Another target of the decree are video game parlors that the administration sees as unhealthy hangouts.

Pacheco has been pushing the Internet cleanup since July 2003. However, there was been little action. Some Internet cafe operators are unhappy with the way the decree sets up a specific percentage of computers and a separate location for viewing pornography. The decree also bars youngsters from being in the Internet establishments after certain hours, depending on age.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Honduras and Nicaragua have asked the Organization of American States for technical and financial assistance for a border project that would help promote better relations between the two countries.

In a statement, the organization said the two countries issued a joint request to acting Secretary-General Luigi Einuadi for assistance in resolving problems caused by the diversion of the Rio Negro. The river diversion is a result of Hurricane Mitch, which devastated Central America in October and November 1998.

An organization spokesmen said the Rio Negro makes up a significant area of the international border between Honduras and Nicaragua. The requested assistance would go toward the project to protect and fully develop the river's basin.

Einaudi said "the fact that the two countries jointly made the request assures favorable acceptance" by the organization’s Fund for Peace, which is involved in fostering confidence-building measures that would reduce tensions and maintain peace.

The United States has provided financing for the fund's effort involving Honduras and Nicaragua and also for the fund's work on resolving a border dispute between Belize and Guatemala.  Other contributors to the fund have included Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Mexico and Spain.

The border project between Honduras and Nicaragua, called the Binational Border Development Plan, would promote education, social development, environmental conservation and the "economic integration" of the region.

The organization has said that the commitment of both Nicaragua and Honduras to settle past boundary disputes peacefully has, with the support of the international community, helped transform a crisis situation into a climate of "calm, respect, and confidence."

Hurricane Mitch killed more than 9,000 people, and destroyed about 60 percent of the infrastructure in Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala, demolishing bridges and washing away many roads.  About 2 million people were left homeless by the hurricane.

The U.S Army Corps of Engineers has been involved in several areas of Hurricane Mitch reconstruction in Nicaragua, including dam-safety training programs, health clinic inspections, riverbed realignment, and small-bridge design.

BRUSSELS, Belgium — European Union foreign ministers meeting here have suspended diplomatic sanctions against Cuba, following the Communist country's release of several political dissidents. 

The European Union says it is ready to give Cuba a chance to improve its human rights record and move gradually toward a more pluralistic society. 

It has thus lifted measures imposed a year-and-a-half ago that virtually froze normal diplomatic relations between the Communist island and the 25-nation bloc.

Those measures, imposed after Cuba cracked down on opponents of the Fidel Castro regime, included a ban on 

Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, says the bloc decided to change its policy toward Cuba after the authorities on the island released 14 of 75 dissidents, whose imprisonment sparked the E.U. sanctions.

He says he and his colleagues stress the need to support a process in Cuba that will lead to democratic pluralism and respect for human rights and basic freedoms.

But he also said that the EU will review the suspension of sanctions within the next five months, after closely monitoring the results of its new policy.