The e-mail note said that the link I had sent him did not work.

Of course I had send out no link, and the message  I had received suggested that people still are opening unknown e-mail attachments.

The attachments these days are likely to contain a self-replicating virus that can zip through a Windows-based operating system and mail itself out by the thousands.

This is the junk that has been cluttering up the e-mail systems.

The virus only exists because some people continue to open up unknown attachments. The major viruses out these, MyDoom and Netsky, can only spread that way.

Of course, the virus creators are clever. They make you want to open the attachment. 

Remember the more simpler times when a virus message might say "My pretty girl friend" or "This is my new game. You are my first player."

Now the messages purport to be form the e-mail administrator of your Internet server. You must open this attachment and fill out a form. This was the link that did not work for my e-mail messenger. That wasn’t important because the virus already was in his computer gobbling e-mail addresses.

Over the last few days people have been sending out nasty messages, but because the viruses forge return e-mail addresses randomly, the virus did not come from where the message says it did.

A good sign Thursday was that server after server were rejecting virus-infected e-mail messages. That showed the technical support people were beginning to get their acts together.

A few readers have commented at the degradation of the e-mail system. That is a fact. Between Nigerians and Wealthy African princesses to people selling mail-order medications, the in-box is getting cluttered.

But we cannot surrender a valuable tool to the spammers and the bored 14-year-old high school kids. 

• You fight back by installing good virus detection software.

• You fight back by never buying anything from an unsolicited e-mail

• You fight back by not opening unknown attachments.

• We fight back by not running employment classifieds from known spammers.

Let’s make this week one where the humans get control again of cyberspace. One message Thursday came from a reader who said he was 80 years old and dependent on the computer for news and entertainment. We have to protect his interest.
 

Orchids on display

The 33rd Exposición Nacional de Orquídeas opened Thursday at the Antigua Aduana and runs through Sunday.

More than 1,300 orchids are on display for what is a competitive show for growers.

The event  is put on each year by the Asociación Costarricense de Orquideología.
 

Canadian fugitive caught

A Canadian woman who is the principal suspect in the 1995 murder of a boyfriend fell into police hands Thursday.

She is Julia Yvonne Elliot, 34, who was found at Paso Canoas. The murder took place in the Ottawa area. The male victim was stabbed, dismembered and thrown in a river.

Residents plan picnic

The Association of Residents of Costa Rica will hold its annual charity picnic March 27 in Montelandia above Heredia.

The event will run from 10 .m. to 4 p.m., and children under 12 are admitted free. This is one of the major social events the organization runs each year. 

Admission is 1,000 colons in advance and 1,500 at the gate, the group said.

The U.S. Embassy in San José issued an unusual statement Thursday in which it said it  laments the decision by the Costa Rican government to withdraw from negotiations with the Harken Energy petroleum firm.

If Costa Rica maintains this attitude, there will be adverse repercussions for the investors involved and the climate of negotiations for U.S. investment in Costa Rica, the statement said.

The embassy statement urged the government to seek options for a quick and friendly solution.

Costa Rica announced Wednesday that it will not pay compensation to the Houston, Texas,-based multinational. The  firm had a concession to drill for oil offshore in the Caribbean, but the concession was canceled in the last days of the Miguel Angel Rodríguez government.

The issue was politically charged, and the decision was ratified by the administration of Abel Pacheco, who came out strongly against offshore drilling and open pit gold mines.

Harken got the attention of Costa Rican officials last September when it filed for $57 billion before 

The $57 billion is about 15 times the country’s external debt or about $14,000 for every man woman and child in Costa Rica.

The Secretaría Técnica Nacional Ambiental had rejected the environmental impact study submitted by Harken, but there is some question if the environmental study was required by contract.

Harken began studies in 1997 with the hopes of some day tapping and estimated 300,000-barrel a day petroleum resource offshore. Costa Rica does not now have a working oil well.

Rodríguez, the environment minister, Wednesday repeated the government’s claim that Harken had not completed its contract.  Oil Watch, an environmental group, said Thursday that the government should not pay Harken anything and it should let the company go to the Costa Rican courts. It characterized Harken’s position as extortion.

A man arrested in Costa Rica was hit with a $1.8 million civil judgment and a penalty of $120,000 in Federal District Court in Nevada.

The man, Larry A Stockett, 57, also faces a federal indictment for stock fraud. He was arrested here Feb. 8 at his home in the Los Arcos subdivision west of San José on the strength of that criminal indictment.
He is believed to be awaiting extradition proceedings.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. stock police, announced the judgment against Stockett this week. The judgment also forbids Stockett from violating security laws in the future.

He has been described as a repeat offender. Typically the commission files civil charges in advance of any criminal actions.

The commission's civil complaint alleged that between August 1999 and April 2002, Stockett orchestrated a fraudulent scheme regarding Hightec, Inc. and an affiliated company, The S.I.N.C.L.A.R.E. Group, Inc., two publicly held entities of which he was the sole officer and director. The complaint alleged that Stockett issued numerous false press releases and other public 

According to the complaint, Stockett, among other things, falsely represented that Hightec, through a subsidiary, U.S. Cement, had significant access to capital as well as established business operations in the cement industry that utilized certain advanced technologies. 

The complaint alleged that in fact, U.S. Cement had no significant operations and did not have access to the technology as claimed. The complaint further alleged that Stockett falsely represented that Sinclare owned a "railroad entertainment complex" valued at $6.9 million, and that Stockett disseminated revenue projections for Hightec and its subsidiaries that were fraudulent, in that they had no reasonable basis in fact. 

The complaint further alleged that. while disseminating these false and misleading statements, Stockett sold restricted Hightec stock in unregistered transactions, realizing profits of approximately $583,687. The complaint further alleged that, between 1996 and 2002, Stockett also failed to file mandatory periodic and current reports with the commission on behalf of Hightec and Sinclare.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, México — Authorities say the body of a woman has been found on the outskirts of town here, near the U.S. border, close to the location where the bodies of three other women were found last year. 

Officials say the partially clothed body of the latest victim was discovered Wednesday by a passer-by.  The condition of the body and the location have led some to believe the woman could be the victim of the same killer or killers as the women found last year. 

Ciudad Juarez, is located just across the U.S.-Mexican border from El Paso, Texas. U.S. lawmakers have also urged Mexican authorities to devote more resources to the investigation. 

Investigators believe at least some of the women have been the victims of drug dealers operating in the area. 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Police here broke up a violent demonstration of supporters of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide Thursday. Several people were admitted to local hospitals with gunshots wounds but there have been no reports of fatalities. Multi-national troops and Haitian police have started disarmament operations in an effort to try to control violence in Haiti.

A crowd of Aristide supporters marched out of the Bel Aire slum in downtown Port-au-Prince and headed for the national palace early Thursday afternoon where they had planned to hold a demonstration. Shortly afterwards shots rang out and police lobbed tear gas canisters into the crowd. The crowd dispersed back into the Bel Aire neighborhood, but not before smashing car windows and burning tires in the heart of the city.

Nearly two weeks after President Aristide fled Haiti many of his supporters remain furious. Like Guillome Max Henry, an unemployed resident of Bel Aire, they say they will continue demonstrating until Aristide is returned.

"Since Aristide was elected, he has two more years in office," he said. "And until Aristide is put back into power we will protest every day."

He is expected to announce a cabinet within days giving prominent roles to former Army Chief of Staff Herard Abraham and former Aristide Prime Minister Smark Michel.

Latortue says he wants multi-national troops in Haiti to take the initiative when it comes to disarmament. U.S. Marines, French troops and Haitian police have begun raids in Port-au-Prince seeking weapons hidden in private homes. U.S. Marine Col. Mark Garganus who commands U.S. troops in Haiti says good intelligence is the key to finding guns.

"We work off of information that we are provided from numerous sources," he said. "Rarely will we work off of single source information."

Garganus says Haiti's main port in the capital is now secure enough so that multi-national troops have begun to receive supplies by sea. The troops have stepped up their patrols in recent days in areas near the port and airport which have been hard hit by looting.

 KINGSTON, Jamaica — Officials say ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is set to arrive in Jamaica next week for a temporary stay, but that he is not seeking political asylum in their country.

Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson said Thursday that Aristide expressed a wish to return temporarily to the Caribbean with his wife, and to be reunited with their two young children who are currently in the United States.

Patterson said the former Haitian leader is not seeking asylum in Jamaica, and that his stay there is not expected to last more than eight to 10 weeks.

Aristide arrived in the Central African Republic early last week after resigning his post and fleeing Haiti. 

Patterson also said the new interim Haitian Prime Minister, Gerard Latortue, has already contacted 

The Jamaican leader, who also chairs CARICOM, said the group remains committed to the goal of restoring and nurturing democracy in Haiti, and to helping in the social and economic development of its people.

His comments came one day after U.S. military officials announced they will direct peacekeepers in Haiti to confiscate illegal weapons in a bid to halt Haitian-on-Haitian violence.

Meanwhile, Latortue and interim President Boniface Alexandre are also set to begin work on forming a new government that will pave the way for fresh elections in the country.  The new prime minister, who had been living in Miami, Florida, was selected for the post Tuesday by a U.S.-backed council. In 1988, he served as Haiti's foreign minister.

NEW YORK, N.Y. — The United Nations has criticized Colombia's crackdown on leftist rebels, denouncing the government's arbitrary roundups and anti-terrorism laws that give sweeping powers to the military. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights released its annual report on Colombia Wednesday, in which it characterized the human rights situation in the country as "critical." 

The document expressed particular concern over an increase in reports of torture and mistreatment by government forces, mass arrests of suspected rebels, and allegations that officials were collaborating with right-wing paramilitary groups. But Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos blasted the U.N. findings. He said the United Nations does not understand that Colombia's democratic government faces enormous threats from armed groups financed by drug money. 

In a separate development, a Colombian court Wednesday sentenced top paramilitary leader 

In another development, Colombian authorities have seized properties worth an estimated $100 million believed to belong to members of the Cali-based Norte del Valle drug cartel. 

Members of the police "Search Bloc" carried out the operation under a 1996 law that allows the state to take over property acquired with funds obtained from illegal activities such as drug trafficking. 

The recently re-established elite police unit had gained fame for helping to dismantle major Colombian drug cartels in the early 1990's. The anti-drug team was also responsible for killing notorious drug kingpin Pablo Escobar during a shootout in 1993.