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Vacation for Easter
is official now By the A.M. Costa Rica staff It’s official: Most government workers will have a week off before Easter, as usual. Ovidio Pacheco Salazar, the minister of Trabajo, said this week that April 5, 6, and 7 will be vacation days for public employees. He was acting after a decision Tuesday by the Consejo de Gobierno, President Abel Pacheco’s cabinet. Holy Thursday and Good Friday always are days off. They are April 8 and 9 this year. So most public employees will leave work Friday, April 2, and not return until Monday, April 12. Easter is Sunday, April 11. Minister Pacheco noted that offices and services that are vital will remain open. The days off will help the government cut down on vacation owed to employees, he said. The Christian calendar recognizes Good Friday as the day Christ died on the cross. Many of the faithful in this predominately Catholic nation will mark Holy Week with funeral marches and passion plays. But probably more will go to the beaches. Private employers usually take their cue from the governmental edicts. Except for religious celebrations, major towns and cities will be all but shut down much of Holy Week. The closer the date approaches Good Friday, the more businesses will be closed. Restaurant owner
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Armed men showed up at the Los Gemelos restaurant in Alto de Guadalupe Wednesday night and abducted the owner, identified as Leang Huaxing, 46. The businessman had not reappeared Thursday. Investigators were mystified by the case, particularly when no one would file a complaint about the abduction. They speculated that the abduction was another case of strong-arm bill collecting, a technique that is becoming more frequent. Man shot in Escazú
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff A man digging through garbage containers in the upscale Escazú urbanización of Trejos Montealegre Wednesday night suffered a gunshot wound to the stomach. He was identified as Guillermo Navarro Peroza, 49. The wounded man managed to alert a private guard, who called rescue workers. The man underwent surgery at Hospital México, so agents have not yet been able to interview him to find out what happened. Three separate cases
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Police arrested three men Thursday in separate cases of suspected intimacy with female relatives. In Liberia, a man with the last names of López Morales was detained in the Urbanización Cañas for investigation of the allegation that he sexually abused his stepdaughter, 14. In San Juan de Dios de Desamparados police detained a man with the last names of Segura Hernández during a fight with his female companion. Police said it appeared the fight was about supposed rape of their daughter. In Cartago, police there arrested a man with the last names of Santos Obregón in the vicinity of San Pablo de León Cortes for investigation of the allegation that he sexually abused his daughter, also 14. It was a MOOOving
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff The taxi passenger was a little on the heavy side. In fact, you would be forgiven for calling her a cow. In fact, she was a cow, hog-tied and stuffed into the rear seat of a four-door Hyundai. Her head appeared occasionally sticking out the window viewing the world with interest. Police came across this situation Wednesday night in Santo Domingo de Heredia when they stopped a pirate taxi. The driver, identified by the last names of Vargas Montenegro, must have been helped by other individuals, police concluded. But these suspects conveniently left as police arrived. After some effort, officers got the cow out of the rear seat, cut the ropes on her hooves and put her into a small pasture near the police station. The owner of the animal has not yet been located, but police are investigating the case as cattle theft. Another truck yields
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Anti-drug officers have found another big haul of cocaine in a truck about to cross the border into Nicaragua. This vehicle contained a hidden load of some 300 kilos, some 660 pounds. The drivers, both Guatemalans, were identified by the last names of Soberanis Monasterio and Avendaño Hernández. Agents of the Policía de Control de Drogas said the two men abandoned the truck tractor when it became clear that the vehicle would be subject to inspection. When police found the empty tractor, they inspected it in detail and found the hidden stash. The truck was registered in Guatemala and entered Costa Rica March 4 with a load of resin, said police. The drug is believed to have been loaded while the tractor was in Costa Rica. Agents found another Guatemalan-registered truck with a hidden compartment and presumed drugs last Jan. 24 the same Penas Blancas border crossing point. They found yet another last year. |
Soccer fans, police
engage in battle By the A.M. Costa Rica staff At least 30 fans were arrested Wednesday night after the Deportivo Saprissa-El Pachuca soccer game in Estadio Nacional in Parque La Sabana. At least six officers suffered injuries in the confrontation that led up to the arrests. Saprissa won the game, 2-0, and some 400 exuberant fans left the stadium and began acting unruly, police said. The fans attacked 20 foot-patrol officers and 10 mounted policemen. One member of the horse unit was hit in the mouth with a rock when he tried to aid a fellow officer. The Judicial Investigation Organization is in charge of the probe of this incident. Officers said they heard gunshots from the crowd but no officers suffered a bullet wound. Aclaimed pianist
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff The Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional gives its second performance of the season tonight at the Teatro Nacional. The guest performer is the aclaimed Polish pianist Raphael-Alexandre Lustchevsky. The program include Brahms, Saint-Säens and Richard Strauss. Chosei Komatsu will again conduct. The Friday performance at 8 p.m. will be repeated Sunday at 10:30 a.m.,
again in the Teatro Nacional.
Man dies in San Pedro By the A.M. Costa Rica staff A 78-year-old man died about 8:30 a.m. Monday when he was struck by
a vehicle in the vicinity of the Fuente de Hispanidad, the traffic circle
fountain, at the entrance to San Pedro. He was identified as Mario Marín
Huertas
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Interim prime minister Gerard Latortue has sworn in a new cabinet, calling it a non-partisan administration that will be judged on its achievements. Latortue presided over the swearing-in of 13 cabinet members during a ceremony Wednesday at the National Palace here. Most of the cabinet ministers have been described as "technocrats" with few political connections. Analysts have expressed fears that excluding allies of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from the new government could prolong tensions in the country. And members of Aristide's Lavalas party have warned that national reconciliation will not be possible unless they are given a voice. Latortue has said his priority is restoring accountability to the government and ending corruption. |
Meanwhile, pro-Aristide gangs began
turning their guns over to police in the slums of Haiti's capital Wednesday.
French peacekeepers were present as dozens of weapons were handed in.
Despite the recent progress in Haiti, Venezuela and Jamaica have refused to recognize the country's new government. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he still considers Mr. Aristide to be the country's true president, while Jamaican officials say they will likely re-examine the issue following next week's Caribbean Community regional summit in Saint Kitts. Earlier this week, Haiti suspended diplomatic relations with Jamaica because of its decision to allow Aristide to visit for eight to 10 weeks. Aristide fled Haiti in late February in the midst of an armed rebellion and international pressure. The former leader has maintained that he is Haiti's legitimate leader, and that the United States forced him to resign. Washington strongly denied this. |
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Treasury Department Thursday continued its crackdown on travel agencies that promote illegal travel to Cuba by prohibiting persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction from using the Hola Sun Holidays Limited travel agency, which Treasury designated as controlled by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The designation blocks all property of Hola Sun Holidays Limited held by persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction. It also prohibits persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction from engaging in any transactions with the agency unless authorized by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control. The company is based in Ontario, Canada. The action by the Office of Foreign Asset control is part of President George Bush's October 2003 initiative to strengthen enforcement of U.S. laws prohibiting travel-related transactions with Cuba, according to a Treasury Department press release. Stepped-up enforcement, the Treasury |
Department said, will help keep travel-related
dollars out of Castro's hands.
Juan Zarate, Treasury's deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, explained why the action was needed: "As long as we allow money to flow unabated into the hands of the Cuban government, we allow Castro to fund the atrocities of his dictatorship and perpetuate the oppression of the Cuban people." The Treasury Department said that Hola Sun Holidays Limited is a travel agency owned by Cimex and is associated with Caribe Sol. Hola Sun and Caribe Sol share a Web page and openly state they "are proud to be part of Havantur," another business owned by Cimex. Hola Sun Holidays Limited provides easy access to U.S. individuals traveling to Cuba. U.S. law enforcement officials have intercepted travelers whose tour packages were purchased through this travel agency, which uses the Internet to advertise and sell Cuban tourism to the U.S. public. |
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The World Health Organization says urgent steps must be taken to prepare for a human influenza pandemic, which could happen anytime in the near future. The World Health Organization says it is just a matter of time before an influenza pandemic occurs. The head of the U.N. organization’s Global Influenza Program, Klaus Stohr, said it is urgent to prepare now for a new outbreak because, he explained, since the last pandemic occurred in 1968, there have been 12 possible pandemic events. He said five of them have occurred during the last year, and, he said, one virus is to blame for the majority of events in the last three years. "So, the influenza experts say that this virus is sneaking around the corner," he explained. "It is ready to get fit in order to jump into the human population. So, we have a situation, which looks slightly different from the past. We have a suspect, and the suspect is behaving suspiciously, and that is why we believe that measures should be taken quickly, in order to deal with this increased risk for the occurrence of a pandemic." Some Asian governments have announced the disappearance of bird flu from their countries. However, the World Health Oganization says outbreaks are still occurring. And, it warns, as long as the avian and human flu viruses are circulating in the environment, the ingredients for a human pandemic still exist. |
Eight countries in Asia have been
affected by a particularly virulent form of bird flu. More than 100 million
birds have either died or been culled to stop the virus from spreading.
Twenty-three people died in Thailand and Vietnam.
A health specialist from Australia, Aileen Plant, is one of more than 100 health experts who attended a World Health emergency meeting. She said a global surveillance system is critical in trying to head-off an influenza pandemic. She said countries must have access to rapid diagnostic tests. "That sounds really easy to say, but it is, of course, quite difficult for many countries to be able to have access to those tests, to be able to use them, to have good quality assurance and to send the specimens on to reference laboratories to confirm what they find," she said. "But, a quick diagnosis in the early phases, that is what we need. We need mandatory reporting internationally. And, of course, we need the capacity to investigate clusters of disease. Cluster surveillance is key to knowing whether we have got true human-to-human transmission." There is a potential problem. Until the influenza strain is known, vaccines against a pandemic cannot be manufactured. Then, it takes between four and six months to produce the vaccine. The World Health Organization says the stock of vaccine is likely to be very limited. During this period, efforts must be made to either stop the virus from spreading or blunt its impact, said the organization. It says anti-viral drugs can be of some benefit as can existing flu vaccines. |
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CARACAS, Venezuela — The government is investigating three Supreme Court justices who ruled that hundreds of thousands of signatures urging a presidential recall vote are valid. Venezuela's attorney general launched what's being called an "ethics" probe Wednesday, a move that could lead to the dismissal of the three justices. The Supreme Court ruled Monday that Venezuela's electoral council was wrong to disqualify more than 870,000 signatures on the petition for a referendum on President Hugo Chavez. The Supreme Court said the signatures must be considered valid unless citizens disclaim them. Opposition leaders say they gathered more than |
three million signatures supporting
a recall vote, far more than required for the referendum to proceed.
In an interview published Thursday, Chavez conceded the recall vote was all but inevitable. But, he said his government would continue to scrutinize every signature. Chavez also said there has, in his words, "been no way of talking" with the Bush administration. He added that any effort by the United States to remove him from office would result in a sharp increase in the price of oil. Venezuela is the world's fifth largest oil exporter, and a major supplier to the United States. Chavez' government has had tense relations with Washington and has strongly criticized the Bush Administration's foreign policy. |
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