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Costa Rica will be screening air travelers from the Mideast by using computer data bases from the International Police Agency. Security is being stepped up at the airport and also at seaport shipping
docks in anticipation of repercussions of the Iraqi war.
The big concern for Costa Rica is not so much direct attack, according to officials but the existence of some operation here directed against the nations arrayed against Iraq. Consequently pre-boarding screening is being stepped up at Juan Santamaría International Airport in Alajuela and Daniel Oduber International Airport west of Liberia. Airports for national flights and Tobías Bolaños Airport in Rorhmoser also have increased security. Officials said they were boosting security at the U.S. Embassy in Pavas, the official residence of the U.S. ambassador in Escazú, the embassies of the United Kingdoms and Israel in Edificio Colón and embassies of other allied countries. Police also will be watching demonstrators to make sure protests against the war do not get out of line. A protest Wednesday night at the U.S. ambassador’s residence was peaceful. |
Officials also fear a spinoff of
some kind of attack against the United States, perhaps an aircraft hijacking
carried out by persons who boarded a plane in Costa Rica.
There also is concern about biological contamination from attacks in the United States. The anthrax attack in September 2001 is an example, said police. The shipment of mail and packages between the United states and Costa Rica will get more scrutiny. How news of war
By the A.M. Costa Rica The allied miltary campaign against Iraq began Wednesday night about 8:30 p.m. Costa Rica time when air raid sirens sounded in Bagdad. U.S. television crews heard anti-aircraft fire a short time later from the southern outskirts of the Iraqi capital. Then Ari Fleischer, presidential press secretary, announced in Washington about 8:45 p.m. that the "disarming of Iraq has begun." U.S. President George Bush spoke a half hour later and said that the early stages of military operation had begun. |
New butterfly exhibit
will open Sunday By the A.M. Costa Rica staff The Museo Nacional inaugurates its new butterfly exhibit today. More than 300 members of some 20 species will be on view when the garden opens to the public Sunday at the museum that is in the Bellavista Fortress just east of the Plaza de la Democracia. The display will run for three months and is called El Jardín Secreto or secret garden by the museum. The exhibit is in the museum’s three-year-old butterfly garden that features plants of the Central Valley and local species of butterflies. The garden is in the lower level of the museum and covers some 700 square meters. Visitors may walk among the butterflies, the native plants and trees in an area sheltered from the direct sun with running water providing a cooling effect. Democrats to hear
Special to A.M. Costa Rica Democrats Abroad Costa Rica will have as guest speaker Noel Payne at the monthly meeting Monday, March 31. Ms. Payne will speak on "Organic Agricultural Marketing in Costa Rica" (Emphasis on Sustainable Development). The meeting will be held at the Gran Hotel Costa Rica with a business meeting at 11 a.m., a buffet lunch at noon and speaker at 12:45 p.m.. For information and required lunch reservations (3.000 colones for members and 3.500 colones for guests) please contact Dorothy Sagel at 249-1856 no later than March 27. All in the community are welcome for the buffet lunch, and speaker. Immediately following the meeting The Bill White Players are putting on "Lysistrata," the anti-war play written by Aristaphanes in 450 B.C. and re-written by Willa Koretz in 2003. The play will be immediately after the Democrats Abroad meeting and a donation of 500 colons is sought to defray expenses. U.S. reported outraged
Special to A.M. Costa Rica WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States is "outraged" by the Cuban government's arrest of dozens of opposition leaders Tuesday, according to the U.S. State Department. In a formal statement issued Wednesday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher condemned the arrests as an "appalling act of intimidation against those who seek freedom and democratic change in Cuba." Boucher called on the Cuban government to immediately release the arrested opposition members and urged the international community to join the United States in demanding their release. The dissidents faced arrest for meeting with U.S. diplomats, the State Department claims. Bookshop features
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff An expat from Atlanta, Ga., has opened a book and bagel shop in San Francisco de Dos Rios. The operator is Sidney Glazer, formerly of Santa Ana. Sidney’s Books and Bagels is a quiet, cozy, used book shop in a residential area that is an easy bus ride from the downtown, Glazer said. The small cafe features international newspapers and journals, he said. Glazer will fax a map to potential customers. He may be reached at 219-3530
or via e-mail: booksnbagel@hotmail.com.
35 Cubans suspected
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services MIAMI, Fla. — Thirty-five Cubans are in American custody after the apparent hijacking of a Cuban airliner that landed in Key West late Wednesday. U.S. military jets intercepted the DC-3 airliner over the Florida Straits and escorted the Cuban craft to the civilian airport at Key West. Earlier, Cuban air traffic controllers alerted their U.S. counterparts that the flight, which departed from Cuba's Isle of Youth, had failed to make its scheduled landing in Havana and may have been hijacked. U.S. aviation officials say the aircraft carried 29 passengers and six crewmembers. An FBI spokesperson says the suspected hijackers surrendered shortly after the plane landed at Key West, and that the situation is under control. U.S. reported offering
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services BOGOTÁ, Colombia — News reports here say U.S. officials are offering Colombians more than $300,000 and a U.S. visa for information leading to the rescue of three Americans taken hostage by leftist rebels last month. The reports Tuesday say that authorities across the country have begun distributing hundreds of thousands of pamphlets with the reward offer. The leaflets show a picture of a jetliner, a U.S. visa request form and a waterfront snapshot of a U.S. city. The same reports say the U.S. Department of Defense is funding the reward for helping to locate the Americans. Rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia abducted the Americans in mid-February after their small U.S. government plane crash-landed in the country’s southern region. They were private contractors working for the Pentagon, flying over suspected coca-growing areas. A fourth American as well as a Colombian soldier on board the doomed aircraft were found shot to death, execution-style. |
Brazil may host
2014 soccer world cup By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services BRASILIA — Brazil is set to host the 2014 World Cup football tournament after the South American Confederation decided to back the country as the continent's only candidate. The International Football Federation decided this month it would award a country in South America the 2014 tournament. The Confederation's decision virtually assures that Brazil will host the event. Colombians say
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Authorities say at least 13 people were killed in mudslides in two western towns here. At least 25 others are missing. Officials say heavy rains began late Tuesday, causing torrents of earth to rush over makeshift homes in the steep hillsides in Manizales and Villamaria. Scores of homes were destroyed. Some children were among the dead.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — A moderate economic recovery is under way in Latin America, according to a report released Wednesday by the Institute for International Finance, a global organization of financial institutions. The report said that, with the exception of Venezuela, there are signs of stronger growth throughout the region. The organization projects that, excluding Venezuela, regional growth will be 2.4 percent in 2003. The report was issued on the eve of the 2003 annual meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank, which will be held in Milan. The global organization of leading financial institutions said that policies are improving in a number of countries and there are signs of stronger growth throughout the region, with the exception of Venezuela. Economic activity has already started to pick up in most countries, and the organization expects this to |
gather momentum in the second half
as global conditions improve and investor confidence
strengthens. The report projects real growth in the region to be 3.2 percent in 2004. The report noted that there are significant risks to the recovery forecast: In many countries, investor and consumer confidence is fragile and in some, it has yet to be established. Governments may succumb to populist political pressure and fail to implement policy to the extent needed to sustain the recovery. Prolonged conflict in the Middle East, sustained higher oil prices, lower growth of the global economy, heightened risk aversion, and renewed pressure on exchange rates and prices, could force the authorities to tighten fiscal and monetary policies further, and slow the recovery. The outcome in all countries will depend ultimately on the ability of political leadership to maintain a national consensus and broad political support for policy discipline, said the report. |
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Western Hemisphere should brace for a possible influenza epidemic involving a worldwide outbreak of a dangerous new flu variant Tommy G. Thompson, secretary of Health and Human Services, said this as he urged Congress Wednesday to keep an appropriation of $100 million to prepare for a global flu epidemic in the federal budget. Health officials point to historic precedent to underscore the need for such preparedness; an outbreak of flu in 1918 caused 25 million deaths worldwide. |
Although the administration's budget
request was made earlier this year, Thompson said current events demonstrate
the importance of the initiative.
"The recent cases of what has been called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome remind us all of the potential danger posed by emerging infectious diseases, especially a possible new influenza strain," Thompson said. A flu pandemic can occur when there is a major change in the virus' genetic structure, creating a new strain that causes widespread illness and death. For example, the 1918 influenza pandemic claimed more than 500,000 lives in the United States alone. |
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Louis Milanes |
Luis Enrique Villalobos Camacho |
This newspaper seeks the prompt return of two men who ran high-interest investment operations that have gone out of business. Luis Enrique Villalobos Camacho, 62, was associated with Ofinter S.A., a money exchange house, and with his own private investment business that had about $1 billion in other people’s money on the books. Villalobos closed his business Oct. 14 and vanished. Louis Milanes operated Savings Unlimited and several casinos in San José. He left the country with other members of his firm the weekend of Nov. 23. He may have as much as $260 million in his possession. Both operations catered to North Americans. |
Villalobos had about 6,300 customers. Milanes
had about 2,400.
Villalobos and Milanes are the subjects of international arrest warrants. Associates of both men have been jailed. A.M. Costa Rica has posted a $500 reward for information leading to the detention of either man with the hopes that others will make similar pledges. The newspaper believes that investors only will see some of their money when the two men are in custody. Milanes has few supporters in San José. On the other hand, as the letters frequently on this page show, Villalobos still has supporters who believe that he will reappear and settle his debts. They believe he is in hiding because of a predatory Costa Rican government. |
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