WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Federal Trade Commission, state law enforcement groups and Canadian counterparts are pursuing legal action to stop fraud and deception on the Internet. 

According to an April 2 announcement from the FTC, the agencies have also sent out more than 500 warnings that deceptive spam — mass electronic mailing — is illegal.

"The Internet creates some major new challenges for consumer protection organizations," says Washington state Atty. Gen. Christine Gregoire, whose state was a partner with the federal agency in the operation. 

"That's why it's so important that those of us who enforce state, provincial and national consumer protection laws work together to meet these new challenges," she said.

The multi-governmental legal action will attempt to shut down sites where investigators say fraudulent auctions were being conducted, bogus cancer cures were for sale and other deceptive or illegal schemes were under way.

The Dominican Republic is a major source of HIV/AIDS, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The island nation is one of the reasons that the Caribbean has the highest incidents of the disease outside of sub-Saharan Africa, said the agency.

Dominican Republic has 2.5 percent adult infection rate, compared to the 0.7 percent rate among the adult population in the United States. Haiti, which shares the island of Hispanola with the Dominican Republic, has an infection rate of 5.17 percent of the adult population.

The issue is of importance to Costa Rica because a high percentage of woman who work as prostitutes here come from the Dominican Republic. 

The HIV/AIDS  situation is so bad that the United States is organizing a regional meeting on the issue April 20 in Guyana. The Bush Administration says the nations of the Caribbean, "our often overlooked third border," are important partners on such issues as trade, health and education, and regional democracy. 

President Bush says his administration is committed to deepening its cooperation with the Western Hemisphere in fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS and in responding to natural disasters. These goals, he said in 2001, lie at the heart of the administration's "Third Border" initiative with the countries of the Caribbean. Under that initiative, the administration
is providing $20 million in HIV/AIDS funding for the region in fiscal year 2002.

The latest virus hitting Costa Ricans and tourists alike is a stomach disorder that frequently results in diarrhea. Particularly hard-hit are toddlers and infants, although some adults have claimed that their condition incapacitated them for four weeks.

The virus spreads with human contact, so good personal hygiene is important. Some sufferers have blamed food and water for their illness, although such claims lack consistency. 

Because the condition appears to be a virus, little success can be achieved with antibiotic treatments. 

BMW stolen in murder
found in Limón 

Investigators have found the luxury car of a U.S. citizen who was the victim of robbers last Wednesday. The man’s Dominican girlfriend was murdered in the incident at the Los Arcos subdivision.

The car, a BMW, was found in Limón, said the Judicial Investigating organization. The three persons who invaded the home, killed the girlfriend and waited for the U.S. citizen, Eldridge Suggs, left in his automobile.

The two men involved then drove the car to Limón. A woman, the former girlfriend of Suggs, also is a suspect in the murder, said agents.

The vehicle was found parked near a restaurant in Limón with no discernable damage, said agents. They said they found the car by interrogating the suspects, a man named Barboza, 22, and a 17-year-old. They and the woman named Salazar, 37, remain in custody.

The water taps
might be a little dry

If today is Thursday, there might not be water in the tap. Acueductos y Alcantarillados, the water company, has put a rationing plan into effect. 

Each Tuesday and Thursday from midnight to 6 a.m., water will be shut off in certain sectors of the metropolitan area. Montes de Oca and Curridabat are two such areas, as are parts of La Unión, Moravia, Cornonado and Goicoechea.

In addition, water will be cut during the day Saturday in the vicinity of the water plant in La Uruca so a new valve can be installed. 
 

Colombia defends project
to destroy drug plants

BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombia insists that progress is being made in persuading farmers to voluntarily destroy their drug crops in the country's southern coca-producing regions. 

Colombia is defending its crop substitution program in response to a new U.S. government study that concludes the U.S.-backed project to eliminate drug crops through crop substitution may be a failure. 

The Colombian official in charge of the project, Gonzalo de Francisco, says he realizes efforts to eradicate crops such as coca, used to produce cocaine, have been difficult and slow. 

Funded by the U.S. State Department, the study questions whether U.S. aid has been wasted trying to convince farmers to find substitute crops. The study says Colombian farmers are reluctant to abandon their coca crops because few plants other than coca can grow in the region's thin soil. 

Bogota currently receives more than $1 billion in U.S. aid for anti-narcotics efforts.

Meanwhile, Colombia is urging Venezuela to help it investigate reports that leftist Colombian rebels have set up bases inside Venezuela. The rebels are major supplies of narcotics to raise funds for their cause.

Colombian officials made the request on Wednesday after Venezuela claimed that Bogota lied about the rebels finding refuge in Venezuela. 

Tuesday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez disputed specific claims by a Colombian army general that rebels are staging cross-border attacks from a base inside Venezuela. 

The general, Martin Orlando Carreno, said that last month rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia attacked his soldiers along the border with Venezuela. The clash killed at least 38 soldiers and rebels. 

The Colombian government says it is standing by the general's report. President Chavez has repeatedly denied accusations his government sympathizes with, or has collaborated with, the Colombian rebels. 

Colombia is mired in a 38-year-old war that pits rebel groups against the army and right-wing paramilitary forces. The conflict has left at least 40,000 people dead in the past decade alone.
 

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Economists estimate immigrants working in the United States are wiring $23 billion a year to their families in Latin America, most in increments of less than $200 a month. Mexico estimates such remittances are the nation's third largest source of income, after oil and tourism. 

Trinity University Economics Professor Jorge Gonzalez says these immigrant remittances exceed the international development assistance available to Latin American countries. 

And ironically, Mr. Gonzalez thinks, in some ways, this haphazard form of financial aid may be even more effective than government-to-government assistance. 

"If you send development assistance to Guatemala, or to Nicaragua or to El Salvador, you are going to have a lot of people running these agencies, and every single one of them — the secretaries and everyone else — is going to be making money," he said. "So, the money that ends up getting into the hands of the poorest of the poor people, who need it the most, is going to be restricted." 

Penn State anthropology professor Jeffrey Cohen, who works with several rural communities in Mexico, agrees the effects of the immigrant remittances are generally beneficial. However, in his opinion, they can change the nature of a local economy. In previously cashless communities, which had only traded goods, he says, the sudden arrival of dollars can disadvantage residents who do not have relatives working in the United States. 

"One of the outcomes of migration is the increasing involvement of these communities in Western market systems, based around cash, based around wage labor," said Cohen. "And, if you don't have the cash, and you don't have the jobs, that can really change your position." 

Fortunately, he adds, many Latin American immigrant workers in the United States are not only sending money to their families, but are also uniting to fund community-wide projects. "In countries like El Salvador and Guatemala and Mexico," said Cohen, 

In fact, for economist Jorge Gonzalez, immigrant remittances to Latin America are giving governments there a free welfare system. He explains: "If this money is satisfying the basic needs of these people, then the governments in Latin America don't have to satisfy those needs any more, and they can provide infrastructure that is needed, the education that is needed, the health care that is needed." 

Their capability to do so should increase in the future, since, economists say, U.S. immigrant remittances to the region have been rising at the rate of 11 percent a year. 
 

Russian news editor
found dead near home

MOSCOW, Russia — The body of a Russian newspaper editor, missing since Dec. 14, has been found in the forest near his home in Smolensk in western Russia. 

Sergei Kalinovsky, 27, was the senior editor of the Smolensk edition of Moskovsky Komsomolets. He also appeared regularly on radio and television and was well known for his investigative reporting of crime and corruption. 

In March 2001, Kalinovsky's apartment was destroyed by a fire, which he suspected was in retaliation for some of his reports. However, no one was ever arrested in that case. His colleagues say Kalinovsky might have been killed for his reporting. An investigation into his death has been opened by local authorities. 

Sunday, the body of another Russian journalist, was found in his Moscow apartment with stab wounds and signs of strangulation. 33-year-old military correspondent for Moskovskiye Novosti, Valery Batuyev, specialized in covering troubled zones, such as Chechnya and Pankisi Gorge in Georgia, where al-Qaida-linked terrorists are allegedly taking refuge. 

Ex-economy minister
will face charges

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The former economy minister, Domingo Cavallo, has been arrested as a suspect in an arms-smuggling case. 

Cavallo was economy minister under former president Carlos Menem in the 1990's. Menem was arrested last year, but then released over the arms smuggling scandal. The former minister is being held at a jail here on smuggling charges that carry a penalty of four to 12 years in prison. 

Judge Julio Speroni has 10 days to decide whether to bring criminal charges against Mr. Cavallo.  The former president and Cavallo have denied any connection to the case, which involved smuggling weapons to Croatia and Ecuador at a time when both countries were under an international arms embargo. 

In December, an Argentine federal judge issued an order preventing Cavallo from leaving the country. The judge acted hours after Cavallo resigned amid widespread violent protests triggered by a controversial government austerity program. 

Under Cavallo's direction, the Menem Administration pegged the Argentine peso to the U.S. dollar, a policy that lasted 11 years.

Rudeness a growing concern

79 percent of Americans responding to an independent survey on rudeness said lack of respect and courtesy has become a serious problem, and 61 percent said things have gotten worse in recent years. 

Nearly six in 10 respondents said they often encounter aggressive drivers. Other problems cited include the use of foul language in public, loud cell phone conversations in public settings, nasty e-mails and trash on the streets.