Frank Chang Diaz is going to spend seven hours today on his third and final spacewalk.

Chang and Perrin will begin work replacing a faulty joint on the space station’s robotic arm.

Wenesday was a busy day of stowage and transfer activity for the crews of the shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station.

The 10 astronauts and cosmonauts, working together, have transferred approximately 4,500 of the expected 4,665 pounds of material that will return to Earth inside the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module. 

All of the items slated to be moved from Endeavour’s middeck to the station have been transferred and the astronauts are now restowing return items.

Also Wednesday, Endeavour’s small steering jets were fired in a series of pulses to gently raise the station’s orbit by another mile, in the second of three such maneuvers designed to raise the station's altitude by a total of about six miles.

The death of a 4-year-old boy is sending shock waves through the Costa Rican social system. Even before investigators really know why someone murdered the boy, politicians, police and social activists are taking action.

Acting President Lineth Saborío and Minister for Children Rosalía Gil were among the mourners Wednesday morning for services for the boy, Osvaldo Faobricio Madrigal Bravo. He is the son of a drug investigator for the Judicial Investigating Organization.

Acting President Saborío is the former director of that organization. 

Services were at a Desamparados church with burial at Campo Santo La Piedad. Minister Gill, director of Patronato Nacional de la Infancia, said later she would empanel a government committee to raise the consciousness of Costa Rican families, presumably to the possibility of child kidnappings.

Police officials said they are stepping up surveillance, particularly of schools.

Police said the boy was taken from his home in Higiuto de San Miguel de Desamparados June 4 while he was playing outside his family home. Workmen located the badly damaged body floating behind the Brazil dam in Santa Ana Tuesday. An autopsy report is not yet available.

The public consciousness seems to be ahead of the politicians. A wave of urban rumors has been sweeping San José and also the Desamparados area.

That section is vulnerable because a girl, Jessica Valverde Pineda, 4, who lived in Los Guidos de Desamparados, vanished in late February. 

A recurring rumor claims that a child narrowly avoided abduction when fast acting guards at a mall/supermarket/other public place were able to stop a criminal. According to the rumor, the child turned up with head shaved and dressed in different clothing in a rest room.

That attempted abduction never happened a check of police agencies, malls and supermarkets showed Wednesday.

But investigators have contributed to the public concern by stating that a band of child abductors are working in the Central Valley. They have not explained adequately how such a band can support itself with two or perhaps three stolen children in the course of a year. Police reply that there may be cases yet to be revealed.

According to police, Osvaldo Madrigal was taken by a neighborhood worker, carried by taxi to Pavas and then handed over to a mysterious foreign couple. 

The worker and the taxi driver are in custody. But police have not given more details. They are searching for the foreign couple.

No one really knows what happened to young Jessica. She went to a small store in her low-income residential area. The store owner said a man was nearby and there may have been a car. But descriptions have been inconsistent.

The waters behind the dam where Osvaldo Madrigal’s body was found Tuesday come, in part, from a river that runs near his community.

The Spanish-Costa Rican firm that has been picked to inspect the country’s motor vehicles said it is finishing up several more inspection stations.

The inspections were put off from mid-June to mid-July because the stations were not ready.

The firm Riteve SyC says it will provide complimentary inspections that have no value under the law as a way of introducing motorists to the process.

Meanwhile, some activists and politicians from the Partido Liberación Nacional are filing an action before the Sala IV constitutional court to void the inspection law on the grounds that it awards an unconstitutional monopoly.

The firm, that has invested $22 million, says it probably will start inspections for real in mid-July based on the last digit of the vehicle plate number.

The company has modified the 80 points of its inspection system in response to protests and demonstrations from vehicle operators. Now fewer points will result in a reinspection, the company said.

No fee has been established for the inspection yet.
 

Two shot on walk

Two people walking on a San José street, Calle 12 between Avenida 3 and 5, were shot at by two men on a motorcycle.

The man, Marvin Blanco Moñlero, suffered bullet wounds and went to Hospital Calderon guardia. The woman, Silvia Madríz Muñoz suffered a small cut. 

Neither said they had any idea who might have done the shooting.

Intel has new chip

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Intel Corp. has released the Intel Celeron processor at a speed of 1.80 GHz. The processor represents Intel's fastest offering for the desktop PC market. 

The Intel Celeron processor at 1.80 GHz is based on the 0.18-micron process technology. In 1,000-unit quantities, the desktop processor is priced at $103. Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products. It has two manufacturing plants in San José.

Woman run over by car

A woman in Tres Rios accepted a ride with a man early Wednesday but in the vicinity of Urbanización La Carpintera the man abused her sexually and then hit her with the vehicle and then ran over her legs. She went to hospital Calderón Guardia, said investigators.

Cycle kills pedestrian

A woman, Blanco Hernández, 50, tried to cross a main street in Curridabat about 6  p.m. Tuesday, but she was struck and killed by a morotcycle. 

The accident happened near the Gasolinera La Galera. A woman with her, Flor Jara, suffered injuries, said investigators.

President Abel Pacheco will met today at 10:15 a.m. Washington time with U.S. President George Bush in the White house, the Casa Presidential here said Wednesday.

That will be the highpoint of a week-long trip Pacheco and his key ministers took to generate funds for Costa Rica and to acquaint themselves with Washington officials.

Wednesday Pacheco met with World Bank President James Wolfensohn and with Horst Kohler, president of the International Monetary Fund.

Pacheco said that his administration was trying to effect an economic revolution in Costa Rica, but one that would not hurt persons in the most vulnerable sections of the society.

"They understand that the revolution that we have to make in the national economy is not going to hurt our children, not going to hurt our old people," said Pacheco, according to a Casa Presidential statement.

Pacheco characterized the Costa Rican economic situation as "grave."  He said that the two men who are major figures in world finance, and others in Washington were impressed by a proposed law that would change the Costa Rican tax system. The proposals were the result of a committee composed of six former ministers of Hacienda who basically urged tougher enforcement of tax collection and the creation of a value added tax..
 

Caribbean crime
blamed on youths

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The increasing number of crimes committed by young people ages 15 to 24,  including drug peddling, prostitution, and other offenses related to risky behavior, has become a deadly problem in the Caribbean, the World Bank says.

The Bank said Tuesday that new HIV/AIDS cases among the young are on the rise in the Caribbean, along with sexual and physical abuse, pregnancy, crime and violence, and substance abuse.

The bank made the statement in conjunction with release of its new paper called "Youth Development in the Caribbean," which details the economic and social costs to the region of risky behavior by young people.

The Bank cited Jamaica and Barbados, where nearly $70 million in tourist dollars were lost because of riots among school-going adolescents. This coincides with the effects from the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, which severely hurt the Caribbean tourism industry.

The paper is available on the Internet at: www.worldbank.org/cgced.
 

Casto leads march
to elevate communism

HAVANA, Cuba — Several million Cubans participated in marches Wednesday in support of a constitutional amendment that would declare Cuba's Communist system "untouchable." The move is seen as a response to an amendment proposed by the island's dissidents that would open the country to democracy.

Images from Cuban television show President Fidel Castro leading hundreds of thousands of marchers down Havana's coastal boulevard and past the U.S. Interests Section. Castro, wearing his traditional olive-green military uniform, carried a small Cuban flag and was flanked by plain-clothed security men.

Similar government-mobilized marches were held around the country, with large crowds reported in the cities of Holguin and Santiago. Cuban officials said prior to the march they expected one million participants in Havana alone.

The purpose of the demonstration was to reject calls for a more open, democratic society in Cuba. The marchers supported a proposed amendment to the Cuban constitution that would declare Cuba, in the words of the draft, "a socialist state of workers, independent and sovereign, organized with all and for the good of all, as a unified and democratic republic…"

Last month, a group of dissidents presented a petition with more than 11,000 signatures to the National Assembly, demanding a referendum on democratic reforms. The so-called Varela Project was given a boost on May 14 when former U.S. President Jimmy Carter mentioned it during an unprecedented address to the nation. His words were later published in the government-controlled newspapers. 

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