A massive credit card fraud targeting mostly foreigners who visited Jacó, La Fortuna and Quepos is the likely outcome of an investigation agents kicked off this week.

Detained were five persons who had in their possession a portable computer and blank credit cards. The group had all the equipment necessary to twin real credit cards and produce an exact copy for criminals to use, said investigators.

The five person who said they were Venezuelan

The five had a way of reading the electronic and magnetic information on credit cards as customers used automatic teller machines. The computer had a number of files containing this type of electronic information, investigators said.

The bulk of the credit card information came mostly from U.S. citizens and Europeans, said agents.

Two pirate taxi drivers routinely picked up young woman, hit them, threatened them and took them to isolated spots where they raped and robbed them, according to investigators.

Judicial Investigating Organization agents staged two raids Wednesday where they arrested two men on four rape charges. They identified them by the last names of Caldarón, age 24, and Aragón, 19.

All the women were between 18 and 25 years of age, investigators said. As a result of the raids, agents confiscated the vehicle they believe was used in the crimes plus clothing.

Pirate taxi drivers are those who are not licensed and ply their trade outside the law, 

Although there are just four charges now, investigators said they expected other women to come forward and gave the telephone numbers of 295-3316 or 295-3317.

Agents said that a woman would board the taxi and the two men there would strike her and take her to an isolated place.  Sometimes women would decline to ride with a pirate taxi driver and a man would get out of the car, pull a gun and force her to get in, said police.

The women who filed complaints were picked up in San Francisco de Dos Ríos, Tarbaca, Aserrí and Desamparados. The men live and the raids were conducted in San Juan de Dios de Desamparados, said agents.

A bank holdup Wednesday morning in Desamparados and the kidnapping of a branch manager and his family last week in Matina have brought official attention to security for the savings institutions.

Walter Navarro, director of the Fuerza Pública, announced later Wednesday that a new center would be set up to monitor bank alarms in conjunction with the Instituto Nacional de Seguros, which is the nation’s insurance monopoly. He met with other officials Wednesday to discuss security measures.

The monitoring center will not be just for banks but for other businesses that need a rapid response from police, said an announcement.

Officials also will set up a security course for bank managers in an effort to avoid the kind of kidnapping that took place last week in Matina de Limón. There bandits held the bank manager and his family hostage until they could get to the bank and open the safe. The wife and two children were released that same afternoon, but the bandits got away.

Managers also will be given the option to have an alarm system installed at home or on their person, said the summary of Navarro’s meeting.

The Banco Popular was the target Wednesday morning when gunmen entered as employees were coming to work. They got about 30 million colons or about $75,000 in Costa Rican currency.

Kirchner and Bush
discuss recovery

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President George Bush has met with Argentine President Nestor Kirchner at the White House for talks covering Argentina's economic recovery efforts. 

President Kirchner told reporters afterwards that he was satisfied with Wednesday's meeting and had received decisive and unconditional U.S. support for his economic program. 

Kirchner had said earlier he hoped the Bush administration would back Argentina's bid for a new loan package from the International Monetary Fund. 

Argentina is struggling to emerge from a severe economic crisis which led to a massive debt default and a devaluation of its national currency, the peso. Argentina wants to negotiate a three-year aid package from the Monetary Fund before a $2.9 billion loan comes due later this year. 

Prior to the talks, White House spokesman Scott McClennan told reporters that Bush values the relationship with Argentina, which is an important ally.  McClennan said the president supports Kirchner's efforts to return Argentina to a path of sustainable growth. 

The spokesman also said the two presidents would cover other issues, including the global war on terrorism, global and hemispheric trade and economic prosperity in the hemisphere. 

The White House talks marked the first meeting between the two presidents. Kirchner took office on May 25. 

Mr. Kirchner travels to New York today for meetings with investors. He is also expected to meet with members of the Jewish community to discuss the investigation into the deadly 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires. 

Additionally, Kirchner will visit the former site of the World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. 

Bus driver shot
when he resists

A Pavas bus driver took two bullets in his right arm Tuesday night as he confronted robbers about 10:30 p.m.

Agents identified him as Benjamin Salazar Salgado and said that he resisted the two bandits who shot him in return. The men fled with no money, agents said.

Buses in certain sections of Pavas have been routinely held up over the last two months, said drivers.

Friday is a holiday

Friday is a national holiday in Costa Rica marking the 179th anniversary of the decision by politicians in Guanacaste to join with Costa Rica instead of Nicaragua.  Government offices, banks and embassies, including the U.S. Embassy, will be closed.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, México — Police say the bodies of three women in their 20s have been found in shallow graves on the outskirts of this city near the U.S. border. 

The bodies were discovered Wednesday, one day after officials unveiled Project Juárez, a plan to stop violence that has claimed the lives of hundreds of women in the area since 1993. 

Authorities say the bodies were badly decomposed but believe the remains were those of Juárez residents Miriam Garcia, Karina Ramos and a third woman whose name was not released. The women had been missing since Sunday. 

Police also say they are searching for a man identified as Felipe de Jesus Machado, who was last seen with the women when they disappeared. Police say the discovery of a charred sport utility vehicle belonging to him led them to the remains. 

Ciudad Juárez is in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The area has been identified as a gateway for drugs. 
 

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Roberto Clemente, a native of Puerto Rico and the first Latino enshrined in major league baseball's Hall of Fame, is remembered for being an all-star both on and off the ball field.

Though he died 31 years ago, Clemente continues to be an inspiration for sports fans of all ages. A number of schools and parks are named for him, 

and he was the second baseball player to appear on a U.S. postage stamp. Jackie Robinson was the first. Ironically, Clemente's extraordinary dedication to helping others led to his own demise. The legendary right-fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates died at age 38 in a 1972 New Year's Eve plane crash while traveling to deliver relief supplies to

victims of a devastating earthquake in Nicaragua. But his charity to others lives on, as signified at a White House ceremony Wednesday where Clemente was one of 11 Americans in the arts, sports, politics, science, and business awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor.

The honor is reserved for individuals the president deems to have made especially meritorious contributions to the national interests of the United States, to world peace, to culture, or to other significant public or private work.

President George Bush said at the White House ceremony that Clemente would have been 69 years old next month.

"Millions of Americans remember hearing the news that Roberto Clemente had been lost on a mission to help the people of Nicaragua after an earthquake," said Bush. "His full name was Roberto Clemente Walker, and in an era of [Willie] Mays, and [Mickey] Mantle, and [Hank] Aaron, he ranked as one of the greats. He was a young man with a quick bat, a rifle arm and a gentle heart."

Bush added: "The true worth of this man, seen in how he lived his life and how he lost his life, cannot be measured in money. And all these years later, his family can know that America cherishes the memory of Roberto Clemente."

His son, Roberto Clemente, Jr., said in an interview that "I know Dad is looking down upon  us and is very proud of what his legacy has done for our culture."

Clemente, Jr., now a broadcaster for the ESPN sports network and formerly a Spanish-language play-by-play announcer for the New York Yankees, said "our kids are learning about my dad in school and in the history books, and they have someone to look up to."

Of his father, Clemente, Jr., said: "This kid from Carolina, Puerto Rico, grew up to be a baseball player, but not only that, he grew beyond the game of baseball. He became a hero, and 31 years after his death he's still receiving accolades for being the man he was. Baseball is really secondary to the legacy he left as a human being."

Every New Year's Eve, fans still leave flowers on the beach about a kilometer from where Clemente's plane crashed off the coast of Puerto Rico. At the time of the crash, he was looking for land to establish a "Sports City" for the underprivileged children in his hometown of Carolina. Today, Sports City, established by Roberto Clemente, Jr., is a thriving sports-recreation center in Puerto Rico.

Another legacy is Roberto Clemente State Park — located not far from baseball's legendary Yankee Stadium along the Harlem River in the New York City borough of the Bronx — which offers a variety of recreational and cultural activities. The annual Roberto Clemente Week at the park celebrates the famed baseball star's life with a series of special events.

Clemente played for the Pittsburgh Pirates his entire major league career, from 1955 to 1972. He was four-time National League batting champion, the league's most valuable player in 1966, a 12-time Golden Glove winner for fielding proficiency, and the most valuable player in the 1971 World Series when the Pirates beat the Baltimore Orioles. Clemente was the 11th player to have 3,000 hits in his major-league career. In 1973, Clemente was elected to the baseball Hall of Fame, with the standard five-year waiting period waived because of his untimely death.

The Federal Reserve must be ready to cut a key interest rate to zero, if necessary, to provide support to the economy, should prices sharply drop, a U.S. central bank official says.

Speaking Wednesday to a University of California group, Federal Reserve Governor Ben Bernanke said that keeping the federal funds rate target at or near its current level for an extended period may be sufficient to keep disinflation in check. The federal funds rate — the interest banks charge each other on overnight loans — is currently at 1 percent, the lowest level in 45 years.

But should that prove insufficient, he said, the bank may need to cut the rate further, all the way to zero, despite the costs such an action would impose on savers and some financial institutions.

In such case, Bernanke said, the U.S. central bank would consider so called nontraditional policy measures including increased purchases of long-term government bonds and the issuance of options to borrow from the Federal Reserve at low rates.

He suggested the costs of deflation — recession, financial stress and rise in unemployment — would be even greater.

Bernanke said, however, he personally does not view a drastic change in the inflation rate as "imminent."

"Should further declines occur, a more gradual downward drift over a period of one or two years would be the more likely scenario," he said.

Bernanke said that while the continuation of the recent trend toward disinflation is possible, "stable expectations of inflation and the recent weakening of the dollar may help to offset that tendency."

In part, Bernake's remarks echoed those of the Federal Open Market Committee, the policy-setting body of the Federal Reserve, which at its May 6 meeting said that preventing further declines in inflation must be its priority for the future.

"I hope we can agree that a substantial fall in inflation at this stage has the potential to interfere with the ongoing U.S. recovery, and that in conceivable--though remote--circumstances, a serious deflation could do significant economic harm," he said.