With winds of 185 kph (115 mph), Hurricane Isabel has strengthened into the second major hurricane of the 2003 Atlantic and Caribbean hurricane season. 

Hurricane Isabel is still far out at sea, about 2,000 kms. (1,240 miles) east of the Leeward Islands, but forecasters say the storm is strengthening, and could pose a serious threat to Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and Cuba by the end of this week.

The storm is moving over very warm water and has a well-defined core and strong outflow. Forecasters say storms like Isabel can quickly become dangerous, with winds in excess of 240 kph (nearly 150 mph).

Forecasters also say Hurricane Isabel seems to be following the path of Hurricane Fabian that pounded the island chain of Bermuda several days ago, leaving at least four dead.

Thousands of homes in Bermuda remain without power and local authorities say Fabian caused millions of dollars worth of damage especially to Bermuda's famous golf courses.

September is usually the most active month in the six month Atlantic and Caribbean Hurricane season that ends on Nov. 30.
 
 

The United States is preparing to issue a redesigned $20 bill, the first U.S. note in nearly a century to feature colors other than green and black. The goal is to stay one step ahead of counterfeiters. 

For the second time in as many decades, the United States is redesigning its paper currency. The first denomination to undergo the makeover will be the $20 bill. 

"I think the most noticeable change will be the addition of subtle background colors: peach, green, and blue," says Dawn Haley, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing. "We still have the watermark, we still have a security thread. We have enhanced the color-shifting ink." 

The new $20 bills will begin to go into circulation Oct. 9. Similarly, revamped $50 notes are slated for release next year, to be followed by $100 notes in 2005. Banks and other businesses have been briefed on the changes so as to avoid confusion when the bills reach the public. 

Ms. Haley says counterfeiters are making use of ever-more advanced technology to produce fake bills, forcing the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to redesign paper currency sooner than had been anticipated just a few years ago. 

"Counterfeiting is increasingly turning to digital methods here in the United States. And that is what we are trying to stay ahead of, the technology that is out there," says Ms. Haley. "The $100 note is more counterfeited overseas. The $20 note is more counterfeited in the United States." 

What will the public think of multi-colored U.S. bills? Ms. Haley says initial reaction has been positive. "Throughout our focus groups, the general consensus is that people like the look of this new note," she says. "One of my favorite features of the new note is the enhanced portrait of President Andrew Jackson, the portrait almost jumps off the paper at you. I think it is pretty cool." 

Ms. Haley says the new notes will be the same size and have the same "feel" as bills currently in circulation. 

A.M. Costa Rica did an earlier story about the currency change with more photos that can be viewed HERE.

Dalai Lama ready
for D.C. agenda

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, is visiting. He was received Monday by the Capital Area Tibetan community and other Tibetan supporters. The Dalai Lama he will be in the capitial for three days. 

During his Washington visit, the Dalai Lama is expected to meet President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell and other administration officials. 

This will be the Dalai Lama's first opportunity to meet with U.S. leaders following the reestablishment of contact between his envoys and Chinese officials, after an impasse of nearly a decade. 

The Dalai Lama also meets leaders of the Senate and House committees on foreign relations and gives a keynote address at a 20th anniversary event of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. 

At the invitation of the Washington National Cathedral, the Dalai Lama attends an interfaith ceremony on the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

Earlier, the Dalai Lama visited San Francisco, where he received an honorary degree from the University of San Francisco. He also dedicated a house of worship for inter-religious harmony and world peace in the mid-Western city of Bloomington, Indiana. 

Before returning to India on Sept. 24, the Dalai Lama also visits Boston and New York.

The Fuerza Pública will be at the Hospital Nacional de Niños today, el Día del Niño.

Among other events officials will graduate the first class of special children instructors who duties will be to go from school to school to promote preventative programs of child safety, in part by the use of coloring books that contain such messages. Some 24 persons are in the first class, and they will be graduated at 10 a.m. at the hospital. It is called the Programa Pinta Seguro.

Participating will be Rogelio Ramos Martínez, minister of Seguridad Pública, Dr. Rodolfo Hernández Gómez, director Hospital Nacional de 

But the real stars might not be the officials. The Fuerza Pública is bringing the K-9 unit to the hospital for a noon demonstration. 

At other times Navarro and others will be engaging the youngsters at the hospital in chats about security and drug abuse.

The police program is just one of many scheduled for today, which is an important day in Costa Rica, although not an official holiday. The Museo Nacional will have a program, and national lawmakers will be meeting with high school-aged youngsters during the morning.

Casa Alianza says it has prevailed on the Corte Suprema de Justicia de Costa Rica to order lower-court judges to delete the names of underage victims in criminal sentences.

The child welfare organization said that this is to protect the identify of the victims.

Casa Alianza, in a release, said the organization has become worried that the complete names of boys, girls and adolescents who are victims of crimes continue to appear in the court sentences that are accessible via the Internet.

This places the security and tranquility of the victims of crimes against children at risk contrary to the established international norms, especially the Convention of the Rights of Children, the organization said.

The high court in a session July 28 reminded all the workers of the Poder Judicial to omit names of youngsters, as per an edict that was issued in May 2002 but has not been respected, said Casa Alianza. Otherwise disciplinary action will follow, Casa Alianza said the court warned.

Casa Alianza said that in December the court would have a computer program that will automatically filter the identities of minor persons in the sentences that are placed on the Internet.

In mid-April Casa Alianza filed a complaint against Televisíon Nacional de Chile for having aired the name and photos of a 9-year-old child who became pregnant in Costa Rica. The girl became big news when her parents took her from Costa Rica to Nicaragua where an abortion was performed. 

The Consejo Nacional de Televisión de Chile eventually upheld the complaint even though the 

Presumably the concern about privacy only extends to living victims of crimes. Casa Alianza has the names of dead child victims on its own promotional Web site. 

Also uncertain is at what age the courts will consider an individual to be a minor. The usual cutoff is the 18th birthday, but some United Nations agencies considers someone a minor through the 18th year.

The general judicial concept of the accused being confronted by the accuser would seem to mean that those charged with crimes would have access to the identity of victims, including their addresses and locations. This is basic information for defense work.

Some U.S. states and other countries try to restrict the identification of victims of sex crimes, regardless of age. Consequently, scams have been reported where individuals, mostly women, have falsely accused persons repeatedly of rape in order to collect money. In other cases, persons have used secrecy to run scams in which they claim to be seriously hurt in motor vehicle accidents or similar events.

Casa Alianza’s concerns are similar to the concerns of many other organizations when previously available court and personal information, freely available in the past, becomes much easier to obtain via new technologies.

There is not a lot of evidence that publicity of children’s names amplifies their embarrassment because persons close to the case almost always know what is going on and the names of specific victims are almost always available to highly motivated researchers.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Bush believes that no region is more important to the future of the United States than the Americas, and his administration will continue to work with hemispheric partners to nurture democracy and promote prosperity in the region, says Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega.

In remarks Monday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies here, Noriega outlined the Bush administration's record in the Americas and shared its vision for the future.

Noriega cited the U.S. conclusion of a free-trade agreement with Chile, current trade negotiations with Central American nations, U.S. support for an International Monetary Fund package for Brazil, and engagement in efforts to resolve crises in Venezuela and Haiti as examples of the Bush administration's "impressive record of achievement" in the hemisphere.

The State Department official noted that the administration's goal for the region is to "help our friends and neighbors consolidate the historic political and economic progress they have made and, together, build a community of democracies committed to freedom and opportunity for all the people of the Americas."

Noriega warned that despite the great strides that the region has made in recent years, persistent political, economic and social problems endure. He identified the root cause of most of these problems as political and institutional in nature, rather than economic.

"Over the last two decades the people of the Americas have made enormous progress, but these

"We must continue to nurture democracy and build republican institutions of government in the hemisphere," Noriega said. "We must adhere to rational economic policies and encourage our neighbors as they make the difficult transitions that are necessary to compete in the global economy and reach their true potential."

In pursuit of these goals, Noriega said, the United States will continue to advocate policies that have a proven record of success -- such as free-market reform, respect for the rule of law, the right to property, and sound macroeconomic principles.

He indicated that the United States will also encourage countries to invest in their people so that they have the necessary education and health care to prosper.

Noriega said that trade represents the best opportunity for the countries of the hemisphere to attract the capital they need to create jobs and sustain economic growth. That growth, he pointed out, will support public investments in education and infrastructure. He said the United States remains committed to the creation of a comprehensive Free Trade Area of the Americas by the target date of Jan. 1, 2005.

In his remarks, the assistant secretary addressed the individual political or economic landscape of several countries, as well as U.S. policy toward many of the nations in the hemisphere.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman will lead the U.S. delegation to the 5th World Trade Organization Ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico.

The four-day meeting, which starts Wednesday is seen as an important stepping stone to a final global trade liberalization accord that countries will negotiate over the next 15 months.

"We are at the midpoint in the Doha negotiations, and so our goal in Cancun is to provide the appropriate frameworks for us to negotiate real and ambitious trade reform," Zoellick said in a press release.

"We will move toward greater fairness in agricultural trade. And we will strive to bring developing countries more fully into the global trading community."

Over 40 senators and members of Congress from various committees such as House Ways and Means; Senate Finance; House and Senate Agriculture; House and Senate Judiciary, and staff members will be attending. In addition, 75 business, labor, environmental and consumer trade advisers, and 237 U.S.-based non-governmental organizations are accredited for a total of over 700 private sector representatives, said Zoellick’s office.