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Your daily English-language news
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Rodríguez candidacy
By the A.M. Cost Rica staff President Abel Pacheco was doing some campaigning over the weekend at the XIII Cumbre Iberoamericana, but it was the candidacy of Miguel Angel Rodríguez that he was pushing. Rodríguez, whose job Pacheco took over, wants to be secretary general of the Organization of American States. The summit of Spanish and Portuguese-speaking nations was at Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia The Rodríguez candidacy got a big push Sunday when Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, told a radio audience that his country would back Rodríguez for the post. Pacheco also had lunch with Juan Carlos de Borbón, the future king of Spain who recently made news with his engagement to a television news presenter in that country. Shoplifting suspects
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Police arrested a suspected group of shoplifters Saturday in a chase that ended in Guachipelín de Escazú. The three women were in a car identified by security guards at the Centro Comerical San Rafael. Fuerza Pública officers said the women had expensive clothing taken from the Extrabella store in the centro. The technique used was to have a women engage salespeople in the store in conversation to distract them while accomplices take merchandise. Police said that other merchandise in the vehicle might have come from stores in Multiplaza a few miles east. Arrested was a 34-year-old woman with the last names of Arias Pérez, a 32-year-old women with the last names of Retana Fonseca and two women with the same last names, Obando Duarte. One was 31 and another, the driver of the vehicle, was 23. Grenades destroy
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombian authorities say a grenade attack in an exclusive neighborhood has killed at least one person and injured more than 70 others. Witnesses say at least two men late Saturday threw the explosives into two bars frequented by foreigners in the city's northern Zona Rosa district. Police say one of the alleged bombers was captured after the attack and they are looking for as many as four other suspects. Witnesses described a chaotic scene as emergency personnel rushed the wounded to medical centers in Bogota. Reports say the blast injured some foreigners, including U.S. citizens. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the incident. However, police suspect the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the same leftist group blamed for a car-bomb in February that killed 36 people at another nightclub. Ecuadorian president
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services QUITO, Ecuador — President Lucio Gutierrez has denied receiving campaign funds from an alleged drug trafficker. Gutierrez told reporters Friday he had no links to businessman and politician Cesar Fernandez, who was detained last month on drug trafficking charges. The president said newspaper reports that his campaign received funds during his election last year were false. Under Ecuadorian law, public officials can be forced out of office if investigators prove drug money was used to finance their campaigns. Investigators allege that Fernandez, a former provincial governor, has ties to Mexican and Colombian drug cartels. Although Ecuador is not a drug producing nation, it is a transportation route for cocaine coming out of neighboring Colombia and Peru. Jailed journalist out
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services HAVANA, Cuba — A Cuban journalist jailed six years ago for political crimes against the government of Fidel Castro has been freed. Relatives of Bernardo Arevalo Padron say he was released Thursday and has been reunited with his family. Padron was the founder of Linea Sur Press, a small, privately-run press agency in Cuba. He was sentenced in 1997 to six years in prison for anti-revolutionary activities, including comments he made in a U.S. radio interview about President Castro failing to abide by the democratic principles agreed upon in an earlier Ibero-American summit. Journalists' rights group, Reporters Without Borders, expressed its happiness over Padron's release, but said he had paid the highest price for his criticisms of the Castro regime. The rights group says Padron sustained a severe beating by prison guards, and his physical and mental health has deteriorated as a result of his imprisonment. Martin, Liberal leader,
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services TORONTO, Canada — Paul Martin has been elected head of Canada's Liberal Party and will become the next prime minister when Jean Chretien retires. Almost 94 percent of delegates at the Liberal Party convention here voted for Martin, a former finance minister widely credited with helping get Canada out of debt during his nine-year term. The Liberal Party leader automatically is set to become prime minister because the party holds the most seats in Canada's House of Commons. Last August, Chretien announced he would retire in February 2004, after nearly 10 years in power. But Canadian political analysts say Chretien could step down within weeks. Shootout at party
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff One man died and three persons suffered wounds early Friday when a shooting took place at a party in Desamparados garage. Dead was Carlos Perez, 40. Police found that he carried a .38-caliber revolver in his belt. Three other persons suffered wounds and were hospitalized. Witnesses said that Perez lived in the house only a few days and that the shooting came from persons in a car. |
Music CD sales net
suspended sentence By the A.M. Costa Rica staff A man who copied musical CDs for sale got a suspended three years in prison last week on three counts of infringing on the rights of Sony Música Entretenimentio S.A., the local arm of Sony. The man was identified by the last names of Soto Camacho, and he remains at liberty on the promise of good behavior for three years, according to the order of the court. Fuerza Pública officers conducted an undercover operation to nab him last March. He was running a store called Peluquería M y M in the southern suburb of Hatillo 3. Three times an undercover agent purchased illegally copied disks from him, investigators said. Marked bills were used, and a raid followed. Sony has been enforcing its rights aggressively here against those who would copy its products. Immigration agents
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Representatives of the United States will make an official presentation of optical passport readers Tuesday in a ceremony at Juan Santamaría Airport The Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería will use the devices to improve security by checking the passports of those entering and leaving the country. The optical readers will be able to immediately access several different data bases, including one that lists potential sex offenders. Stranded Ecuadorians
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Some 110 Ecuadorians who wanted to make their way to the United States are going back home instead. The group were passengers on a boat that ran into trouble. They spend much of last week on the Isla del Coco where there are only limited facilities. their plan was to reach México and then get to the United States by land. They were returning home on an Ecuadorian military vessel, the Calicuchima.
Bandits shoot couple By the A.M.. Costa Rica staff Five men in a car held up and shot a couple in a car in La Garita early
Friday. Injured was a man with the last names of Hernández Hernández
and a woman with the last names of Brenes Casstro. The bandits took a cellular
telephone.
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copper! A member of Paracaidistas, a group of street performers, makes an editorial comment with his foot as police from the Municipalidad de San José break up a performance in front of the Teatro Nacional Sunday. No arrests were made, but performers had to stop their show. The group is known for its performances in Cines Semaforo in Calle de la Amarga, San Pedro. |
A.M. Costa Rica photo
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MIAMI, Fla. — Trade ministers from 34 nations in the Western Hemisphere are arriving here for five days of talks on creating the Free Trade Area of the Americas. It would be the world's largest free trade bloc. Thousands of anti-globalization protesters have also arrived, and thousands of police have been mobilized to prevent the protests from turning violent. The proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas is supposed to go into effect in 2005 and cover every country in the Western Hemisphere except Cuba. Deputy trade ministers from countries in the hemisphere began holding talks Sunday in advance of major meetings of trade ministers later in the week. The talks are expected to conclude with a "Declaration of Miami," which will outline steps to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas by the end of next year. Joining the trade negotiators in Miami are thousands of anti-globalization protesters, who include labor unions, environmental organizations and a small number of far-left anarchist groups who have threatened to disrupt the meetings, despite pleas not do so from a majority of the anti-free trade activists. Gretchen Gordon of the Citizens Trade Campaign, which opposes violence, says the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas is designed to help large corporations and will hurt those who cannot compete. "We are against the FTAA, because the FTAA is a global trading system that goes against workers |
rights, consumers, family farmers
and the ability of global citizens to participate in their own democracy,"
she said.
In preparation for several days of protests, which could turn violent, police in Miami have canceled all leave and requested reinforcements from federal law enforcement officials. Much of downtown Miami is blocked off to traffic near the site of meetings. Lt. Bill Schwartz, a spokesman for the Miami Police Department, said his fellow officers will try to be careful to distinguish between legitimate protesters and those who try and violently disrupt the trade talks. "We feel very certain that 98 percent of the folks are coming down here to protest peacefully," he said. "There is about 2 percent who are the wild cards. Those 2 percent who actually refer to themselves as anarchists are the ones we are concerned about." With the recent collapse of global trade talks in Mexico, expectations for the Miami meetings have been scaled back somewhat. The chief U.S. Trade Negotiator, Robert Zoellick recently said any agreement reached in Miami must recognize different levels of commitment to free trade in different countries. There are growing trade tensions between the United States and Brazil which would dominate any future Free Trade Area of the Americas. U.S. officials would like to see Brazil agree to reforms in the areas of investment and intellectual property rights, while Brazilian officials are opposed to U.S. efforts to protect domestic citrus and sugar growers with high tariffs. |
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A report on private corporations in Latin America urges treating shareholders fairly and improving financial disclosures. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group consisting of 30 member countries sharing a commitment to the market economy, released the document titled the "White Paper on Corporate Governance in Latin America." Corporate governance experts from Latin America, the organization and the International Finance Corporation, a World Bank affiliate, prepared the report. The White Paper provides "an action plan for corporate governance reform in the region, a press release said. According to the organization, the report identifies |
a number of key priorities
for action, such as: taking voting rights seriously; treating shareholders
fairly during changes in corporate control and de-listings; ensuring the
integrity of financial reporting and improving disclosure; developing effective
boards of directors; improving the quality, effectiveness and predictability
of the legal and regulatory framework; and continued regional cooperation.
The region's distinguishing characteristics include the important role that industrial and sometimes financial conglomerates play in the development of privately owned industry, combined with highly concentrated and often family-based ownership. Such characteristics suggest that particular attention is needed to ensure transparency of transactions, independent and effective board management and protection of minority shareholder rights and interests, said the report. |
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