Your daily English-language news
source
Monday through Friday
|
|
|
Your daily English-language news
source
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
Union groups, telecommunication workers, public employees and leftist
university students will be marching today to protest Costa Rica’s possible
agreement to a Central American free trade treaty.
Motives range from narrow concerns over the entry of certain U.S. agricultural products to a broad conception of the treaty as a vehicle for furthering U.S. imperialism. Meanwhile, President Abel Pacheco said again Sunday in his weekly television talk that the treaty was vital to Costa Rica’s interests because it gave the country access to the U.S. market. He is opposed to the march. The protest is supposed to kick off about 9 a.m. in front of the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad |
building in Sabana Norte. Other groups
will join themarch as the telecommunication workers head up Paseo Colón
to the Asamblea Nacional on Avenida Central.. Student groups will be coming
from the Universidad de Costa Rica in San Pedro, as is the custom.
Eventually many of the marchers will head to Zapote and to Casa Presidencial. Ostensibly, the marchers are demanding openness in free trade negotiations. The ninth and likely final round of talks are in the United states in December. Talks have been secret. However, the whole agreement will be up for study and discussion in the legislature when and if the executive branch approves it. Telecommunication workers fear that the government will permit international firms to undercut the ICE monopoly. The United States is insisting on some kind of gesture to open the Costa Rican communications or services markets. This would include the telephone and Internet systems, but also the national insurance monopoly and some quasi-monopolies of commercial enterprises. |
| U.S. citizen drowns
at Playa Potrero By the A.M. Costa Rica staff A U.S. citizen died Friday, the presumed victim of a swimming accident, according to the Fuerza Pública. The man was identified by the Fuerza Pública as Thomas Walker, about 61 years of age. Walker vanished at Playa Potrero in the morning, and his body was found along the shore about 6 p.m. The beach is north of Brasilito in northern Guanacaste on the Pacific coast. High tension climb
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Climbing high tension towers to attract attention seems to be the latest fad. A woman did that last week in Pavas because child welfare officials had taken some of her children. She later was talked down by officials and hospitalized. Saturday about 7 p.m. a man, 31, with the last names of López Bermúdez climbed a tower also in Pavas not far from the U.S. Embassy. Eventually he, too. came down complaining of problems with his mother-in-law. He also went to a hospital for evaluation. Also in Cartago Sunday another man did the same thing with similar results. Extradition sought
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services Poland has asked Costa Rica to extradite a Ukrainian citizen who Polish authorities say killed Jews while serving as a Nazi officer during World War II. Costa Rican Foreign Minister Roberto Tovar said Friday that the Polish Embassy in San José requested Bodhan Koziy's extradition. Koziy has lived in Costa Rica for the past two decades. Koziy is accused of killing a 4-year-old Jewish girl and of participating in the murder of an entire family in 1943. Reports say a court order in 2001 to expel Koziy was frustrated because no country would take him. Costa Rican authorities say Koziy left Europe after the war ended and went to the United States, where he obtained residency in the 1950s. In the early 1980s, Koziy lost his U.S. citizenship after authorities accused him of lying about his identity. He denies the allegation. Costa Rican authorities say they know where Koziy is living but that
extradition could take months.
Toledo give apology
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services LIMA, Peru — President Alejandro Toledo has apologized for two decades of political violence in the poor Andean country and announced plans to help many of its victims. In a nationwide broadcast Friday, Toledo asked Peruvians to forgive their government for the death or disappearance of tens of thousands of people during Communist insurgencies over the past two decades. He also apologized for the suffering of many others who were victims of violence, terror and human rights abuses. In August of this year, the government-appointed Truth and Reconciliation Commission reported that almost 70,000 people were killed or abducted during the guerrilla wars. That number is double earlier estimates. The commission blamed more than half the deaths on the Maoist Shining Path guerrilla group. It also said Peru's military was responsible for a third of the deaths, and committed widespread human rights abuses. Toledo acknowledged Friday that the Peruvian military committed "painful excesses." He also announced an $800 million development plan aimed at helping areas most affected by the violence. The Peruvian president said projects to improve education and infrastructure will target the country's most remote and impoverished areas, regions that were breeding grounds and strongholds of the guerrillas. Toledo said the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's findings will be incorporated in future school textbooks. Shining Path's numbers have steadily declined since the arrest of its founder, Abimael Guzman, in 1992. Once estimated at 10,000-strong in the early 1990's, the group is believed to now number in the hundreds. U.S. and Uruguay
Special to A.M. Costa Rica MIAMI, Fla. — The United States and Uruguay will begin negotiation of an investment treaty in early 2004, according to an announcement issued jointly by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and Uruguayan Foreign Minister Didier Opertti. The two officials made the announcement Friday after the conclusion of the Free Trade Area of the Americas meeting there. The decision to pursue such a treaty with Uruguay "reflects the [Bush] Administration's determination to move forward to strengthen trade and investment ties with willing partners," said a press release, adding: "A bilateral investment treaty will send a strong signal to investors that Uruguay is moving past its recent financial crisis and is ready for business." Ecuadorian leader
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services QUITO, Ecuador — The president has denied receiving $30,000 in campaign finances for last year's election from a suspected drug trafficker. President Lucio Gutierrez said Friday, that he would step down if investigators prove his party took money from Cesar Fernandez, a former provincial governor who is now in a Quito jail on drug trafficking charges. The president has said his campaign funding was clean and that investigators would not be able to prove the accusations. Meanwhile, President Gutierrez's brother-in-law, Napoleon Villa, has quit as head of the governing Patriotic Society Party. The president has also accepted the resignation of his tourism minister Hernan Plaza, who has admitted that he once rode in the accused drug lord's airplane. U.S. suspects onions
Special to A.M. Costa Rica WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is stopping shipments of green onions from three Mexican companies at the border, as part of its investigation into an outbreak of hepatitis-A in several U.S. states. Health officials are examining the shipments for traces of the disease which has sickened people in the U.S. states of Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and most recently, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania outbreak has been the most severe, infecting about 575 people and causing three deaths. Previous shipments from the three Mexican suppliers have been linked to outbreaks of the liver disease in Tennessee and Georgia. Food and Drug Administration officials said Thursday that green onions are suspected of being the source of the hepatitis-A outbreak, but they do not yet have conclusive proof. México’s U.N. envoy
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services NEW YORK, N. Y. — Mexico's ambassador to the United Nations, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, has told the U.N. Security Council he is resigning his post, telling reporters it is impossible to remain following the uproar over recent comments on U.S.-Mexico relations. Aguilar Zinser had upset his government by telling university students in Mexico City recently that the United States viewed Mexico as its backyard and not its equal. The remarks came on the eve of sensitive U.S.-Mexico talks in Washington. The ambassador's comments immediately drew a rebuttal from U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who described them as "outrageous." Secretary Powell also said Mexico is a partner, neighbor and great friend to the United States. Aguilar Zinser announced his resignation three days after Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez told reporters the ambassador would be stepping down on Jan. 1. It was not clear if the U.N. envoy was leaving voluntarily or being forced out by the government of Mexican President Vicente Fox. |
False gun permits
result in arrests By the A.M. Costa Rica staff For the second time in a week, police officials have detained individuals on suspicious that they were selling phony gun permits. Two men with the last names of Jarquín and Villalobos were detained by the Policía Municipal, and officials said they were trying to sell at least six false gun permits for 10,000 colons each, some $24. Gun permits are under the jurisdiction of the Departamento de Armas y Explosivos of the Ministerio de Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública. Officials said the permits actually were a scam because additional documentation is necessary for an individual to get a real permit. Earlier last week police arrested a man in Puntarenas who is suspected of trying to sell similar permits for 30,000 colons. The permit process has become more complex lately because officials now require an applicant for a gun permit to undergo an evaluation by a psychologist. Policeman wounded
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff A 16-year-old pulled a gun on people in front of a bar in Bataan early Sunday and then shot a policeman in the chest when he arrived to disarm the teen. Wounded with a .38-caliber bullet was Elberth Céspedes Marín, 57. He went to Hospital Tony Facio in Limón. Some five hours later, about 6:30 a.m., Fuerza Pública officers and agents of the Judicial Investigating Organization raided a home where they arrested a youth with the last name of Sánchez. They said he was the person who fired the gun. Police arrested other persons at the same location for unrelated charges.
|
|
|
|
|
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States and Aruba will share tax information with each other in an effort to ensure that, in U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow's words, "no safe haven exists anywhere in the world for the funds associated with illicit activities, including terrorism, money laundering, and tax evasion." Snow and Nelson Oduber, prime minister of Aruba, signed the agreement Friday in Washington. Aruba is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The United States recently concluded similar landmark tax-information exchange agreements with eight other offshore financial centers: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, and the Netherlands Antilles. Snow said the United States and Aruba have |
developed a close and cooperative
relationship on law enforcement matters. "We have an obligation to enforce
our tax laws, because failing to do so undermines the confidence of honest
taxpayers in the fairness of the U.S. tax system," said Snow. "Access
to needed information is vital to our efforts to ensure full and fair enforcement
of our civil and criminal laws.
The United states will continue to work vigorously to extend the network of exchange of information agreements to cover additional financial centers throughout the world and to improve existing information exchange relationships, Snow said. In January, the United States entered into an agreement with Switzerland that is intended to facilitate more effective tax information exchange between the two countries. At the same time, the two governments agreed that more must be done to bring the U.S.-Swiss tax information exchange relationship up to international standards. |
|
|
|
|
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain — Since the Middle Ages, Christian pilgrims have been flocking to this Spanish city, built, it is said, on the remains of the Apostle James. But the past 20 years have witnessed an unprecedented surge in pilgrimage to Santiago. Tired and muddy pilgrims rest heavy backpacks alongside the pews of Santiago de Compostela's soaring cathedral. They greet each other in restaurants, and pack Santiago's hotels. For centuries, these spiritual travelers, who arrive on foot, have been an unquestioned fixture of this medieval city. But never have there been so many, and they never came from so far away. Over the past two decades, the recorded number of pilgrims trekking to Santiago de Compostela has soared from just 120 in 1982, to nearly 69,000 this year. An expert on the pilgrimage, Olivier Cebe, says the surge has been astonishing, particularly since most of the pilgrims are Europeans, and church attendance in Europe is plummeting. Cebe is a member of the International Committee of Experts on the Road to St. James — the pilgrimage route from France that people started using in the Middle Ages. He says several reasons explain the growth in the number of pilgrims going to Santiago, who not only include Christians, but also Buddhists, Jews and even some atheists. For one thing, Cebe says, the pilgrimage is easier, thanks to recent efforts to upgrade the French road to Santiago, and to establish new ones from other parts of Europe. Europeans are also increasingly interested in hiking, and in their cultural heritage. But the interest in Santiago stretches well beyond Europe. And experts say it is evidence that more and more people are seeking their spiritual identity. Today, pilgrims come from countries as diverse as Sweden, Sri Lanka, South Africa and the United States. American Suzanne Da Rosa, 52, a poet from California, says she was drawn to the pilgrimage after seeing an art exhibit about it. She considers herself a non-practicing Catholic. "I grew up in the '50s and '60s, when religion was always something you had to fear," she said. "Everything you do is a sin, and you can't get to God if you're a sinner. All my life I've been a sinner." Mrs. Da Rosa says she did not intend to make a religious journey. But she ended up walking 800 kms. to Santiago with her eldest daughter. She says the pilgrimage became a spiritual experience and a sheer test of endurance. She is not alone. Up to 1,000 visitors arrive daily at Santiago's pilgrimage center during the peak months of July and August. They come here to receive their compostela from the Roman Catholic |
City of Santiago de Compostela photo Church, a certificate attesting that they have walked at least 100 kilometers along the Road to Saint James. Even now, during a season of chilly rains, the center is full of travelers. They include elderly walkers like 62-year-old Pamela Mathews from the Canary Islands, who admits that her 250-km. trek was difficult. "We feel the walk," said Mrs. Mathews. "The exhaustion. The pain in the back carrying a heavy load. And the long steep, road that is hard on the knees. But it's a good feeling. You can't imagine what a good feeling it is to know you've come to the Compostela, that you've done the whole trip, and that now you're going to get the certificate." Besides being a practicing Catholic, Mrs. Mathews had a special reason for making the journey. She says her brother is dying. She knows her pilgrimage won't make him better, but she hopes it will help ease his suffering. Others, like Patrick Dubois, 46, insist they did not make the pilgrimage for religious reasons. Dubois, who is from Bayonne, France, says the Road to St. James is simply a good hiking path. He says it helped him learn more about Spanish culture. The man who oversees Santiago's pilgrimage office, Canon Jaime Garcia Rodriguez, doubts Dubois' explanation. Garcia says pilgrims may not tell strangers the truth, but the truth is written on the church's registers. He says more than nine out of ten pilgrims who receive their certificates cite religious motives for their journey. Indeed, the growing number of pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela is fueling the Catholic Church's ongoing effort to get some sort of religious reference into the new European constitution now being drafted. Next April, church leaders will host a conference in Santiago, on Europe's spiritual roots. The timing coincides with the entry of 10 new countries into the European Union and with a special Holy Year of St. James in the Catholic Church. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
|
|
