"Baby, itâs cold outside," said the 1949 love song. But the statement could apply to Costa Rica today.

For some in the northern zone, the prolonged cold front means more heavy rain, and some 60 persons have been driven from their homes already.

The Comisión Nacional de Prevención de Riesgos y Atención de Emergencias issued a warning Monday for six cantons of the Province of Limón. The evacuations were in the Siquirres area, although rivers were continuing to rise all over.

In the Central Valley, rainfall was negligible Monday, but the temperature dipped to an overnight low of 16.6 Celsius at the weather station in northeast San José. Thatâs about 62 degrees Fahrenheit, but a strong wind makes the temperature feel about 15 degrees lower.

The top wind speed was 38.4 kph Monday. Thatâs 24 mph.

The Instituto Meteorológico Nacional predicts more of the same through Wednesday.

Predictions are for rain in the Caribbean and northern zone with temperatures as low as 20 Celsius (68 F.) in Limón and 17 Celsius (62.6 F.) in Ciudad Quesada (San Carlos).

Golfito, Quepos and Puntarenas will have it warmer,  a high of 30 Celsius (86 F.) and a low of 23 Celsius (73.4 F.)

Traffic death toll
includes two children

For some families in Costa Rica this Christmas will be a year that they will never forget, but not for positive reasons.  In the past two days six people, including two children, have died on the roads.

At 10:15 p.m. Sunday a 38-year-old man died in Calle Blancos. Investigators said that witnesses to the accident saw a vehicle veer towards the motorbike the victim was driving. 

Sunday about 7 p.m. a 49-year-old woman identified by the last name of Mora died near Zent close to Limón when the vehicle in which she was a passenger swerved off the road.

In San José, Fernando Coronado, 31, a taxi driver died when his car was hit by a Range Rover in Calle 20 Avenida 1 about 3 a.m.

Officials in Alajuela are investigating the death of a 5-year-old boy who was run over by a car about 11 a.m. Monday morning in the Urbanization of Teresita in Villa Bonilla, Alajuela. Initial reports from officials have suggested that the boy was riding his bike and crossed in front of the path of a mini-bus. The driver did not see him and was unable to stop in time. The boy died on the way to the hospital. 

Also in Alajuela a girl, 3, was killed as she waited up with her mother to buy groceries.  The incident occurred at 11:31 a.m. in Sabanilla of Alajuela.  Initial reports suggest that a meat van without brakes crashed against the stall and a freezer then fell on top of the girl. 

In Tarbaca at 6:30 a.m. Monday a 35-year-old man by the name of Fallas was riding his motorcycle and attempted to overtake a parked car. Officials said that he drove straight into a car that was coming the other way and died instantly. 

Death of couple
blamed on exhaust

The Pathology department of the Organization of Judicial Investigation has concluded that the deaths of a young couple in a motel room were accidental. 

The man, Carlos Chinchilla Valverde, 21, and the woman, Stefani Vargas, 25, were found in the Motel el Retiro. The motel is located in San Rafael Abajo, Desamparados. 

Dr. Luis del Valle Carazo said that the couple died of carbon monoxide poisoning from their own car which was left running below where they were staying. The fumes the couple inhaled made them feel drowsy. Del Valle said that in these instances the victims do not feel any pain. 

An employee from el Retiro said that the motel features rooms that have their own private parking area below. "We always leave the entrance to each of the rooms open. Its up to those who arrive if they want to shut it," he said. The employee also said that this is the first case of its kind at the motel. 

Officials are investigating the death of a teenager who was found dead in the trunk of a taxi. 

Investigators said that Dagoberto Mayo Murillo, 17, had taken the taxi without the driverâs consent. His body was found in the trunk of the taxi at 1:35 a.m. in Cuidadela La Leon XIII.  Officials said that he had suffered an injury to the left side of his body and died inside the taxi. 
 

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No Christmas is complete in Costa Rica without tamales, and the tradition includes small home factories that turn out the delicious banana-wrapped parcels.

In Aserrí, in the mountains south of San José, the Valverde family and the Tamalera Val-verde has been producing tamales for 52 years.

Librado Valverde Morales, the current owner, actually was born amid the tamales.

The operation produces 3,000 to 4,000 tamales a day, and the family members and helpers work seven days a week as Christmas approaches. The dough must be prepared and the dough is filled with chicken, pork, rice and other vegetables. Then the soon-to-be tamale is wrapped in a banana leaf and cooked and steamed in a wood-fired stove.

Ana Valverde fills chicken tamales 

They let Gringos use the microwave because many feel the modern appliance dries out the tamales. Be careful not to let the water penetrate the banana leaves and ruin the tamale, they warn.

The tamale marks a special moment when the whole family from youngsters to grandparents participate together in the traditional food.
 

About 1,000 tamales can be cooked at 
one time in this wood-fired custom steamer.

WASHINGTON, D.C. ÷ A newly enacted law overhauling the U.S. intelligence system includes provisions to strengthen border security, track and curtail terrorist travel, and increase criminal penalties for terrorist crimes.

The law ÷ the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 ÷ authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to increase the number of U.S. Border Patrol agents by at least 2,000 each year beginning in 2006 and continuing through 2010. It also requires that 20 percent of the agents be assigned along the U.S.-Canada border.

Most of the additional immigration and border security provisions in the law President George Bush signed Dec. 17 are pertinent to the Department of Homeland Security. The department was created in 2002 in response to the terrorist attacks on the United States Sept. 11, 2001.

The law also authorizes the department to increase the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents by at least 800 each year over five years, beginning in 2006.

The Department of Homeland Security is also authorized to increase by 8,000, in each of the years 2006 through 2010, the number of beds available for immigration detention and deportation operations. Priority will be given to those facing deportation for national security reasons.

The department will begin testing a pilot border-security program along the U.S.-Canadian border, and another along the southwestern U.S. border. The law permits testing of advanced technologies, such as sensors, video, and unmanned aerial vehicles, along the northern border between ports of entry.

Along the southwestern border, Homeland Security must provide the president with a plan for the systematic surveillance of the border region using unmanned aircraft.

Two provisions were included specifically to target terrorist travel. One provision requires the new director of the National Counterterrorism Center to send Congress a strategy that combines intelligence collected 

The second provision directs the president to lead efforts to develop international agreements to curb terrorist travel with the use of lost, stolen or falsified documents. It calls on countries to share information on lost, stolen, or fraudulent official travel documents, impose criminal penalties on the use or production of such documents, prevent the issuance of passports for bribes, and permit immigration and border control agents to seize fake documents at ports of entry.

The law also includes provisions to:

-- Accelerate the implementation of the automated biometric entry-exit program;

-- Establish a Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center to counter terrorist travel and to advise Congress annually of vulnerabilities in the United States and foreign travel systems that may be exploited by terrorists, human smugglers and traffickers;

-- Increase the number of consular officers in the State Department by 150 annually from 2006 through 2009;

-- Direct the departments of State and Homeland Security to develop by 2008 standardized requirements for travelers coming into or returning to the United States, including U.S. citizens and citizens from Canada and other Western Hemisphere countries, to present a passport or other documentation to establish citizenship and identity;

-- Require the Department of Homeland Security to establish minimum standards of identification for passengers on domestic commercial airlines; and

-- Deport any alien who has received military-type training from a designated terrorist organization and bar the admission of any alien who has ordered, or participated in, an act of genocide, torture or killing.

The law does not include a provision that would have made it harder for refugees to gain asylum and would have required expedited deportation of illegal aliens without review by the federal courts.