A milder El Niño
The feared weather disturbance known as El Niño has been influencing conditions in Costa Rica since July last year, but it has been milder than earlier feared. As a consequence, in the current dry season water-rationing has been limited, the production of hydroelectric power has been normal, and farmers have not met major problems with irrigation. 

According the National Weather Institute (IMN in Spanish), the phenomenon is expected to fade away by next June. 

In Costa Rica, El Niño accounts for shorter rainy seasons with lower rainfall. This time, in spite of being moderate, it accounts for a 35 percent deficit in rains during the past rainy season. Currently, it is responsible for the hotter than usual temperatures - 2 degrees centigrade above average, generally speaking - experienced throughout Costa Rica.

AIDS: $4.2 million donation
The efforts to prevent more people from being infected with AIDS in Costa Rica were boosted thanks to a $4.2 million donation from the Global Fund for the Struggle against AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis, which collects private donations in developed nations and with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. 

The funds will be allocated to several projects that focus on the groups that run the greatest risk of contracting the disease, and which include the gay, children at social risk, inmates, and, of course, the patients who are already infected. The Minister of Health, Dr. María del Rocío Sáenz, and Vice-Minister Dr. Eduardo López, who coordinates the fight against AIDS, pointed out that the funds will be used solely in prevention.

Border micro-businesses
The residents in the traditionally impoverished border areas of the Central American nations interested in developing small businesses or in strengthening existing ones will now have the chance to do so, the Vice-Presidents of the region asserted at a meeting in San José. 

This was one of the major accords of the meeting, and the high officials in attendance said it is feasible through the cooperation of the Central American Integration Bank, that would provide the funds for the plan. 

The project aims at solving immediate needs of the residents of the areas concerned and, in the long term, in stemming migrations prompted mostly by lack of jobs and opportunities in those remote zones.

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The letter, made open to the public by police anti-terrorism head Assistant Commissioner Jon White, gives noon on March 28 as a time for a "demonstration of capability," with threats to poison tap water with cyanide, gas a cinema and use explosives.

White said specific threats had been released so possible targets would be able to make their own decisions about how to handle the situation.

Police have contacted about 2,000 affected people who believe the letter may have been written by the person who made threats during the New Zealand Open golf tournament in Paraparaumu last year and sent recent threat letters to the United States, Britain and Australian diplomatic missions in Wellington as well as the New Zealand Herald in Auckland.

Police would continue to treat war in Iraq as a trigger event for any possible terrorist action. Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast, who is now in Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix, was briefed Monday night and said security of water was a priority.

"We're checking all our reservoirs are locked and contacting all the people who are authorized to work on our water supply and asking them if they're aware of any tampering to be in touch immediately, either with us or the police," she said.

Bulk water supply in the region is supplied by Greater Wellington Regional Council, and water operations manager Dan Roberts said it had received a series of briefings from the Ministry of Civil Defense and Emergency Management.

Roberts believed a large amount of cyanide would be required to affect supplies, and said "we have steps in place to monitor activities around our installations."  Hotels and cinema were also cautious about the possibility of cyanide contamination of water supplies.

Gordon Wilson, chairman of the Major Accommodation Providers organization, said hotels and motels were not on high alert, but were being cautious. However, he said the threat to accommodation providers was no more than to other residents. But that did not mean such an action was unlikely, he said. There was a need to take the matter seriously and work with authorities investigating the threats. Cinemas would also take steps such as monitoring what people took in, being vigilant about suspicious packages and looking at evacuation procedures.

Meanwhile, Wellington hospitals are looking to boost stocks of cyanide antidotes after the terrorist threat warning of a possible attack in Wellington and Auckland. Greg Phillips, who heads Wellington Hospital's emergency department, said good plans were in place for any mass casualty incident. Emergency staff were being briefed on the symptoms of cyanide poisoning. In the event of a gas attack on a cinema as had been threatened, the hospital was likely to be alerted first by the ambulance service.

"We would immediately put our mass casualty plan into place. The early stage of this involves getting a lot of people into the emergency department and setting up an emergency control center to manage it," Phillips said.

Russia, France to veto new UN resolution on Iraq
France and Russia said on Monday that they will veto a draft resolution proposed by the United States, Britain and Spain, which seeks the authorization of the use of force against Iraq and sets a March 17 deadline for Iraq to fully comply.

After Russia said it will vote against the resolution, French President Jacques Chirac said Monday evening in an interview broadcast live on French television that France will also vote no. "France will vote no to a new UN resolution on Iraq whatever the circumstances," said Chirac.

It is the first time that the French president explicitly promise to use its veto power at the UN Security Council.

France will not support any measure that would lead to military action "until the inspectors have told us 'We can't do anything more'" in Iraq. "It is still "a dangerous country" and must be disarmed, but the war remains the ultimate resort and the worst of solutions", said the French president. "France will not accept and therefore will refuse" a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq, he said, adding that the most probable situation is that the second resolution will not get the votes needed at the UN Security Council.

From 1991 to 1998, the regime of UN weapons inspections "has destroyed more arms in Iraq than those used in the Gulf war," said Chirac, adding that the UN inspections must be pursued.

A war on Iraq will lead to a development of terrorism and will break up the world's anti-terrorist coalition, he said.

"Europe will not remain divided once the Iraqi crisis is ended. She (Europe) will regret not having been able to conceive a unique position, a new force," Chirac said. 

Columbia breakup may have started earlier than believed
In the last two seconds before Columbia lost data connections with mission controllers on the ground, the space shuttle might have already started to break up, US media reported Monday.

Investigators previously said that Columbia's last two-second burst of data, sent at about 9 a.m. Eastern time on Feb. 1, minutes before the shuttle disintegrated and killed all seven astronauts, showed it still on course and in the proper orientation.

However, new analysis, scheduled to release this week, indicates that the shuttle's desperate trouble may begin far earlier, The New York Times newspaper quoted two officials close to the investigation as saying. In the last two seconds of data transmission, Columbia was already spinning out of control with its left wing and left maneuvering jets damaged or destroyed, the officials said.

Analysis of the data received in the final two seconds also indicated an attempt, probably by a crew member, to disengage and override the shuttle's auto-pilot, according to a CNN report.

Under the conditions of a normal re-entry, the shuttle flies on computerized auto-pilot until it is traveling more slowly than the speed of sound. Attempts to cut auto-pilot suggests that the crew might be aware of some trouble and have tried to gain control of the shuttle.

However, NASA engineers cautioned that the data may be faulty and it is possible the astronauts turned off the auto-pilot by accident.

South Africans to go to Iraq as human shield next week
Forty South Africans are expected to leave for Iraq next Tuesday to act as human shields in Baghdad in the event of war in that country, the South African Press Association reported on Monday.

The report quoted Abie Dawjee, national coordinator of the Durban-based Iraq Action Committee of South Africa, as saying that the volunteer group would join hundreds of people from other countries to act as witnesses against possible United States attacks against civilian structures in Iraq.

"In the Gulf War, the US deliberately targeted the civilian infrastructures of Iraq, causing extensive damage to electricity power stations, water filtration systems, dams and sewerage systems," Dawjee said.

"People endured tremendous hardships and hopefully we will be able to stop destruction by our presence...That war was in contravention of the Geneva Conventions that forbids the targeting of the civilian infrastructure of a country in times of war," he added. The volunteers include people of all races, religion, professions and ages, and Dawjee said that he was overwhelmed by the support and response he had received.

He said volunteers wishing to go had to pay their own fare to Iraq, but would be supplied with food and basic accommodation by the Iraqi government after they reached Baghdad.

Earlier on Monday, a statement from former South African president Nelson Mandela's office said that he would not visit Iraq either as a mediator or as a human shield after advice from his family and aides. The former president's family and advisers had expressed serious concerns about any plans for him to travel to Baghdad, Mandela's Spokeswoman Zelda la Grange said in the statement.

She was reacting to Mandela's remarks in KwaZulu-Natal Province about a month ago that he would consider visiting Iraq, but would first consult those close to him.