| NEWS |
|
updated by 8:00 a.m. CST each day
|
Costa Rican Man Dies in
Toronto by Cruel Chance
Augusto
Cesar Mejia Solis was sending an e-mail home
to Costa Rica when the ceiling of his
classroom collapsed on him.
Solis was one of about 50 students in an
English-as-second-language class at Yorkville
English Academy on Balmuto St. near the former
Uptown Theatre, in downtown Toronto.
14 others were
injured In the collapse of the
83-year-old theatre in Canada's largest city.
Fire officials are still at the site of the
collapsed building, emergency crews are still
digging through the debris, using sniffer
dogs.
Several adjacent buildings were also damaged,
including one that houses a private school, a
local radio station said.
Emergency officials say at least three of the
injured were children and five were
construction workers
Last night, relatives Solis gathered in his
home in Heredia, just north of San José.
Solis was a spiritual man, who exercised daily
and did not smoke or drink, his brother said.
"I just talked to him Saturday and he said he
was coming home."
Costa Rica Seeking Man in
Adoption Scam
The Costa Rican government has issued an
international arrest order for an employee of
a South Florida adoption agency for
trafficking children for adoption in North
America.
The arrest order, given to Interpol, also
states that Rolf Salomon Levy Berger, employed
at the Coral Spring's agency International
Adoption Resource (IAR), has been wanted by
the Colombian government for his involvement
in ``similar activities.''
According to the order, in 2002 Levy was
''being processed for kidnapping and
trafficking children, as well as homicide for
lack of medical attention of one of the
children that he offered for sale,'' in
Colombia.
It's unclear where Levy is now. The order
states he carries an Israeli passport.
On Friday, the Florida Department of Children
& Families (DCF) revoked IAR's license after
state child welfare workers said that agency
lied about its connections with an alleged
child smuggler.
DCF director Jack Moss issued a suspension
letter stating that IAR's director Rebecca
Thurmond lied when she told DCF investigators
that she did not know Rafael Leyva, an alias
Rolf Levy uses.
The DCF and Costa Rican officials had
independently investigated IAR since September
for its involvement in a smuggling ring
involving nine Guatemalan babies who were
discovered that month living in a run-down
house. The house, investigators believe, was a
transit point for the children who were to be
adopted by American couples.
The babies were connected to IAR through
paperwork found in the house with the
signature of attorney Carlos Robles. He was
jailed in September by Costa Rican authorities
-- along with two Hondurans, four Guatemalans,
and a Swiss national -- charged with child
smuggling.
A former bank executive, Robles was convicted
in 2001 of embezzlement after Banco Anglo
Costarricense lost millions from purchasing
questionable bonds, a highly publicized
scandal in the country.
Free Trade Negotiations
Enter Final Stage
Negotiators have launched what they hope will
be the final round of talks aimed at creating
a new Central American trade pact, if a spat
over sugar doesn't sour the mood.
Working against a Dec. 16 deadline, trade
representatives from the United States, Costa
Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and
Nicaragua are trying to resolve the final,
toughest issues on a trade deal covering
everything from pork products to telephone
service.
Negotiators fear that if this ninth round
doesn't produce a Central American Free Trade
Agreement by next week, the opportunity to
push a free trade bill through Congress will
be lost, at least until after the presidential
election.
Regina Vargo, assistant U.S. trade
representative for the Americas and the Bush
administration's lead negotiator in the talks,
struck an optimistic tone Monday: "I feel
good," she said.
Negotiators are hoping to build on some of the
progress made during the last round of talks,
in Houston in October.
"Our accomplishments have been impressive,"
Vargo said, "but so is the work that remains."
The United States is hoping that if it can
reach a deal with these five Central American
nations, it will be able to persuade the
Dominican Republic, which is keen on signing
its own trade pact with Washington, to join
the new free-trade zone.
A Central American Free Trade Agreement, or
CAFTA, is not viewed as an end unto itself but
as a prelude to a larger Free Trade Agreement
of the Americas stretching from Alaska to
Argentina.
This year, U.S. trade with Central America
could top $25 billion.
Electronic Police on the
Job
Police
in San José, in a hype of their newest tool -
surveillance cameras - say that crime has seen
it's last days.
As of yesterday, 20 cameras make up a network
that police use to monitor high crime areas
and can dispatch offices immediately to the
scene. Also, tape recordings of the crime can
be used in court.
RACSA (Radiografica Costarricense) and local
Channel 7 are supporters of the project in
bringing public security to the general
population.
Channel 7 donated several cameras that is had
been using for live traffic reports for
several months already.
The project is under the control of the
Ministerio de Seguridad Publica and Seguridad
Minister, Rogelio Ramos, indicated that the
plan will also be installed in Limon and
Alajuela in the near future.
|
|
|
ZYBAN is the first nicotine-free pill that, as a
part of a comprehensive program from your
health care professional, can help you stop smoking.
Click here for more details! |
US Congress passes
first federal anti-spam legislation
The United States
Congress Monday passed the first national bill
intended to curb junk commercial e-mail, or spam,
that has flooded Internet users' in-boxes.
The House of Representatives unanimously voted to
approve the anti-spam act, which was already passed
by the Senate on Nov. 25. The bill now heads to the
White House and US President George W. Bush is
expected to sign it by the end of this year.
The legislation outlaws unsolicited commercial
e-mail senders to disguise the origins of their
e-mail by using a false return address or misleading
subject line. Violators could face up to five years
in jail and as much as six million US dollars in
fines.
It would also authorize the US Federal Trade
Commission to establish a national "do-not-spam"
list of Internet users who opt not to receive
unsolicited e-mails.
The federal law, however, allows businesses to send
e-mail to anyone as long as they meet the
requirements to label e-mail clearly and to include
ways that allow recipients to request a halt to
future e-mail.
Anti-spam legislation, which has been stalled in the
US Congress since the first bill was introduced in
1998, is gaining momentum recently as several
surveys showed that the amount of spam has surged
dramatically, accounting for more than half of all
the e-mails circulated in the United States.
California woman sues
Schwarzenegger for libel
A woman who had accused
Hollywood actor-turned California Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger of sexual harassment, sued the
governor Monday in a libel lawsuit and sought
unspecified monetary damages.
Rhonda Miller, who claimed Schwarzenegger groped her
when she was working as a stunt woman in the 1990s,
announced the lawsuit at a news conference held at
her lawyer Paul Hoffman's office, two blocks from
Schwarzenegger's campaign headquarters.
Miller said she filed the lawsuit because
Schwarzenegger's staff falsely suggested in an
e-mail that she was a convicted felon.
She said she has never been arrested and that the
false information about her was broadcast on
national television.
In a prepared statement, Miller said, "I am filing
this lawsuit because what has happened to me is
wrong and must never happen to anybody else."
Miller made the groping allegations at a news
conference on Oct.6.
Within hours, the Schwarzenegger campaign sent an
e-mail to several reporters directing them to the
Los Angeles Superior Court Web site and instructing
them to type in the name "Rhonda Miller" for a
search.
The search produced court records for a woman named
Rhonda Miller with a long criminal record.
The e-mail also noted that another of Miller's
lawyers, Gloria Allred, was a large contributor to
Democratic candidates, including the then-incumbent
governor Gray Davis.
Hoffman, who is representing Miller along with
Allred in her libel lawsuit, said the Schwarzenegger
campaign deliberately misled reporters about
Miller's background in order to raise doubts about
her allegations until the election was over.
"They destroyed her life for one day's advantage,"
Hoffman said.
At the Oct. 6 news conference, Allred warned that
her client could file a defamation suit if the
Schwarzenegger campaign spoke out against her in
responding to her allegations.
Trade deficit with
China not cause for US job losses
Trade with China is helping create jobs in the
United States rather than contributing to its
unemployment problem, said China's Vice Commerce
Minister Ma Xiuhong here on Monday.
"Facts have proved conclusively that the sound
development of the China-US economic and trade
relations have created much room for job creation in
the United States, rather than leading to job
losses," Ma told reporters.
"The prospects for the creation of more jobs (in the
United States) as a result of exports to China
remain very bright," added Ma, who is accompanying
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on a four-day official
visit to the United States.
The trade deficit the United States has with China
does not mean jobs are lost in the United States and
China's products do not pose a threat to the
development of US industries, she stressed.
"I very much agree with many American economists and
international trade experts. In their view, imports
are not a decisive factor for employment, but rather
the key lies in promoting US exports," Ma said.
Ma said US exports declined 4.9 percent as a whole
in 2002 but its exports to China increased 15
percent. In the first nine months of this year,
total US exports rose just over 2 percent while
exports to China surged 18.5 percent in the same
period.
Among the top 10 destinations for US exports, China
has been the fastest growing for three consecutive
years, she said, predicting that China will very
likely become the fifth largest trade partner of the
United States in 2003.
"US exports to China have increased by very big
margins, especially during the past two years, since
China's entry to the World Trade Organization," she
said. "The momentum is still ongoing."
"Facts have showed that China has become the main
driving force for the export growth of the United
States," she emphasized.
Ma also expressed the hope that the United States
would expand exports of high-tech products to China
in order to reduce its trade deficit with China.
Trade is expected to be one of the main topics
during Wen's talks with US leaders in Washington.
Some US officials and trade unions have blamed
Chinese exports for job losses in the United States
and the US administration said earlier it was ready
to restrict imports of fabric products from China.
Premier Wen left for Washington late Monday after a
two-day stay in New York.
Email
this page To a Friend
|
|
|
