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Extradition from
Costa Rica Delayed for Man Wanted By Poland for
Killing Jews
A Ukrainian
man facing extradition to Poland on charges he
killed Jews during World War II has been
hospitalized in Costa Rica, stalling his
extradition.
Officials in San Jose said Friday that 80-year-old
Bohdan Koziy has been hospitalized. The cause of his
hospitalization and the seriousness of his condition
remain unclear.
Costa Rican officials have said they will arrest Mr.
Koziy when he leaves the hospital.
The Polish Embassy in Costa Rica requested Mr.
Koziy's extradition last week on charges that he
killed a four-year-old Jewish girl and participated
in the murder of an entire family while he was a
Nazi police officer in Ukraine.
Mr. Koziy has lived in the Central American country
for more than 20 years.
Central America
Attains "important advances" on FTA Plan
Central
America made "important advances" Friday to achieve
a united position on the planned Central American
Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States.
The latest regional coordination meeting on CAFTA
closed in Honduras Friday with Costa Rica, Honduras,
Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador agreeing to
negotiate as a bloc with the United States for the
free trade agreement.
The ninth and final round of CAFTA negotiations will
be held Dec. 8-12 in Washington, Costa Rica's
Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday.
Observers of the negotiations believe the agreement
will be signed next March.
Attending the current negotiating session were
officials responsible for services, investment,
textiles, and environmental issues.
On services and investment, delegates discussed
financial services and trade in cross-border
services.
On textiles, negotiations focused on regulations and
rules of origin.
On environment, Central America and the United
States attained "important advances" on topics to be
contained in the agreement, the ministry said
without outlining specifics.
The ministry pointed out that on market access, it
should be possible to utilize the Caribbean Basin
Initiative (CBI) to cover Costa Rican products.
"We have reached an agreement with the United States
which basically means that already all of our
exports sent to the UnitedStates can be dealt with
under the CBI," said the Costa Rican negotiator in
chief, Anabel Gonzalez.
She said "issues related to conditions covering the
export of US products to Costa Rica were accorded
with the exception of sensitive products on which we
will work intensively in the final round."
Monaco's Prince
Albert to Touch Down in Costa Rica
Monaco's
Prince Albert will visit Costa Rica December 2-7
where he will meet President Abel Pacheco and visit
sites of national interest, officials said.
The European royal is conducting a brief tour of
Latin America. He arrived in Chile on Wednesday and
is due in Peru on Saturday before heading north to
Costa Rica.
"Mainly (the prince) is interested in the ecological
part and the protection of the environment," Costa
Rica vice chancellor Marco Vinicio Vargas told
reporters.
Albert is due to visit several of Costa Rica's
national parks as well as the presidential palace,
Congress and the National Museum.
Squirrel
Monkey
The Association for the Preservation of the Squirrel
Monkey has 6,000 new reasons to continue its efforts
in the Costa Rican Central Pacific area.
US firm Ford Motors donated $6,000 to the
Association, as part of the corporation's program to
reward the organizations that promote projects for
the protection of the natural resources and culture
of Costa Rica.
In recent months, the Association has planted 10,000
trees in the basin of the Naranjo River, as part of
a project to develop a biological corridor for the
squirrel monkey -an endangered species- to link that
area with the Manuel Antonio National Park and the
Nara Mount Protected Zone.
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Venezuelan opposition begins signature collection
for recall referendum
Venezuela's opposition started on Friday collecting
signatures needed to call a referendum to revoke the
rule of President Hugo Chavez and 35 ruling-party
legislators.
The process started without incidents except in
Caracas where there were delays in the delivery of
signature collecting materials by the National
Electoral Council (CNE) and the Republic Plan.
About 60,000 troops, including 12,000 reservists,
guarded the 2,700 signature collecting centers
around the country, in which 5,360 national and
international observers are monitoring the process,
according to local press.
Venezuela's constitution states that in order to
call a referendum of this sort, 20 percent of those
who voted for the elected official must sign up for
a referendum. In the case of Chavez, 2.4 million
signatures are required.
Under the regulation, the information collected is
not considered valid until the CNE validates it
within a 30-day period, confirming that the
signatures are of individuals signed up in the
electoral registry (REP).
The signature-collecting process is set to run until
Monday. More than 40 representatives of the
Organization of American States (OAS) and the Carter
Center have been invited by the CNE to ake part as
international observers during the process.
From Nov. 21 to Nov. 24, supporters of Hugo Chavez
collected 4,234,776 signatures, more than enough to
call a revocation referendum against 38 opposition
legislators, the pro-government organization
Ayacucho Command said Tuesday.
The electoral authority says a referendum could be
staged next year if the necessary signatures are
collected.
Chavez, democratically elected in 1998 and
re-elected in 2000, was temporarily ousted in April
2002 during a 48-hour coup.
Brazil receives 100 million dollars in WB loan to
fight AIDS
Brazil has received a loan of 100 million US dollars
from the World Bank (WB) to help fund the country's
program to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS and other
sexually-transmitted diseases, the Health Ministry
said on Friday.
The Ministry said the Brazilian government will
provide counterpart funding of 100 million dollars.
This is the WB's third loan to help Brazil fight the
HIV/AIDS pandemic which has affected some 600,000
Brazilians in the country of a population of 178
million. The WB loaned the country 160 million
dollars in 1994 and 165 million dollars in 1998.
The money will be used to urge Brazilians to use
condoms and promote an anti-retrovirus therapy
developed by Brazil to control the advance of HIV,
the virus that causes AIDS.
Since 1996, Brazil has offered free treatment to
HIV/AIDS patients, a move applauded by the world
community fighting the disease.
Toronto to host 2006 international AIDS meeting
Canada's city of Toronto has been chosen to host the
16th international conference on AIDS in 2006,
officials sources said Friday.
The conference, held every two years, brings
together scientists, physicians, health-care workers
and community leaders to share information on
research and issues about AIDS and HIV.
Between 15,000 and 20,000 delegates are expected to
attend the conference, which will be held over
several days in 2006.
Toronto officials learned a month ago that Canada's
largest city was selected for 2006, Glen Brown of
the Toronto-based International Council of AIDS
Service Organizations said.
The selection process for the venue of the
conference, which includes presentations on the
latest AIDS research, is headed by the International
AIDS Society in Geneva.
Thailand's capital Bangkok is the site of the 2004
conference in July.
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