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Two Americans
Found Dead of Overdose
Two young Americans - Clyton Alexande
Ecke, 24, and Caldwell Cushman, 23 -
died Thursday night in Montes de Oca in San Pedro,
possible victims of a cocaine overdose.
The bodies were found in an apartment that Ecke
rented in the area called Calle de La Amargura, near
the University of Costa Rica.
Cushman is believed to have arrvied in Costa Rica
this past Monday, while Ecke had been in Costa Rica
for more than a year.
Police found a CD box that contained an quantity of
cocaine and a syringe filled with a liquid which was
sent to laboratory for examination.
Police told the press that the bodies showed no
signs of violence and been dead for about 12 hours
before being discovered by Ecke's girlfriend, who
had not seen him since Wednesday night.
The OIJ - the judicial investigative police - are
working under the assumption that the Americans had
combined cocaine with a phsycotic drug that may have
been contaminated. If test results confirm the
assumption, police will begin a homicide
investigation.
US Trade
Negotiator in El Salvador for Talks on Free Trade Agreement
The top U.S. trade negotiator, Robert Zoellick, is in El Salvador to continue efforts to push ahead with a
U.S.- Central America free trade agreement, despite differences with Costa Rica over its telecommunications sector.
Mr. Zoellick held talks with Salvadoran President Francisco Flores Thursday. He also has meetings scheduled with officials from Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras.
Wednesday, during talks with Mr. Zoellick, Costa Rican officials demanded that the proposed trade treaty skip the telecommunications sector, which is a politically sensitive issue in that country. Costa Rica's Foreign Commerce Minister, Albert Trees, said earlier that the telecommunications issue is "not negotiable."
Mr. Zoellick says he understands the sensitivities involved, but believes there is a chance of opening the telecommunications market. U.S. officials say they hope to conclude trade negotiations with four Central American countries by the end of the year.
U.S. - Brazil Free Trade Talks Make Little Progress
The United States and Brazil remain far apart in negotiations to create the world's largest free trade area, which would cover the Western Hemisphere, the Bush administration said Friday.
Ross Wilson, head of the administration's negotiating team, said discussions over the past week failed to bridge wide disagreements threatening a meeting next month in Miami of trade ministers from the 34 nations trying to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas.
The United States is pushing a comprehensive free trade agreement that would take effect in January 2005 to phase out tariffs on manufactured products and farm goods and to remove other types of trade barriers in such areas as services and investment.
Brazil, South America's largest economy, has objected to this approach. It argues that the FTAA should be more limited in scope, covering only trade in manufactured goods and farm products initially.
"What was disappointing here was Brazil's unwillingness to engage on the substantive issues," Wilson told reporters Friday during a telephone conference call at the end of the talks held over the past week in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
The failure to resolve differences in this week's FTAA negotiations followed the collapse of broader trade liberalization talks under auspices of the World Trade Organization
in mid-September in Cancun, Mexico.
Gloomy Outlook
There is growing pessimism among Ticos about the future of their country.
A majority of Costa Ricans thinks that the overall conditions in their country will grow worse, even though they expect their personal situation, and that of their families, to remain stable or even improve.
In a recent poll by UNIMER Research International for the daily La Nación, 58 percent of the citizens say that the country will be in a poorer shape next year, 25 percent trust it will be the same as now, and only 12 percent have any hopes of improvement.
In spite of the stated pessimism, the faith of Ticos in their nation remains high.
When asked what emotion best reflected what they feel for Costa Rica, 80 percent were positive: 44 percent said "pride", 20 percent "hope", 10 percent "love", and 6 percent "trust". In the negative side, 8 percent said "disappointment", 5 percent "confusion", and 4 percent "fear".
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Schwarzenegger's campaign slowed down by new accusations
Republican front-runner Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign drive to take over the office of governor in California was slowed down Friday amid new accusations that he admired former Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
A new wave of criticism poured down on the Hollywood-turned politician and a former body builder, who was already under attack by women organizations for sexual harassment of six women in the past decades during movie making and other occasions.
The new accusations, launched in reports on The New York Times and ABC TV, said the remarks were contained in transcripts from a book proposal by director George Butler of the body-builder documentary "Pumping Iron".
Butler reportedly said that Schwarzenegger told an interviewer during the filming of "Pumping Iron" that he admired Hitler's
rise to power despite being "a little man with almost no formal education," and wished he could have experienced the thrill Hitler must have had in speaking to huge audiences who agreed with everything he said.
Although his father was an active Nazi, Schwarzenegger has always distanced himself from that unsavory part of his Austrian background, and has donated a large sum to a Jewish organization in Los Angeles.
The latest reports stirred up strong reaction from politicians, religious organizations as well as women groups, which denounced Schwarzenegger for his behavior and urged voters not to vote for the Hollywood actor.
The accusations on Schwarzenegger surfaced just days before the historic recall vote due on Oct. 7, leading many to conclude that this was a smear campaign launched by the Democrats who are desperate to prevent a Republican takeover.
Latest polls showed Schwarzenegger leading among 135 candidates to replace Davis if the latter is ousted in the Oct. 7 vote.
IGC of EU opens in Rome to finalize constitutional treaty draft
The intergovernmental conference (IGC) of the European Union (EU) opened in the Palace of Congress here Saturday, with its ultimate goal to add final touches to the draft of the EU's constitutional treaty.
Leaders from all the 15 EU member states, 10 accession countries, three candidate countries and EU institutions attended the opening ceremony.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said in the opening speech that this is the first time for the European leaders to have face-to-face discussion on the draft constitutional treaty and it is a good "starting point" for the debate.
He said that the constitutional treaty drafted by the Convention after 16 months of hard work provides a "good basis" for future work, hoping that the IGC can finish its work before the end of Italian presidency.
Poll shows Putin is most popular contemporary Russian leader
A latest public opinion survey showed that Russia President Vladimir Putin enjoys more popularity than many other renowned state leaders in the country's history, Interfax reported.
Putin is the most popular leader in Russia since the year 1917 as he wins favor of 39 percent of the 1,500 adult respondents in big cities and rural areas.
Putin is followed by Soviet leaders Leonid Brezhnev with 10 percent votes, Vladimir Lenin with 9 percent, and Josef Stalin, 8 percent, according to the poll, whose result was circulated at the World Economic Forum in Moscow on Thursday.
As for ancient times, 45 percent of those interviewed said Peter the Great played the greatest role in Russian history, while15 percent named Catherine the Great, and 10 percent supported Ivan the Terrible.
Curiously, Catherine the Great was named mainly by women, and Ivan the Terrible was recalled primarily by men.
Asked what they are proud of, one-quarter of the respondents said they take pride in nothing, while 16 percent were proud of the Russian people, and 11 percent of the nation's traditions. Only 8 percent regarded Russia as a great power.
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