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Moderate Quake Shakes Costa Rica
A magnitude-5.8 earthquake shuddered through Costa Rica on Wednesday at
about 6:00am, that lasted only seconds. A second noticeable aftershock
followed about 20 minutes later.
No major damage or injuries were immediately reported.
The quake was centered 385 kms (240 miles) west of Panama City, near the
border with Costa Rica. It sent many residents running from their homes, but
caused little damage, officials said.
It was the second moderate quake to hit the region in less than two months.
A 6.3-magnitude quake shook the Costa Rica-Panama border on Dec. 25, killing
two people, including an infant, and damaging hundreds of homes.
Arms Shipment Stopped
A shipment of arms that had Colombia as possible
destination was stopped by Costa Rican police yesterday in Guanacaste.
The investigation began several weeks back that led to the stopping of a
vehicle in the area of Playa Soley. In the vehicle police found a cache of
52 firearms that included forty eight ak-47, two uzi , and g-3 rifle and an
rpk.
Three Panamanians and a Tico were arrested. Police think that the group had
purchased the weapons in Nicaragua and were destined to reach Colombia.
Bogus $100 Bills Used to Make Purchases
Two men were detained by police in La Fortuna, San Carlos, in the norteast
zone for passing bogus dollars.
According to the police report, the two men with the last names of Mora and
Chavez, were making purchases in the small community with one hundred dollar
bills.
A clerk at one of the stores detected that the bill just used to make
payment was false and alerted the authorities.
Police mounted a search for the two men and before the end of the night
captured them. Both are in police custody and police are trying to find the
source or the bogus bills.
Mexico FTAA
Talks Hit Bumps in Race for Accord
Reuters News Service -
Talks between Western Hemisphere nations to reach a free trade pact of the
Americas ahead of a deadline started to hit snags Wednesday, raising doubts
about whether they would succeed.
Participants at the meeting in Mexico's colonial city of Puebla said talks
were likely to go down to the wire on Friday, when delegates from 34 nations
are supposed to emerge from a week of meetings with a plan to seal a Free
Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement by January 2005.
"It is still very early to say, we've done it, we've finished," Mexican
trade negotiator Fernando de Mateoa told Reuters on the sidelines of the
meeting to map out a path to agreement by the January deadline.
Areas of contention, specifically between the South American Mercosur bloc
of nations and a group of 13 nations led by the United States, Mexico,
Canada, Chile and Costa Rica, include market access, agriculture, investment
and services.
Negotiations were headed for trouble ahead of this week's talks when some
countries, including the United States, pushed for a more comprehensive
agreement while others, particularly Brazil and Argentina, worried about
giving up too much to U.S. interests.
Most of the debate is revolving around competing proposals from the U.S.-led
group and Mercosur.
The meeting surprised onlookers by beginning on a positive note, with
delegates from participant countries relaxing their demands and signaling a
common desire for compromise, with each supplying modified draft proposals
to shape the nitty gritty aspects of the pact.
Participants said on Wednesday, however, that the desire for compromise was
not equal on all sides.
"The group of 13 has lowered its ambition in market access and in
agriculture and in everything (to reach a compromise)," a participant at the
talks said on condition of anonymity.
"The Mercosur paper, on the other hand, is uneven. It has lowered ambitions
everywhere but in market access and in agriculture, where it is very
ambitious," he said.
The participant said the two main groups were also in disagreement over
procedures for plurilateral negotiations in the so-called second tier of
FTAA negotiations, where members pursue deeper trade commitments from one
another.
"They (Mercosur) want to have their cake and eat it too in both process and
substance," he said.
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UN experts stress need of vaccinations campaign to fight bird flu
Experts from several international organizations on Thursday warned the
spread of bird flu to more places and urged a poultry vaccinations campaign.
"The epidemic has not been brought under control," Director-General of Food
and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Jacques Diouf told
a press conference here following a two-day meeting on the outbreak of bird
flu in Asia which gathering experts from FAO, the World Health Organization
(WHO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
"A targeted vaccination campaign for poultry at risk of being infected by
the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus may be required in heavily
affected countries to control the further spread of the epidemic," said the
FAO in a statement after the meeting.
The mass culling outside of infected areas could be largely avoided if a
vaccination campaign is launched, the statement added.
The experts also recommended such measures as better hygienic conditions,
international coordination and early reporting of the outbreaks to fight the
epidemic.
New cases of bird flu
reported in S.Korea
New cases of bird flu broke out in South Korean Thursday, the first outbreak
of the deadly poultry disease in the Asian country in 10 days, reported
South Korean Yonhap News Agency.
Ducks at two farms in Asan City, South Chungcheong Province, some 80
kilometers south to Seoul, were found infected with the avian influenza, the
authorities said, adding that the farms are only 8 kilometers away from the
one hit by the disease on Jan. 26.
The fresh cases in the central region of South Korea brought to 18 the total
number of infected farms.
Officials were quoted by Yonhap as saying that they confirmed the new bird
flu infections after closely examining the ducks which recently laid fewer
eggs.
The poultry disease was first detected at a chicken farm in North
Chungcheong Province in central South Korea on Dec. 15, 2003.
South Korea has since slaughtered over 2 million chickens and other fowl to
stem the spread of the highly contagious disease.
Local quarantine officials have repeatedly issued warnings of a possible
recurrence of the disease, citing falling egg-laying rates of chickens and
ducks at some farms nearby one of farms hit first by the virus.
There have been no signs that humans were infected with the disease in South
Korea. None of the more than 1,500 people believed to have been exposed to
the flu tested positive, health officials said.
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