Costa Rica Wins Olympic Qualifying Group
Costa Rica held hard-charging Mexico to a 1-1 draw Friday night, winning Group B in the regional Olympic qualifying tournament.

On Tuesday, the Group A winner faces Mexico, possibly before more than 50,000 Mexican fans.

Costa Rica plays Saturday's loser. The winners of the matches Tuesday qualify for the Athens Games.

Costa Rica scored first when Junior Diaz leaped above a pack of Mexican defenders to head in a corner kick by Pablo Brenes 7 minutes into the game.

Luis Ernesto Perez tied it for Mexico four minutes later, slicing the ball past Adrian De Lemos, who slipped lunging for it. It was the first goal De Lemos had allowed in three games.

Before a noisy home crowd of almost 50,000 at Jalisco Stadium, Mexico controlled much of the tempo, pressing hard on defense and using a shifting series of offensive moves. But the defensive gaps that Mexico found in earlier games against Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago were harder to come by against Costa Rica.

Costa Rica won Group B on a one-goal difference over three games.

Both teams did not use players — Mexico four and Costa Rica three — who had started in earlier matches, saving them for Tuesday.

In the first game, Silvio Spann's penalty kick at 80 minutes broke a tie and gave Trinidad and Tobago a 2-1 victory over rival Jamaica, ending a disappointing Olympic qualifying tournament for both teams.

The two Caribbean teams had already been eliminated from a chance at the Athens Olympics because of losses in their first two games.

Forward Scott Sealey scored at 4 minutes for Trinidad and Tobago while Keith Kelly hit the net at 74 minutes for Jamaica.

 

Pilot suggested passengers discuss Christianity during LA-to-New York flight
An American Airlines pilot flying passengers from Los Angeles to New York asked Christians on board to identify themselves and then suggested that non-Christian passengers discuss the faith with them, the airline confirmed Saturday.

The pilot, whose identity was not released, had been making flight announcements before he asked that the Christians on board raise their hands, said American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner.

Wagner said the pilot told airline officials he then suggested the other passengers use the flight time to talk to the Christians about their faith.

The pilot later told passengers he himself would be available at the end of the flight to talk about his first announcement.

Wagner said the airline was investigating the incident.

"It falls along the lines of a personal level of sharing that may not be appropriate for one of our employees to do while on the job," he said.

The pilot had just returned to work from a weeklong mission trip to Costa Rica, Wagner said.

 

My twisted sister
Australia - Kirralee Hemberg was alone in Costa Rica when she found out her younger sister had ripped off her life savings.

Kirralee had just started her "trip of a lifetime" when her sister Simone in Brisbane used the Internet to steal $29,000 from her bank accounts.

It was all the money Kirralee had to finance her travels and she had to cut short her holiday by six months.

Simone Hemberg has been sentenced to two years' jail, to be suspended after nine months, after pleading guilty to three fraud charges.

Brisbane District Court was told Simone had planned to use the money to finance her own overseas trip, but was arrested soon after the thefts were discovered.

Defence counsel Julie Sharp said Simone had an underlying drug problem but had taken the money so she could please her partner by paying for an overseas holiday.

Kirralee, a nurse, felt completely betrayed by Simone and she now says: "She's not my sister.

"That my sister could steal from her own family, without remorse or thought for the consequences, makes me sick to the stomach. It is a betrayal I would never have thought I would face."

Kirralee, 27, said when she found out her sister had stolen all her money she could not sleep and cried throughout the night.

"I was in a non-English-speaking country, alone, without any emotional support," she said.

"I felt so isolated, thousands of miles from my family. I was worried about how I was going to eat, where I was going to stay."

Simone, 25, stole $19,000 from Kirralee's savings account, $8000 from her Mastercard and $2000 from her Visa card between September 22 and 30 last year.

Kirralee said her sister knew enough of her personal details to be able to access her accounts and transfer money via the Internet.

"I got a suspicious e-mail from her the day before the money started disappearing," she said. "She must have been checking that I was still overseas."

Luckily Kirralee, who had no cash, already had a ticket to London and was able to pay her hotel with a credit card before it was frozen.

But when she got to London, Kirralee was detained at the airport for five hours while she tried to explain her funds crisis.

"I decided that the only option was to go home to the support of my family and friends," she said.

Kirralee said Simone, the youngest of eight siblings, had been stealing money and jewellery from her and other family members for years.

Now she wants nothing to do with Simone, who has never apologized or explained why she took the money.

Colombia Extradites Four Drug Traffickers to US
Colombian authorities extradited four people to the United States for alleged drug trafficking and money laundering, the National Police said on Saturday.

Three men and a woman were handed over on Friday at the Eldorado international airport outside Bogota to the "US tipstaffs appointed by the US Embassy for their transfer."

Nelly Patricia Ballest as and John Anderson Velasquez are wanted by a court in Florida while Eduardo Alexander Aguirre is called by a magistrate in New Jersey and Pablo Enrique Arias, by a Virginian judge.

The four had been detained in separate operations carried out in northern, central and southwestern Colombia last year.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has intensified a US-backed anti-drug war and stepped up the pace of extradition of accused drug smugglers to the United States.

Since taking office in August 2002, Uribe has pledged to crack down on drug trafficking and put an end to a four-decade armed conflict in the country. More than 70 suspected drug traffickers have been extradited to the United States.

Colombia, the world's largest cocaine producer and the top supplier of heroin to the United States, receives hundreds of millions of US dollars every year in US military assistance to fight drugs and rebels, who were accused of financing their insurgency with drug money.