Costa Rican Former
Presidents Permitted to Re-election
By a vote of 5 to 2, the
Constitutional Court or better known as the Sala IV, gave a yes to
presidential re-elections, which had been denied since 1969 when the
Legislative Assembly voted against it in a partial reform.
In accordance with the decision of the magistrates of the court, they
said "the legislative assembly did not have the power to restrict
that fundamental right".
The magistrates Solano Carrera, Calzada Miranda, Vargas Benavides,
Armijo Sancho y Jinesta Lobo, gave their approval to re-election, while
Mora Mora y Arguedas Ramνrez withheld their vote.
The case of re-election has it's origin in 1949 with the Political
Constitution. The only restriction that was placed on re-election, was
the successive re-election, which meant that a president could not run
for a successive term and had to wait 8 years to have passed before he
could run as president again. 
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Between Friday and Saturday the
authorities report 4 deaths by traffic accidents
The two first victims died when
the vehicle they traveled in hit a bus in Liberia. Identified where Jose
Manuel Villarreal Villarreal, 47, and his son Jorge Manuel Villarreal
Alvarado, 28.
Vilma Neil Row, was the third victim. She
died when her vehicle hit a tractor trailer. The accident took place in
Limon.
According to some witnesses, the accident
took place when the truck made a false advancement in the middle of a
curve. Vilma was professor of English and was a neighbor of Limon
center.
And, shortly before ten Friday night,
Ever Lopez Altamirano, 38, a Nicaraguan national, died as a result of
being run over by a car. This accident occurred in the Florencio del
Castillo in front of Multiplaza.
Lopez was guard of security at one of the
stores in the commercial center. When the accident occurred she was
crossing to get to work. In the vehicle that hit Lopez, a couple with
their two two small daughters traveled.
The woman and the children were
transferred San Juan de Dios and Children's hospital respectively. They
suffered some minor wounds as a result of the breaking of the
windshield.
Minutes after this accident, close to the
scene, a motorcycle hit against vehicle. The occupants of the motorcycle
were transferred to the hospital San Juan de God, in stable condition.
They were identified like Melissa Bogarνn, 19, and Alonso
Hidalgo, 21.
Nine-year-old's abortion divides Nicaragua
Managua
- A child's private ordeal has sparked a divisive debate in Nicaragua,
where an abortion performed on the nine-year-old rape victim outraged
the influential Roman Catholic Church, toppled a cabinet minister and
brought demands for liberalization of pregnancy laws.
The case began when the girl - the daughter of an impoverished
Nicaraguan migrant worker in neighbouring Costa Rica - was found to be
pregnant. A 22-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of raping her.
When hospital officials in Costa Rica seemed to oppose an abortion, the
girl's family took her to Nicaragua with help from the Women's Network
Against Violence and sought permission an abortion.
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Britain to close its embassy in Honduras
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Britain
will close its embassy in Honduras as it redirects diplomatic resources
to the ongoing war against terrorism, the embassy announced Sunday.
Based in the capital, Tegucigalpa, the embassy will close its doors
sometime before the end of the year, and consolidate with Britain's
International Cooperation office, British Ambassador Kay Coombs said in
a statement.
The British ambassador to Guatemala, Richard Lavers, will serve as
roving ambassador to both countries, Coombs said.
The government also plans to cut back on its diplomatic offices in El
Salvador by the middle of this year and in Nicaragua at the beginning of
2004, the embassy's statement said.
Britain's embassies in Costa Rica and Panama will remain open.
The changes came about as a result of the terrorist attacks of Sept.
11, 2001, "which radically modified the tasks of British diplomacy
and has led to the need to fortify other operations and the fight
against terrorism," the statement said.
The embassy's closure "will in no way negatively affect our
excellent relations with Honduras," Coombs said.
Olympians Beat Costa Rica
4-1
Despite some early wobbles, the South Korean
Olympic football team regained their balance and charged to a convincing
4-1 victory over their out-classed Costa Rican counterparts in Saturdays
friendly at Munsu World Cup Stadium in Ulsan, South Korea.
With the qualifying campaign for the
Asian ticket for next year's Athens Olympics kicking off next month,
South Korea needed a positive result and got goals from Choi Tai-uk, Kim
Doo-hyun, Chun Jae-woon and Jung Jo-gook.
However problems at the back were made
clear as the Korean team were caught out of position several times in
the opening 15 minutes and were fortunate to be trailing only by a goal
and not three.
Costa Rica opened the scoring just three
minutes into the game on a bit of a freak play as Jose Luis Lopez curled
in a free-kick from near the left touchline. As Alvaro Saborio and
defender Kim Chi-gon battled for position the ball skimmed over their
heads, and with goalkeeper Park Dong-seok expecting a header, the ball
found the corner of the net after going through the swarm of players
untouched.
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