A New Mexico resident was scammed in a Costa Rican lottery.
A resident of Ruidoso, New Mexico, received a call from Costa Rica informing him that he'd won the lottery, and telling him he needed to send $2,500 in cash by Western Union. The man had never entered a lottery in Costa Rica, but he sent the money anyway. That money telegram was cashed in Costa Rica on April 16, and the Ruidoso resident has no way to get it back.

The investigator of the case noted that although there are a lot of international lottery scams making the rounds, this is the first one from Costa Rica.

New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid sent out a release April 18 warning consumers "to be wary of mail, e-mail or other promotional information circulating about international lotteries, including the El Gordo Lottery from Spain."

According to the Federal Trade Commission, Madrid said, "most promotions for foreign lotteries are likely to be phony."

Many New Mexico consumers complained last year about the El Gordo Lottery, saying they received mail stating that they had won a large prize but needed to send bank routing numbers and personal bank account numbers for their prizes to be deposited into their accounts.

"Never give out such personal information as your bank account number," Madrid advised. "You are opening yourself up to identity theft, bank account theft and other crimes ... with a legitimate lottery, you don't ever have to pay to collect your winning."

Pacheco prolongs his fall
Instead bouncing back, the government of president Abel Pacheco appears to maintain his fall, even after initiating some changes, which have caused him to lose more than half of the support he had at the commencement of his term.

The chief executive reached an approval of 46% of who thought that his management of the country was very good or good, as opposed to 22% who thought that he was very bad or bad. This according to a CID-Gallup/LA REPUBLICA/Repretel survey made of the week from the 4th to the 13 of April this year.

Pacheco's charisma was his best tool to govern. However, late last fall his prestige began to debilitate. His government's fight against corruption has had minimal success, but, his position on the Iraq was inflicted much of the damage. According to the survey, 70% of those responding, were against Pacheco's position on the war.

When asked of the latest results, Pacheco responded that, of course he would like to see things going better, but believes that they are ok for now. 

Pacheco still has the weapon of its popularity. He is the political figure with the better image. He is still considered to be a good person and his intentions good. Half the population think he is doing a good job.

Pacheco still has a lot of time left in his presidency. His main problem at the moment is to revert the negative tendencies and recover the confidence of Costa Ricans.

OAS to Debate Resolution Condemning Cuba on Rights
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A United States-backed resolution condemning human rights abuses in Cuba is up for debate at the Organization of American States, but the proposal is already stirring opposition from some Latin American nations. 

The resolution, proposed by Nicaragua and co-sponsored by the United States and Costa Rica, will be taken up on Wednesday by the permanent council of the Washington-based OAS. It is part of a diplomatic offensive by the White House against President Fidel Castro (news - web sites) after a Cuban crackdown on dissidents. 

Havana recently sentenced 75 dissidents to long prison sentences, according to human rights groups, and executed three men who tried to hijack a ferry to flee to the United States. 

"There is an official note by the Nicaraguan government asking the Permanent Council of the OAS to discuss democracy in Cuba," a spokesman for the OAS told Reuters. 

But sources close to the OAS said that some Latin America states are balking at the resolution. 

Resolutions must be unanimously approved by the 34-member Council to pass, and the U.S. embargo on Cuba is unpopular in Latin America, where anti-American feelings over the Iraq (news - web sites) invasion run high, observers said. 

Jorge Valero, the Venezuelan ambassador to the OAS, said the organization had no jurisdiction over Cuba because Cuba was ejected from the OAS in 1962. 

"We are concerned that a draft resolution be presented on a country that was excluded 40 years ago from the organization," he said. He said Cuba "would not have access to a legitimate right of self-defense." 

The United States last week failed to pass a stern resolution condemning Castro in the UN's Human Rights Commission. But Argentina, Brazil and seven other countries abstained on a more lenient text that passed by a 24-20 vote. 

One OAS source said Chile and Canada will probably back the U.S.-sponsored resolution, but most others were opposed. 

Michael Shifter, of the Inter-American Dialogue Washington think-tank, said U.S. efforts to force through a resolution on Cuba despite strong opposition would highlight rifts between Latin America and the White House. 

"This has the potential to make things even worse in terms of inter-American relations," he said. 

Chile and Mexico refused to support the U.S.-backed resolution condemning Iraq in the U.N. Security Council, and one administration official has said Chile's reluctance to go along with that resolution was a "disappointment." 

"Castro is very shrewd and he picked the moment in the world (to repress the opposition) when anti-Americanism is very strong," said Shifter. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) plans to hold an international scientific meeting in Geneva to review the epidemiological, clinical management and laboratory findings on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and to discuss global control strategies.

A WHO statement said key participants in the response to the current outbreaks and other public health authorities will be invited to attend the meeting. A report of the meeting will be posted on WHO web site.

The outbreak of the first SARS case was reported in last November. According to the cumulative number of reported probable cases by 17 GMT on Tuesday, there are 3947 people in 27 countries and regions have been affected by SARS. Among which, 80 are new cases reported since last WHO update, 229 people died and 1,350 recovered.

Blix accuses US of discrediting UN inspectors

Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix accused on Tuesday the United States of trying to discredit his team's work in the run-up to the Iraq war in a bid to win political support for military action.

The allegations by US officials that his team deliberately suppressed information on an Iraqi unmanned drone plane and a cluster bomb in its report on Iraq's weapons were intended to discredit inspectors, Blix said in an interview with the BBC.

"Thereby they tried to hurt us a bit and say we'd suppressed this," Blix said.

"At that time the US was very eager to sway the votes of the Security Council and they felt that stories about these things would be useful to have and they let it out," said Blix, who was due to address the UN Security Council in New York in a closed session later in the day on his readiness to send inspectors back to Iraq.

He also questioned the ability of British and American intelligence agencies to spot "fakes" such as a report that Iraq had imported tons of raw uranium.

Blix's comments came as he faced the US opposition to his wish for UN inspectors to return to Iraq to complete the inspection work.

US-led forces launched military attack against Iraq on March 20, accusing Baghdad of hiding its banned arms from UN inspectors. However, coalition troops in Iraq have so far failed to find nuclear, chemical or biological arms.

Earlier reports said the US had already sent a 1000-strong expert group to Iraq with the aim of finding the country's banned weapons.

Some US officials argued they wanted to send former UN inspectors from the United States, Britain and Australia to verify any discovery of banned weapons in Iraq.

But most members of the UN Security Council, including US staunch ally Britain, believed that any weapons of mass destruction found by the US military must be verified by the UN inspectors in compliance with UN resolutions before sanctions on Iraq could be lifted.

Traffic accident claims 14 lives in S. Africa

Fourteen people died and 45 others were injured Tuesday when the truck in which they were traveling overturned near Ulundi, about 400 km southeast of Johannesburg.

KwaZulu-Natal police spokesman Vishnu Naidoo said the truck overturned at a sharp curve around 5:30 p.m. (1530 GMT), the South African Press Association reported.

Fourteen people died instantly, while most of the other 45 were severely injured.

Naidoo said provincial commissioner Moses Khanyile had opened an inquiry into the cause of the accident.

South Africa has the best road infrastructure in Africa, but traffic accidents are frequent due to speeding and poor conditions of some minibuses.

Preliminary reports show that 203 people died in 156 accidents on South African roads during Easter weekend.

Nigerian incumbent president reelected

Nigerian incumbent President Olusegun Obasanjo was reelected in the presidential race in the west African country, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced here Tuesday.

Obasanjo, who cast his vote in the presidential polls at his hometown in Ogun state, southwestern Nigeria, beat other candidates and gained his second victory in the presidential election after that of 1999, said the INEC.

Over 60 million Nigerian voters cast their ballots across Africa's most populous country on Saturday to elect their president and state governors.

Both international and local observers as well as police forces and soldiers were present at the polling scene to safeguard the peaceful and smooth elections.

Some 20 political parties had candidates standing in the presidential race, with Obasanjo of the ruling People's Democratic Party and his opponent Muhammadu Buhari of the All Nigeria People's Party as the two main contenders.

The INEC has said the election was free and fair in most states of Nigeria.

US says all its diplomats may return to four Gulf states

The United States said Tuesday that all nonessential US diplomats and embassy dependents may return to Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and United Arab Emirates because of the end of the major hostilities in Iraq.

"The situation is such that we have been able to allow the return of family members and non emergency personnel," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said at a regular press briefing.

Meanwhile, the State Department also lifted the travel warnings for four countries that it issued before the war with Iraq began but it still urged its citizens to be vigilant when traveling to the region.

"Although there is a lessened threat in some of these specific places and we feel comfortable allowing our people to return, and although there is an end to major hostilities in Iraq, no one should conclude that we are back to perfectly normal," Boucher said.

"Internationally there is still a danger out there, there is still a threat out there potentially to American travelers although the end of the major hostilities in Iraq puts us in a new situation," he said.