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Obsession
Drove Him to the Crime?
The
loving obsession of a 54 year old man drove him
to murder 11 year old Miurel Camacho Cantillano.
This occurred yesterday in the community ofLa
Cruz del Carmen, Goicoechea, east of San José.
It appears that the crime was a result of the
man, with last name of Hernández and known Changa,
when the young girl befriended a 13 year old
boy.
The
man visited the family home often, living
only 75 meters from where the young girl
lived and was in the habit of giving her
gifts; a bicycle. clothes and other
things, according to family members.
The man was obsessed and had become so
jealous that he had talked about taking
his life.
In the last days, the young girl avoided
the man, as family members were warned
that the man was obsessed with the young
girl and had asked a neighbor to help
purchase poison. |
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Monday morning,
the man, while the girl's mother was not home,
having gone out to a doctor's appointment, the
man slit the throat of the young girl, killing
her almost instantly. The man ran into the
mountains but was later apprehended by police,
who were called to the scene after neighbours
heard the girls screams
According to PANI - the chidren's welfare agency
- this is an isolated case, even though several
cases have been reported lately of similar
situations, fortunately none of those cases
ended in tragedy like this one.
Hernández is under police custody and in the
hospital under 24 hour guard, as doctors treat
the man from the effects of the poison he took.
Costa Rica banana growers to mull position on EU duties
Costa Rica banana growers met Monday to discuss how to respond to a European Union decision to dismantle its banana import regime by 2006, and replace it with a duties program.
The meeting brought together banana growers, businessmen and representatives from Chiquita Brands and the Standar Fruit Company.
"We are gathering to work out exactly how the new regime will affect us, and to assess if in reality it will be the workable for us and our country," said Martin Zuniga, a senior official with the National Banana Corporation.
According to a 2001 accord between the EU and United States, the EU's banana import regime will end at the end of 2005.
The accord, which is incorporated into World Trade Organization commitments, establishes, from January 1, 2006, the basis for a new regime based exclusively on duties.
Monday's meeting "marks a preparatory step to define our particular interests with the aim of defining our position as a country, beforehand, and will allow us to share that position with other Latin American producers," Zuniga said.
National Banana Corp and the Costa Rica government are planning to host an international meeting of producer countries on November 28.
It aims to bring together key banana producers -- Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama -- who between them produce more than 10 percent of the total banana crop shipped to the EU.
Bananas represent Costa Rica's second largest export, generating sales of 473.9 million dollars in 2002. The industry employs some 28,262 workers.
Former banker to remain in custody until trial on telemarketing scheme
A former bank executive has pleaded not guilty,
in a Birmingham,
Alabama, court
to charges he scammed Compass bank in Decatur out of $10 million in a telemarketing scheme.
Jean Pierre Harper, 37, indicted last year, also Monday waived a detention hearing and will remain in the custody of
US Ffederal Marshals until his trial. Prosecutors were set to argue he was a flight risk.
Harper faces charges of bank fraud, conspiracy, making false entries in bank records and soliciting and accepting bribes.
A grand jury indicted Harper, a former Compass bank vice president, in August 2002. He drove his Ford Bronco across the U.S. border into Mexico and authorities arrested him in May after tracking him to
Costa Rica.
Harper is accused of taking bribes to allow questionable merchants, many operating out of Nevada, to process credit card charges at Compass' credit card processing center, violating bank policy.
Prosecutors believe Harper began running the scheme in early 2000 until Compass became aware of the alleged fraud in March 2001.
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WTO director calls for flexibility on Cancun meeting
World Trade Organization (WTO)Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi has asked for flexibility of the members in order to reach agreements at the upcoming ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico.
In an interview published Monday by the Mexican daily "El Universal," Supachai said: "The ministers should not be confronted with a saturated agenda" in the Cancun round.
He asked representatives of the 146 WTO members to be flexible in negotiations in order to achieve in Cancun a clear and consensual blue print.
Supachai considered the perspectives of the Cancun meeting scheduled for Sept. 10-14 as "very solid."
"Despite setbacks, the continuous differences among the members and the non-fulfillment of some periods, the member governments are at the negotiation table," he said.
Agricultural subsidies, commercial barriers and protection of intellectual property rights remained controversial among
members of the WTO, he said.
Calling the Cancun session "an important foundation in negotiations," Supachai said it didn't mean the end of negotiations of the Doha round on free trade.
It was necessary to come to agreements at the Cancun meeting inorder to carry out the agenda of the Doha round, which will end in2005, he said.
Brazilian president vows to continue space program despite rocket blast
Visiting Brazilian President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva vowed on Monday to continue with his country's space program despite a rocket explosion that killed 21 people last Friday.
"Despite the tragedy, we are going to continue with the space program, which uses high technology," Lula said.
The VLS-3 rocket blew up on the launch pad at the Brazilian Alcantara Launch Center last Friday, just two days before a scheduled liftoff into orbit, delivering a severe blow to
Brazil's long-cherished aspiration to become a space power in Latin America.
Silva again expressed his condolences to the relatives of the 21 civilian engineers and technicians from Brazil's aeronautics and space technical center.
"I want to send a message to the Brazilian people and tell
them that those 21 people died giving an invaluable service to our country, and that we will remain in solidarity with their relatives," said Lula after signing with Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo a trade agreement between Peru and the South American Common Market.
The rocket explosion came after two previous attempts by
Brazil to launch a satellite ended in failure in 1997 and 1999 respectively.
More troops mobilized to fight forest fires in western Canada
The government of Canada will send more troops to help fight forest fires in the western British Columbia, it is reported Monday.
The forest fire in the southeastern region of Okanagan in the province, which began nine days ago when lightning struck trees south of Kelowna city, forced 20,000 people to leave their homes.
Helping to contain it are close to 700 troops already in Okanagan. And over 400 more troops from Edmonton's Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in the province of Alberta are being flown in today, Canadian television reported quoting military sources.
The troops who have been trained in firefighting techniques will work alongside firefighters to contain a blaze that over the weekend destroyed more than 240 homes around the city of Kelowna in
OKanagan.
According to fire officials, about 3,000 firefighters and 20 helicopters are battling a dozen of major forest fires in the province.
Hate crimes down in New York this year
Hate crimes in New York City have dropped almost 11 percent so far this year, local paper the New York Post reported Monday.
According to statistics released by the city's police department, New York City reported 149 hate crimes by Aug. 5,
down from 167, the figure for the same period last year.
Dennis Blackman, commanding officer of the Hate Crime Task Force under the city's police department, noted that aside from a sharp spike in anti-Muslim incidents in the immediate aftermath ofSept.11 terror attacks, hate crimes are poised to drop for the third consecutive year.
He said the efforts by the 15 investigators who work for him has led to increased community outreach with a variety of ethnic groups. The arrest of suspects involved in several
well-publicized hate crime cases has gotten the word out that such crimes will be zealously prosecuted, he added.
He warned that suspects found guilty of committing a hate
crime may now have to serve "felony time" for offenses that might normally be treated as a misdemeanor.
Additionally, a continuing feel-good spirit that may have arisen within the city's social fabric following Sept. 11, Blackman said.
Under state law, a criminal incident is categorized as a hate crime if it is committed "in whole or in substantial part because of a belief or perception regarding the race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, religion, age, disability or sexual orientation of a person."
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