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updated by 7:00 a.m. CST each day
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Colombian Fishing
Boat with 1.300 Kilos of Cocaine at High Seas
Authorities stopped a Colombian fishing boat names
Carlos David, with 8 Colombians aboard, that was
carrying 1.300 kilos of cocaine.
The boat was stopped due to a joint effort between
Costa Rican and U.S. authorities.
Security Minister Rogelio Ramos was on the scene
Monday to oversee the operation and to meet with
U.S. authorities
Teachers Back to
School Yesterday
After a lengthy strike, teachers were back in the
classrooms again. For now.
The Ministry of Education and union leaders have
said that they will have an answer on Friday on the
question of completing the missed classes. The
Government, in it's proposal, made it clear that the
200 day school year had to be fulfilled and teachers
will need to find a way to make the days lost due to
the strike.
Preliminary calculation will place the end of the
school year around December 20, that would mean that
teachers may have to give up some free school days,
conference days and work on some holidays to
completely make up the lost days.
Pacheco Back at
Helm
• Rodrigo Arias
Resigns
After a week of ordered rest by his doctor, Abel
Pacheco made his way back to Presidential House
yesterday.
A few minutes after his arrival, he was faced with
the resignation of presidential advisor, Rodrigo
Arias.
High blood pressure was the main reasons his doctor
ordered a rest period.
Arias' resignation brings the total of ministers and
high government officials fired or resigned since
Pacheco taking office May last year to 17.
It is believed that Rodrigo Arias resigned to take a
more active part in his brothers' bid for president
in the next election. His brother is nobel prize
winner and former president, Oscar Arias.
Rodrigo told the press, that he will continue to
advise president Pacheco, however, as a citizen and
not as presidential advisor.
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Italy sparks row on first day at EU helm
Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's controversial prime minister, who takes over the European Union presidency for the next six months, turned his fire on France and Germany by warning that Europe must not try to compete as a power block with the United States.
Amid unease across the continent about his presidency, which starts today, Mr Berlusconi made clear that he would have no truck with France's notion of a "bi-polar" world.
"Europe must be complementary to the United States," the multi-billionaire media magnate insisted on Europe 1 radio. "I think the West must be united. There can't be competition between us and America."
Rivalry was acceptable in business and economics, but not in politics, he added.
Mr Berlusconi was one of the staunchest supporters of the US-led war on Iraq, along with Tony Blair and the Spanish prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar.
Under the Greek presidency, which ended last night, efforts have been made to heal the scars of the conflict, especially to patch up EU relations with the US.
But there is mounting nervousness about what lies ahead, especially in Brussels, where Romano Prodi, the Italian president of the European commission, is an old and probably future rival of Mr
Berlusconi.
37 Aliens
Convicted Of Sex Crimes Arrested in the US
Chicago - Federal authorities announced the arrests
Monday of 37 aliens who were convicted sex offenders
residing in Chicago, and planned to have 21 of them
deported back to their native homelands.
Through the federal initiative called
"Operation Osprey," agents in the Chicago
office of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement arrested 37 foreign-born sex offenders
last Thursday through Sunday, Special
Agent-in-Charge Elissa Brown said at the office
located at 610 S. Canal St.
All were subject to removal from the United States,
she said.
"You and I can feel more comfortable that today
37 dangerous individuals who prey on our most
valuable members of society have been taken out of
the streets of Chicago," Brown said, adding
that the victims were children.
Last April, there was a similar operation where 21
sex offenders were arrested in Lake County, said
Associate Special Agent-in-Charge Matthew Albence.
In the most recent operation, the 37 men were
arrested at their residences in Chicago but were
from seven different countries: Mexico, Peru, the
Philippines, Cuba, Costa Rica, Canada, and Iraq, he
said.
The majority of those arrested had been convicted of
sex offenses in Chicago and most were sentenced to
probation, he said.
Russia urges Iran to sign additional agreements to nuclear nonproliferation treaty
MOSCOW - Russia has urged Iran to sign additional nonproliferation agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency to assure the world it has no intentions of developing nuclear weapons.
Meeting with Iran's nuclear chief on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said signing the agreements would ''be yet another confirmation of the peaceful character of the Iranian nuclear program and the close cooperation of Iran with the agency,'' according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.
Russia is helping Iran build a nuclear power plant in the coastal city of Bushehr, and Moscow has insisted international fears that the project could help develop nuclear weapons are unfounded.
But Russia has increasingly pushed Tehran — after strong urging from the United States — to cooperate with the IAEA on inspections.
Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran's atomic energy organization, had said Monday that his country's nuclear ties with Russia were in compliance with international law.
North Korea warns of retaliation
PANMUNJON, North Korea - North Korea warned Tuesday any U.S. blockade or sanctions would immediately lead to "strong retaliatory measures."
In a statement, the North Korean People's Army mission to the truce village of Panmunjom dividing the two Koreas also threatened to abandon the 1953 armistice, which ended the Korean War, in response to what it described as U.S. threats.
"The U.S. policy to stifle us has brought the Korean peninsula to a state of tension, where war could break out at any minute," said the military statement. "In reality, the North Korean military can hardly honor its own obligations under the armistice agreement."
The warning came as the United States was building up an international coalition to ask the United Nations Security Council to pass a resolution supporting efforts to intercept shipments of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons materials from North Korea or other countries.
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