Humans settled in upper Amazon 4,500 years ago 
Archaeologists said on Tuesday that they had uncovered remains of a monument and carved stone receptacles which prove that man had lived in the upper reaches of the Amazon some 4,500 years ago. 

The discovery was made in southern Ecuador in the province of Zamora-Chinchipe by Ecuadorian and French archaeologists, Francisco Baldes, chief Ecuadorian archeologist of the program, announced at a press conference. 

The finds were uncovered at Santa Ana Florida near the Peruvianborder, at a site believed to have been used for "funereal or ceremonial" occasions. 

The stone containers were finely polished and feature engravings of large cats, condors and snakes. 

The remains proved that some complex human community had existed in the upper reaches of the Amazon since 2,450 BC and thatwas the earliest proof of human settlement in the region, said theexperts. 

Baldes added that the remains, as a proof of the early civilization in Andes region, was very similar to the well-known culture of the Chavin or Cupisnique in Peru. 

The Ecuadorian government will make the remains a tour site by setting up a museum there.

US still unprepared for terrorist attack: think tank 
Nearly two years after the Sept.11 attacks, the United States is still dangerously unprepared and underfunded for a catastrophic terrorist attack, a US think tank warned. 

In a report released Monday, the Council of Foreign Relations said the country "remains dangerously unprepared to handle a catastrophic attack on American soil, particularly one involving chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-impact conventional weapons." 

"If the nation does not take immediate steps to better identifyand address the urgent needs of emergency responders, the next terrorist incident could be even more devastating than 9/11," the report warned. 

The report was prepared by the Council-sponsored Independent Task Force on Emergency Responders, a panel of Nobel laureates, USmilitary leaders, former high-level government officials, and other senior experts, led by former Senator Warren B. Rudman. 

The task force met with emergency responder organizations across the country and asked them what additional programs they truly need to establish a minimum effective response to a catastrophic terrorist attack. These presently unbudgeted needs total 98.4 billion dollars, according to the emergency responder community and budget experts. 

"While we have put forth the best estimates so far on emergencyresponder needs, the nation must urgently develop a better framework and procedures to generate guidelines on national preparedness," said Rudman, who served as task force chair. "And the government cannot wait to increase desperately needed funding to emergency responders until it has these standards in place," hesaid. 

The task force identified two major obstacles hampering America's emergency preparedness efforts. First, the Unite States lacks preparedness standards, and it is difficult to know what is need and how much it will cost. Second, funding for emergency responders has been sidetracked and stalled due to a politicized appropriations process, slowness in the distribution of the funds by federal agencies, and bureaucratic red tape at all levels of government. 

Established in 1921, the Council on Foreign Relations is a nonpartisan membership organization, publisher and think tank, dedicated to increasing America's understanding of the world and contributing ideas to US foreign policy. 

Latin America sees slow economic growth this year 
 Authoritative international financial agencies have revised down Latin America's economic growth in 2003 and countries in the region are also adjusting their growth expectations, but the regional economy as a whole is expected to grow, albeit slowly. 

Last year's economic crisis in Argentina produced a grave impact on the whole region's economy, especially on the economic growth of Brazil and Uruguay. However, a report by Argentina's national statistics bureau indicated that the country's industrial production during January and April this year rose by a healthy 18.8 percent, indicating that the country's industry had recovered and was developing steadily. Meanwhile, the country's exports would also maintain a momentum of increase. 

Recently, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Horst Koehler expressed satisfaction with the implementation of Uruguay's economic plans. He said the country's economy had begun to turn around after a four-year recession and was hitting the bottom. 

The economic indexes released by Chile's central bank showed that the South American country's economic growth has speeded up. In particular, its traditional copper, forest and fishing industries have entered a period of apparent improvement. Economicanalysts say Chile's economy will begin to revive this year. 

Mexico and Brazil are also expecting their economies to grow slowly. Merrill Lynch said in a latest report that the sluggish economic growth in the United States and a drop in domestic consumption in the first half of this year had a direct impact on Mexico's economic development. The bank forecast that the Mexican economy would grow 1 percent this year compared with last year's 0.9 percent. However, Brazil revised its previous growth forecast of2.2 percent for 2003 down to between 1.5 percent and 1.8 percent. 

The increasing flow of funds back to Latin America's security markets and the rises of stocks also testified to the slow revivalof Latin American economies. 

Nevertheless, analysts say Latin American economies are still facing many difficulties that will seriously limit their development. 

In the past three years, Argentina has seen its gross domestic product (GDP) shrinking by an accumulated 20 percent. As a result,the Brazilian economy has also suffered. It thus seems a long way for the two countries to walk out of the recession and return to the economic growth levels before 2000. The Latin American economic committee of the United Nations warned that Mexico's low revenues and over-dependence on the US market might lead to economic stagnation. 

The committee said in a report that the decrease of foreign direct investment also exerted a negative effect on Latin American economies. In the first five months of this year, Brazil attracted only 3.3 billion US dollars in foreign investment, diving 59 percent from the same period of last year. 

A research report released recently by the Mexican Bank showed that failure to reform the country's financial, taxation, energy and labor systems as well as political uncertainty would prevent Mexico from absorbing more foreign capital, thus setting back its economic development. 

Furthermore, an annual report published recently by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) pointed out that foreign debtsof Brazil, Colombia and Peru still stood at remarkably high levels.The debt problem would remain a major unfavorable factor plaguing Latin American economies.