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updated by 7:00 a.m. CST each day
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Father
Minor Suspect in Medina Murder
The director of the OIJ (Organismo Investigativo
Judicial), Jorge Rojas, confirmed that Catholic
Church priest, Father Minor Calvo, is a suspect in
the Permenio Medina murder of two years ago.
Thursday, the OIJ, raided the homes of Father Minor
and that of his mother in search of a typewriter -
any typewriter to be found on the premises - which
police believe may have been used to write the
threats against Medina before he was killed.
Father Minor has had a colorful past. He was
involved in a scandal that surrounded the radio
station Radio Mario de Guadalupe, the same radio
station that Medina made his regular radio address
"La Patada".
It is no secret that the two men had differences.
Medina was shot and killed in his vehicle, in front
of his house on July 7,2001. The police have been
chasing many different leads and have made several
arrests in the case, but nothing that holds
up.
President Pacheco is being hard pressed to invite
the FBI to help solve the case, but so far he has
resisted.
More than 30
natives of the Chirripó Reserve changed their huts
for houses.
This Friday
for the first time Raul Zúñiga, his wife and her
five children, will sleep in a house with walls.
Before that, they lived in a hut and although they
were accustomed, they underwent the consequences
that coexist with living in the middle of the
mountain with beasts and fighting the whims of the
nature, without a safe place where to protect
oneself.
The Costa Rica
Foundation - Canada, that has a project to construct
400 houses for the indigenous this year, gave the
first 36 houses, yesterday (Friday), in the
Chirripó Cabécar project in Turrialba.
They were constructed
in agreement with the indications of the natives not
to violate their customs. For example, all requested
that the kitchen was constructed with an earth
(dirt) floor, preferring to cook having contact with
the Earth, in addition, the majority requested that
their baths be remote from the house.
And although they
will be sheltered, many will have to continue
walking hours in the mountain to obtain their food
and will continue living similar to the other 3.000
of the reserve.
Transit Police to
Stop Taxis 'Pirata'
The Transit
Police launched an all out offensive against pirate
taxis - those who operate a public taxi service
without a license - yesterday in an effort to curb
the growing problem.
During the past few months there have been many
complaints by taxi operators of the growing number
of illegal taxis or 'piaratas' as they are known
locally, that are cutting into their business and
putting the public at risk.
Piratas don't count with the measures set out by the
MOPT - Ministry of Transport and Public Works - who
regulate taxi operators and don't have the proper
insurance.
In small towns and communities outside San José,
Piratas offered a much need service, as sometimes it
is impossible to find a 'legal' taxi or many cases,
'legal' taxis refuse to offer service up a steep
mountain and/or where there are bad roads.
Taxi owners feel that their business is being taken
away and are pressuring the Transit authorities for
stricter enforcements. The MOPT issued a series of
new license plates - yet to be seen in San José,
but already in circulation in places like Heredia -
and set out new regulations for the obtaining and
operating a taxi license.
Gambling
sites banned from accepting Dutch punters
A
Dutch court has ordered the operators of 21 internet
gambling sites based in other countries to ban Dutch
visitors, according to a report by European Digital
Rights, an association of privacy and civil rights
organisations in Europe.
According to EDR, the
case was brought by De Lotto, the state-owned
national lottery, under the Dutch Gambling Act
because the companies are not licensed to offer
on-line gambling in the Netherlands.
Sites affected are
based in the Dutch Antilles, Canada, Antigua,
Venezuela, Belize, Haiti and Costa Rica. The
Financial Times reports that a total of 40 companies
had been called to court with De Loto asking that
another 42 companies have said they will take steps
to exclude Dutch visitors.
The companies risk
fines of €10,000 per day for as long as they
continue to deliver on-line gambling in the
Netherlands, up to a maximum of €200,000
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Former Casa Aliazna
Honduras Youth Murdered
In yet
another act of violence in the litany of bloodshed
in Honduras, former Casa Alianza Honduras youth
Gerson Edgardo Amador, 19, was murdered in cold
blood last Sunday evening.
Three or four male
adults attacked Gerson, who had been in Casa
Alianza's programs in Tegucigalpa for three years,
at approximately 6pm as he went to visit his
girlfriend in Comayaguela. He died from 25 stab
wounds and was thrown into a rubbish container.
Gerson had left Casa Alianza's programs at the
beginning of June and was in an independent living
program.
Gerson had been a
member of Casa Alianza's Scout troop - Los
Caballeros de la Alianza - The Gentlemen of the
Covenant. He was buried in Santa Anita, Comayaguela
by his uncle. His father had abandoned him many
years ago. One of the suspects in the murder is the
Mara Salvatrucha gang.
More than a week
after the attack, there has been no adequate police
investigation of the incident and our concern is
that Gerson's murder will join the more than 60% of
the 1,700 murders of children and youth under the
age of 23 since January 1998 where the killers have
not been identified.
Bush designates six captives for possible military trials
US President George W. Bush has determined that six captives taken in the Afghanistan war are eligible to be tried before military tribunals, defense officials said Thursday.
No charges have not yet been brought against the six suspects, whose names the officials would not identify. The decision about whether to actually conduct such trials will be separate.
The US military has built a courtroom at a detention facility at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where 680 detainees classified by the Bush administration as enemy combatants, primarily from the war in Afghanistan, are being held.
This was the first time Bush has decided any terror suspects should be tried in a military court. Under an executive order he issued two months after the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush had to determine that there was reason to believe that each of the six detainees was a member of al-Qaida or another terrorist organization or was otherwise involved in terrorism directed against the United States.
If their cases do go before a military tribunal, the detainees would face possible trials before military commissions made up of three to seven members of the US military.
The rules of evidence and standards of conviction in the military tribunals are less strict than they are in standard US civilian courts. The government would need only a two-thirds vote to convict instead of a unanimous vote as required in a civil court. A decision to bring the death penalty would still have to be unanimous.
Although there is a provision to permit news coverage of the proceedings, each presiding officer in the commission has the authority to close the trial to the media in the name of protecting classified or sensitive intelligence or the national security.
Italian Premier Berlusconi Nazi row continues
The international row over a Nazi jibemade by Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi in the European Parliament continued Friday despite Germany's declaration that the affair was over.
Berlusconi triggered the uproar on Wednesday when he reacted to criticism from a German European Parliament MP by comparing the Socialist lawmaker to a Nazi concentration kapo' (an inmate promoted to guard).
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder demanded a "full apology" for the remark, which rebounded around the world, and talked to Berlusconi by phone Thursday.
Afterwards, Schroeder said the Italian premier had "expressed regret over his choice of words and the concept," adding that "in the eyes of the German government, the case is now closed."
But European Parliament Speaker Pat Cox said this morning that a phone call between Schroeder and Berlusconi was insufficient to declare the matter closed and called on the premier to return to Strasbourg to explain himself.
"We welcome the progress made in relations between Italy and Germany, but a definitive solution demands that Mr.Berlusconi clarify the incident before the European Parliament," Cox said.
Enrique Baron Crespo of Spain, the whip of the Socialist Group (PES) in the European Parliament, said Berlusconi had opened an "institutional crisis" and continued to demand an apology, along with the Greens.
But Hans Gert Poettering, the leader of the center-right European People's Party to which Berlusconi's Forza Italia party belongs, said Berlusconi had already said enough to make amends and that it was now Schulz's turn to say sorry.
The Nazi remark and subsequent furor came the day after Italy took over the European Union rotating presidency and followed criticism from Martin Schulz, a member of Schroeder's own Social Democrats party, over the unresolved conflict between the billionaire media mogul's political powers and his vast business interests.
Schulz also highlighted Berlusconi's legal tangles and the alleged shield provided by his immunity from prosecution, and attacked a volatile minister in his government, Northern League leader Umberto Bossi, who is frequently criticised as anti-immigrant and
anti-EU.
"I know a producer in Italy who's making a film about Nazi concentration camps. I'll recommend you for the role of Kapo'. You' d be perfect." Berlusconi replied.
Many foreign commentators said it had confirmed critics' worst assumptions about Berlusconi and reinforced detractors' doubts about his fitness to represent the European Union.
On Thursday, a brief statement from the Italian premier's office after the Berlusconi-Schroeder phone call said the premier had complained to the chancellor about the "serious offence" caused by Schulz.
"He expressed his regret over the fact that somebody misunderstood the sense of a quip that was meant to be purely ironic," the statement said.
The European Commission, the EU's executive body, has refused to comment on the incident beyond saying that it was "very serious and naturally everybody in the Commission would have preferred it not to have happened."
Al Jazeera airs Saddam's new audio tape
Al Jazeera television station on Friday aired an audio tape from the disposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who said that he was still alive in Iraq.
"I am in Iraq and with a comrade," said the voice in the audio tape recorded on June 14, 2003. The voice sounded like Saddam.
"I tell you that I miss you... even though I am among you and in your ranks," added the voice.
The United States on Thursday announced a 25-million-US-dollar reward for the information leading to the capture of Saddam or confirmation of his death. An additional 15-million-dollar bounty was also offered to the arrest of either of Saddam's two sons, Uday and
Qusay.
WHO declares global outbreak of SARS contained
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Saturday that the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome
(SARS) has been contained worldwide after it removed China's Taiwan from the list of
SARS-infected areas.
"We do not mark the end of SARS today but we observe a milestone -- the global SARS outbreak has been contained," WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland said in a statement.
"Today the World Health Organization is removing Taiwan ... from the list of areas with recent local transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome
(SARS)," the United Nations agency announced.
"Taiwan is the last area to be removed from the list. It has been 20 days, or two consecutive 10-day incubation periods, since the last case on June 15," said the statement.
The UN health agency said: "Based on country surveillance reports, the human chains of SARS virus transmission appear to have been broken everywhere in the world."
However, the group also warned that "The world is not yet SARS free."
The WHO chief was quoted as saying that "There are still close to 200 SARS patients in hospitals" and "It is possible that cases have slipped through the net."
"WHO warns that continued global vigilance for SARS is crucial for the foreseeable future." the WHO said.
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