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updated by 7:00 a.m. CST each day
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Teacher's Strike
Continues: Day 15
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Government rejects discussion of Pensions
Although
the negotiations between the government and teachers
were at a dead lock over the weekend, the government
has stated that there exists no legal way out of the
pension situation, thus the reason it is rejecting
discussing the subject.
Nevertheless, while the government assures that the
subject of pensions is closed issued, the teachers
affirm that the strike will continue. For the
reason, union leaders have called on their
membership to a march towards Presidential House for
tomorrow to show their unified front.
Ricardo Toledo, Minister for the Presidency, has
stated that, "you cannot negotiate what is not
negotiable".
The difference that faces the government and the
educators centers on a resolution emitted by the
Procuraduría General de la República, that forces
teachers to complete 33.3 years of on the job to
retire with a pension at 63% of their wages.
Meanwhile, teachers are currently protected by
Article 102 of the Organización Internacional del
Trabajo (OIT), where teachers can retire at the
completion of the 30 years and at 100% of their
wage.
The Government's proposal was that all teachers who
met the OIT requirements before the 28th of April
(the date when the Procuraduría General de la República
emitted the new criterion) could retire at 100% of
their wage and on 30 years of service.
This would affect only about 2.000 teachers. The
union wants all teachers covered by the OIT terms.
If the government accedes to those demands, the
government would be required to invest 30.000
Million colones ($75 Million Dollars) in the
next three years.
Tomorrow's march will start at Parque Central,
downtown and end at Presidential House in Zapote.
More
Immigration raids: 189 detained
Immigration
authorities were in full force this past week,
with the detainment of 189 illegals during
raids over the weekend.
The raids took place in San José, Guanacaste,
Limon, Aljuela and Puntarenas.
Public streets, as well as hotels, night
clubs, discoteques, and local bars (cantinas)
were visited by immigration police.
The majority of those detained were
Nicaraguans and Colombians.
Law
to end prostitution on public roads
Legislator, Juan Jose Vargas Faults, from the
Bloque Patrio'tico (BPP) party, presented to
the legislature a project of law with the
intention of removing the offering of sexual
services (prostitution) from the streets and
controlling and regulating that practice.
This initiative
calls for prostitutes and transvestites, who
choose to sell their bodies on the public
streets, work in licensed houses with rigorous
sanitary conditions and that they pay taxes.
Working on the
streets could bring jail time from six months
to one year.
According to
the legislator, "many people who
prostitute themselves are doing it simply to
survive. It is not a profession, not a choice
in life style, simply an end to an to be able
to survive."
This type of law is being applied in European
countries like France and Italy, where
prostitution on public roads or public areas
(like parks) is prohibited, but tolerated in
private homes.
Areas like the surrounds of the Clinica
Biblica and the INS (Instituto Nacional de
Seguros) buildings are well known common
places where female and male street
prostitutes and transvestites gather waiting
on clients.
Costa
Rican minister to lead environment workshop
Costa
Rica’s Environment Minister Carlos Manuel
Rodriguez will arrive in Beirut Monday to
participate in a workshop called Legislation
and Biodiversity Opportunities: the Costa
Rican Experience.
A statement issued by the American University
of Beirut on Friday said the workshop, which
would be held on Tuesday and Wednesday in West
Hall at AUB, is organized by the university,
the Environment Ministry and Earth University.
The first day sessions will address the
history and future prospects of bio-prospection,
the statement said. Speakers will be
Rodriguez, AUB President John Waterbury,
Environment Minister Fares Boueiz, President
of Earth University Jose Zaglul, IBSAR
Coordinator Salma Talhouk and bio-prospection
program adviser Jorge Cabrera.
The second day sessions will focus on
collaboration, access and benefit sharing of
biodiversity, the statement added, and
speakers will be Rodriguez, Attorney Walid
Nassar, and Cabrera.
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5 killed in floods, mudslide in Colombia
Two people were killed in a mudslide and three others died in floods caused by heavy rains and storms in Colombia, local media reported on Sunday.
The mudslide buried the home of two girls, aged six and 12, and killed them while injuring two other children in the northwestern district of Medellin, some 400 km from the capital Bogota.
Meanwhile, in the southern city of Florencia, three other people died in floods which hit 20 districts of the city.
At least 4,000 people were left homeless in the floods and storms in northwest and southwest Colombia.
Bush says peace can be achieved in Mideast
US President George W. Bush on Sunday expressed belief that peace can be achieved in the Middle East despite difficulties in the peace process and the latest surge of violence in the region.
"I believe that the agents of peace, the people who love, thosewho care about a decent future for the suffering Palestinian people, and those who live in Israel will prevail, but it's going to take a lot of work," Bush told reporters in Kennebunkport, Maine, where he is spending a long Father's Day weekend with his family.
"I'm confident we can achieve peace. It's going to be a tough road, but I am determined to continue to lend the weight of this government to advance peace," he said.
Blaming the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) for sabotaging peace in the Middle East, Bush said the international community must deal "harshly" with Hamas and deny organizations like Hamas the opportunities to destroy peace.
So far a total of 63 people have been killed in renewed violence between Israelis and the Palestinians since their leadersmet Bush at a three-way summit in Jordan on June 4.
New York residents face higher health risk near toxic waste sites
New Yorkers who live near toxic waste sites face a higher risk of developing cancer and respiratory illnesses, said a report released Sunday.
Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum urged the state legislature to earmark fund to clean the dumps after he analyzed data from the city's Health Department.
According to the study, people who live near the so-called Superfund sites in the city have a higher rate of such illnesses as asthma, bronchitis and breast cancer. While noting the study does not offer conclusive evidence that the sites make people sick,Gotbaum said her office is planning to study the findings further.
She called on New York state governor George Pataki and the state lawmakers to complete the cleaning that was left over after more than 3 billion dollars in state funds allocated to clean up the sites dried up two years ago, and urged them to pass a compromise bill to provide more funding.
The state Superfund program was financed in 1986 to decontaminate toxic sites not covered under the federal Superfund.Two-thirds of the original funding was collected from parties responsible for the pollution.
Among the five boroughs, Queens has the highest number of 16 Superfund sites. Brooklyn and Staten Island each have nine, the Bronx has three and Manhattan has one
Italian Interior Minister demanded demission in immigration row
The Italian political party Northern League on Sunday demanded demission of the head of Interior Minister Beppe Pisanu, accusing him of failing to implement measures aimed at stemming the flow of illegal immigrants into Italy.
The Northern League's national coordinator and Senate whip, Roberto Calderoli, said it was "evident" that Pisanu had to go forfailing to implement measures passed in an immigration law a year ago.
Calderoli accused Pisanu of "passing the buck" onto other ministries for the recent influx of some 1,000 asylum-seekers to southern Italy.
Another 178 would-be immigrants landed this morning on Lampedusa, a stepping stone from Africa, joining the hundreds packed into the island's overcrowded reception centers.
Immigration and the alleged slow pace of devolution were among the reasons cited by Northern League leader Umberto Bossi in threatening to quit government last week.
Strains have been increasing between Bossi and other members ofthe central-right coalition, especially after a defeat in local elections in which the Northern League stood alone in the north.
Berlusconi will chair a majority summit Wednesday, aiming at easing the tensions. He has ruled out a cabinet reshuffle.
Renato Schifani, Senate whip for Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, said the government agreed with the League on the seriousness of the "urgent" problem of illegal immigration and urged the Northern League to "tone down" its demands.
Pisanu, a veteran centrist who took over from Forza Italia bigwig Claudio Scajola 11 months ago after Scajola insulted a labour ministry aide slain by terrorists, on Saturday said the navy would be ordered to stop incoming boats, under the provisionsof the Bossi-Fini law which has been strongly contested by the opposition.
Efforts would also be stepped up to clinch anti-immigration deals with countries like Libya, Pisanu said.
The immigration law, which came into effect last September, hasbeen hotly contested because it ties residency permits to jobs. Only those non-EU foreigners already in possession of an Italian work contract are now allowed to enter the country and gain a residency permit.
Last month the Italian interior ministry said the law had produced a 13.9 percent increase in the deportation of illegal aliens and a sharp drop in the arrival of unauthorized immigrants
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