New Type of Bank Robbers
They - a new class of bank robbers - manage to have people on inside and outside the bank to watch customers, who leave with large amounts of cash. From inside the bank, a call is made from a cellular telephone to accomplices outside, who pursue the intended victim.

Shortly, after the customer has left the bank, usually a kilometer or so, the assault takes place, whereby the rob the bank customer of all the money.

This year alone, 27 persons have been victims of this type of assault.

Today (Monday) banking authorities and representatives of the Ministerio de Seguridad Publica will meet to fight this growing problem together.

A few words of caution. If you are withdrawing large amounts of cash be suspectful of your surroundings. Go to the bank accompanied and know the route you will take home, your office or other destination.

This new type of attack is usually non-violent, so hand over the money, make a good mental note of the suspects - what they are wearing, the car driven, anything can identify them - and call police at 911 from your cellular telephone or as soon as you possibly can.

The entrance for Colombians to Costa Rica was reduced in half the past year after the Ministerio de Seguridad Publica (the ministry responsible for immigration) instituted a visa fro Colombians.

Entrance by Colombians was down 50% from the previous year.

According to the authorities, the new visa requirements has not only stopped the number of incoming Colombians, but it also has increased the number leaving.

Cost Rica receives a little more than one million tourists each year. Recovery from 9-11 has not been easy. 

In the last year, not as many tourists arrived as expected. Authorities assure that the numbers are manageable.

Arrival of  Colombians to Costa Rica was down 50% from last year.
In the past year the arrival of Colombians to Cost Rica has reduced in half after the Ministerio de Seguridad Publica (the ministry responsible for immigration) instituted visa requirements for Colombians.

The new visa requirements not only decreased the number of Colombians entering Costa Rica, it also increased the number of Colombians leaving.

In the past year not as many tourists arrived as expected. Cost Rica receives a little more than one million tourists each year. Recovery from 9-11 has not been easy.

Authorities assure that the numbers are manageable.

Official Inauguration of the Tempisque bridge will de delayed
The official inauguration of the bridge La Amistad over the Tempisque River which was to be at the end of this month, will be delayed awaiting notice from the Taiwanese government.

Taiwan president as scheduled to visit Costa Rica, but had to cancel due to the outbreak of SARS in his country.

The tour was to include Belize, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

The bridge was built by a donation of 10.000.000 colones made by Taiwan and started construction during the Rodriguez administration. 

Former president Rodriguez inaugurated the bridge before left office last year, almost one year ahead of the completion of the construction.

U.S. bettors send vast sums offshore
Federal prosecutors in St. Louis are investigating money transfers to illegal gambling sites on the Internet. The administration of President George W. Bush wants to shut down a river of cash flowing into the illicit industry.

But Dave is undaunted.

Dave - who declined to give his last name - runs Triplecrownracebook.com, based in Costa Rica. A native of New York City, he moved offshore - like many other Web gambling entrepreneurs - to escape the reach of U.S. law enforcement.

He said he expects little impact from efforts in Congress, where some want to bar financial institutions from transferring money to gambling sites. Dave says he is sure his industry will survive new laws, prosecutions and anything else.  

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Taiwan welcomes arrival of WHO experts
TAIPEI - The SARS outbreak in Taiwan forced the island's leader to postpone planned state visits to four allies, as the isolated country awaited assistance from the World Health Organization (WHO) to help it contain the borderless virus.

WHO personnel in Beijing said Saturday the UN body was sending a team to Taiwan, after the number of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) cases here tripled over the past 10 days following mass infections in two local medical institutions.

Seven people have died from the deadly pneumonia-like illness from a total of 102 cases, according to official statistics.

"The WHO's willingness to send medical experts to Taiwan to help handle the epidemic is most welcome by our government," Taiwan's cabinet spokesman Lin Chia-lung told a press conference Saturday.

Lin, however, stressed the matter was absolutely unrelated to China -- whose consent reportedly made the trip possible in the first place.

"We must hereby point out that the assistance provided to Taiwan by the WHO is bilateral and is also beneficial and reciprocal to Taiwan and all other countries," Lin said.

"We have direct contact (with the WHO). Whether China has given its consent or not has nothing to do with this matter," he added.

Taiwan was forced out of the WHO in 1972, a year after it lost its seat in the United Nations to China, which has considered the island part of its territory since the two sides split in 1949 at the end of a civil war.

Taipei has since failed to gain accession to the WHO due to Beijing's stand. Its annual bid since 1997 to obtain an observer's seat in the organization has also been fruitless.

In Beijing, WHO spokeswoman Mangai Balasegaram said "there may well have been a letter" from China authorising the WHO to go ahead with the trip to Taiwan.

"It is a standard procedure: WHO works in Taiwan through China," Balasegaram said.

"The WHO experts in Taiwan will assist a team from the American CDC," referring to the US Centers for Disease Control, whose experts are already on the island.

Taiwan's Center for Disease Control head Chen Tzay-jinn said the country would obtain SARS test kits from the WHO by May 12.

As the SARS crisis seemed to be escalating in Taiwan, President Chen Shui-bian on Saturday decided to postpone state visits to four Central American and Caribbean allies.

"In light of the uncertainty of the epidemic, our top priority at the moment is to make all-out efforts to put the outbreak under control, set the people's minds at rest and restore the country's economic vitality," presidential office spokesman James Huang said.

"The timing is not right to make a foreign visit, so we've decided to postpone the trip for the time being," Huang added.

Chen had originally planned to leave on May 29 for the trip, which covered four destinations including Costa Rica, Belize, Haiti and Dominican Republic.

He had obtained the United States' permission to make a transit in New York en route to Central America and in Alaska on his way back to Taiwan, according to the United Daily News.

Taiwan is recognized by 27 countries, largely poor nations in Central America, Africa and the Caribbean.

China has opposed any overseas visits by officials from Taiwan, which it considers a violation of the "one China" policy.