Dr. Arthur Carl Kanev, 57, was arrested last July as he returned to his mother's condominium in Pompano Beach after a month long stakeout by Broward County sheriff's deputies.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Chase said Kanev would formally drop his challenge to extradition at a hearing Today.

Defense attorney William Aaron did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Costa Rican authorities arrested Kanev after hundreds of pictures of child pornography were found at his beach house in 1999. Authorities said Kanev and a cohort drugged and raped local girls, some as young as 13, and took pornographic pictures of them.

Kanev, formerly from Waltham, Mass., fled Costa Rica months later while free on bail. He denied any wrongdoing in an interview in 2000 on ABC's "20/20" about the Costa Rican sex trade, and he was profiled on "America's Most Wanted" in 2001.

In extradition papers, Costa Rica named eight victims and offered statements from several teenagers who said five men were staying at the house. Authorities said poor girls were offered marijuana, liquor, food and the use of a swimming pool and nearby beach.

Girls said they also were sedated and woke up realizing someone had had sex with them. Police found sedatives and pictures of sleeping, partially nude girls when they searched the house.

Some of the girls said they consented to sex. A 16-year-old said she was paid every time she brought a new friend to the house. She received money for visits with no sex but more for sex. A girl said she had sex with "Arturo" on her second visit and he used condoms.

Another girl said she visited the house three times a week and pictures were taken on some visits. A 19-year-old said she once woke up topless and feeling drugged.

Kanev was charged with rape, unauthorized use of drugs and corruption of minors.

Joe Curtis Baker, an Oklahoma City veterinarian charged along with Kanev, was sentenced in Costa Rica to 24 years in prison.
 

Stanley Osborne, Adviser on the Study of the Supersonic Jet, Dies at 99
Stanley de Jongh Osborne,  was born in San José, Costa Rica, and graduated from Phillips Academy Andover in Massachusetts in 1922 and from Harvard in 1926, died on Friday at his home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He was 99.

Osborne did postgraduate business studies at Harvard in 1927 and was a special assistant the next year to the president of the United States Olympic Committee, Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

Mr. Osborne was a New York investment banker, a presidential adviser on aviation and honorary chairman of New York Presbyterian Hospital, joining the investment firm Lazard Frères & Company, 1964 after a career with Eastern Air Lines under Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker and the Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation.

In 1944 he joined Eastern Air Lines as vice president for traffic and sales. In 1950 he went to the Mathieson Chemical Corporation as treasurer. After the company's merger with Olin Industries, he became president and chairman of Olin Mathieson in 1957.

In 1963, Mr. Osborne's expertise as an airline executive prompted President John F. Kennedy to ask him and Eugene R. Black, a former president of the World Bank, to weigh the feasibility of an American competitor to the Concorde, the projected British-French supersonic jetliner. Mr. Osborne remained an adviser to President Lyndon B. Johnson until 1967 on the commercial supersonic transport, which was never built. He was also a special consultant to the administrator of NASA until 1968.

Elizabeth Osborne died in 1984 after 55 years of marriage to Mr. Osborne. Mr. Osborne is survived by two daughters, Mary O. Witherbee, of Princeton, N.J., and Cynthia O. Hoskins, of California, Ky.; a son, Richard de J., of Manhattan; 11 grandchildren; and 24 great-grandchildren.

 

Increase in Suicides Worries Authorities
The increase in suicides during Semana Santa has Costa Rican authorities worried. Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) records show that nine people decided to end their lives, five of which were under the age of 24, one as young as 15.

PANI, the child welfare protection agency, reports one suicide attempt by an adolescent in San José.

In 2001, there were 232 suicides - 205 men and 27 women, while last year the number of suicides increased to 315, of which 252 men and only 63 women decided to take thier own lives.

Experts say that the most common signs that lead to suicide are loneliness, feeling of sadness and low self esteem. Experts reccomend not to ignore those signs and get professional help before too late.. Most suicide victims have attempted suicide in the past.
 

Ten Years of Internet
In April of 1994, RACSA (Radiográfica Costarricense S.A.), a state owned company, began marketing internet to the masses with a connection oos 2.4Kbps (kilobits per second) which then cost $100 for 30 hours of connection time.

Today, ten years later, RACSA charges $15 per month with unlimited time on a connection of 56Kbps. Also, today RACSA, by way of Cable Modem, offers service connection of up to 1.024kbps.

RACSA has been providing international telegraph services in Costa Rica since 1921, beginning as a private company known as Radiográfica Internacional.

In 1964, a law was passed that saw 50% of the original RACSA pass to the hands of ICE and then in totality in 1972.

With the fall of the use of the telegraph, in 1980 RACSA began offering telex services.

The pioneers of RACSA are Guy de Téramond, Juan Carlos Blanco, Álvaro Retana Cruz and Mario Serrano. De Téramond was ex- minister of Science and Technology who lent the company his equipment to start the business.

The internet in Costa Rica is accredited to a group from the University of Costa Rica and other state institutions who created an national network in 1990.

Today, ICE, who owns RACSA, offers internet service to the general market with a connection speed of 4.096Kbps. This year it plans to expand that service with the introduction of DSL, which it hopes to connect 84.000 subscribers.
 

It's Hot Baby!
Been feeling hot lately? Don't worry, it' going to get cooler, the weatherman tells us.

After reaching the highest temperatures recorded for this year, the weatherman (Instituto Meteorológico Nacional - IMN) assures that the mercury will drop to seasonal normals.

Last Saturday the Guanacaste region recorded highs of 38F in the shade, while in San José the record was 30C to 34F and very little in the way of a breeze.

The high temperatures and humidity are due to Pacifc current that blanketed the Guanacaste and Central Valley regions.

The weatherman tells us that the rainy or "green" season is on it's way, beginning the first week of May and that will also bring cooler or seasonal temperatures.