No Shadow. This phenomenon   occurs in Costa Rica only twice a year, where the sun is at a 90 degree angle, eliminating all shadow. Today's Stories: • Costa Rica Hotter Than Hawaii • Population Grows Old • Equality in Employment • Cocaine in Shampoo • Suspects Accused of Smuggling Heroin • Nicaragua: Long-Awaited Justice • Cuba welcomes US investment in oil exploration • US technicians visit nuclear installations in Brazil   Dilana Vargas, Wendy García, Marcela Campos, Yinela Bonilla and Lauren Sibaja will be participants in the crowing of Miss Expo San Carlos 2004, this Saturday at 7pm, in San Carlos.

Virtuoso, a network of hundreds of independent travel agencies that cater to the affluent, does an annual survey of 6,000 deluxe travel specialists and calls it the Virtuoso LuxeReport.

High-end travel agents are bullish on 2004, with 64 percent checking "the best year in several years" while other 3 percent checked "worse than last year."

Asked what was the most requested active/adventure vacation destination for families last year, 17 percent said Costa Rica, 9 percent said Hawaii, and 8 percent said Africa. Among younger affluent travelers, the responses were 20 percent Costa Rica, 13 percent Hawaii, and 10 percent Alaska.

When asked what would be hot this year, the agents cited Costa Rica, Africa, Australia/New Zealand, South America and Vietnam. Hawaii didn't make the top five. Among most popular group tour destinations worldwide are Italy, Alaska and Russia.

Other findings: the average vacation length for younger affluent travelers (34-52) is now 9 days. For older affluents it's 13 days.

The hottest travel trend among younger affluents remains active/adventure trips, but 7 percent of respondents also cited trips built around total relaxation at spas. For older affluents it's still luxury cruises, but 8 percent cited multigenerational trips, including many cases of older travelers taking grandchildren on trips.
 

Population Grows Old
The population of Costa Rica is growing old and, according to experts, it will be even more so in 10 years.

In 2002, the phenomenon became evident when the country reached a "replacement fecundity rate"; namely, that each woman has a female descendant that ensures a new generation.

Costa Rica became the second Latin American nation, after Cuba, in having a 2.1 birth rate per woman. Another fact to the growing older of the population is life expectancy, currently at 76 years for men and at 81 years for women.
 

Equality in Employment
Both men and women experienced the same growth rate in employment last year, 0.1 percent, according to the International Labor Organization.

This equality contrasts with the situation in most Latin American countries, where unemployment punishes women the most.

Such is the case in nations such as Chile, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.
 

Cocaine in Shampoo
An African, identified only by his family name, Hanes, who had arrived from Venezuela, was arrested at Juan Santamaria International Airport when he was ready to board a flight for Zurich, Switzerland.

Agents noticed something suspicion in the man's luggage: four shampoo bottles which, when inspected, showed to contain a plastic bag that floated in the liquid. The bags in turn carried 1.2 kilos (2.6 pounds) of cocaine.

Hanes became the thirteenth person arrested so far this year for trying to smuggle drugs through Juan Santamaria Airport.

Meanwhile, a reserve police agent ran into 20 kilos (close to 43.5 pounds) of cocaine at Tortuguero Beach in the Costa Rican Caribbean. The police suspected that the drug fell of a boat, therefore started a search for more drug in the area.
 

Suspects Accused of Smuggling Heroin
A group of suspects from Cleveland, Ohio, is accused of smuggling heroin from Costa Rica to Northeast Ohio and peddling it to street dealers.

Bryant Brown, an employee of the Cleveland Water Department, was accused in an indictment handed up this week of being one of the main distributors of the drug.

Days after the arrest last month, Mayor Jane Campbell fired Brown's fiancée, Donna Felder, the city's Equal Opportunity Employment officer. A spokesman for Campbell said that the charges had nothing to do with the dismissal and that Campbell simply wanted to make a change.

Lee Lucas and Kirk Johns, agents for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said the case unfolded like this:

Agents learned Roy Anthony James, a Jamaican accused of dealing heroin in New York, had obtained large amounts of heroin from Costa Rica and funneled it to New York and Cleveland, with help from drivers.

Through wiretaps, agents learned that James called distributors in Cleveland, including Brown, to check on shipments. At least twice, James paid Tonnaleya Slaughter of Cleveland to drive to Galveston, Texas, to get drugs from a man who smuggled them through his job on a cruise liner.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward Feran said Brown, 40; Terrance Riddle, 38; and Jeremiah Davis, 42, are accused of distributing the drug throughout Cleveland. Slaughter; her relatives Tamika and William Slaughter; and Brown, Riddle and Davis are charged with conspiracy.

James, whom authorities believe to be the ringleader, has been charged in New York.

Nicaragua: Long-Awaited Justice
Women win pesticide lawsuit but payday still years away.

A Nicaraguan court in early March ordered Shell Chemical, Dole Food and Standard Fruit companies to pay a group of women US$82.9 million in fines in a lawsuit brought by campesinas made chronically ill by the use of the pesticide Nemagon on banana plantations in the 1970s.

Use of the chemical was banned in the United States in 1967 after it was determined that it caused blindness, sterility, cancer, birth defects, and other diseases, but export of the product was not banned, and it was shipped to Central America where it was used until at least 1980.

The court decision follows a ruling for $489 million handed down on Dec. 11, 2001, against Shell, Dole, and Dow Agro Sciences (Del Monte), which the companies have refused to pay.

Managua Civil Court Justice Vida Benavente’s ruling would mean about US$1 million would go to each of 81 plaintiffs.

During the trial, the plaintiffs testified about their ailments and presented evidence that they worked on plantations where the chemical was used in the 1970s. Expert testimony was presented on the effects of Nemagon.

The testimony revealed that about 600 people have died in Nicaragua from pesticide contamination in the past decade.

This case was just one of many filed against US multinationals in the past six years. The remaining cases involve more than 17,000 Nicaraguan banana workers and eight transnational companies.

Despite the ruling, there is scant likelihood of prompt payment to plaintiffs. Attorney General Víctor Talavera has pressed for a negotiated settlement with the companies, while at the same time committing the government to follow up on cases now in US courts. He said negotiations could proceed on a case-by-case basis for the 81 plaintiffs.

Insisting on $1 million for each plaintiff could result in a very long wait, he cautioned. "The North American procedure is a pain, and long years could pass even if the judgments are favorable for the plaintiffs in Nicaragua.," Talavera said.

There have been negotiated settlements elsewhere in Central America under similar circumstances in the past, but with unsatisfactory results from the point of view of the plaintiffs.

Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Augusto Navarro encouraged a settlement, not only for these 81 women, but for all plaintiffs, current and potential, noting that in the past there have been similar rulings where legal costs ate up 90 percent of the awards with basically nothing going to the claimants.

He also argued that some 700 claimants in the various suits have died uncompensated.

About 3,000 others continue to endure the elements in a park in the capital, where they have been protesting for weeks after having walked 130 km (78 miles) to get there.

"We are united and we will not recognize any agreement that does not bear our signatures, and we are prepared to die here unless they we see justice." a leader of the group said.

Navarro appealed to them and other injured parties to recognize that the awards were so high that it made it worthwhile for the companies to pay lawyers forever to avoid paying them. One tactic has been for the companies to counter-sue the campesinas, alleging racketeering and fraud.

Navarro wanted all the cases handled together, not just the ones recently favored by the ruling. The 81 winners, all women, were part of a larger group, but the decision went against 25 of the larger group because they had failed to present the results of medical examinations to prove damages.
 

Cuba welcomes US investment in oil exploration
Cuba welcomes US investment in inland and offshore oil exploration and exploitation, the Cuban Basic Industry Ministry said Thursday.

Juan Fleites, a senior official of the ministry, made this offer when more than 400 US entrepreneurs gathered here attending the first Cuban-US trade fair. He said cooperation opportunity is open to whoever is interested in exploring and exploiting oil in Cuba.

Fleites said Cuba has 49 oil plates in the Mexican sea area which remain untapped by venture capital.

Cuba has granted foreign capital the right to participate in oil exploration and exploitation since 1990. Oil companies from France, Canada and Spain are hitherto its major partners in this field.

Currently, Cuba's oil production mainly comes from oil fields on land, with an output of 80,000 barrels per day used in electricity generation.

The first offshore oil rig, jointly funded by Cuba and Spain, is believed to start production soon.

Fleites pointed out that except national defense, health and education, other economic sectors in the country will also open to foreign investment.

Since Cuba and the United States restored trade relations in 2001, trade between the two countries has been confined to food.

Cuba has reiterated that it welcomes US investment in sectors like oil, tourism, telecommunications, electricity, food production and infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Cuba also hopes to import machinery, agricultural facilities, transpiration equipment, fertilizer and industrial raw materials from the United States.
 

US technicians visit nuclear installations in Brazil
US technicians of the Brazil-United States Permanent Committee on Nuclear Energy Cooperation began a visit to the nuclear installations in the state of Rio de Janeiro on Thursday.

The presence of US specialists came after a recent controversy over Brazil's alleged uranium enrichment and refusal to allow international inspections, the local press reported.

US Assistant Secretary of State John Wolf and directors of Brazil's National Nuclear Energy Commission met on Thursday to discuss issues related to the nuclear sector, such as security, technology and safeguards.

The United States has recently accused Brazil of hindering international inspections of the process developed in this South American country to enrich uranium.

On Wednesday, experts of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency and the Argentine-Brazilian Nuclear Material Control Agencyhad a routine inspection of the nuclear installations in the stateof Rio de Janeiro, but they did not get full access to the allegeduranium enrichment facilities.