Hostage Drama Ends in Tragedy
Yesterday afternoon,
a disgruntled Costa Rican police officer assigned
to Chile's embassy took 10 people hostage inside the building and
then apparently killing three embassy workers and himself before
police stormed the premises.
The events began about 3:45pm, police officer José Orlando
Jiménez Jiménez, 54 years of age, who had been working guarding the
Chilean Embassy for 10 years, for unknown reasons entered the
embassy and took officials present as hostages.
 Full
Story and photos!
Schools Can Again Inspect Backpacks
The Ministry of Education (MEP) has
re-ordered the inspection f backpacks by students, following the
green light by the Sala IV Constitutional Court.
The Ministerio de Educación (MEP) said the inspections of all
backpacks and bags brought in by students in all schools will start
up again next week and inspections will be done at least once a day.
Manuel Antonio Bolaños, Education Minister, said the inspections are
mandatory at all schools and must be applied based on the guidelines
set out by his ministry.
A "Recurso Amparo" - an appeal - had been filed with the court of
the MEP's decision to check all bags when a student accidentally
fired a gun he was carrying in his backpack injuring two fellow
students.
The appeal was filed by the political party Movimiento Libertario
and the Asociación de Profesores de Segunda Enseñanza, saying that
the inspections violated student privacy.
The MEP decision to do inspections generated different opinions both
for and against. However, Education officials say the inspections
are necessary to control arms and drugs from entering the schools.
The last occurrence was last Thursday at the Liceo Brenes Mesén
school, when a 9th grade student was found by the principal at the
school carrying a loaded gun on school property.
24 Hour
General Strike Tomorrow
All is set for tomorrow's protest by the
Coordinadora Unitaria Sindical y Magisterial (Cusima) that groups
70% of all unions in Costa Rica.
The protest is "for many things", though primarily it is over the
recent public employee salary increases for this second half of the
year, announced earlier this month by the government.
The government set public employee salaries at 4% for July to
December 2004. The union says that that figure doesn't cover
inflation and are demanding a 10% increase.
The protest will also serve in defense of union and labour rights.
Affected by the one day strike will be many public and private
institutions. The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE),
Acueductos y Alcantarillados (water and sewers), hospitals and
clinics, Instituto Costarricense de Seguros (INS), Fuerza y Luz,
banks, schools and Municipal offices among others.
Union leaders say the general strike will continue for 24 hours and
will be nation wide.
WTO Making Progress in Some Areas, Costa Rica's Saborio Says
World Trade Organization negotiators are making headway on hammering
out a trade agreement that will serve as the main text of a global
accord, Costa Rica's WTO ambassador said in an interview.
"On trade facilitation, we are slowly moving. Baby steps maybe, but
we still have time,'' Ronald Saborio Soto said in Geneva.
On market access for non-farm goods, "there is definitely some
progress. There has been convergence on the fact that a cover letter
or something of that nature would help to achieve a deal, and we're
working on the content of that.''
The Doha trade round, which began three years ago, would give a
multi-billion-dollar boost to international commerce and help pull
millions of people from poverty, the World Bank says.
Fierce differences between rich and poor countries, mainly over
agriculture, have dogged negotiations and sparked last year's
collapse of the WTO's ministerial conference in Cancun, Mexico.
Talks being held this week at the 147-nation WTO are aimed at
securing a roadmap to an eventual global agreement that would open
the world market in agricultural and other goods by cutting tariffs
and subsidies. A deal this week would serve as the main text for the
Doha round, only leaving blanks where negotiators can later fill in
the specific size of items such as tariff cuts and when they will be
implemented.
Costa Rica is counting on "substantial changes'' to the draft
proposal presented on July 16 by WTO Director General Supachai
Panitchpakdi and Shotaro Oshima, Japan's ambassador to the WTO and
chairman of the trade body's governing council.
"We want to have something more limited, more to the point,''
Saborio Soto said.
"It should be something that basically gives guidance on further
work and clarifies some elements of the text.''
The annex focusing on non-agricultural market access is "a very
balanced text,'' he said. "It is a text that is a result of a
process. It's very much the result of one year and a half, before
Cancun, so it's already quite balanced.''
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