It appears the two men were part of a child trafficking network that was uncovered last week by police, who brought minors from places like Ecuador, through Colombia, Panamá, and to Costa Rica, where false documentation was prepared for them and then sent to the United States.

Police set the trap for the man using local television channel 7, who on the request of the Ministerio Público, distributed information leading the men to believe that the children delivered to the station were no the ones they were trafficking and that they would be meeting them at the game centre next to the fast food restaurant where the man was arrested.

The operation included U.S. immigration agents as well as agents from other countries like Ecuador, Peru and Panamá. U.S. agents were involved because the final point of destination was the United States.

Police say yesterday's arrest is an important blow to child trafficking. Especially because, it was here in Costa Rica where the children held captive and documents were being falsified.

The ring was detected when an airport employee detected a member of the network with false documents. The Colombian was identified only by his last name, González.

Buckle Up! It's Now the Law.
Today, the newly passed seatbelt law is published in the official newspaper La Gaceta and comes into law.

The law was passed by the Legislators back on April 13, following a series of debates and controversy, that included an opinion of the Constitutional Court.

All laws, before they can come into effect have to be published in the official government newspaper La Gaceta.

Costa Rica on U.S. Intellectual Property Watch List
Costa Rica is among the countries put on the "watch list" for global intellectual property rights (IPR) violations.

According to the U.S. 2004 Report on Intellectual Property Protection, released on Monday, the list also includes Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovak Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela and Vietnam.

Another 16 trading partners are on the "priority watch list," which entails greater scrutiny. Eleven of these -- Argentina, Bahamas, Brazil, EU, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Philippines, Poland, Russia and Taiwan - were on last year's priority list. The other five - Egypt, Korea, Kuwait, Pakistan and Turkey - were moved this year from the watch list to the priority list.

Pirated optical discs, mass imported finished discs, and illegally burned CD-Rs are prevalent in the "black" market.

According to the report poor enforcement, including ineffective prosecutions, minimal judicial sentences, and lax border measures contribute to piracy worldwide.
 

'DOC' Had Dead Woman's Purse
By JEANE MacINTOSH, New York Post

The driver's license and purse of a Manhattan investment banker were found among alleged killer quack Dean Faiello's possessions four months after she mysteriously vanished - but the Faiello pal who found the items didn't call cops or confront his friend.

Faiello's friends told Vanity Fair writer Bryan Burrough that they realized in retrospect that there had been signs of a connection between Faiello and Cruz. Mark Ritchey, a neighbor, recalled how he once opened a bag that Faiello had stored in his garage.
He found a purse containing an address book, credit cards and a license for Cruz.

Investigators have said they believe Faiello may have stored Cruz's body at Ritchey's home before moving it to the crypt. Faiello's boyfriend, Greg Bach, recounted how, on May 27, Faiello lugged a large plastic pan to the garage and started mixing concrete.
 

United Airlines Announces Expansion to Central America
United Airlines announced that it is again bolstering its international portfolio with service to seven new destinations in Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America, in time for winter holiday travel. Service is scheduled to begin in December, subject to approval of government operating authorities.

United will also launch Central American service from Chicago O'Hare to San Jose, Costa Rica.

United currently serves San Jose, Costa Rica; Cancun, Mexico; San Juan, Puerto Rico, Grand Cayman (seasonal service); St. Thomas, Aruba and Bermuda.

Flight times, frequencies and other additional information will be made available upon receipt of government operating authority.

Caribbean service will include Montego Bay, Jamaica; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; and St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles; and additional service to Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.
 

Last Best Chance
After almost nine years in the harsh prisons of Peru, Lori Berenson has a chance to win her liberty this week. The 34-year-old New Yorker's case will be heard in Costa Rica by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the highest such court for members of the Organization of American States. The court has a range of choices, from doing nothing to ordering Peru to set her free.

Berenson was originally sentenced to life in prison on terrorism charges, by a secret military court during the repressive regime of then president Alberto Fujimori.

In November 1995, she was arrested as an alleged leader of an urban leftist guerrilla group called Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement and accused of helping to plan an attack against Peru's Congress.

She says she was working as a journalist and had unknowingly sublet one floor of a house she'd once lived in to Tupac Amaru members.

In a second trial, her sentence was reduced to 20 years.

Last August, Berenson sat on the cement bed in her cell in the northern Peruvian province of Cajamarca and defended the nation's more than 2,000 political prisoners. "They call them all monsters, saying that they should suffer," she said. "They're forgetting the fact that most people have been in jail for at least 10 years, with torture and families destroyed, as if they haven't already gone through enough."

 

Canadian sues US military for alleged torture
A Canadian man who claims he was falsely imprisoned and tortured last year by the American military shortly after the invasion of Iraq is suing the US army for 350,000 US dollars, it is reported here Tuesday.

Hossam Shaltout, 57, an aerospace engineer and a former resident of Toronto, filed his suit on April 30 with the US Army Claims Office.

Shaltout was born in Egypt and moved to Canada in 1971, Shaltout told The Canadian Press Monday in an interview from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he works. He became a Canadian citizen but then moved to Los Angeles in 1984. He still holds a Canadian passport.

Shaltout says he went to Iraq before the war on behalf of a group called Rights and Freedom International, hoping to persuade Iraqi leaders to step down.

He alleges he was arrested by US troops on April 9, 2003 and taken to Camp Bucca, a detention site in southern Iraq. He says US authorities there accused him of being a speech writer and "right-hand-man" of deposed president Saddam Hussein.

Shaltout says he was detained three days in an armored personnel carrier and beaten. He said he also saw Iraqis being tortured.

He says he was freed and eventually taken to Egypt. He says he now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and cannot work properly.

Shaltout's accusation come in the wake of a larger scandal involving alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners. Photographs of Iraqi prisoners published last week show prisoners being stripped naked, hooded and tormented at Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison.