Sponsorship of the Luciano Pavarotti concert here Jan. 31 has become a hot topic.

The newspaper Diaro Extra reported Wednesday that the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo gave 42 million colons of public money in support of the private concert. That’s about $100,000.

The concert was put on by American Express Centroamérica-Credomatic, the big financial services firm here. The tourism institute responded that it sponsored other events in much the same way. At least some of the money went for advertising.

Thursday Diario Extra reported that the manager of Credomatic is José Ignacio Cordero Ehrenberg, who happens to be a director of the tourism institute’s multimillion dollar Gulf of Papagayo project. Cordero also was in charge of the concert.

The initial complaint came from Albino Vargas, secretary general of the Asociación National de Empleados Público y Privados. He also claimed to Diaro Extra that the tourism institute deliberately structured the payment of money to Credomatic in a way to avoid scrutiny by the Contraloría General, the governmental financial watchdog.  By laws the watchdog agency reviews contracts in excess of 30 million colons.

The tourism institute paid Credomatic under two contracts, one for 29 million colons and a second for 19 million colons, said Vargas.

Legislators have taken an interest, and the Comisión de Control Ingreso del Gasto Público is expected to call Rodrigo Castro, the minister of Turismo, for testimony, said Diaro Extra Thursday.

Bring your kid
for a U.S. passport

The U.S. government wants parents to present their child when the child is applying for a passport.

All minors applying for a passport must now appear in person, the Bureau of Consular Affairs said Thursday. The bureau is part of the U.S. State Department.

The requirement is : To enhance the accurate identification of passport applicants and aid in the prevention of international child abduction and trafficking," the bureau said.

For Costa Rica, a personal appearance means a trip to the U.S. Embassy in Pavas.

Said the bureau in its announcement:

"This applies to all regular, official and diplomatic passports for children under the age of 14, even if the child has previously been issued a passport. Prior to the introduction of this requirement, parents were not routinely required to bring a child under the age of 14 with them when they applied on the child's behalf. 

"Now, when applying for a passport on behalf of a minor under the age of 14, parents are required to have their child present and submit documentation of parental relationship and consent, as well as comply with all other documentation requirements for the issuance of a passport."

The requirements are spelled out in the bureau’s Web site.

Hemisphere trade talks
hit serious impasse

PUEBLA, México — Talks among trade officials from the Americas to create the world's largest free trade zone have hit an impasse. 

Reports say the major sticking points at Thursday's meeting here included export subsidies for agricultural products. 

The trade officials from 34 democratic nations are trying to put in place a Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement, by early next year. Their four-day meeting is scheduled to end today.

Western Hemisphere trade ministers meeting in November agreed on a draft for the free trade zone, which would stretch from Alaska to Argentina.  The draft was the result of a compromise between the United States and Brazil, which have had serious differences on trade issues. Brazil is South America's largest economy.

Grammy nominees
must stay in Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba — Officials say the U.S. government has denied visas to Cuban musicians nominated to receive awards at the Grammys Sunday in Los Angeles. 

Cuba's vice minister of culture, Abel Acosta, told reporters Thursday the Bush administration has barred the musicians entry for political reasons. 

Five Cuban musicians have been nominated to receive Grammys. They include singer Ibrahim Ferrer of the Buena Vista Social Club, a multiple Grammy winner; percussionist Amadito Valdes and lute player Barbarito Torres. 

The Bush administration requires extensive background checks for Cuban citizens applying for visas. The State Department classifies the Communist island as a state sponsor of terrorism. 

An international panel of scientists is urging a global effort to strengthen the science and technology capabilities of countries so they can address their critical needs. The group's focus is on improving research in developing nations to help them fight scourges like poverty, hunger, and disease.

A group called the InterAcademy Council based in Amsterdam says scientific and technological advances are occurring at a dizzying rate and are driving forces in the world. But it notes that research benefits are unequally distributed throughout the world.

The council is a four-year-old grouping of 90 national science academies, including that of the United States.

In a new report delivered to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan Thursday, the panel calls on public and private sector decision makers to form a global movement to build scientific and technological capabilities in all nations, especially poor ones.

"It is no longer brawn but brains that make up the bulk of wealth around the world today," said the InterAcademy Council's co-chairman, Ismail Serageldin of Egypt's Alexandria Library. At U.N. headquarters in New York, he pointed out that rich nations invest 220 times more per capita in science and technology than poor ones, and warned that this ratio must change.

The InterAcademy Council encourages governments to develop national science and technology strategies to conquer poverty, hunger, disease, and other social problems.

These strategies, it says, should attract human talent and develop first-rate research institutions with resources based on merit. The council says nations should create incentives for private sector participation because business is responsible for two-thirds of all research investment.

To complement national efforts, the group calls for creative new ways of financing science and technology building.

Panel member Mamphela Ramphele of South Africa, the World Bank's managing director for human development, says the group believes the new report will cause development agencies and donors to take a new look at the importance of building up science and technology in their financing plans.

"The use and the focus on science and technology will enhance development effectiveness if you build the capability of people to be able to tackle their own problems. We believe science and technology will add value to the way we do development," he said.

NEW DELHI, India —  A Web site here is selling counterfeit contraceptive patches that, contrary to advertising, provide no protection against pregnancy. There is no active ingredient.

According to a news release this week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the site, www.rxpharmacy.ws, apparently operated by the Indian company American Style Products, is advertising FDA-approved Ortho Evra transdermal patches made by a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary. However, the site is actually selling counterfeit products that do not contain the active ingredient necessary to make the patches effective.

"None of these products should be considered safe or effective. Consumers who have any of these products should not use them, but instead contact their healthcare providers immediately," said the news release.

FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan said the case "highlights the serious risks posed by foreign drug operations that bypass FDA safeguards. People are risking their health, in some cases their very lives."

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The secretary general of the Organization of American States says the organization has signed a new agreement with Colombia that aims to verify the process of demobilizing the country's illegally organized armed groups.

In a statement this week, the secretary general, Cesar Gaviria, himself a native of Colombia and a former president of that country, said the new agreement specifies that his organization will play only a technical role in the demobilization and will not intervene in matters that are the responsibility of Colombia's "democratic institutions."

Gaviria told the organization’s Permanent Council that Colombia is at a "critical stage" and needs immediate help from the international community to continue the process that began with the demobilization of more than 1,000 paramilitary forces in November 2003. He recalled that the Permanent Council reiterated in 2003 its unequivocal support for the Colombian government's efforts to find a "firm and lasting peace" in the Andean nation.

For its part, the United States is also playing an active role with President Bush's budget for fiscal year 2005 proposing $463 million for the government of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. Bush said the money for Colombia will be used to 

Under the terms of the "Agreement on Monitoring the Peace Process in Colombia," signed Jan. 23 by representatives of the Colombian government and the Organizatinon of American States, the organization may verify compliance with the peace process, including a cease-fire and cessation of hostilities, as well as the demobilization, disarmament, and reintegration into society of illegally organized armed groups.

The agreement establishes an organization mission to support the Colombian peace process. The mission will be headed by Argentine diplomat Sergio Caramagna, who previously oversaw the demobilization process in Nicaragua and in recent years has headed the organization’s national office in that Central American nation.

The Organization of American States said the agreement "opens the door" for negotiating with "all those illegal armed groups that may wish to return to democratic life in the country, on condition that they first declare a 'cessation of hostilities,' for the sole purpose of achieving a reduction of violence and safeguarding respect for human rights throughout the national territory."

GENEVA, Switzerland — The U.N. assistant high commissioner for refugees says Colombia is suffering from the worst humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere. 

Kamel Morjane said Wednesday here that between two and three million people have been forced from their homes in Colombia, but because they are in mostly isolated, mountainous regions, they are "invisible." He said the humanitarian situation is worse in only two other countries in the world — the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan. 

The U.N. official said as many as 250,000 people have fled across the border to Ecuador, where the government is respecting its obligations to them. Morjane estimated another 15,000 are in Venezuela, and about 2,000 are in Panama. Colombia is mired in a nearly four-decade-old civil war involving government forces, leftist rebels and rightist paramilitaries.