WASINGTON, D.C. — The Central Intelligence Agency says it is concerned about growing instability in Latin America in countries like Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela. 

CIA chief George Tenet told the Senate Intelligence Committee in Washington Wednesday that Latin America is becoming more volatile as the potential for instability grows. The CIA director said officials are concerned about Argentina because of its  economic crisis, which has triggered widespread protests and contributed to the resignations of two presidents in December. 

Tenet pointed to Argentine President Eduardo Duhalde's struggle to maintain public order amid efforts to help the economy rebound from the  brink of economic collapse. The country has been in recession nearly four years and in default on $141 billion in public debt. 

The CIA chief also said Colombia is volatile since the peace process there faces many obstacles. The government of Colombian President Andres  Pastrana is trying to end a 38-year-old civil war that involves two leftist rebel groups, right-wing para-militaries and the army. 

Tenet said the CIA is also watching Colombia's neighbor, Venezuela,  because economic conditions there have worsened with the fall in oil prices. 

Venezuela is a major oil producer and the United States' third-largest supplier of petroleum. He said growing discontent within the country to the governing style of President Hugo Chavez has created what the CIA chief called a "crisis atmosphere." 

Tuesday Secretary of State Colin Powell told the Senate Foreign  Relations Committee the United States is concerned about some of President Chavez's actions and his understanding of democracy. Secretary  Powell also criticized Chavez's visits to countries the United States  considers enemies. 

Venezuela's Foreign Minister, Luis Alfonso Davila, was quoted later as saying Mr. Chavez's foreign policy does not require the approval or authorization of other governments. 

Chere Lyn Tomayko

Alexandria Cyprian

U.S. officials still are looking for a nurse who fled Texas in May 1997 with her 8-year-old child. Authorities still say that she may be hiding out in Costa Rica.

The woman is Chere Lyn Tomayko, now 39, and the daughter is Alexandria Camille Cyprian, who would now be 11.

The case is the most visible of child abductions that have been a news topic lately. U.S. embassy officials confirmed Tuesday that an undisclosed  number of such cases are still considered unresolved.

The Tomayko case is at the top of the list because there is a U.S. warrant on one count of international parental kidnapping. She and her former boyfriend had joint custody of the child but she fled without his consent and took the child out of the jurisdiction of the Tarrant County District Court, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. She also took another daughter who is not involved in the custody issue, said the department.

Ms. Tomayko is just 5-foot, 2-inches tall and weighed 90 pounds at the time of the abduction, said the Justice Department. The girl was just 4-feet tall and 55 pounds, they said. At the time the woman fled, authorities said they had information that she may be headed to Costa Rica.

The case is similar to that of Ralph Stumbo who is seeking the return of his son Marco, 3 1/2, who was taken contrary to a court order from Naples, Fla., by his now-ex wife. However, no indictment has been handed up nor any warrant issued in the Stumbo case. Stumbo’s wife is Costa Rican.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Scientists using climate monitoring data from polar orbiting satellites and a network of ocean buoys predict that it is likely an El Niño weather system will develop in the tropical Pacific in the next three months.

Costa Rica will feel the results in unstable and damaging weather conditions.

According to an announcement Tuesday, the scientists also predict a localized warming of sea surface temperatures off the coasts of Ecuador and Peru over the next few weeks as part of the steady evolution toward El Niño conditions.

"This warming represents an early stage of El Niño's onset . . . . The impacts will depend on the strength of the event, which we can't determine at this time," said Vice Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher. He is administrator of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

During an El Niño event, the normally cold water off the west coast of South America becomes much warmer, exceeding the normal temperatures by several degrees, while the waters in the western Pacific cool.

Scientists have been predicting El Niño for the last two months, but this prediction is strongly supported by technical data. Previous predictions were based on statistical inferences and the period of time since an El Niño condition had appeared.

El Niños can affect weather conditions around the world. Among the consequences, for example, are increased rain storms across the southern tier of the United States and Peru, which have caused destructive flooding; and drought in the West Pacific, sometimes associated with devastating brush fires in Australia.

 El Niño episodes occur roughly every four-to-five years and can last up to 12-to-18 months. It has been nearly four years since the end of the 1997-1998 El Niño, which was followed by three years of La Niña. In many locations, especially in the tropics, La Niña produces the opposite kinds of climate variations from El Niño.

Further information is available at:
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/
analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/ and http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States' trade-related goals for the coming year include completing bilateral free trade agreements with Chile and Singapore, advancing Russia's agreement to the World Trade Organization, and ensuring the involvement of least developed countries in the global talks launched at the November 2001 world trade meeting in Doha, Qatar, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick told a Senate panel Wednesday.

A priority will be a proposed Central American free trade agreement, he said.

He also pressed Congress to approve trade promotion authority (so-called "fast track authority") for the president, and to re-authorize the Andean Trade Preference Act and the Generalized System of Preferences. Both the programs set preferential tariffs for many imports from developing countries, and both expired in 2001.

Testifying before the Senate Finance Committee, Zoellick underlined the need to maintain the momentum of the Doha agreement, and said the United States would be working with the World Trade Organization and other organizations to 

"By providing such support, we will be helping these nations to integrate with the global economy — a key part of the strategy for economic development — while also strengthening the rules-based trading system," he said.

Zoellick said the Bush Administration intends to conclude free trade agreements in 2002 with Chile and Singapore and to pursue similar agreements with "a mix of developing and developed nations in all regions of the world." Top priorities include Australia and the countries of Central America, he said.

And talks on creating a Free Trade Area of the Americas will continue, Zoellick said. He reported that negotiators will launch market-access negotiations by mid-May on agriculture, industrial goods, services, investment and government procurement. In October, trade ministers will meet in Quito, Ecuador, to determine how to move forward, he added. Zoellick said that at the close of the Quito meeting, the United States and Brazil will begin a co-chairmanship of the free trade process, "providing an opportunity for cooperation with a key partner and economic power as the pace of negotiations accelerates."

A new information campaign has been launched in the Caribbean about the importance of protecting coral reefs, the marine equivalent of tropical rain forests.

The campaign, spearheaded by the U.N. Environment Program, seeks to educate the public about the importance of coral reefs to the environment and to the tourism industry. 

The World Atlas of Coral Reefs, the definitive book on the status of coral reefs in different regions of the world, states that more than 60 percent of the coral reefs in the Caribbean are under threat. Entire reefs have been decimated by disease and the region (which hosts about eight percent of the world's total reef area) is being adversely affected by sedimentation, nutrient pollution, and over-fishing.

The issue resonates deeply in countries like Jamaica, where 90 percent of the coral reefs have been lost in the last 15 to 20 years, according to an official. He described the full dimension of the problem and its implications for Jamaica and its neighbors. For instance, he said, coral reefs play an important role in the food chain because marine animals such as fish, crabs and eels use the reefs as nurseries to protect their young. Reef ecosystems support large fisheries that people in island nations depend upon for food, he added.

The U.N. said its information campaign will include a wall calendar, produced in association with the Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism, to promote 2002 as the "International Year of Ecotourism." The calendar explains the main biological and ecological features of coral reefs, and offers a quiz for children, a poster, and a boaters' chart with information on how to manage solid waste and holding tanks as well as a guide to refueling and anchoring practices.

Arthur Dahl, director of the U.N. Corals Unit, said the calendar and other new communication tools will "hopefully lead to better care and long-term management and conservation" of coral reefs. The information tools are available in five languages, including Spanish and French, and can be distributed with travel documents or in-flight magazines, in hotel lobbies and rooms, at travel agencies, airport lounges, visitor information centers, and at recreation centers, the U.N. said.

More information about the UNEP campaign is available on the Internet at: www.unep.ch/coral/breefing.htm.