MEXICO CITY, México — Authorities are taking special steps to prevent an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, coordinating health monitoring activities on its borders and carrying out special inspections at airports and seaports. Cooperation is seen as the key to managing any problem that might occur. 

Mexico has tightened security at both its northern and southern borders, in an effort to prevent the entry of SARS. Officials are trying to examine immigrants passing through Mexico from Central America to the United States and have beefed up checkpoints at the border with Guatemala. In addition, health officials in states bordering the United States are working with counterparts on the other side of the line to share information and track possible cases. 

Tamaulipas State Secretary of Health Hector Lopez, says this cross-border communication is critical. He says this system of epidemiological vigilance allows health officials on both sides of the border to be informed and to be in position to issue an alert to the public, if necessary. 

Mexican authorities are also stepping up vigilance at ports of entry, with a special emphasis on the 26 daily flights to Mexico that originate in Asia. 

The Mexican Health Secretariat has issued a travel 

The director of the epidemiology section of Mexico's Health Secretariat, Pablo Kuri Morales, says the arrival of SARS in this country is inevitable, given the realities of modern-day travel and commerce. He says reasonable measures can be taken to impede its entry, but that blocking all people or products from Asia would not be reasonable or necessary. He says the World Health Organization has made it clear that ordinary products, such as clothes, that come from Asia do not represent a threat of infection. Experts believe the disease is spread through close contact with people who are infected. 

Health officials in Mexico say one of the chief problems they face is that there is no laboratory in the country that can test for SARS. There have been a couple of dozen suspected cases of SARS reported in various parts of Mexico, but all were later diagnosed as some other illness. 

Mexico has developed an emergency response plan, just in case SARS is identified. So far, in Latin America, only Brazil has confirmed a case of SARS. 

Violence has marred Thursday's scheduled withdrawal of the U.S. Navy from a controversial bombing range on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. 

Shouting anti-Navy slogans, hundreds of protesters stormed the bombing range and burned military vehicles early Thursday. The unrest came hours after the deadline passed for the end of the Navy's presence on Vieques, a tiny island to the east of Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico's Gov. Sila Calderon was on hand for ceremonies marking the transfer of the bombing range to the U.S. Department of the Interior, which plans to convert the 6,000 hectare facility into a wildlife refuge. The governor decried the protesters' actions, accusing them of breaking the law and violating the spirit of what has been a hard-fought campaign to end the military's presence on Vieques.

The Navy first acquired the land in 1940, and from World War II to the Gulf War, used the facility to train pilots for bombing missions.

But long-simmering local anger and resentment reached a boiling point in 1999, when off-target bombs killed a civilian security guard on the range. The Navy subsequently began using inert munitions for training purposes, but insisted the facility be preserved in the interest of national security.

Two years ago, the Bush administration pledged to cease operations on the island by May of this year. The last training exercises were held in February.

Despite the Navy's withdrawal from Vieques, many Puerto Ricans say they are far from satisfied. They say a massive clean-up effort will be required to remove toxins and other materials that they contend are destroying the island's environment and pose a health threat to its residents.

May Day results
include one dead

Police have clashed with rock-throwing May Day protesters in Germany, while a holiday rally in Venezuela has turned deadly. German authorities say they arrested nearly 100 rioters during scuffles Thursday at the site of the former Berlin Wall. Twenty nine police officers and a number of demonstrators were injured. 

In Venezuela, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Caracas for separate pro and anti-government marches. Gunfire disrupted the opposition rally, leaving one person dead. Fellow protesters draped the dead man's body in a Venezuelan flag. 

Other demonstrations throughout the world were largely peaceful as hundreds of thousands of people rallied in places like Moscow, Seoul and Tokyo. 

Demonstrators in Ukraine rallied against the government, while protesters in Kyrgyzstan called for the removal of U.S. troops from an airbase near Bishkek. 

About 7,000 people in Zurich protested the war in Iraq, while British police were deployed to guard against violence in Thursday's demonstrations. 

Cubans packed Havana's Revolution Plaza for a rally with President Fidel Castro and Greek and Turkish Cypriots gathered in Nicosia for their first joint May Day celebration in decades. Chinese officials, however, shortened the usual week-long festivities over fears of the deadly SARS virus.

Four anti-Chavez
officers protected

CARACAS, Venezuela - Four military officers accused of helping stage a coup against President Hugo Chavez have received asylum outside the country. 

The Foreign Ministry of Uruguay said Wednesday it granted protection to two officers, Otto Gebauer Morales and Carlos Blondell. The men had entered the Uruguayan embassy in Venezuela's capital Caracas earlier this week. 

The Dominican Republic also agreed Wednesday to provide asylum to brothers Alfredo and Ricardo Salazar, who requested protection last week. 

The four officers are awaiting approval from Venezuelan authorities to leave the country.  The men are the latest in a series of Chavez opponents who have been forced to leave the country after staging massive protests last year.

More taxes planned
by Lula in Brazil

BRASILIA, BRAZIL — President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has presented a set of major tax and pension reforms to Congress.

Da Silva appeared at a special session of Congress Wednesday, urging lawmakers to make quick progress in voting on the plans. He said the changes are key to transforming Brazil into a developed country.

The controversial proposals include raising the retirement age by as much as seven years and capping pensions for public employees. The reforms also include creating a uniform sales tax for the entire country.

Members of Da Silva's own Workers Party have already voiced strong opposition to the proposals.

Quake hits plates
off Tamarindo

An earthquake of 4.5 magnitude hit a few miles west of Tamarindo on the northern Nicoya Peninsula about 1:33 p.m. Thursday, according to the U.S. National Earthquake Information Center.

The epicenter was at a depth of about 33 kilometers (about 20 miles) at a point where two subterranean plates meet. This is an area of continuing seismic activity.

Mario Rodondo of the Partido Unidad Social Cristiana got an absolute majority of 29 votes Thursday to become president of the Asemblea Nacional. He takes over from fellow party member Rolando Laclé Castro.

Luis Gerardo Villanueva of the partido Liberación Nacional got the votes of 21 deputies, and Juan José Vargas of the Bloque Partiótico got seven.

Federico Malavassi of the Movimiento Libertario won re-election as vice president by defeating Gloria Valerín of Social Cristiana 28 to 27. Two deputies stayed in the hall and would not vote.

The voting shows that Unidad Social Cristian, the party of Presidenbt Abel pacheco, controls the legislature, but just barely.
 

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Suspected terrorists, convicted felons and drug traffickers are among the 733 people arrested as a result of the U.S.  National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, implemented last Sept 11, said a U.S. Justice Department official.

Kris Kobach, counsel to the U.S. Attorney General, said that since that time more than 133,000 people from 150 countries have been registered in the system, at border crossings, airports and immigration offices throughout the United States.

Speaking at a Migration Policy Institute panel discussion in Washington last week, Kobach called the system a "massive leap forward" for immigration authorities. But others at  the briefing questioned the program's efficacy, merits and use of  "nationality-based" criteria.

Muzaffar Christi, senior policy analyst at the institute, called the system’s implementation "a disaster," criticizing what he said was a lack of outreach to explain to other countries why the United States was pursuing nationality-based registration policies.

"People have felt stigmatized and intimidated," said Christi, who characterized the program as a "godsend for Islamic fundamentalists."

"If al Qaeda could have done public relations, they could not have done better," said Christi explaining that the message the fundamentalist Islamic press has taken from the immigration system is that the United States has targeted all Muslims "as enemies."

Kobach said the system does not target Muslims, but that visitors from certain predominantly Arab and Muslim countries are subject to domestic registration because al-Qaeda has been known to operate in their homelands.

According to Kobach, the primary goals of the new system are to prevent  terrorists and known 

The security system consists of three components: Point-of-Entry Registration, Special Registration and Exit/Departure Controls. At point of entry registration, temporary visitors entering the country who are identified as "presenting an elevated national security concern" are  fingerprinted, interviewed and photographed. With special registration, nonimmigrant visitors staying more than 30 days are required to check in with the Department of Homeland Security and  report where they are and what they're doing. By 2005, officials aim to have a comprehensive entry-exit system that applies to almost all  foreign visitors, said Kobach.

With Special Registration, also called "Domestic Call-in Registration," the Attorney General has directed nonimmigrant men 16  years of age or older who are nationals of specified countries to  register at immigration offices within a certain time period.

Calling the program a great success, Kobach said that 11 suspected terrorists have been apprehended through the system. Several of the  suspected terrorists had ties to al-Qaeda and were located through domestic registration, he said. Some 108 convicted felons also have been apprehended through domestic registration, added  Kobach.

Felonies "are substantial crimes," he said. "These individuals are not by law permitted to be in the U.S. after they have been convicted of crimes of this magnitude."

But Kareem Shora, legal advisor to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, questioned whether the system is a legitimate step to enhance national security. He said the program  instills fear and alienates a community at a time the U.S. government should be reaching out and developing more cooperative relations with that community.