WASHINGTON, D.C. — The small island nation of Cuba is again back at the top of the news following former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's well-publicized trip there this week, which precedes what is billed as a major policy speech on Cuba by President Bush Monday.

Bush Administration officials have indicated the president will assert in his speech that the 42-year trade embargo on Cuba and restrictions on U.S. citizens traveling to that island must remain as long as Cuban President Fidel Castro continues to deny civil liberties to his countrymen. Bush is expected to say that it is important for the United States to maintain a firm stand against a repressive regime, while opening up more contacts with Cuban citizens.

A State Department official was quoted as saying that the president intends in his speech to support measures designed to "expand the flow and the breadth of information to the Cuban people." That involves revamping Radio Marti, the U.S. government station broadcasting to Cuba, and increasing distribution of radios by U.S. diplomats in Havana to the Cuban people, the official indicated.

White House press spokesman Ari Fleischer said Wednesday that the embargo is a "very important ongoing part" of U.S. policy because trade with Cuba only benefits that country's repressive government.

Fleischer said that trading with Cuba, "unlike [with] almost any other nation in the world, does not help the people" of that country. The money that Cuba has gotten from trade "has remained firmly in the hands of the repressive government," said Fleischer.

Carter, in his nationally televised speech to the Cuban people Tuesday, said he hopes for a change 

With Castro seated directly in front of him in the audience, Carter had tough words for Cuba's denial of human and civil rights, pointing out that the Cuban regime allows only one-party rule and that Cuba's citizens are not permitted to organize any opposition movements. He added:

"Your constitution recognizes freedom of speech and association, but other laws deny these freedom to those who disagree with the government." 

At the same time, Carter said he hoped the U.S. Congress will soon act to permit unrestricted travel between the two nations, establish an open trading relationship with Cuba, and repeal the economic embargo that the United States imposed on Cuba in response to Castro's authoritarian rule.

The embargo, Carter said, "freezes the existing impasse" between the two nations, "induces anger and resentment, restricts the freedoms of U.S. citizens, and makes it difficult for us to exchange ideas and respect."

Meanwhile, a bipartisan caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives issued a nine-point plan Wednesday calling for an end to the embargo, saying it has not produced meaningful political and economic reform in Cuba.

Known as the "Cuba Working Group," the caucus is composed of 20 Democrats and 20 Republicans. The caucus also roundly criticized the Cuban government's "refusal to allow free elections or the creation of opposition political parties and its failure to respect freedom of the press or civil and political liberties."

MADRID, Spain — European Union leaders will meet today and Saturday here with their counterparts from Latin America and the Caribbean. The meeting comes against a backdrop of resurgent political and economic instability in several Western Hemisphere nations. Spain is calling the summit the biggest gathering of heads of state and government ever held in the European Union. And there was a terrorist threat.

Forty-eight presidents and prime ministers, including Costa Rica’s Abel Pacheco, are expected to attend the summit, the second of its kind since European and Latin American and Caribbean leaders first met in Brazil three years ago.

In the 1990s, Latin America was seen as having a bright and prosperous future, as democracies replaced dictatorships and governments opened up their once protected economies.

But optimism has dimmed in recent months, following the virtual collapse of Argentina's economy, a failed coup in Venezuela, and the breakdown of peace talks in Colombia between the government and communist guerrillas.

Some Western Hemisphere leaders are expected to ask for more aid from the Europeans. Others will plead for the European Union to open up its markets to their exports, especially agricultural goods. But Latin American diplomats and officials at EU headquarters in Brussels acknowledge that they do not expect much more than pledges of more cooperation from the two-day gathering in the Spanish capital.

Despite the downturn in Latin America's fortunes, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, is determined to push for closer ties with the region.

He says Spain's political, economic, and cultural links with Latin America compel it to play the leading role in strengthening relations between Europe and the region.

The European Union plans to sign a free trade accord with Chile at the summit, two years after signing a similar agreement with Mexico. EU officials hope to negotiate a trade pact with the Mercosur bloc, comprised of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, but negotiations are stalled over EU import restrictions on agricultural goods from the area.

The talks will also deal with political issues such as terrorism. Aznar, whose government arrested two 

He says that, following the September terrorist attacks in the United States, the summit provides a good opportunity to show that democracies are resolved to defend themselves against terrorism.

Colombian President Andres Pastrana has complained that the European Union failed to include Colombia's Communist guerrilla group, known as FARC, on its list of terrorist organizations. Some EU governments say doing so would risk any revival of peace talks between the government and the guerrillas. But Aznar says that omission should be corrected.

He says he is in favor of including FARC on the terrorist list because it is a terrorist group.

Pastrana and Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo are also expected to ask the Europeans for more aid to fight drug trafficking.

Pacheco gets big loan
during Madrid meeting

MADRID, Spain — Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco Thursday got a loan for $60 million to boost exports and to aid small and medium-size businesses.

The chief executive met with his counterpart, José María Aznar of Spain and later said that the loan, almost without interest and for a 30-year term, will help balance the national budget.

Spain also forgave $20 million in debt that Costa Rica owed on the condition that Costa Rica forgive an equal amount of what Nicaragua owes it. Both sums come from aid programs Spain has to aid Latin America.

Costa Rica also agreed to enter into discussions towards the creation of a special police school of international character that would provide training on how to handle domestic violence and crimes against the environment.

Pacheco was scheduled to deliver a keynote talk about 3 a.m. Friday Costa Rican time titled" Sustainable environment as a fundamental to development."

The meeting between Pacheco and Aznar took place in Palacio Municipal de Congresos.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sen. Olympia Snowe and Sen. Joseph Lieberman spoke out this week against efforts to circumvent or eliminate current restrictions on whaling.

The two senators made their remarks as Sen. John Kerry, a Democrat of Massachusetts, introduced a Senate resolution, which calls on the United States to firmly oppose any increase in commercial whaling at the International Whaling Commission  meeting in Japan that opens Monday.

Snowe, a co-sponsor of the proposed resolution, said the whaling commission "will determine the fate of the world's whales through consideration of proposals to end the current global moratorium on commercial whaling."

The Maine Republican warned that adoption of "any such proposals by the IWC would mark a major setback in whale conservation." She stressed the 

The resolution would have the United States stand against a proposal to allow a non-member country, Iceland, to join the commission with a reservation that would allow it to hunt whales commercially.

"The resolution would also oppose all efforts made at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES, to reopen international trade in whale meat or to downlist any whale population," Snowe added.

"It would be a grave and reckless mistake for the moratorium to be lifted now," said Sen. Lieberman of Connecticut, the Democratic candidate for vice president in the 2000 election.

Lieberman said Iceland's motivation in rejoining the IWC was to expand the voting block for ending the moratorium.

A Pavas taxi driver, 22, thought he had a good fare when two men got into his cab near the San José Coca Cola bus terminal and asked him to take them to Cañas, Guanacaste.

However, along the route the mood of the passengers changed, and one pulled a knife. When they arrived in Cañas, the passengers took the driver’s cellular telephone and about 8,000 colons (about $22.50) then they forced him to drive around until they reached a dead-end street.

There they told the driver that they would not kill him if his family in the Central Valley deposited 200,000 colons ($565) into his bank account. 

After the taxi driver, later identified by the name of Aguilar, made the arrangements, the men took him to a bank branch with the hopes of withdrawing the money.

But the taxi driver was able to seek help from a bank teller, and the two men fled abandoning the taxi.

Woman dies in Nosara

A 27-year-old U.S. citizen has died in Nosara, and investigators are seeking the cause of death.

An agent from the Nicoya office of the Judicial Investigating Organization identified the woman as Elizabeth Morgan Wilson. They said that she was in ill health.

The body was found in the rented home the woman occupied with some medications nearby. She was believed to be taking morphine, agents said. The results of a toxicology test are awaited.

Three die in car wreck

Three persons died in an early morning crash of an auto with a truck on the Nicoya-Sámara road. All three were in the car, said investigators.

A father, 46, and his son, 19, identified by the surname Morales, apparently had given a ride to a man they had just met in a gas station in Sámara. That man, identified as Lopez, 51, died, too. 

Elayne Whyte, the vice minister of foreign relations, carried a proposed law to the national assembly Thursday that would cut the commissions consular officials make on their sale of tax and other official stamps.

The minister, Roberto Tovar Faja, announced earlier in the week that he would take that initiative. He said the 20 percent commission that consular officials made in selling stamps was "disproportionate." He reduced the commission to 8 percent, but the law proposed Thursday was necessary to cut the commission even further to 5 percent.

Bulk stamp sales are handled through the Central Bank.

Tovar pointed out that the Costa Rican consular officials in Managua were making $30,000 a month as a result of the greater commission. The plan is expected to net the country 2.5 billion colons or some $7 million.

Car trip interrupted
by five bullets

A man and a woman enroute to Panama from the San José area were fired on by individuals in another car about 4 a.m. Thursday, according to investigators.

The driver, 24, identified by the surname Goméz, suffered bullet wounds to the back, foot and chest. The 20-year-old woman with him, identified by the name of Pérez was not injured.

In all the gunman in the car fired five shots in the vicinity of Rancho Volcán near Buenos Aires de Pérez Zeledón. The trip originated in San Miguel de Desamparados.

Bandits even tie up tyke

Masked men burst into a living unit at Rancho Cartegena in Punte Golpe de Santa Cruz at midnight Thursday. They tied up three persons there, including a 5 year old, and fled with 50,000 colons (about $140) and jewels, said investigators.

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