LONDON – In early September 2002, as the United States and Britain sought to build the case for confronting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that his government would soon publish a dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

Britain’s intelligence services then produced a 50-page report, the highlight of which was a claim that Iraqi troops could launch chemical or biological weapons within 45 minutes of an order.

But the dossier had omitted the fact that the claim referred to battlefield munitions – not to long-range missiles. Nor did it disclose that the claim had come second-hand from an uncorroborated source, and that some government experts believed it was questionable. Blair recently conceded he did not know what the claim was referring to when he published it.

Weapons inspectors scouring Iraq have found no weapons of mass destruction. And the 45-minute claim has become the focus of a fierce debate over whether Blair and President Bush used intelligence information to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.

Blair’s spokesman said, “People appear to be implying that the government’s case for taking action against Saddam was based on the 45-minute point. That is simply not true. The government’s case has been based on the fact that Saddam had posed a threat and had been in breach of U.N. resolutions.”

MEXICO CITY – U.S. Homeland Security SecretaryTomRidge recently held a news conference with his Mexican counterpart, Interior Minister Santiago Creel, which reflected an unexpected dividend in the war on terrorism: A significant improvement in Washington’s relations with its southern neighbor.

Mexico has seen the Bush administration embrace its top priority – reform of U.S. immigration laws – in part because of a growing network of relationships between Ridge, Creel and aides.

In announcing his immigration reform plan, Bush embraced Ridge’s reasoning that the United States would be more secure if millions of illegal immigrants identified themselves to the government in exchange for work permits.

What lies behind the unforeseen link between homeland security and better relations with Mexico is not idealism or ideology but practical necessity.

U.S. officials fear the 1,951-mile border with Mexico could become an entry point for terrorists. Mexican officials worry that if terrorists use their country as a springboard for an attack, the angry backlash from the United States could cripple their economy and impede travel of their citizens who send home badly needed funds.

BERLIN – Last month a court convicted Rolf Fischer, a 34-year-old test driver, of negligent manslaughter in the July 2003 deaths in a car accident caused by his speeding and sentenced him to 18 months in prison.

Germany’s world-famous right to speed was not on trial, but its opponents have seized on the verdict to renew long-standing demands for controls.

Politicians in the ruling Social Democrat-Green coalition have declared the time has come for limits, arguing that it’s common sense that slowing down would save lives.

But in this otherwise heavily regulated society, many Germans view the right to drive fast as a last frontier of freedom.

The German Automobile Club argued that statistics show no correlation between safety and speed limits. What is needed is a crackdown on practices such as following too closely, said Markus Schaepe, a legal specialist on transportation.

Germany’s Transport Ministry, which oversees the 7,500-mile-long autobahn system, said a better response would be to redesign stretches of road where accidents routinely occur.

It’s a myth that German highways have no speed limits. On about a third of the autobahn, limits are posted. On the  rest, authorities recommend that drivers keep to 130 kilometers (about 81 miles) per hour, but drivers are legally free to ignore that and generally do.

ROME – This city that prides itself on welcoming all nationalities is wrestling awkwardly with an issue concerning its changing face: Should there be a Chinatown here?

The prospect has created plenty of hard feelings here. City hall and Italian residents of Esquilino, the district where thousands of Chinese have put down roots, are aggressively resisting the emergence of what is being described as an ethnically defined ghetto. What might be fine for other cities doesn’t wash here.

“This is a neighborhood in the historic center of Rome. Rome is Rome and not a provincial Chinese capital,” said Dima Capozzio, president of the Esquilino Block Association.

City hall has laid down rules to limit Chinese commerce in Esquilino and make it less of an immigration magnet.

“We’re trying to avoid development of ethnic neighborhoods. There cannot be a Chinatown in Rome,” said Maria Grazia Arditto, spokeswoman for the commerce adviser to the mayor.

The conflict is rooted in the Romans’ view of themselves and their city. “When in Rome, do as the Romans do” has become a rallying cry because, in the Roman view, the Chinese are doing as the Chinese do – and in upsetting ways. They sell products in bulk, raise signs in Chinese characters, work long and odd hours and keep to themselves in a way that many Italians consider unfriendly and mysterious.

Chinese immigrants number about 60,000 nationwide, and no more than a10,000 in Rome.

BEIJING – China has quietly detained a group of Hong Kong residents, including at least three British citizens, and begun to prosecute them on espionage charges. The crackdown may signal a new push to enact the stringent security bill that prompted huge demonstrations in the territory last year before it was withdrawn.

One of the British citizens, Chan Yulam, 53, a businessman and former official in the mainland’s representative office in Hong Kong, has been accused of spying for Britain between 1988 and 1995, when the territory was still a British colony.

Prosecutors have argued Chan violated Chinese law by discussing the

massacre with a British agent and by giving the agent phone numbers for a Chinese investment firm and the local branch of the New China News Agency, Beijing’s de facto embassy in Hong Kong before the 1997 handover.

Chan’s trial comes as China’s ruling Communist Party is stepping up its verbal attacks against the pro-democracy opposition in Hong Kong, which succeeded in forcing the government to withdraw the internal security bill and is now pressing Beijing to allow elections to choose the aterritory’s next chief executive.

TRIPOLI – The small desert ranch near Tripoli was described as a turkey farm, but there were no birds in sight when a group of weapons experts visited six weeks ago. Guided by Libyan officials, they entered a metal barn to discover the farm’s true purpose: a hiding place for hundreds of chemical bombs.

The turkey farm is one of a number of secret weapons sites Libya has shown to U.S., British and U.N. officials in the weeks since Moammar Gadhafi publicly renounced weapons of mass destruction. Libya’s willingness to open its weapons laboratories and storage depots – including some that were unknown – has helped cement trust between U.S. and Libyan scientists, while persuading Bush administration officials that Gadhafi’s December announcement was sincere.

Working with black-market suppliers, Libya was in the process of acquiring a large uranium enrichment plant that could have produced enough fuel for several nuclear bombs a year.

The Libyan disclosures have provided U.N. investigators with an important glimpse of how global weapons proliferation actually works.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – With the Argentine economy showing signs of life again following the worst economic crisis in its history, President Nestor Kirchner’s defiant proposal to repay only a fraction of the nearly $88 billion the country owes to creditors in the United States, Europe and Japan is rallying voters here and angering bondholders abroad.

Argentina defaulted on the bonds in December 2001, deepening a long recession and leading to a sharp devaluation of the peso. Argentina’s economy grew last year for the first time in five years, by nearly 8 percent. But with one in five workers unemployed, and more than half of the country’s 38 million people living in poverty, Kirchner has not budged from his insistence that Argentina cannot afford to repay the defaulted bonds at anything close to their full prices.

THE presidents of Central America and top Spanish officials will sign an agreement today to include Spain as part of Central American Economic Integration Bank (BCIE).

Spain is expected to contribute $200 million in additional funds to BCIE by serving as an extra-regional partner, similar to Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Taiwan.

During their visit, the Central American leaders will attempt to convince Spanish leaders to propose that the European Union begin free-trade negotiations with Central America no later than January 2005.

Most of the presidents – Oscar Berger of Guatemala; Mireya Moscoso of Panama; Abel Pacheco of Costa Rica; Ricardo Maduro of Honduras and Francisco Flores of El Salvador – arrived in Spain Wednesday. Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolaños arrived Thursday.

In addition to signing the BCIE agreement, the presidents will discuss other cooperation issues during their meeting.

AS of May 1 of this year, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua have agreed to implement a joint customs union. Costa Rica, which took part in the customs union discussions, is not part of the agreement.

“The customs union agreement attempts to set up uniform legislation, customs procedures and product entry regulations,” explained Oscar Santamaría, head of the Secretariat for Central American Integration (SICA). “The transition calendar will operate in several phases. All four countries agreed on that.

“Costa Rica will also participate, but in a progressive manner,” Santamaría said. “They believe it may take them longer than May.”

THE Costa Rican Foreign Trade Ministry (COMEX) announced the country needs additional time to conduct internal reforms to some of its laws before agreeing to set dates for the implementation of the customs union. No information was given on when that would be.

“We prefer not to commit ourselves to deadlines we might not be able to meet,” Gabriela Llobet, Costa Rica’s Foreign Trade Vice-Minister, told the daily La Nación last week.

President Abel Pacheco was absent during the Central American presidents’ summit held last week in Guatemala to discuss the customs union. Foreign Trade Minister Alberto Trejos went in his place.

Under the customs union, all products grown or manufactured in one Central American country would be able to enter any other Central American country free of tariffs. Foreign products that enter the region at one port of entry would be allowed to freely circulate throughout the region.

CUSTOM taxes would be paid at local banks in cash instead of at the port of entry. Customs procedures would take “only five minutes,” reducing the long lines at borders and making it easier to do business in the region, according to Salvadoran Economy Minister Miguel Lacayo.

Costa Rica needs more time to decide how it will charge sales taxes to incoming products, which are currently collected at customs offices. The country also needs to find a way of guaranteeing that the free movement of goods throughout the region does not limit the country’s ability to enforce existing plant and animal health standards and security procedures, Llobet said.

Costa Rica is requesting that all Central American countries finish harmonizing the tariffs charged to foreign products.

According to COMEX, 8% of the region’s tariff lines have yet to be harmonized.

Despite Costa Rica’s decision, the region remains optimistic the customs union will be succesful.

“We are telling the world Central America is one and is going to begin working as a bloc,” Guatemalan President Oscar Berger said following last week’s summit.

Guatemala and El Salvador have already agreed to implement the customs union agreement by March 10.

GUATEMALA CITY (AFP) – The Guatemalan government launched a security plan Tuesday that aims to protect the safety of the thousands of tourists who visit the country and promote a positive image of the Central American nation.

As part of the plan, the government will add 800 new officers to the National Civil Police (PNC) and the Tourism Police (POLITUR), and increase vigilance on the highways bordering El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico, said Minister of the Interior Arturo Soto.

“We hope to develop the human capacities of POLITUR, in order to intensify the presence of police on borders with El Salvador and Honduras, so that Guatemala is a good recipient of visitors in the region, and starting March 12, the border with El Salvador will be open,” he said.

THE Presidential Commissioner of Security and Defense, General Otto Pérez, said investigations have detected at least four delinquent gangs that operate against tourists in Guatemala.

“Each gang has some 25 members, who rotate in various regions, but what interests us is speeding up the diligence to make captures a reality, and minimize the number of crimes committed,” he said.

According to Pérez, the national plan for tourist safety “is a way in which the government of President Oscar Berger – in power since January 10 – is declaring the safety of visitors a priority.”

Alejandro Sinibaldi, the director of the Guatemalan Institute of Tourism (INGUAT) and Sandra Muralles, president of the Chamber of Tourism (CAMTUR) said they were pleased with the announcement.

They said the tourism sector has become the country’s number one generator of income, after the foreign remittances sent from Guatemalans outside of the country.

“TOURISM is an important source of direct and indirect employment, and the investment of capital in the sector has caused a positive effect on industries like communications, the bank system, construction, agriculture, food processing and artisans, among others,” Sinibaldi said.

Aggressions against tourists have become more frequent in Guatemala. One of the most recent was Jan. 7, when Brett Richards, from the United States, died after being attacked by a gang.