Restoring ties with Cuba

Restoring ties with Cuba

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — Costa Rica said Wednesday it will re-establish diplomatic ties with communist Cuba, and El Salvador’s president-elect promised to do the same after he takes office.

They are the only Central American nations that currently do not recognize the Cuban government. Costa Rica broke off ties with Havana in 1961, and El Salvador has not recognized the island’s government since 1959, when Fidel Castro came to power.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias said his country recognizes many governments that are politically different from his own, including China. Cuba should be treated the same, he argued.

Jury recommends death

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A jury recommended the death penalty Wednesday for a man convicted of murdering five federal firefighters who were overrun by one of several wildfires he ignited in Southern California in 2006.

Jurors took less than a day to decide that Raymond Lee Oyler deserved to die. Prosecutors cited the horrific pain the fire crew suffered and the terror the auto mechanic’s fires caused in rural areas of Riverside County.

Oyler, 38, was convicted of five counts of first-degree murder, 20 counts of arson and 17 counts of using an incendiary device. At sentencing, set for June 5, the judge still could give him the punishment the defense had urged jurors to choose: life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Unexpected guilty plea

ST. POELTEN, Austria — Josef Fritzl abruptly pleaded guilty to all of the charges against him Wednesday — a surprising twist amid disclosures that the daughter he imprisoned for 24 years in a dungeon where she bore him seven children secretly sat in on the trial.

Adding intrigue to a case that has drawn worldwide attention, Fritzl calmly acknowledged his guilt, including to homicide, and said his change of heart came after hearing his daughter’s heart-wrenching videotaped testimony.

“I declare myself guilty to the charges in the indictment,” Fritzl, 73, told a panel of judges, referring to what he called “my sick behavior.”

Fritzl was charged with negligent homicide in the death of an infant boy as well as enslavement, rape, incest, forced imprisonment and coercion. Initially, he pleaded guilty to incest and forced imprisonment, and partially guilty to rape and coercion. The change means he could face up to life in prison for the homicide charge.

Reaction to pope’s remark

PARIS — France, Germany and the U.N. agency charged with fighting AIDS disagreed with the pope’s comment about condoms, saying Wednesday that they are a fundamental tool in preventing the spread of the HIV virus.

France “expresses its very strong concern about the consequences of the statements by Benedict XVI,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said.

France is a traditionally Catholic country but is relatively liberal on social issues such as birth control.

During his first visit to Africa as pope, Benedict said in Cameroon on Tuesday that the distribution of condoms could endanger public health and that they are not the solution to the fight against AIDS. “On the contrary, it increases the problem,” the pope said.

U.S. sues railroad company

SAN DIEGO — The U.S. Department of Justice filed lawsuits against Union Pacific Railroad Co. on Wednesday seeking $37 million in damages for purportedly failing to prevent its rail cars from being used to smuggle drugs into the U.S.

U.S. customs inspectors on at least 38 occasions between 2001 and 2006 discovered marijuana or cocaine in Union Pacific rail cars at border crossings at Brownsville, Texas; and Calexico, California; according to the two complaints filed Wednesday.

Federal authorities say the company violated laws requiring transportation operators to submit accurate descriptions of their cargo to customs inspectors.

Fannie Mae exec bonuses

WASHINGTON — Fannie Mae plans to pay retention bonuses of at least $1 million to four key executives as part of a plan to keep hundreds of employees from leaving the government-controlled company.

Rival mortgage finance company Freddie Mac is planning similar awards, but has not yet reported on which executives will benefit.

The two companies, which together own or back more than half of the home mortgages in the country, have been hobbled by skyrocketing loan defaults. Fannie recently requested $15 billion in federal aid, and Freddie has sought a total of almost $45 billion.

Combined dispatches