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A drill simulating a gas spill blocked traffic on Vía Boyd Roosevelt for about two hours yesterday, causing a backlog of vehicles that stretched for more than 6 miles.

Motorists had to wait for more than two hours in some cases for the simulation to be completed. The road is one of the primary routes between Panama City and Colón.

The simulation involved personnel from the Sistema Nacional de Protección Civil (Sinaproc), the Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente (Anam), Ocean Pollution Control (OPC) and area fire departments.

It involved the evacuation of 700 students from Escuela Elisa de Garrido in Buena Vista.

Sinaproc official Omar Smith said he understood the frustration of motorists, but defended the drill as being essential to help agencies react to emergencies.

That was of little consolation to truck driver Carlos Perez.

“If I had known about this, I would have scheduled my trip earlier in the day,” he said.

An official with the Autoridad de Tránsito Transporte Terrestre, who asked not to be identified, said that the drill lacked adequate preparation that could have avoided the massive traffic jam.

After several requests by the Ministerio de Obras Públicas (MOP), it appears as though the Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas (MEF) is going to audit ICA Panama, the company which built the Corredor Sur.

The MOP has requested this audit three times, the latest one being made in April. In June, the MEF responded that it was organizing a team to carry out the audit.

ICA Panama has a contract with the government to collect tolls until it can regain the money it spent building the road, plus a premium. Once it has recouped its investment, the road will be turned over to the government.

The audit would be the first conducted since 1996.

The company needs to collect an estimated $307 million in tolls to fulfill its contract.

Panama's Supreme Court ruled this week that a 2004 pardon of Posada and three other Cubans involved in a plot to blow up former Cuban President Fidel Castro at a summit in Panama was unconstitutional.

Foreign Minister Samuel Lewis Navarro said the Panamanian government would request their extradition if the judiciary asked it to.

"If it is requested by the judicial branch, we will start the process, whether it be extradition or another process, depending on what (they) ask for," he told reporters.

The Supreme Court will not recommend extradition in its written ruling, a court spokesperson said on Wednesday, but the public prosecutor's office said it could do so once it has studied the court's text.

The public prosecutor's office was expected to receive the ruling later on Wednesday and make its own recommendation, spokesman Jose Oro told Reuters.

Posada, a former CIA operative who has been linked to a string of anti-communist plots, and the three other men were arrested in Panama in 2000 over a plot to assassinate Castro during an Ibero-American summit.

They were pardoned by Panama's U.S.-friendly President Mireya Moscoso before she left office in 2004, but the move was criticized by many as being politically motivated and sparked a major diplomatic spat with Cuba and Venezuela.

In a mainly symbolic ruling on a case brought by a former state prosecutor on technicalities, Panama's Supreme Court reversed pardons on sentences on 183 people, including the four Cuban activists, late on Monday.

Posada - who was trained by the CIA for the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion to topple Castro and is also accused by Havana of masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban passenger plane that killed 73 people - is currently living in Florida.

He was released in April 2007 from U.S. custody, where he had been since May 2005 after entering the country illegally and seeking asylum.

The Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente (Anam) is hosting a workshop this week entitled “Especies exóticas invasoras,” that will look into techniques for preventing the arrival and proliferation of invasive alien species in Panama. These non-native species are said to “invade” established ecosystems, often displacing native species from their niche in the food chain.

Sergio Zalba, Argentina’s national director for I3N, an information network about invasive species, said that preventing an exotic species from entering the country is always preferable to having to eradicate one after it’s become a problem. Moreover, eradication measures usually prove costly and problematic.

In southern Brazil and northern Argentina, for example, certain African grasses have displaced many native species because they are more resistant to the wildfires that are common during the dry season.

A similar problem has arisen in Panama with Kans grass, or Saccharum spontaneum, a grass species that takes over large swathes of land and lends itself to wildfires during the dry season because of its high flammability.

In the Canal basin, the mud clam Corbicula fluminea, a rapid-spawning mollusk indigenous to the United States, is known to pose a threat to native clam species and contribute to flooding in nearby rivers. However, large-scale capture of the clam for local consumption has kept them from wreaking too much damage, said Janzel Villalaz, a professor of marine biology at the Universidad de Panamá.

Some countries are fighting back. Silvia Ziller, director of Instituto Horus of Brazil, explained that in biologists in that country have created a database of invasive species which has helped the government educate people about the hazards of introducing exotic plants and animals.

Darío Luque, a biologist at Anam, said that in Panama several institutions are working together with Anam to put together a similar database.

Environmental authorities are also hoping to start a campaign to make people more aware of the dangers non-native species’ pose to the country's economy.

Prosecutors have asked a judge to call businessman Jean Figali to trial for allegedly stealing electricity from Unión Fenosa.

According to Ministerio Público (MP) sources, prosecutors have submitted paperwork to the 14th Criminal Court that states there is sufficient evidence to begin legal proceedings against the controversial developer.

Unión Fenosa filed a complaint in 2006 stating that they found evidence that meters installed in the Figali Convention Center on the Amador Causeway had been altered or bypassed so that the building was receiving free electricity. Company officials estimated the total amount of electricity stolen from the company as being valued at $170,000.

Figali has denied the charges on several occasions.

He is currently also involved in several disputes with the government over his projects near the center, including a marine which has allegedly gone beyond the original concession granted by the government.

Prosecutors have also asked a judge to take precautions so that Figali can not leave the country.

    First Prosecutor of Drugs Jose Abel Almengor said the drug was seized Tuesday during an operation called "JK" during which three Panamanians were detained.

    Almengor said investigations are underway to determine whether the shipment is connected to the Sinaloa, Tijuana and Gulf drug cartels of Mexico.

    "The seize was made after weeks of investigation in the Atlantic Zone, known as Corredor Atlantico (Atlantic Corridor), which is frequently used by drug traffickers to transport drugs from Colombia," Almengor said.

    Mexican cartels have increased their presence in Panama, while the Colombian cartels have become only product suppliers, said Almengor.

    This year, Panamanian authorities have seized 25 tons of drugs that were bound for the United States.

According to a study by the Banco de España, Panama has the most stable mortgage market of any Central American country.

Across the region, mortgage lending represents an average of 8 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). According to Banco de España officials, this means that the volume of mortgage loans in the region is far below what they should be when compared to other regions.

“This is due to financial and macroeconomic instability that has prevented adequate development of financial markets in the long term,” the report stated. “Other problems are the uneven distribution of income and high unemployment rates.”

These factors have not allowed viable and sustainable housing financing to emerge.

Panama, however, has a mortgage to GDP ratio of 24 percent, which places it at the top of the region and above average for emerging markets in Europe and Asia.

According to Rolando Gordón, a professor of economics at the Universidad de Panamá, the country has a history of programs that make it easy for people to afford housing. Current programs include tax exoneration and preferential interest rates for mortgages.

“Inflation has been between 1 percent and 2 percent, so it has been easy in the past to obtain a mortgage for 30 years,” he said. “The stability of the dollar has also helped.”

According to data supplied by the banking industry, private sector mortgages totaled $4.9 billion in 2007.

If Panama's current and former presidents have one thing in common, it's their ability to live a luxurious lifestyle.

While the presidential salary is a paltry $7,000 a month, that hasn't stopped Ernesto Pérez Balladares, Mireya Moscoso and Martín Torrijos from living like millionaires.

Moscoso has a luxurious beach house in Punta Mala, which belonged to the state until 2003. The house is registered to Moscoso's brother, who was the successful bidder for the property when it was sold by the government.

Balladares, who left office in 1999, has a luxurious yacht, named “Mr. Bull,” that most people on a $7,000 monthly salary couldn't afford to fill up with gas.

He also owns a beach house in Punto Barco Resort that has, among other amenities, a helipad.

Torrijos has not been overshadowed by his predecessors. A luxury yacht has recently been spotted in the port of Pedregal in Chiriquí that is being called the “boat of the president.”

It is registered in the British Virgin Islands and the owner is a shell company called Arabella International Enterprises Limited. Torrijos has denied direct ownership, but has been spotted numerous times on board.

After accepting the donation, Panamanian Minister of Health Rosario Turner expressed gratitude to Hou, saying that establishing the Hospital de Panama Este in an eastern suburb of the city is one of the ministry's main construction projects.

"So far, about 24.6 per cent of the hospital has been completed," Turner noted, adding that once it is inaugurated, the hospital, equipped with advanced facilities, is expected to provide some 342,000 local residents with a wide range of medical services, including hospital care, operations, outpatient treatment and emergency care, as well as women's and children's health care.

She said the establishment of the hospital will help assuage a chronic shortage of medical care for residents in the area.

Hou said the donation is aimed at helping Panama improve its medical care and further enhancing bilateral relations.

Two former directors of Banco Disa have been sentenced to two years in prison in connection with the institution's forced liquidation..

Criminal Court Judge Georgina Tuñón handed down the sentences in a ruling issued June 2. The bank's treasurer, Jorge Endara Paniza, and general manager, Rafael Endara Jiménez, were both convicted of crimes against property. They were acquitted on the more serious charge of fraud.

The convictions were based on the bank's records from 1998 and 1999. Tuñón determined that the evidence did not prove that the financial statements were altered.

“We can not give ground for a crime of falsification of documents when the information reflected in them was justified in financial transactions carried out by the bank,” the ruling stated.

With regard to the charge of crime against property, the judge found that the director's actions were such that their intention was to deceive investors in the bank. “The truth is that these transactions concealed the financial situation facing the institution,” the judge wrote.

The managers were convicted, in part, because they failed to make the bank's financial problems public knowledge, and instead tried to cover losses by issuing high-risk bonds.

Panama's football federation sent a letter to Guimaraes informing him of his dismissal. The letter released on Tuesday cited "our elimination en route to South Africa 2010."

Panama lost 3-1 to El Salvador on Sunday and was beaten 3-2 on aggregate in the CONCACAF World Cup qualifier.

Guimaraes, a Costa Rican, was criticized for changing the lineup in the second half. Panama was leading 1-0 at that point.

Guimaraes coached Costa Rica at the last two World Cups.

Panama hired him in November 2006 in the hopes of reaching the World Cup for the first time.

On Monday, Guimaraes said he did what he thought was right, but that he expected to be dismissed.

"We are disconcerted over how the situation turned out, over the loss, and logically none of us are happy," he said.

The Unión Nacional de Bases Taxistas y Transporte Público (Unbatt) has set a 30-day deadline for President Martín Torrijos to respond to a list of concerns the organization created in response to increasing fuel prices.

The decision to set the deadline was made at a meeting yesterday that included leaders from 28 taxi associations.

The union is seeking a response from the president about the implementation of new taxi rates, as well as gasoline subsidies, preferential interest rates for new vehicles and a price freeze on spare parts.

Unbatt General Secretary Marcos González explained that drivers are having a hard time staying in business with gasoline prices rising to more than $4 a gallon.

The Autoridad del Tránsito y Transporte Terrestre approved a rate increase in February, but they have not yet gone into effect because they have not been published in the government Gazette, a requirement before any change can be implemented.

The union says that it will begin charging the new fares in 30 days, regardless of whether or not they have been published, unless Torrijos agrees to meet with them about the other outstanding issues.

Growth in the construction, mining, hotel and restaurant sectors were the strongest performers, according to the Comptroller General's office.

Analysts said the figures for March, which on Tuesday were revised upward to 2.2 percent growth from 1.9 percent reported last month, may have been artificially low because of the timing of Easter holidays this year compared to a year earlier.

Analysts said they would wait for May's figures to be released to judge the full impact that global conditions were having on the Panamanian economy.

"May will be much more important," Alejandro Cuadrado, an analyst with Merrill Lynch, told Reuters.

Although the rising prices of fuel and food continue to act as a brake on the economy -- which grew at 11 percent last year and is expected to grow around 8 percent this year -- observers are largely positive about the economic outlook.

"Even with the sharp slowdown in growth in March, first-quarter year-on-year growth reached close to 7 percent and is still quite strong relative to regional growth rates," Theresa Paiz, an analyst with Fitch Ratings told Reuters.