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BOGOTÀUnder a new proposal announced last week, Colombia will receive $1.6 billion in antidrug-trafficking aid from the U.S. over the next two years--more than five times the amount received in 1999. The aid package--yet to be approved by Congress--comes in response to requests by Colombia's President Andres Pastrana Arango for greater international support in the war on drugs. Most of the money would help train counternarcotics battalions and pay for 63 military helicopters. Funds would also be available for coca eradication and investment in alternative crops and employment. Announcing details of the package, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright insisted the aid would go to fight the drug war and not Marxist rebels.
POUSO REDONDO
A double-decker bus carrying Argentine tourists collided head-on with a local bus in southeastern Brazil, killing at least 42 people and injuring 40 others. The tourists were headed for the popular Santa Catarina beaches when their bus lost control on a winding mountain road before dawn. Police said their driver was charged with homicide after he admitted that he had been speeding.