MEXICO CITY - Indian women from across the Americas are meeting in Mexico to share experiences, set up information networks and hammer out strategies for defending their rights.

Convened by the Rigoberta Menchú Foundation, the First Indigenous Women Summit of the Americas is meeting through Dec 4 to discuss a shared agenda for promoting the rights of the more than 50 million Indian women living in the Western Hemisphere.

The participants in the meeting are tackling issues related to indigenous and human rights, spirituality, education, culture, strengthening indigenous women's participation in political life, leadership and globalization.

Representatives from regional organizations like the Indigenous Initiative for Peace, Continental Connection of Indigenous Women and the International Indigenous Women's Forum have gathered in the southern city of Oaxaca for the Summit.

SAN SALVADOR - Citizens who cause public disorder or who sully the streets of the Salvadoran capital can pay for their offenses through community and environmental service to the city, such as cleaning up the Cuscatlán Park or working at the municipal plant nursery.

The local government is slapping fines of 11 to 800 dollars on those who commit misdemeanors, such as public disorder or drunkenness. But officials are tougher on those who do not put their trash in appropriate receptacles: the fine is 857 dollars, which triples if the infraction occurs near a school.

From January to October this year, 153 people took advantage of the environmental work option to pay for their offenses.

BUENOS AIRES - Eighty percent of the children in northwest Argentina suffer intestinal parasitosis, an illness related to the lack of clean water and sanitation, and hits poorly nourished children the hardest, reports the Ministry of Health.

The parasites enter the human organism via the mouth or skin, through contact with contaminated soil or water. The parasites feed on the minerals and protein of the host organism.

The disease is manifest in a protruding abdomen and anemia, and when it attacks undernourished children, the prognosis can be very serious, leading in some cases to death, even though it is curable with medications, said doctor Néstor Gutiérrez, professor of parasitology at the National University of Tucumán, in northern Argentina.

The most common parasite in that region of the country is the 'ascaris', measuring 30 cm long. Each infected child can carry 30 to 300 of these parasites in the intestine.

MANAGUA - Nicaragua's lobster exports could be subjected to an international boycott if the indiscriminate capture of the species continues, says Miguel Marenco, director of fishing management for the Ministry of Development, Industry and Trade.

According to Marenco, the lobster banks along the Nicaraguan coasts -- on both the Atlantic and Pacific -- have suffered a 30-percent decline due to the hook-net system used in lobster fishing, which captures young, undersized lobsters in addition to adults.

If the situation continues, it is likely to prompt the international community to enact a boycott against Nicaraguan lobsters, warns Marenco.

TEGUCIGALPA - A network for determining the intensity and location of tremors and earthquakes, based on cutting-edge technology, is slated for set up in June 2003 in Honduras, the only Central American country that lacks a system for monitoring this source of natural disasters.

The new network will operate through eight regional stations throughout the country, gathering information on tectonic movements and transmitting information in real time via radio and dedicated channels.

Although Honduras is not considered as vulnerable to earthquakes as some of its Central American neighbors, experts maintain that monitoring is necessary.

Managing the network will be the astronomy department at the state-run Autonomous National University of Honduras, financed by the World Bank and the government of Spain, says Hugo Arévalo, spokesman for the governmental committee on emergencies.