A magnitude 7.1 earthquake rocked towns and islands across the Caribbean coast of northern Central America early Thursday morning, killing at least six people, according to Web site of Honduran daily newspaper La Prensa (www.laprensahn.com).

The quake struck at 2:24 a.m. Its epicenter was in the Atlantic Ocean, 75 miles NNE of La Ceiba, Honduras, near the Honduran Bay Islands. The earthquake was felt in Honduras, Guatemala and Belize, and officials at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said small aftershocks also have been reported in Mexico.

The Caribbean coast of Honduras sustained the most damage from the quake. Several deaths occurred in coastal Honduran towns as well as one in Mapulaca, Honduras, near the border with El Salvador.

A portion of the Democracia bridge in El Progreso, Honduras, also collapsed during Thursday morning's event. The bridge connects San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second-largest city, to the rest of the country.

Arlie Thompson, governor of the Bay Islands of Honduras – closest to the epicenter – said damage on the islands was minimal compared with the damage reported in coastal towns across the bay.

He said there were reports that one home collapsed on the island of Utila and at least two other homes suffered major damage. No deaths or injuries were reported on the archipelago.

“It's mostly just broken glass and cracks in the walls here,” he said.

Thompson said electricity was out for several hours, but service was restored to most homes by 9 a.m.

A tsunami warning was issued for the islands and the mainland, but was cancelled a few hours after the initial shake.

The earthquake was centered in the Cayman Trench, a moderately active fault zone that stretches from southeastern Cuba to Central America. According to USGS, the last earthquake in the area that registered above 7.0 was in 2001.

MANAGUA, Nicaragua – One of Nicaragua's largest private business chambers released a statement Thursday afternoon “demanding” that the government of President Daniel Ortega comply with its “contractual obligations” to avoid cancelation of U.S. development aid under the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) initiative.

“This program has benefited tens of thousands of producers in the northwestern part of our country and hundreds of thousands of citizens in León and Chinandega,” reads the statement by the Nicaraguan-American Chamber of Business (AMCHAM). “It is not fair that those who want to cover up electoral fraud are putting at risk the continuance of the Millennium Challenge Account.”

Last December, the MCC suspended the remaining $64 million of its $175 million development aid compact for Nicaragua following serious concern over allegations of fraud in last year's mayoral elections, in which the ruling Sandinista Front is accused of stealing more than 40 municipalities. The MCC's board of directors, headed by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, is scheduled to meet June 10 to make its final decision on whether to cancel new aid to Nicaragua because of noncompliance with basic democratic eligibility criteria (see May 22 NT, http://www.nicatimes.net/nicaarchive/2009_05/0522091.htm ).

In the event the MCC aid is canceled, AMCHAM is putting preemptive blame on those it believes had the power to save the program.

AMCHAM is also calling on the government to do more to resolve pending cases involving confiscation of property of U.S. citizens, so that the U.S. government will again extend the country's waiver in July. Without the waiver, Nicaragua would not be eligible for U.S. aid or aid from international lending institutions, AMCHAM warned.

Above all, AMCHAM repeated its call on the Nicaraguan government to “faithfully respect the state of law and legislation of our country,” including electoral law that requires the Supreme Electoral Council to publish all the final results of last November's controversial municipal elections – something the electoral authority has failed to do in the almost seven months since the vote.

The statement stresses, “AMCHAM demands to know the true results of the municipal elections – a demand that innumerable institutions have made, including the Episcopal Conference and the international community.”

A central San José hospital has reduced visiting hours, prohibited food and children from entering the building and instituted heightened sanitary procedures after officials determined 266 of its patients were infected with the same bacteria over the last six months.

Newspapers are reporting seven deaths due to the bacteria, but officials with the Hospital San Juan de Dios off Paseo Colón dismissed those claims, saying there's no way to know whether those patients died of Clostridium difficile Associated Disease (CDAD) or of existing complications.

“What was written in La Nación was completely wrong,” said María Isabel Solís, press officer for the Social Security System (Caja). “The patients were experiencing a series of complications and you can't distinguish whether they died of this bacteria or their other conditions.”

The hospital is currently treating 18 infected patients, and, according to newspaper reports, the bacterium is confined to four rooms on the fifth floor.

Daniel Quesada, sub-director of the hospital, said outbreaks of CDAD are common in hospitals all over the world.

“It's very rare that you would get it outside the hospital,” he said. “Yet, here, in recent weeks, we have experienced an increase in cases or an increase in detection.”

The United States experienced an increase of CDAD cases from 1996, when 31 patients per 100,000 were infected, to 2003, when 61 per 100,000 were infected, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease and Control Prevention.

The bacterium is shed in feces and can be spread through any surface, device or material that becomes contaminated, including the hands of healthcare personnel. CDAD usually results in watery diarrhea, fever and loss of appetite.

Costa Rican consumers have been approaching the global economic crisis with pessimism but have begun to maintain high expectations for the future, a recent survey by the University of Costa Rica (UCR) suggests.

The Consumer Confidence Survey tracked a massive drop between February and August 2008, when confidence fell over 20 points on a scale that usually fluctuates no more than 10 points within a year.

But since then, “it's been getting better,” said Johnny Madrigal, a UCR statistics professor. “It's not what we want to see, but it's been getting better.”

Since the low in August 2008, the survey documented a nearly six-point increase in confidence. The silver lining is that Costa Ricans believe the recession is merely a momentary lull to be followed by a strong rebound. The survey found a drastic break of 15 points between how people feel about the current situation and their expectations for the future.

Exactly a week before the release of the UCR survey, the Central Bank changed positions on how the economy would unfold throughout 2009. In January, the bank predicted the economy would grow 2.2 percent in 2009, despite signs of rapid contractions across a number of sectors. It maintained that upbeat diagnosis until last week, when it predicted the economy would contract 1.8 percent.

The shift drew criticism, with some claiming the bank was withholding accurate information from the public.

“They waited far too long to release the information,” said Carlos Carranza, a sociologist and political scientist with the National University. “It's the function of the Central Bank to give realistic data to the country quickly so that it can take the necessary actions.”

The prediction may still be optimistic, however. Business Monitor International predicted the economy would shrink over 3 percent in 2009 and not experience growth until 2011 – a grim outlook, considering the IMF and Central Bank both predicted a recovery in 2010.