Colombian physicians William Uribe and Mauricio Duque discovered the gene that causes the so called cardiac sudden death, which affects 5% of infantas and people under 40 years of age. The doctors, according to a report of BBC in London, studied in Colombia the genealogic tree of of several people that were affected by cardiac hypertrophy and discovered that there is a gene that predispose the person to this sickness. This finding was a result of the joined research work of scientists of Clínica Medellín and Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, both located in Medellín, Colombia.

Colombian actress Marcela Carvajal has been chosen by cable TV channel HBO to be a member of the cast of a new series titled "Baseball wives", whose shooting will be initiated late this year. The series is about life, not always nice, of baseball players' wives. Good luck Marcela !

Shakira on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine. Latin America's biggest star is ready for you to fall in love with her. Resistance is futil.

José Mauricio Montoya is a Colombian paisa who currently works as the international sales director of the famous Plaza Hotel in New York. After working in jobs such as washing dishes and cockroach fumigation, he decided to pursue education. He studied political sciences and history at Hunter University. After a while he got a great interest in New York's history and ended up being a private touristic guide. Then he worked for the city office of tourism in "boring" administrative positions. From there he jumped to Plaza Hotel and his efforts are towards Latin American tourists. "My mission is to sell New York. Show its human look", says Montoya.

The movie titled ‘Bolívar soy yo’ and directed by Colombian Jorge Alí Triana won the "Ombú de Oro" to the best movie category in the Mar del Plata Movie Festival. This movie was also awarded with the "Ombú de Plata" as the best Ibero-American movie of the festival. Starred by Róbinson Díaz, the movie features the story of an actor that strugles in a debate between the wisdom and insanity of his character as 5-country Libertador Simón Bolivar.

Colombian artist Carlos Nariño, from Bogotá, exhibited his enchanting landscape paintings at the prominent Ileana Bouboulis Gallery on the Rive Gauche of Paris from November to January. French audience had opportunity to discover the beauty of the 'altiplano' in Nariño's refined work full of a lot of sensitivity and an impressionist technique. Carlos Nariño's career started with studies at Universidad de Los Andes, continued at Nacional de Colombia and complemented with several residency years in Paris at the l’Ecole des Beux-Arts.

Shakira is on the cover of renown British magazine FHM. The famous Colombian singer is featured due to her outstanding success in Europe with her last album "Dirty Laundry" and singles "Underneath your Clothes" and "Ahi te dejo Madrid". The report also includes sexy pictures of the biggest female singer of her generation in Latin America with eight million album sales and counting already. You can visit the report by clicking here: Shakira on cover of FHM magazine.

The Bogotá Fashion, an exhuberant fashion fair being currently held in Bogotá, has sent a delegation of 15 Colombian designers to exhibit their creations in France. Jewelers are a big part of this group. Packed in a careful way with soft paper, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings, and leather handycrafts are being exhibited at the prestigious Lafayette Gallery in Paris. Visitors to this booth can also appreciate excellent cloth designs, sip a delicious cup of Colombian coffee, and sample different varieties of delectable tropical fruits.

In Cali, Colombia, the group Barrio-Ballet was born 15 years ago to combine Caribbean salsa music from the popular neighborhoods of Cali with the European tradition of classical ballet. At least 10 former members of this group dance with international ballet groups now. Barrio-Ballet was the answer to a long lasting question famous ballerina Margot Fonteyn had. In 1982 she visited Cali to personally get to know the dance school she had heard of from a friend. It was about Incolballet, a popular instituion of secundary education that included classic dance in their curriculum. What are you going to do when all these mostly poor students graduate from this institution? She asked the director. That produced one of the most successful ideas: the creation of a dance company dedicated to melt popular salsa music and the traditional classical ballet. Since 15 years ago, audiences from Cali, the rest of Colombia, Paris, Venezuela, and Europe have witnessed the fruit of the hard work. Many former members are dancing for international renown companies such as the American Ballet Theatre, Houston Ballet, Washington Ballet, and Pennsilvania Ballet.

Colombian priest David Solano, from Santander and who lives in Rome since ten years ago, has commited himself to find adoptive parents for orphans. Father David was born in Convención, Santander just over 40 years ago. His hobby is soccer. It is his passion. One of his most remembered moments is when goal number one hundred was scored by Gigi di Biaggio in the past World Cup in France and that was dedicated by the player to father Solano, who was in the audience at the stadium. In Italy, father Solano found the perfect way to combine his two great passions: soccer and his apostolate. His endeavor to was get the help of the professional soccer players in Italy to provide aid to Colombian children victims of war. That is how the program "A Goal for life" was born. This social organization helps also orphans from Kosovo, Pristina, Zagreb and Kabul.

Due to this social project, about 30 Colombian children visited Italy and went to the most prestigious soccer clubs in Italy such as Internacional, Milano, Rome and Lazio. They had chance to meet their soccer idols and were invited to a TV show. The orphans enjoyed talking with soccer stars such as Alvaro Recoba, Materazzi, Told, Zanetti, Ivan Ramiro Cordoba, Shevzchenko, Serguinho, Ruí Costa and Sebastiano Rossi, among others. Some of these stars have adopted one or more of these Colombian kids. The most exciting moment for this kids was their meeting with Pope John Paul II.

Colombian cyclist Víctor Hugo Peña from US Postal team won the Vuelta a Murcia in Spain. This the first win of famous Colombian cyclists in world competitions during this 2002 year. Two hours after wining his overall title, Peña received a telephone call: "Great Job ! You certainly are a shark. I am very happy for you and keep up with the good job!". These were the words Peña heard on the other side of the line from world sensation Lance Armstrong (USA) who is the captain of US Postal professional cycling team. Armstrong was not able to compete in this tour due to a gastroenteritis he had one day before the competition started.

Famous Hollywood actor Harry Belafonte visited Cartagena de Indias in Colombia to take part of the famous Movie Festival of Cartagena 42nd Edition. Belafonte is not only a great actor and musician but also is recognized as a defender of human rights and minorities. While his visit in Colombia, Belafonte strongly criticized United States' position regarding topics such as racism and lack of opportunity for minorities. "The fight for human rights must be done not only in the US, it is a global problem" said Belafonte.

March 6, 2002. (EL TIEMPO.COM) Colombian Instituto Caro y Cuervo Awarded with the XI Bartolomé de las Casas Award.

As a recognition of its work on defending, understanding and promoting friendship with the natives of the Americas, Colombian Instituto Caro y Cuervo was handed with the XI Bartolomé de Las Casas Award. The award was handed by Prince of Asturias, Phillip of Borbon, to the institute's director Ignacio Chavez Cuevas. This award, which is given annually to individuals and institutions dedicated to work for the native people, consists of about $42,000 and a medal that has the face of Bartolomé de las Casas, a dominican defender of native tribes during the colonization of the Americas.

March 5, 2002. (CAMBIO) Motion Picture Festival of Cartagena kicks off.

A total of 80 movies participate in the new Edition of the famous Motion Picture Festival of Cartagena during the first week of March. Out of the grand total, 15 movies from 11 nations will compete for the prestigious India Catalina Award. The festival kicks off with the long waited movie 'Bolivar Soy Yo' directed by Jorge Alí Triana from Colombia. This movie describes the history of an actor that strugles between wisdon and insanity when confronted to his character as the Republic Libertador. Curiosly, the most colombianistic movie of the festival comes from other latitudes. The movie titled "El Acordeón del Diablo" was produced by a German group and it was shooted in Colombia. The theme of this movie is about legendary accordeonist Francisco Pacho Rada, who is 93 year-old and creator of mitic character Francisco El Hombre.

Painters, writers, fashion designers, photographers and traditional music performers make up the exhibition 'Espíritu Latino' (Latin Spirit), which is held at Lafayette Gallery in Paris until March 30 of 2002. Famous painter Fernando Botero lent his famous piece "20 de Julio", which was the main feature of the promotional poster of this event. Colombian Culture Minister, Araceli Morales López, stated that "this is a great opportunity to showcase our varied artistic expressions and tell the world about extensive Colombia's cultural wealth and asset". During this event, a brochure of photographies of the five Colombian historic and cultural assets of humanity will be promoted; those sites are: San Agustín, Tierradentro, Cartagena, Mompox and Katíos National Park.

Colombian writer Mario Mendoza (1964) won the XVI Edition of prestigious Seix Barral Award of Literature for his novel titled: "Satanás" in Spain. Mendoza is a college professor of literature at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá. Mendoza said he was very happy "to give this award to his country" and remembered that only a month ago another Colombian writer, Alvaro Mutis, won the Cervantes 2001 Award. "Colombian literature is going through a spectacular recognition" said Mendoza. Mendoza will receive $25,000 for this Award and the invaluable satisfaccion of having his novel published in Spain since June this year of 2002.

Colombian singer Carlos Vives won the Grammy Award in the category Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album, For solo artists, duos or groups, vocal or instrumental, with his song 'Dejame Entrar' [EMI Latin].

The recording industry's most prestigious award, the GRAMMY, is presented annually by the Recording Academy. A GRAMMY is awarded by the Recording Academy's voting membership to honor excellence in the recording arts and sciences. It is truly a peer honor, awarded by and to artists and technical professionals for artistic or technical achievement, not sales or chart positions (GRAMMY Awards Process). The annual GRAMMY Awards presentation brings together thousands of creative and technical professionals in the recording industry from all over the world.

MAURICIO NIETO, Subdirector of Colciencias and a historian, won the 2002-2001 Silvio Zavala Award given by the Panamerican Institute of Geography and History, for his book "Remedios para el imperio -- Historia natural y la apropiacion del Mundo Nuevo'.

Colombian cardiologist Mauricio Duque and a team of scientists announced the discovery of sudden death gene. Due to this finding they were awarded with the Ramón Atalaya Award in Basic Sciences, the most important award in cardiology in Colombia. Sudden death is the first cause of death in people younger than 40 years and athletes. For many sudden death is a synonim of heart stroke, but recent research discovered that it may be produced by an arrhythmia.

For the first time since its creation, the International Coffee Organization has a Colombian director: Nestor Osorio. All previous directors were Brazilians. Osorio is currently an advisor of the Colombian government for coffee matters. He was also the Colombian representative to the (ICO) for a number of years and Colombian ambassador to the World Trade Organization.

Colombian catholist priest José Eugenio Hoyos became the first Colombian who will officially be a member of George W. Bush's administration. Hoyos was nominated by President Bush to be one of the members of the President's Education Committee for Hispanic Americans. The Committee has the mission of devising a plan to fill the gap between Hispanic American students and the rest of American students. It will also monitor the performance of the Federal Agencies when generating initiatives for the Latin communities and including them in national programs.

His name is Joan Josep Vergé. He is a farm man and will be taking about 1,000 Colombian farm workers to work in Spain. He has decided to hire them in a special program that will return the workers to Colombia with good money in their pockets. Joan says he does this because they are excelent agriculture workers.

Discovery Channel was awarded Bronze World Medal in the category of Best Historical Series at the New York Festival of Television. The subject of the award was a Colombian documentary produced by Televideo from Colombia. New York festival is one of the most important festivals in the industry of TV, movie, video and advertising. The title of the production was: "Manuelita Sáenz, la pasión de Bolivar".

The once grey and gloomy city of Bogotá is a matter of the past now.

Bogotá is now a colorful city. Let's see some samples of this. Also let's compare photos of Bogotá before and after becoming a sustained, modern city.

See the colors of Bogotá NOW !

Outdoor entertainment in the parks of Bogotá	The no-car day made Bogotanians go back to bikes.
Hail stroms transform Bogotá	Artistic expression is all over.
The lake at the Simon Bolivar Park -- a peace paradise	Jugglers in crossings of Bogotá
Caracas Avenue before	Caracas Avenue after
Carrera 15 before	Carrera 15 after
San Victorino Plaza before	San Victorino Plaza after
Bellavista Park before	Bellavista Park after

Colombian pop siren Shakira is taking American audiences to the cleaners with her first cross-lingual album, Laundry Service. Fueled by the English-language hit, "Whenever, Wherever," Shakira's Service debuted at #3 on Billboard 200 and has already sold more than 1,000,000 copies in just four weeks in stores. That's big time considering that the 24-year-old's last Spanish-language studio album, Dónde Están Los Ladrones?, has sold a respectable 710,000 copies since its September 1998 release. Shakira is currently at #14 on Billboard 200 with a RIAA certification for shipment of 1 million units (Platinum). Shakira's sales figures also fare reasonably well when compared to those posted by the macho Latin trio of Ricky Martin, Enrique Iglesias and Marc Anthony - each of whom has successfully cultivated English language audiences with his own respective "crossover" releases in recent years.

Colombian ambassador in the Netherlands, Telésforo Pedraza, announced that Dutch cultural authorities have approved that 120 Rembrand's paintings be exhibited in Bogotá in early 2002. Most likely, the exhibition venue will be the Museo de Arte Moderno. This exclusive exhibition will most likely become the most important cultural event in 2002 in Bogotá.

Colombian writer Alvaro Mutis was awarded with the high-status "Miguel de Cervantes 2001" award in Madrid, Spain. This award, the most important one in the Spanish language literature, is confered to a writer for his/her lifetime work and includes a reward of $80,000. Mutis, winner of severl other famous awards such as Neustadt Internantional Prize and Principe de Asturias Award, is the author of great works such as "La Balanza" and "Ilona llega con la lluvia". The Award will be handed by King of Spain Juan Carlos in a ceremony to be held on April 23, 2002, a the Universidad de Alcalá. This date corresponds to the death date of Miguel de Cervantes.

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