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A.M. Costa Rica Second newspage |
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for central city area By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Grupo ICE, Radiográfica Costarricense S.A. and the Municipalidad de San José said Tuesday they have joined forces to extend the availability of wireless Internet all over the city. In addition, the wireless service will be used by the municipality to provide camera surveillance for the Policía Municipal. City officials also said they would be erecting kiosks in municipal parks to provide Internet service to those who do not have computers at home or at work. Officials said that the goal was to bridge the digital divide in the city. Now some areas of Escazú are covered by a wireless cloud provided by Radiográfica Costarricense. Grupo ICE is the parent firm of Radiográfica Costarricense and the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad. Óscar Arias to go to U.N. for Security Council debate By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
President Óscar Arias Sánchez will be heading to New York to participate Nov. 19 in an open debate in the U.N. Security Council on collective security and the regulation of arms. Arias will be pushing his two proposals, an international treaty to restrict the sale and transportation of arms and the so-called consensus of Costa Rica under which wealthy countries would forgive the debts of developing nations that invest in social projects instead of the military. The arms treaty would not stop the sale of arms but would require better record keeping by countries so they would know where the arms ended up. Costa Rica is a non-permanent member of the Security Council representing Latin America. Special luxury car tax rejected in committee By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Members of a legislative committee have rejected a proposal that would put a 50 percent annual road tax surcharge of so-called luxury vehicles. The vote was 6 to 3 in the Comisión Permanente de Asuntos Hacendarios Tuesday. The proposal was advanced by the Partido Acción Ciudadana and would have covered vehicles worth more than 7 million colons. That's about $12,700 at the current exchange rate. Opponents said that most owners had vehicles that fell in that category and that they did not want to encourage Costa Ricans to purchase vehicles worth less than 7 million colons. Chinese leader to visit legislature By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The president of China, Hu Jintao, will make an official visit to the Asamblea Legislativa Monday morning as part of his stay here Sunday and Monday. Costa Rican officials are expected to lobby for a free trade agreement with China and the visiting president is expected to tour the site of the new national stadium that his country is building here at the northwest corner of Parque La Sabana. Baby found in hospital trash can By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
An attendant at Hospital San Juan de Dios found a newborn who had been stuffed in a bathroom trash can Monday night, according to the Judicial Investigating Organization. Agents quickly detained a 27-year-old woman they presumed to be the mother. Agents said it appeared that the woman gave birth in the bathroom and then just left the child there. She is being hospitalized but under a police order of detention.
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A.M. Costa Rica third newspage |
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Legislature finally passes
the last free trade treaty measure
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
As expected, the Asamblea Legislativa has approved on second reading the final measure needed to bring the free trade treaty with the United States into effect. The lawmakers voted 38 to 13 just after noon Tuesday to approve the bill, which addresses intellectual property protection and some other changes to existing laws to conform to what is required under the treaty that was approved by voters more than a year ago. The 13 laws were called the implementing agenda, and most were fought by opponents in the legislature. Tuesday each lawmaker had a brief time to discuss the bill, and the approval came from the same coalition that the executive branch has been able to maintain since the 2006 elections. The 38 votes represent two thirds of the 57-seat chamber. The trade treaty has been the No. 1 priority of the Óscar Arias Sánchez administration, and Casa Presidencial quickly produced a press release in which Rodrigo Arias, the minister of the Presidencia and the president's brother, praised the patriotism and responsibility of those who voted for the measure. "After four and a half years of debate, after getting two extensions to incorporate the country into the treaty and after an historic referendum where the majority said yes to this commercial accord, finally we are closing this chapter," said Rodrigo Arias. "Now is the time to leave our differences behind," Marco Vinicio Ruiz, the minister of Comercio Exterior, said that in the next few days the executive branch will do what is necessary so that the treaty can enter into effect by Jan. 1. Among the work will be the drafting and editing of regulations that apply to the bill passed Tuesday. The bill |
has to be
signed by President Arias, and both the law and the regulations must be
published in the La Gaceta official newspaper. As a result of the two extensions given by the other nations that are party to the agreement, Costa Rica has until Jan. 1 to complete all the legal work. President Arias hoped to win passage of the treaty in early 2007, but legislative opponents and their demand for a referendum slowed significantly the process. "Better late than never," the president said in a news release. He learned of the approval while attending the annual awards lunch of the American Costa Rican Chamber of Commerce. The Unión Costarricense de Cámaras y Asociaciones del Sector Empresarial Privado also applauded the passage and said that the treaty is a window of opportunity for small and medium companies. The Asociación Nacional de Exportadores de la Industria Textil and the Cámara Textil Costarricense also offered their praise for the positive vote. But the oganizations also said that some 6,000 jobs were lost in the textile industry this year due to delays in getting the treaty into force. A press release noted that the treaty was signed Aug. 5, 2004. In addition to the United States, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic are parties to the treaty. Costa Rica has just approved a free trade treaty with Panamá that was encouraged by the larger treaty. Despite the happiness among treaty backers, opponents have said they will seek a renegotiation of the pact with the new Barack Obama administration in the United States after he takes office in January. |
Yikes! The neighborhood
panhandler was a French fugitive
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
If we knew that he was a fraud suspect we probably would
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The first time employees put him in
a taxi and paid the driver to take
him to the local Salvation Army refuge. But he turned up again. And
again. He probably will not be visiting any more. The Fuerza
Pública detained
him Tuesday on an international arrest warrant from France. The allegation is fraud, and the warrant was processed by the International Police Agency. According to the Fuerza Pública, the man's last name is Heydari and he was living in an apartment only a few blocks away. He was detained while he walked near the hospital. His age was reported to be 70. Carlos León, head of the San José centro office of the Fuerza Pública, said that the man entered Costa Rica illegally about four years ago from Panamá. He will be held for return to France. There was no other information about the crime, but if Heydari is guilty, his conduct here suggests that any money is long gone. |
Election tribunal rejects
plan for death penalty referendum
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones has rejected a request to seek signatures to put a question on the ballot seeking the death penalty for murderers, pedophiles and other sexual abusers. The petition was presented to the court by Clarence Sánchez Jiménez, a private citizen, May 2. Collecting signatures is the first step in a public referendum. Solicitors have to get 5 percent of the number of voters in the last general election. But first the tribunal must authorize collection and specify the style of the signature form. The proposed ballot question also would have sought death for family members, such as stepfathers, who are convicted of abusing another family member. |
The death penalty is currently
illegal in Costa Rica. Wendy Gonzalez, a lawyer at the tribunal who handled the case, said that the resolution was rejected because it failed to fulfill basic requisites for a proposed referendum, meaning that Jiménez did not include sufficient documented evidence that would have justified turning his proposal into a national referendum. She added that the groundbreaking nature of such a proposal also caused the tribunal magistrates to hesitate. “This topic would have involved constitutional reform because it would essentially establish the death penalty in Costa Rica,” she said. “So to create such a referendum, it would have been necessary to create a project that would first have to be approved by the Asamblea Legislativa.” |
You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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Turtle protectors protest
advancement of tuna-raising plan
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
An environmental organization said Tuesday it had appealed a decision that once more puts in motion a project to raise tuna in ocean cages in the Golfo Dulce on the country's Pacific coast. The organization is the Programa Restauracion de Tortugas Marinas which has an interest in the project because it said the cages and contamination represent threats to turtles. The organization reported that the Secretaría Técnica Nacional Ambiental recommended last week that the project by Granjas Atuneras de Golfito S.A. continue. The company plans to purchase live yellowfin tuna from local fishermen and then fatten them in at least 10 holding tanks in the ocean. The Programa Restauracion de Tortugas Marinas and Golfo Dulce residents were instrumental in having the Sala IV constitutional court suspend the project May 9, 2007. |
In a press release Tuesday the
organization said that the concerns of
the court expressed in the suspension decision have yet to be met
despite the action by the Secretaría Técnica. The organization cited inconsistencies with the Secretaría Técnica's decision and a report by the Centro de Investigación Marina y Limnología of the Universidad de Costa Rica which said that more studies need to be done of the local ocean currents and the final location of the waste products generated in the holding tanks. In addition there still is no plan to mitigate the impact on marine turtles, the organization said. Turtles nest on the beaches of Punta Banco, Estrechura and Río Coco, and newly hatched turtles enter the sea there. The tuna cages would impair their travel, the organization said. The organization said the appeal went to the Secretaría Técnica and to the minster of Ambiente, Energía y Telecomunications in whose agency the decision was made. |
U.S. Navy retiree George
Thorn remembered by his friends
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Fellow expats gathered Tuesday at a local bar to bid farewell to George Thorn, a U.S. Navy retiree. Thorn died last week in a local hospital due to an infection incurred while undergoing therapy for cancer. The chemotherapy had rendered him so weak that his body was unable to fight off this latest complication, said friends. He was known as "George, the Mailman" among his expat buddies because of his second career with the U.S. Postal Service. Thorn spent a career in the U. S. Navy, retiring as a petty |
officer,
first class. As an intelligence analyst specializing in East Asia
and the Pacific, Thorn spent much of his overseas time stationed in
Japan, said a friend. After his Postal Service retirement, Thorn came to Costa Rica. He spent much of his pension supporting a Costa Rican family, friends said. In his personal life he was known as a Scrabble champ and an advanced computer user, a friend said. For a time, Thorn worked as a greeter at the New York Bar in downtown San José, where his friends gathered Tuesday. He is survived by a daughter who lives in the United States. Funeral services are pending. |
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by U.N. monitoring agency Special to A.M. Costa Rica
International tourism has started slowing rapidly since the middle of the year, reflecting consumer concern worldwide and rising inflation in many countries, the United Nations reports in its latest measure of the health of the global travel industry. The regular barometer of the U.N. World Tourism Organization, released Monday, found that growth in the number of international tourist arrivals fell below 2 per cent in June, July, and August after averaging 5.7 per cent between January and April. The agency said its initial forecasts indicate there will be an even more modest performance in the tourism sector in 2009 as the effects of the global financial crisis continue to take their toll, with many consumers finding that their travel budgets are being squeezed. But overall growth for 2008 is still projected to reach about 2 per cent, thanks in part to ongoing robust growth in the Middle East and a better-than-expected performance in the Americas. Europe, the Asia-Pacific and Africa have recorded weaker results. Between January and August this year, 642 million international arrivals were counted, a rise of 23 million on the same period last year, according to the organization. The Madrid-based agency noted in a press release that tourism has so far resisted the global economic downturn better than many other sectors, such as construction or car manufacturing. However, the average length of stay for many holiday-makers is set to shorten, cheaper destinations are becoming more popular, and many consumers are turning to destinations closer to their homes, it said. The barometer was released a day ahead of the international gathering in London of government tourism ministers, and this meeting is itself being followed by a series of regional response groups, starting with the Middle East later this month. Ex-president's son shot in back By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Investigators in Liberia are trying to learn the circumstances that led to the shooting of Luis Oduber, the 45-year-old son of the former president, Daniel Oduber. The Judicial Investigating Organization said that Oduber entered the Hospital de Liberia Tuesday morning suffering from a shotgun blast to the back. Agents said that he had been hit with shotgun pellets but they did not give the size of the projectiles. They said that the shooting appeared to have happened in the family home. Daniel Oduber, whose name the Liberia international airport bears, served as president from 1974 to 1978. |
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