Archive for July 14th, 2008
Monday, July 14th, 2008
MELBOURNE Victory have signed Costa Rica international Jose Luis Lopez on a two-year loan from Deportivo Saprissa.
Lopez, 27, who will join countryman Carlos Hernandez at Victory, captained Costa Rica at the 2004 Olympic Games and at the 2001 FIFA Under-20 World Cup.
The midfielder, who was capped for the national team in qualifying for the 2006 World Cup, has spent the past five seasons with Saprissa, winning four national titles and the 2005 CONCACAF Champions’ Cup, which led to the club’s first appearance in the Club World Cup.
Victory coach Ernie Merrick, who watched Lopez play during a recent scouting trip to Central America, said the Costa Rican was one of the most significant signings in his club’s short history.
“The timing of me going over to Costa Rica between AFC Champions League games was when Saprissa were in the finals, so I saw him play and he was quite outstanding,” Merrick said.
“The focus of my trip was to watch him play in the finals and to talk him into coming to Australia and we were successful on both counts.”
Lopez replaces English winger Joseph Keenan, who has had his contract mutually terminated, as Victory’s fourth foreign player alongside Hernandez, Scotland’s Grant Brebner and Brazilian Ney Fabiano.
Lopez will arrive early next week and is set to feature in Victory’s pre-season matches.
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Monday, July 14th, 2008
Today is the last day to fill up your tank with cheap fuel prices as a new wave of price increases takes effect at gasoline stations all over the country at the stroke of midnight.
Super and regular gasoline will jump ¢60 colones per litre and diesel ¢88, despite the promises by the government to subsidize the price of diesel fuel.
The increase is based on the latest approval by Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (Aresep), which will soon deal with the later request by Recope, the state refinery, for yet another gasoline price hike, which is expected to take effect in August.
At the stroke of midnight, gasoline stations will change the price of a litre of super from ¢656 to ¢716, regular from ¢644 to ¢704 and diesel from ¢622 to ¢710. (more…)
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Monday, July 14th, 2008
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When people hear the words ‘Costa Rica’, images like the rainforest, beautiful beaches, great sports fishing, and a peaceful country without an army pop up. But clashes between fishermen on the high seas? You have to be joking, right? Unfortunately not. This past month there have be some ugly run-ins between commercial fishing boats and tourist sport fishing boats on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. In June alone there were three such incidents in Costa Rica and another one was reported in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Could it be that the ocean, which covers 2/3 of the planet, is not big enough for all of us?
The incidents in Costa Rica occured between several sport fishing boats carrying tourists and large seiner commercial fishing boats. The seiner boats, which are much larger, use large nets to encircle and then trap large numbers of fish at one time. These seiners sometimes use helicopters as spotters to help search out large schools of fish like tuna, mackeral, and sardines. On June 20th, 2008 one of these helicopters reportedly was dropping explosives all around a sport fishing boat that was fishing the same school of tuna. The very next day a large seiner circled and entangled seven sport fishing boats for over an hour near the Los Suenos property in Jaco. That seiner, flying a Nicaraguan flag, was actually working for a Panamanian company at the time. The Billfish Foundation reported a similar incident the very next day, June 22nd. So far no one has been hurt in any of these scuffles, but as you can imagine it has left a poor taste in those unfortunate tourists’ mouths and is terrible for Costa Rica’s reputation. (more…)
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Monday, July 14th, 2008
Drivers in Costa Rica Should Consider Themselves Lucky When It Comes To Gasoline Prices
Though gasoline prices are record high at us$4.92 for a US gallon of super, try us$9.85 in Olso, which currently has the highest priced gasoline on a list of world gas prices released on Wednesday by Associates for International Research Inc., a Massachusetts relocation consulting firm that tracks the cost of living in dozens of countries.
The world’s lowest priced gasoline can be found in Venezuela, where at us 12 cents a gallon, it costs less to fill a gasoline tank than to buy a Big Mac.
So why the big price differences around the world? Experts say retail gas prices are influenced by a variety of factors, including the cost of refining, distribution and marketing. But the biggest single variable is government policy: Some countries tax gasoline heavily; others subsidize it to make it cheap.
In Costa Rica, currently for every litre of super gasoline pumped at ¢656 colones, the government takes a bite of ¢173.25, regular that sells for ¢644 colones a litre has a tax of ¢165.75, and a litre of diesel fuel selling at ¢622 colones has a tax of ¢97.5 colones.
The regulating authority has approved a round of new gasoline prices that go into effective on July 15, adding another ¢60 colones to the cost of regular and super gasoline and ¢88 to diesel fuel.
Although the tax on gasoline products will not change with the price increase, legislators have before them a bill that would increase the tax to ¢ on super, ¢ on regular and ¢ on diesel, effectively bringing the price of a litre of super gasoline over ¢800 colones a litre or us$6 a US gallon.
A subsidy of ¢88 colones on a litre of diesel has been promised by the government, however, legislators have yet to approve the bill that would transfer some ¢10 billion colones to the state refinery.
Gas prices per US gallon in world cities according to AIRINC:
Oslo US$9.85
Paris US$9.43
Rome US$9.03
Berlin US$8.68
Hong Kong US$8.05
Sao Paulo US$6.38
Toronto US$4.98
Los Angeles US$4.57
Havana US$3.75
Mexico City US$2.62
Tehran US$0.41
Caracas US$0.12
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Monday, July 14th, 2008
Sugar Cane Will Be the Major Source For Costa Rica’s New Alternative Fuel.
The entire Central American country of Costa Rica, known for its diverse wildlife and strikingly peaceful landscape, is doing all that it can to help preserve the beauty for the generations [and tourists] to come. President Oscar Arias has vowed to have the whole country Carbon free by 2011 and Costa Rican citizens are doing everything they can to help achieve the rather ambitious goal. The newest endeavor involves a country-wide move to BioFuels.
For a little over two years both Puntarenas and Guanacaste provinces have provided the public of Costa Rica with a choice between alternative and fossil fuels. Buyers could choose to purchase ‘regular’ gasoline with a small percentage of BioFuel mixed in at the regular market price, or pay extra to purchase ‘Super’ which was void of the alternative substitute. It appears that in the future alternative fuel known as “BioFuel” will now be the only option at the tanks.
It is predicted that later this month a executive decree will be signed to have all gasoline stations in the entire country from the Pacific Coast to the Caribbean selling only gasoline containing a percentage of “biocombustible” biofuels. The program would go into effect in October of this year as the whole country will have picked up the same practices as the other two coastal provinces. (more…)
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