Archive for July 24th, 2008
Thursday, July 24th, 2008
Two sectors greatly affected by the expanded vehicular restrictions of San José are hearses and car rental companies.
In the case of funeral cars, drivers have little or no option to choose an alternate route to churches and cemeteries located in the restricted area. According to Tránsito (traffic) officials, the law is the law and though some traffic officials allow funeral cars to proceed without being fined, they are exposed to the ¢5.000 colones fine like all other vehicles violating the restriction.
As to rental vehicles, the problem is that most tourists do not know of the restrictions and/or are not able to make a choice of alternative routes. (more…)
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Thursday, July 24th, 2008
Cherlyn Tomayko, the woman arrested by the International Police (INTERPOL) and currently in detention in the women’s prison, El Buen Pastor, for kidnapping her children, was given refugee status in Costa Rica, ending her battle for freedom.
The announcement was made by the ministra de Seguridad Pública, Janina Del Vecchio, saying that the granting of refugee status was based on merits of the case and nothing negative was considered or would be considered against the US.
The United States expressed annoyance at the decision announced by Del Vecchio shortly after 3pm yesterday. The US annoyance was such that the US Embassy in San José has suspend the official donation of a airplane to the Ministerio de Seguridad, which was programmed for today. (more…)
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Thursday, July 24th, 2008
Canada’s junior women’s team opened the NORCECA junior women’s championship on Tuesday with a narrow 25-15, 21-25, 22-25, 25-19, 15-10 win over Costa Rica.
Canadian captain Sofie Schlagintweit of Abbotsford, B.C., led the attack from the outside, recording 16 points in the contest, while Calgary’s Caroline Jarmoc added 15 tallies.
Canada is competing in Group A in the preliminary round along with the United States, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Puerto Rico and host Mexico make up Group B.
The top three teams will qualify for the 2009 junior women’s world championships.
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Thursday, July 24th, 2008
The Costa Rican Petroleum Refinery (RECOPE in Spanish) repeatedly requests increases in fuels from the Regulatory Authority, as a result of the upward trend of oil in the international market. The vast majority of Costa Ricans are extremely worried about this trend, because it also propels the prices of all goods and services. As one means to control the trend, Costa Rica is about to join a Venezuelan initiative that enables Central American and Caribbean nations to obtain a better deal on the price of oil. Venezuela is Costa Rica’s leading oil supplier.
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Thursday, July 24th, 2008
Costa Rica has been of the countries most affected by the changes in the prices of internationally-traded products recorded in recent years. Many of the goods the nation imports, such as oil, building materials, and food products have increased much more than those she exports. For Costa Ricans, this deterioration of what is known as terms of trade –the ratio of the price a country receives for its export commodities to the price it pays for its import commodities– implies impoverishment, because their income loses purchasing power and they are increasingly less able to meet their basic needs. According to the Economic Commission for Central America and the Caribbean, Costa Rica has suffered a 25-percent deterioration between 1999 and the present, the fourth worst country in that direction in the region, after Nicaragua, Honduras, and Haiti, the three poorest of the 19 nations evaluated.
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