Archive for July 31st, 2008
Thursday, July 31st, 2008
Brazil and Costa Rica have urged Latin American countries to unite in the face of the global financial and food crisis.
“Latin American unity is now essential to face the financial crisis in the developed countries,” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said here Wednesday following a meeting with visiting Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.
He said he will meet in September with experts from the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) and the Central American Integration System (Sica) to reach a trade agreement.
Arias said “there is no better moment” to advance negotiations on the Latin American blocs, which began more than five years ago but have not made any concrete achievements yet.
“Latin American challenges unite us in the fight against poverty, inequality and insecurity,” he added.
A bilateral agreement on bio-fuel cooperation was signed at the meeting.
Arias is scheduled to travel to Sao Paulo on Thursday to attend a business forum and visit an ethanol manufacturing plant, followed by a meeting with former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
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Thursday, July 31st, 2008
In an effort to get travelers off the beaten path and support destinations in developing countries, a group called Ethical Traveler has published a list of the “10 best ethical destinations.”
The organization said in a statement that many countries “are making noble attempts to preserve their natural assets, create a user-friendly infrastructure, and build an economy where their citizens share the benefits of tourist revenue. By bringing our commerce to such places we encourage their efforts, and inspire neighboring countries to support these values as well.”
To create the list, Ethical Traveler looked at environmental protection, social welfare and human rights in the world’s developing nations. The honorees on the Ethical Traveler’s list, in alphabetical order, are Argentina, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Estonia, Namibia, Nicaragua, and South Africa.
The organization used various resources to make the determinations, including data collected by the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy and Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network; progress made by countries in reducing infant mortality rates as measured by UNICEF; and reports on civil liberties and human rights from sources like Amnesty International and Freedom House.
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Thursday, July 31st, 2008
With the ink hardly dry on Costa Rica’s pact with the European Union regarding banana import tariffs, the EU has decided that the long negotiations in Geneva is part of its failed attempt to liberalize trade with the rest of the world. But this country insists on the legality of the agreement and demands that it be respected.
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said the attempt to come to an agreement with another 30 nations had simply not worked and their failure makes the Costa Rican banana accord invalid. This decision comes as a bitter blow to the country’s hopes in getting the tariffs reduced gradually to make this country more competitive with other banana-producing nations, principally in Africa, that were once European colonies. Those countries have no import duties. (more…)
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Thursday, July 31st, 2008
Authorities say three Iraqi men have been jailed in Costa Rica on suspicion of using false passports.
The Attorney General’s office said Tuesday the men flew from Costa Rica to Guatemala using fake travel documents from Greece, Great Britain and the former Yugoslavia.
All were refused entry and were returned to Costa Rica, where authorities detained them Monday.
Costa Rican law allows them to be held for three months while they are being investigated on the false documents charge, a crime punishable up to six years in prison.
A statement from the prosecutor’s office did not name the men.
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