Archive for May, 2009
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
The two brothers had always been close. Darnell and Jermaine Zimmerman went to the same high school outside of Boston, loved the same sports teams, and were on the same flight Saturday for what was supposed to be a fun-filled trip to Costa Rica with their friends.
But on Sunday, both brothers were swept away by the powerful currents in front of their seaside resort on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, authorities said.
Darnell Zimmerman, 25, drowned and his brother Jermaine, 24, was still missing yesterday and presumed dead, said Rafael Angel Araya Cordero, regional director of the police in Guanacaste Province, in western Costa Rica.
Costa Rica’s picturesque beaches attract many tourists each year, but the swift and powerful rip tides and currents, combined with the scarcity of lifeguards and warning signs, make them dangerous for the unwary. The US State Department warns travelers to exercise extreme caution when visiting the country’s Pacific and Caribbean coasts. (more…)
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Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
Costa Rican gay rights activists have decried what they call the Roman Catholic church’s return to Inquisition times for mobilizing church members against a bill that would give legal recognition and rights to same-sex unions.
(The church) has gone back to the times of witch hunts and the Holy Inquisition, Abelardo Araya, spokesman of the Diversity Movement, told newswire EFE on Monday. Araya’s remarks came one day after clergymen urged Catholic followers to sign a petition to launch a public referendum in the hopes of blocking the same-sex bill, which is pending debate in the Legislative Assembly.
San José Archbishop Hugo Barrantes said the referendum is a public initiative that seeks to defend life, the principles of the church and matrimony, according to the daily La Prensa Libre.
According to Araya, the church should abstain from government politics, adding that Catholic leaders have manipulated the issue.
In Costa Rica it’s not homosexual marriage that’s being spoken of, but rather the formalization of the union between persons of the same sex, Araya said.
More than 200,000 signatures are needed to put the bill through public referendum, an event that highlighted deep societal divisions when it played out over the issue of free trade with the United States in 2007.
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Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
Costa Rica’s real estate market took off over the past decade, but it has come to a halt. Many developments are now being delayed, and buyers appear to be scarce. People in the industry feel that this slowdown is just temporary, though, as people still want to live and travel in the country.
Property prices are falling and real estate developments are being delayed as the market in some parts of Costa Rica are affected by the global downturn.
In Guanacaste province where the real estate market has surged since 2006 the tide has turned. A number of highly publicized residential developments aimed at second-home owners and anchored by brand-name hotels and golf courses have been delayed on Guanacaste’s Gold Coast, a 60-mile stretch on the Pacific Ocean from the Papagayo Peninsula in the north to Tamarindo in the south. (more…)
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Monday, May 11th, 2009
The World Health Organization announced Saturday that the new H1N1 swine flu virus has spread to 29 countries, while Costa Rica reported its first death and Mexico reported three additional deaths.
The WHO said the number of confirmed swine flu cases around the world has risen to 3,440 with the latest infections reported in Argentina, Panama, Australia and Japan. Costa Rica is the first Central American country to report a swine flu death. Mexican raised its death toll to 48 and the number of confirmed cases by 259, to nearly 1,600 (1,578).
Health Ministry spokesman Carlos Olmos said the latest deaths involved previously suspected cases and took place May 6 and before.
Canada has reported one swine flu death and the death toll in the United States remains at two.
The British government has announced it has decoded the genetic information of the virus, bringing it a step closer to developing a swine flu vaccine.
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Monday, May 11th, 2009
The US has more confirmed cases of swine flu than any other country, the World Health Organisation said as health officials announced the country’s third death from the disease today.
The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 2,254 confirmed cases across the US, and the deputy director for science and public health, Anne Schuchat, warned that the total could be an underestimate.
“Today there are almost 3,000 probable and confirmed cases here in the United States,” she said. “The good news is we are not seeing a rise above the epidemic threshold.”
The US department of health said a man in Washington state with H1N1 influenza died last week. (more…)
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Monday, May 11th, 2009
What’s the value of an ocean-view home set some 50 yards from a beach, with a total of six bedrooms, 6 1/2 baths and a pool in sun-drenched Costa Rica?
A lot less than you’d think. In fact, less than many houses on Lake Minnetonka.
But receiver Doug Kelley no longer has to worry whether he’ll find a buyer for the Central American property owned by Michael Catain, one of the convicted money launderers in the alleged Ponzi scheme Wayzata businessman Tom Petters has been accused of running.
In court documents filed Friday, Kelley revealed a $1.05 million cash offer for Catain’s Costa Rica home, which Catain called Casa Tranquila. (more…)
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Sunday, May 10th, 2009
Costa Rica’s Health Ministry said a 53-year-old man died on Saturday infected with the new H1N1 flu strain, the fourth country to report a death of someone ill with the virus that has sickened more than 4,200 people around the world.
The man also had diabetes and asthma, Maria Trejos, a spokeswoman for the Health Ministry, told Reuters. Doctors at the Health Ministry said they will have to wait for autopsy results to determine if the death was from the flu or complications caused by his other illnesses.
“His case was confirmed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” Trejos said, adding that the Central American country now has 8 confirmed cases of the flu strain including the man who died.
The flu strain, which combines swine, human and bird elements, has killed 48 people in Mexico, two in the United States and one in Canada.
In Mexico, health officials said diabetes was associated with many of the victims, as were cardiovascular problems such as angina and high blood pressure.
These conditions can raise the risk of death from seasonal influenza, which kills 250,000 to 500,000 people every year globally and 36,000 in the United States alone.
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Sunday, May 10th, 2009
An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale shook the Panamanian province of Chiriqui, which borders Costa Rica, on Friday, but no damages or victims were reported so far.
The earthquake occurred at 03:33 a.m. local time (0833 GMT) and it was also felt in the Panamanian provinces of Veraguas and Bocasdel Toro and in Costa Rica, according to reports from the Institute of Geo-Science from the University of Panama.
The National System of Civil Protection said the infrastructure of the cities was not damaged.
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Friday, May 8th, 2009
The Ministerio de Salud has confirmed that Costa Rica has seven confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus, after receiving results of eight samples sent to the the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta. Only one case was discarted by US health officials.
Almost two weeks after the first case of the virus appeared in Costa Rica, health officials have investigated 645 “suspected” cases, most of which were discarded and eight “probables”, samples that were sent to the CDC for confirmation.
The test results took more than a week to get back to the ministerio de Salud, as Costa Rica had yet to receive the kit for testing locally and must rely on the CDC for a confirmed result.
According to the ministra de Salud, María Luisa Ávila, the confirmed cases involve minors and adults, but would not give more details, other than some are already coming out isolation, well on the road to recovery. (more…)
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Friday, May 8th, 2009
“The investigations of a national sea turtle conservation group has helped lead to a U.S. embargo on all Costa Rican shrimp.
The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Oceans, Environment and Science announced it has stopped importing Costa Rican shrimp, effective May 1.
The Marine Turtle Restoration Program (PRETOMA) spent a year investigating the practices of Costa Rica’s shrimp fishermen and determined that boats and nets lacked effective Turtle Excluder Devices (TED) – devices that keep turtles and other large marine life from being trapped in shrimp nets. PRETOMA submitted its findings to the State Department, which imposed the embargo.”
Costa Rican law requires all nets to have the devices but PRETOMA spokesman Andy Bystrom said the Costa Rican Fisheries Institute (INCOPESCA) does not enforce the policy.
“It’s the 64,000 dollar question,” Bystrom said of INCOPESCA’s lack of enforcement. “Their institution is set up to do one thing – adhere to legal fishing policies – but they aren’t doing it.”
From 2004 through 2008, the fisheries authorities recorded 29 TED violations, all of which went unpunished.
Bystrom said the U.S. law requires shrimp fisherman to use TED devices, and the United States refuses to do business with countries that do not enforce the policy.
The embargo will last until May 1, 2010 when officials from the U.S. State Department will reevaluate the situation of TEDs on Costa Rica’s shrimp boats to determine if the embargo can be lifted.
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Thursday, May 7th, 2009
Newlywed supermodel Gisele Bundchen has sparked rumors she’s expecting her first child with husband Tom Brady, after the pair were photographed leaving an obstetrician’s office.
The Victoria’s Secret model and football star Brady visited a Manhattan-based OB/GYN on Monday, three months after they exchanged vows in a Catholic ceremony in Santa Monica, Calif.
They celebrated their union with a larger ceremony and wedding reception in Costa Rica weeks later.
Bundchen and Brady began dating after his 2006 split from actress Bridget Moynahan, with whom he shares a 17-month-old son, John Edward Thomas Moynahan.
A spokesperson for Bundchen tells the New York Post, “We have no comment on our clients’ personal lives.”
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Thursday, May 7th, 2009
“American Idol” judge Paula Abdul has broken her silence about her 12-year long battle with painkiller addiction.
The singer-turned-TV personality was left in debilitating pain after a 1992 car accident and 1993 plane crash that required 15 spinal surgeries and left her dependent on pain medication.
Abdul has been dogged by reports she had become an addict and continues to defend herself against allegations she filmed the TV talent show high on drugs.
But since a stint last November at Carlsbad, Calif.,’s La Costa Resort and Spa, Abdul admits she’s come to terms with her dependency and is determined to stay sober.
Describing her withdrawal symptoms, Abdul tells Ladies’ Homes Journal: “I was freezing cold, then sweating hot, then chattering and in so much pain. It was excruciating. But at my very core, I did not like existing the way I had been.”
And Abdul insists she won’t be turning back to drugs after realizing how close she came to death.
She adds: “I could have killed myself.”
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Thursday, May 7th, 2009
The fast-rising inflation that characterized most of 2008 has continued to fall since its high six months ago, bringing the monthly inflation rate to nearly half of April’s 10-year average, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Statistics and Census Institute (INEC).
The Consumer Price Index rose 11.75 percent since May of last year, falling from a high of 16.3 percent yearly change in November, according to the INEC report. April’s monthly increase was 0.33 percent.
The report indicated that the prices for luxury goods, like alcoholic beverages and tobacco, rose most significantly in April, a 3 percent increase; prices for necessities like food and non-alcoholic beverages actually dropped about 0.46 percent.
While inflation has been slowing, the yearly price increase of 11.75 percent the report cited is actually slightly above par � the third highest in the past decade. The number accentuates just how high inflation was throughout 2008, since the past five months have logged price inflation far below average.
Prices for gasoline rose 6.4 percent, while the cost of electricity rose 1.6 percent, the INEC reported.
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Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
Costa Rica’s health minister confirmed on Tuesday that the number of confirmed cases of AH1N1 flu virus has increased to eight, while 369 suspected cases have been disproved.
Maria Luisa Avila told a press conference that eight cases have been confirmed by local analysis, but the specimens have been sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to corroborate the diagnoses.
Of the cases locally confirmed, two are hospitalized but in stable condition, while five are isolated in their homes and one has recovered.
Avila said that a 53-year-old man suffering from flu was admitted to a hospital for pneumonia that has been aggravated by causes other than the virus, including asthma, lung damage and diabetes. (more…)
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Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
Renting a car in Costa Rica? First call up your credit card company and ask them what Insurance coverage they provide with car rental in Costa Rica? Each credit card company is different. But just for purposes of example- let me tell you about mine. I have a gold American Express card. I can be covered (for a fee of $24.95 ) while renting a car in Costa Rica EXCEPT FOR LIABILITY. So I purchase a separate liability insurance policy thru the rental car agency in Costa Rica.
Again: Every credit card is different. Call yours and ask .
If your credit card does offer car rental coverage, you will save money by buying the portions thru them that covers everything except the liability portion. A large portion of the money you pay to rent the car in Costa Rica goes to insurance.
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