Archive for July, 2009
Friday, July 31st, 2009
Costa Ricans may be one of the first to try the vaccine being developed to combat the AH1N1 flu virus. A group of 784 Ticos will form part of a world study, which will be under the charge of the Instituto de Atención Pediátrica (IPED) headed by infectologist Adriano Arguedas Mohs.
The IPED was chosen by the Swiss pharmaceutical Novartis to conduct a study of the various vaccines being developed around the world.
At least five laboratories are working on a vaccine which is expected to be approved either in September and October for mass distribution.
Arguedas said that the prototype vaccine, which we will be studied in Costa Rica will also be tested in the United States and Mexico.
Person between the age of 3 and 64 from all over Costa Rica will participate in the study, according to Arguedas, after receiving accreditation from the science and ethic committee of the Universidad de Ciencias Médicas (Ucimed) in San José and the Consejo Nacional de Investigación en Salud (Conis) of the Ministerio de Salud.
The viceministra de Salud, Ana Morice, said that the choice of Costa Rica is a recognition of the highest level of research in the country.
Morice was emphatic that the government will not negotiate with Novartis for the purchase of the vaccine, which purchase will be negotiated by the World Health Organization and all purchases made by way of the Organización Panamericana de la Salud, which will negotiate the best price for Latin American countries from the vaccine manufacturers.
The IPED will in the coming days offer an invitation to Costa Ricans to participate in the study.
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Friday, July 31st, 2009
The long drawn out Caja-Fichel trial could enter its final phase today with the Fiscalía asking the judges of the Tribunal Penal de Goicoechea the sanctions for the accused, if found guilty.
In total eight people, including former president, Rafael Ángel Calderón, who is also a candidate for the 2010 presidential elections, accused of corruption and embezzlement related to the million dollar purchase of medical equipment for the Caja Costarricesence de Seguro Social (CCSS), using a loan from the government of Finland.
The group is accused of dividing up and pocketing large commissions on the purchase that was made by was of the Corporacion Fischel (Costa Rica’s largest pharmacy chain), to the detriment of the social security system.
Juan Carlos Cubillo, the fiscal (prosecutor) for the Ministerio Público asked the court on Thursday to begin the process of beginning closing arguments and setting out the sanctions in the case.
Cubillo explained that the court will be presented some 80 slides and estimates that it will take about two and a half hours to present the legal basis and the penalty. (more…)
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Friday, July 31st, 2009
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Thursday that it is offering necessary assistance to two Taiwanese nationals detained in Mexico and Costa Rica, respectively, for alleged involvement with Chinese stowaways.
According to Joseph Kuo, director-general of the MOFA’s Department of Central and South American Affairs, Taiwan’s representative office in Mexico was informed on June 10 by a court in Mexico City that a Taiwanese national named Lee Min-huei has been detained for helping Chinese stowaways in the region and is waiting for his verdict.
Officials from the MOFA’s representative office in Mexico have paid regular visits to Lee, bought him daily necessities and contacted his family, Kuo said, adding that the foreign ministry will continue to pay attention to the developments in Lee’s case.
The other case involved a Taiwanese national named Shih Chia-rei, who was detained by Costa Rican immigration in April also for allegedly helping Chinese stowaways, according to Kuo.
Shih, who went to Costa Rica as a tourist, called Taiwan’s embassy in Panama on July 17, asking it to help him leave Costa Rica because he had run out of money.
Shih said that he was detained by the Costa Rican immigration in early April for allegedly assisting three Chinese stowaways, but stressed that he had been cleared of the charge.
Taiwan’s embassy officials in Panama called the detention center in Costa Rica and confirmed Shih had been detained, according to Kuo, but Kuo did not explain why Shih still remains in the center.
He, however, noted that Shih is on a wanted list in Taiwan for a previous violation of the passport statue of the Republic of China and for helping Chinese stowaways, and that the foreign ministry has alerted Taiwan’s immigration and judicial agencies to look into his case.
As to what more Taiwanese diplomats can do for these two individuals or others in similar situations, Kuo said: “When our citizens are detained or treated unfairly, the foreign ministry is obliged to offer concern and necessary assistance to them, but we will not interfere in each country’s judicial process.”
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Friday, July 31st, 2009
Mexico and Costa Rica reached an agreement on cooperation on Thursday, according to a statement by Mexico’s president’s office.
The agreement, that covers cooperation in such fields as education, science and tourism, was signed by Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon and his Costa Rican counterpart Oscar Arias in San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital.
“It gives me great pleasure that we have managed to achieve this agreement during this state visit,” Calderon said. “With it, we can broaden and deepen dialogue and cooperation.”
Calderon also reiterated his support for Arias’s mediation between the post-coup interim government of Honduras and representatives of the deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.
Arias said the people of Costa Rica see Mexico as a good friend that has offered Costa Rica great help.
The two leaders also exchanged views on such issues as A/H1N1 flu, climate change, the fight against organized crime and admitting new members to the Rio Group during the organization’s 2010 Mexico City meeting.
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Thursday, July 30th, 2009
Costa Rican leader, Oscar Arias, who acts as an intermediary in Honduras peace talks, has called for more sanctions against the Honduran coup regime.
Political turmoil shows little signs of abatement as leaders in the Hispanic nations across Central America act in unison in urging tougher sanctions against the military-backed coup government in Honduras.
In his Wednesday speech on the growing rift in the polity of Honduras, the Costa Rican president, who mediated the proxy-talks between the ousted Honduran leader, Manuel Zelaya, and his rival Roberto Micheletti, told reporters that ‘sanctions should continue to be applied’.
Arias said that Micheletti’s administration ‘hasn’t yet recognized that President Zelaya should be reinstated’.
His comments come after the Honduran interim president backed Costa Rica’s mediation, branding it as ‘the best path to achieving a consensus in Honduras’.
On Wednesday, Zelaya said that the Costa Rican-brokered talks had failed, as the interim rulers and the military, which sent Zelaya into exile on June 28, rejected his return to the country as president.
So far the deposed leader has made two aborted attempts to set foot on his homeland but encountered fierce resistance from the country’s opposition.
Honduras has been the scene of political instability in the aftermath of Zelaya’s ouster that has drawn global condemnation.
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Thursday, July 30th, 2009
1. In October 2008, the Armed Forces of Colombia impounded three rocket launchers in a camp of the Farc ‘narcoterrorist’ group, at La Macarena in the Department of Meta.
2. The Swedish Government has confirmed that the material was manufactured in Sweden and sold to Venezuela in 1988.
3. Sweden has asked for an explanation from Venezuela.
4. Last 2nd of July, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Jaime Bermúdez, gave the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, during a private meeting in San Pedro de Sula (Honduras), a document in which there is evidence about the possession of those rocket launchers by narcoterrorists of the Farc, which were part of a batch sold by the Swedish Government to the Government of Venezuela in 1988.
5. In that same meeting, on June 2 in San Pedro de Sula, MOFA Bermúdez gave also documentary information, in which two leaders of the Farc narcoterrorist group mention the collaboration received from three officials of the Venezuelan Government in the delivery of some rocket launchers, similar to the ones impounded by the Armed Forces in La Macarena.
6. The Government of Colombia gave that information in a discrete way, in order to get clarification from Venezuela.
7. Until now, Venezuela has not answered, despite our permanent and reiterative disposition for dialogue.
8. The Government of Colombia has received additional information which confirms that the Farc narcoterrorist group has been trying to get earth-air missiles.
9. The Farc narcoterrorist group arranges the acquisition of the earth-air missiles through international weapon traffickers form other countries.
10. The Government of Colombia has asked and asks these other countries for collaboration, to avoid terrorist weapon trafficking and capture traffickers
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Thursday, July 30th, 2009
In less than 48 hours when the first-ever World Games of any sport is realized in our country, the Federacion de Surf de Costa Rica (FSC) gets ready tomorrow to announce the final 8 surfers who will compete in the Billabong International Surfing Association (ISA) World Surfing Games Costa Rica 2009. The World Surfing Games will take place in Playa Hermosa de Jacó beginning Friday and running through August 7.During the press conference, which will be located at Hotel Enchanted Bay–a Day Star project–in Jacó at 4:00 p.m., José Ureña, President of the FSC and Technical Director of the Costa Rica Team, will announce the 4 surfers in the Open Category, 2 in the Women and 2 in Longboard.
This morning was the last official training for Costa Rica in front of Terrazas del Pacifico Podium 1, where with the endorsement of Ureña, the group worked on tactical points and a defensive game, manifested by the first good maneuver by route.
“The days and days of training that we have had with our boys and girls have served us well to know how to locate ourselves on the inside and to understand very well where is really the best place to wait for the waves. We trust that the errors would be something very atypical from us out there,” affirmed Alex Valverde, a member of Costa Rica’s tricolor Technical Team and an ISA International Judge. (more…)
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Thursday, July 30th, 2009
YIKES – I only wanted a snap!
This is the moment a terrified tourist nearly had her head bitten off by a hungry crocodile.
The German woman was on a tour in Costa Rica, South America, when the crafty croc tried to make a meal out of her.
He was just inches from her face on the Tempiski River, leaving her petrified.
It had been woken from his slumber by a guide on the boat who had tried to liven up the docile reptiles by tapping a stick in the water.
When he pulled the stick out of the water, the crocodile tried to follow it, leaping out of the water with it’s jaws wide open.
The petrified tourist ran backwards, but fortunately for them the croc returned to the murky depths of the river.
Canadian photographer Paul Stodonly, 29, who was on the boat behind her and took the picture said: “Everyone on the boat gasped and bolted backwards – it was much too close for comfort.
“We bumped into the woman later on in the trip and showed her the photo.
“She said she’d never experienced anything so scary in her life. All she could see was teeth coming at her.”
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Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
Didn’t you get my message? No, “mae”, I didn’t, is the response as one in four text messages sent over the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) cellular telephone network arrives late. Hours late.
The key behind the instant messaging is “instant”. However, for the ICE network instant can mean up to 36 hours.
ICE officials say that the delays are usually due to a saturation of the network as the system cannot handle effectively the large volume of data being transmitted, the equipment sending the overflow to a queue which then delivers the message as the demand diminishes.
Well, at least that is the explanation by the sole provider of cellular service in Costa Rica as it fails to deliver, on time, at least 25% of the messages.
Typically SMS (Short Message Service) are supposed to be sent instantly on the first try with an average delivery time of four seconds.
Adolfo Arias, director de Servicios de Telecomunicaciones del ICE, explained that if the cellular phone is turned off or outside the coverage area, the system automatically stores the message for delivery at a later time and thus the delay in message sending. (more…)
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Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
The ministrad de Salud, María Luisa Ávila, is asking businesses not to allow workers showing signs of symptoms similar to the AH1N1 and to use the right to refuse admission to visitors.
Ávila said that Article 155 of the Ley General de Salud supports the drastic measure to deny anyone infected with a transmittable disease entrance to a public or private building, like a school, a place of work, place of public meeting, etc.
The ministra added that employees should promote health standards to eliminate the spread of the virus, asking employees to wash their hands (correctly) often and to take care when sneezing or coughing.
The ministra explained that the sharing of tools and equipment at work should be limited, especially when it comes to the sharing of personal items like helmets, eyeglasses, gloves, etc. and avoid greetings with a kiss or a handshake. (more…)
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Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
Deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said he will set up bases in Nicaragua to press for his return to office as Latin American leaders urge him to continue negotiations with the interim government.
Supporters who cross over from neighboring Honduras will receive food, water and shelter, Zelaya told reporters while hiking up a hill along the border. About 3,000 people have made their way into Nicaragua so far, he said.
“There are more than 300 hidden routes through the mountains,” Zelaya said in an interview late yesterday, taking a pause under a tree. “There will be more ways to resist.”
Nicaragua’s largest opposition party denounced Zelaya’s encampments, saying in an e-mailed statement yesterday they may cause a military conflict with Honduras. Costa Rican President Oscar Arias meets with regional leaders today to push for acceptance of his 11-point proposal to end the stalemate. (more…)
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Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
Costa Rican authorities seized Tuesday about 1.4 tons of cocaine being carried in a truck and arrested two people involved in the shipment, police said.
The drug packets were moist sandy, which led the authorities to suspect that they were picked up on some Pacific beach for subsequent storage in Costa Rica.
The police detained the Costa Rican who was driving the truck and the Dominican who accompanied him.
Two weeks ago, the Costa Rican authorities and the US navy seized 1.3 tons of cocaine stashed in a ship and arrested four Columbians on board the ship.
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Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
Though América Herrera may not ever know it, she has become the poster child for a growing practice in Costa Rica, which experts define as financial or economic abuse of the elderly.
The terms used to describe this practice do not fully convey the perversity behind it. Formally it is referred to as stripping the elderly of their assets, but what it boils down to is a caregiver, friend or relative fooling an older person in order to illegally use or misappropriate their financial assets. In short, abusing a senior’s trust to raid their bank accounts or loot their valuables and property.
The First Report on the State of Elderly Adults, prepared in 2008 by the Centre for Population Studies of the University of Costa Rica, revealed that this Central American nation has an estimated 300,000 senior citizens, representing six percent of the population.
While men 65 and older represent 5.7 percent of the total male population, women in that age range represent 6.7 percent of the female population.
One major difference between men and women over the age of 65 is that there are many more widows than widowers, given that women have a life expectancy five years longer than men.
In this country that ranks second in Latin America – after Chile – in terms of quality of life, according to an index drawn up by the Economist Intelligence Unit, women are thus living longer, but often alone. (more…)
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Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
While in San Diego on a tourist visa, Gabriela Campos married her long-distance beau, Ben Maidhof, in a civil ceremony last fall. The couple then flew to Costa Rica with friends and family for a church wedding.
Walking down the aisle with her American-citizen groom, she could hardly have imagined that eventually she would be locked up in a detention cell.
When the couple flew back to the United States, Campos-Maidhof learned a painful lesson — one that millions of other binational spouses have encountered because they didn’t do enough research on immigration laws, assumed that certain requirements didn’t apply to them or tried their best to follow the rules but received bad advice.
Campos-Maidhof discovered that her tourist visa became invalid when she married a U.S. citizen. During a January meeting with immigration officials in San Diego, she was taken into custody, detained for three weeks and then deported.
“This has been the most traumatic situation I’ve experienced in my life,” Campos-Maidhof, 31, said by phone from Costa Rica.
The road to married bliss for binational couples can be paved with legal land mines. People frequently — and wrongly — presume that when one person is a U.S. citizen, it’s easy for the foreign-born bride or groom to obtain permanent legal status.
“Every week there is a couple that calls and says, ‘We met here, we want to get married and have our honeymoon (abroad) and then do the paperwork,’ ” said Jonathan Montag, an immigration attorney in San Diego. “I tell them the worst thing you can do is show up at the border with your new spouse.”
Some common pitfalls occur after the paperwork is filed. Foreign nationals in the process of adjusting their immigration status must obtain permission — called advance parole — to leave the United States. They need to file an application, and approval can take three months.
In a typical scenario, a foreign-born spouse will travel abroad for a family emergency, then discover that he or she can’t come back immediately. (more…)
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Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
New bill to propose a 2% tax on gambling, gaming and betting industry.
Costa Rica’s finance ministry will submit a bill within the next two weeks proposing a two percent tax on gambling, the country’s English-language Tico Times reported.
According to the report, the ministry estimates the tax – which would be imposed on income earned in the gambling, gaming and betting industry, would generate up to $85 million for the government.
Those figures were calculated by money earned by casinos and the online betting industry. There are 46 casinos in Costa Rica and 300 gambling-related businesses, including call centers, the report said.
Although the tax would provide a boost for the state during these tough times, officials in the gaming industry have expressed concern about a reduction in revenues, following an already significant drop in 2009.
Costa Rican Association of Casinos vice president Jorge Hidalgo was quoted by the Tico Times as saying the gaming industry was among the hardest hit by the global financial crisis.
“Activity has fallen about 35 percent, and in addition to that we have fewer work hours and have had to let go about 500 employees,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.
The bill in expected to be put to the Legislative Assembly on August 3.
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