Archive for September 25th, 2009
Friday, September 25th, 2009
Even if he loses a freshly-filed civil lawsuit, New England quarterback Tom Brady will not face NFL suspension for an alleged shooting incident at his April wedding in Costa Rica.
Two photographers are seeking $1 million in damages from Brady and wife Gisele Bundchen. Yuri Cortez and Rolando Aviles claim that Bundchen’s security team fired guns at their car when the paparazzi refused to surrender their camera equipment. Cortez and Aviles filed suit Tuesday in a New York City court.
“Bodyguards are not supposed to be pulling out guns and firing at photographers,” Aviles and Cortez’s attorney John Paul Gleason told People Magazine. “It just shows terrible lack of training and supervision.”
Because weapons were allegedly involved, Brady would be subject to suspension under the NFL’s personal conduct policy if criminal charges were filed against him or the security team. Costa Rican police investigated the incident but no charges were filed.
“The personal conduct policy is aimed at the personal criminal conduct of NFL personnel, not civil matters involving the conduct of someone’s security people,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said in a Thursday morning e-mail.
Brady declined comment about the lawsuit Wednesday. Brady described the shooting allegations as “absolute total b.s.” during a May interview with Sports Illustrated.
“We found two guys on our property and told them to get out,” Brady told the magazine. “Our security guys didn’t even have guns. There were no shots fired.”
Bundchen, one of the world’s top supermodels, told People in May that she wasn’t even aware of the photographers’ claims until the day after her wedding. Bundchen, 29, is expecting her first child in December with Brady, a three-time Super Bowl winner who is considered the NFL’s biggest star.
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Friday, September 25th, 2009
For years the Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AyA) – water and sewer utility – has been combating the disappearance of water meters, many stolen from their installed location in front of homes and commercial properties, while more missing from its warehouses.
A police action yesterday at a foundry located in Tacares, in Grecia, found 4.000 meters or 43% of the AyA total loss between 2002 and 2006, a period when the utility lost some 9.787 meters, for a report loss of some ¢300 million colones.
The stolen meters confiscated by agents of the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) yesterday are valued at ¢61 million colones.
However, not all the confiscated meters belong to the AyA, many belonging to municipalities and community associations.
The company raided operated as a foundry, as well as fabricating fire hydrants.
The OIJ agents, who were acting on an anonymous tip, were surprised at the quantity of stolen meters on the premises, that included a loaded tractor trailer.
According to Jorge Fuentes, spokesperson for the AyA, before October 2008, some 500 meters a month went missing and then slowed down, partly due to the fall in prices on international markets.
Fuentes added that the AyA initially believed that the meters were being shipped to neighbouring Nicaragua, until some months ago when agents lost track of a pick up truck they were pursuing in the area of Grecia, leading investigators to believe that the units were still in the country.
The surprise to AyA is that, according to early reports, a great number of the meters were sold to the foundry by AyA employees.
“We are not exempt from corruption”, said Fuentes, who added that during the period of 2002 and 2008, with more than 100 raids only 1% of the missing meters were recovered.
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Friday, September 25th, 2009
The Domino’s Pizza chain will be re-opening its doors in Costa Rica after a surprise total closure last February, with new owners and better service.
The Restaurant’s AS has purchased the franchise and said it would be opening its first store by the end of November.
The first location will open in the east end of San José with a full restaurant service, similar to the AS restaurants that features chicken.
The previous owners of the Domino franchise in Costa Rica operated only as a take out and delivery.
AS is looking to hire 75 people. Those interested can send their resume to: rrhh@rsr.co.cr
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Friday, September 25th, 2009
Six more people have been sentenced for their roles in a Costa Rica-based telemarketing scheme.
The Department of Justice said four owners of the Costa Rican call centers, an employee and a Texas-based list broker were sentenced Tuesday. Their sentences ranged from 41 months to 50 years in prison.
Prosecutors say the scheme deceived U.S. residents, many over the age of 55, by leading victims to believe they had won a large prize in a “sweepstakes contest.” Victims were told to wire thousands of dollars to Costa Rica as a refundable insurance fee.
Federal officials have said that dozens were indicted in North Carolina for their roles in the scheme and many of those have been sentenced.
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Friday, September 25th, 2009
Are pharmacies in Costa Rica ripping off their customers? A recent study by the Ministerio de Economía (MEIC) shows a difference of 472% in price comparisons of the same product in 72 pharmacies in the country.
At the centre of the controversy is one pharmacy, La Bomba, located in downtown San José, that has been denounced as selling its products too low.
Eduardo Sibaja, MEIC minister, said there would be no follow up on the charges by the Asociación de Servicios Médicos Costarricenses (Asemeco) as the La Bomba is not using anticompetitive practices, but rather is passing on its wholesale and volume purchase discounts to its customers.
The minister added that other pharmacies could sell their products much lower, reducing their prices as well and earning lower profits.
The owners of the La Bomba pharmacy said that their profit margin is very low, preferring to pass on the savings to their customers.
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Friday, September 25th, 2009
Molson Coors Brewing Co. officially inaugurated sales of Coors Light throughout Costa Rica today, Sept. 24, after launching a historical partnership with Agencias Feduro, a local importer. Starting today, Coors Light should be available at almost most bars, grocery stores, gas stations, liquor stores and sketchy street vendors where alcohol is regularly sold.
Considering I’ve seen the Coors Light bottles at AutoMercado for at least six months, I will reserve my enthusiasm until I see if this new partnership means a decrease in price, which previously ran around $1.75 per bottle of beer at the grocery store. My delicate U.S. sensibilities just won’t let me pay two times the regular price for a standard low-cal beer, even if they did have to pay to ship it all the way to my local corner bar in Costa Rica.
The extra freight cost is a concern for the brewery as well, and they have already discussed brewing the refreshing substance in Latin America, where the volume of beer sales was higher than that of North America in 2007. The region’s interest in light beer has been on the increase recently, in part due to middle and upper class travelers who have had the luxury of sampling the figure friendly intoxicant while traveling abroad.
In Costa Rica, it is estimated that 30% of the beer drinking population prefers a light beer. Until today, the only standard options have been Barvaria Light and Imperial Light. The latter was recently fined after the government’s consumer watchdog found that it didn’t even meet the criteria of having 25% less calories than the regular version, the requirement to use the term “Light” in marketing. In resourceful patch-it-up fashion, this was corrected by placing edited Nutritional Fact stickers on the sides of the cans. (more…)
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Friday, September 25th, 2009
Costa Rica on Thursday called on the UN Security Council to “make good on the promise” for peace, saying that the 15-nation body “fails in its historic mission every day that it turns a blind eye to the rampant arms race.”
Addressing the UN Security Council Summit on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Nuclear Disarmament, which opened here on Thursday morning, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias said: “The world spends 3.5 billion dollars every day on weapons and soldiers. Each year, more than 42 billion dollars of conventional arms are sold to developing nations, where weak or nonexistent democracies are incapable of satisfying the most basic needs of their peoples.”
“Even in Latin America, which has never been more peaceful or more democratic, this year nearly 60 billion dollars will be assigned to military spending — this in a region with an average of seven years of schooling for its populations, and poverty that affects more than 200 million inhabitants,” he said.
Stating that the United Nations Charter was “founded on the promise that we would be able to sleep peacefully during the most abominable wars,” Arias stressed Article 26 of the UN Charter to “maintain international peace and security.”
The Thursday Council session was chaired by U.S. President Barack Obama, the first U.S. president to lead a Council meeting, where members unanimously passed a resolution, to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons for a safer world in compliance with the goals of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
“It doesn’t seem plausible to speak of a safer world, as long as the proliferation of another kind of weapons stays in its perennial position, second place on our international agenda,” said the president, also a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. “This Council fails in its historic mission every day that it turns a blind eye to the rampant arms race.”
Thanking Obama for the opportunity to discuss the issue, Arias stressed that “nevertheless, it does not seem plausible to discuss disarmament as long as existing agreements are not even being honored.”
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