Archive for January 21st, 2010
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Wandering naked in the streets of a high class Heredia neigbourhood, a man led police to a stash of drugs, after neighbours called to complain.
The man, believed to be a Romanian national was reported walking naked on the streets of the residencial Bosques de Doña Rosa, behind the Cariari golf course, in San Antonio de Belén, Heredia, led police to 13 kilos of cocaine.
Police said the man, identified by his last name, Yován, was not coherent, told them of the drugs he has stashed in his apartment, who police say was dishelved and filthy.
Five police vehicles responded to the call, including members of the Fuerza Pública and Belén municipal police, one of which was rear ended by one of the two vehicles involved in a chase with police and believed to be associates of the naked man.
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Thursday, January 21st, 2010
The Red Cross of Costa Rica has so far received 429,000 U.S. dollars in donation from Costa Rican enterprises and individuals for quake-torn Haiti, the organization said Wednesday.
Costa Ricans in a national campaign also donated 10 tons of food, medicine, water and other necessities which were collected and packed by the national youth commission and other 117 groups.
The money will go directly to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, according to Miguel Carmona, president of Costa Rica’s Red Cross.
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Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Costa Rican Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) have confiscated 3,000 jewels valued at $3 million from United States citizen John Felix Bender’s home in La Florida de Barú, in the Southern Zone region of Pérez Zeledón, 10 days after he was found dead there.
Officials did not know about the treasure when they found Bender with a bullet wound to the head on Jan. 8.
Initially, officials considered Bender’s death a suicide. He was found with a 9-millimeter gun next to his body. But a forensic examination that analyzed the bullet trajectory determined that the shot could not have been taken by Bender’s own hand. The OIJ is now investigating the case as a homicide.
Officials on Monday interrogated Bender’s widow – whose last name is Patton – at a hospital in Escazú, west of San José, where she has been interned since Jan. 9. On Tuesday, the Prosecutor’s Office ordered four months of preventative prison for Patton for the suspected murder of John Bender.
According to the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT), both Bender and Patton received “investor resident” status in Costa Rica on March 16, 2001, and became permanent residents here in April 2009. Bender founded the private Boracayán wildlife refuge in 2002, which has been recognized by the Environment Ministry.
The Public Security Ministry flew the jewels by helicopter to the ministry’s San José headquarters in two shipments, one last Friday and one on Monday. They have since deposited the valuables in a vault in an undisclosed bank. Press officials said the OIJ will investigate the type of business Bender was running from his property in Pérez Zeledón.
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Thursday, January 21st, 2010
A strong earthquake has again struck Haiti, shaking buildings and causing panic as international efforts to help those affected by last week’s devastating quake continued.
There have been no reports of injuries from the magnitude 6.1 quake Wednesday.
The United States is sending more ships to Haiti to help with recovery from last week’s 7.0 magnitude earthquake, which killed an estimated 200,000 people.
This will include a vessel designed to clear debris blocking the main port in the capital, Port-au-Prince. The debris has prevented larger ships with food and other vital supplies from making deliveries.
Some damaged buildings in the Haitian capital have been ransacked by people searching for supplies as they await more relief. American troops have been providing security for food and water deliveries. About 3,500 additional U.N. security personnel are also being sent to Haiti to help prevent looting.
The World Food Program says it will try to get fresh aid to as many people as possible Wednesday. But officials say relief efforts have been hampered by blocked roads, bureaucratic confusion and the collapse of local authority.
Survivors have been living in makeshift camps on streets littered with debris and decomposing bodies. Doctors are struggling to treat thousands of injured with limited resources.
Search and rescue teams from several countries have freed 90 people buried under collapsed buildings, including an elderly woman on Tuesday who was trapped under rubble for a full week.
Officials estimate the earthquake affected an estimated three million — about a third of Haiti’s population.
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Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Star Clippers will be offering cruises from Costa Rica, on the 170 passenger Star Flyer, starting in November this year.
Star Flyer is a four-masted sailing clipper with auxiliary engines, like all the Star Clippers fleet, and she will be offering alternating seven-day round-trip cruises from the port of Puerto Caldera. The first cruise will be visiting the verdant and little explored coastal paradise of Nicaragua and the second will travel to Panama. The first itinerary calls at San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua, then Cuajiniquil, Playas del Coco/Flamingo, Puerto Carrillo and Islas Torguas in Costa Rica. The second cruise, being offered on alternate weeks will visit at Isla Coiba, Panama; and Golfito, Isla del Cano/Drake’s Bay, Quepos and Islas Tortugas, all in Costa Rica. Each itinerary includes a day at sea which gives the passengers a chance to really experience what it is like to sail on a tall ship. The cruise offers a range of activities such as snorkelling and diving, both of which are ideally suited to the rich marine ecosystem around Nicaragua and Star Flyer has dive tanks and snorkelling equipment and has a fully qualified Dive Master on board. There is also sport-fishing, tours of the mainland’s forest canopy by jeep or horse, kayaking, rafting, and surfing.
It’s the first time Star Clippers has undertaken cruises in this region and one reason for the choice is the need to avoid the Gulf of Aden/Indian Ocean routes that have recently been troubled by piracy. The seven night cruises to the region begin at £1,303 which doesn’t include port taxes or flights.
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