Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
An 11 month old baby may be the latest victim of the AH1N1 killer flu, as health officials await laboratory results from the Inciensa.
Ana Morica, the vice-ministra de Salud (vice-minister of Health), explained that the baby was admitted to the hospital in Upala on July 5 with pneumonia, fever and cough. However, despite treatment, the baby died on July 6.
According to Morice, the baby had cerebral palsy and the father and siblings of the baby had had respiratory problems.
“The case is under study, but all points to the AH1N1″, said Morice.
If the baby is confirmed to have died from the AH1N1, the number of deaths this year from the virus will be 15.
This year here have been 376 “confirmed” cases of the AH1N1, bringing the total to 3.486 since the pandemic first was detected in Costa Rica on April 2009.
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Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
When Britney Spears was in the midst of a mental breakdown in May 2008, a few months after she was hospitalized on psychiatric hold, Mel Gibson was one of the few celebrities who reached out and tried to guide the pop princess on the road to recovery.
Gibson and his then-wife Robin took Spears and her father Jamie for a recuperating getaway to their home in Costa Rica, and prior to that, the “What Women Want” star was spotted dining with Spears at a Russian restaurant in Studio City.
The two stars were neighbors back when the pop princess lived in Malibu, Calif. and Gibson felt it necessary to do all he could to assist her.
So now that the tables have turned, might Spears, 28, return the favor, as she is successfully moving forward with her life while Gibson’s seems to be falling apart?
A rep for Spears did not respond for comment, and sources close to her told Pop Tarts that she is yet to make mention of the current Mel Gibson controversy, centered on a string of leaked tapes in which the actor embarks on profanity-driven, racist, sexist, and threatening rhapsodies toward his former flame, Oksana Grigorieva.
But Gibson can go to sleep at night knowing at least one high-profile person has his back.
On Tuesday Whoopi Goldberg defended the controversial actor’s use of the “N word” and insisted that she has known him a long time and that he isn’t racist. And although Goldberg also referred to Gibson as her “friend,” perhaps he doesn’t quite reciprocate the feelings.
“That’s why I’m so f***ing angry, because I don’t have any friends,” Gibson screamed through the phone to Grigorieva in one of the leaked tapes. “I tried to make one in you, and you treat me like s**t.”
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Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
A recent diplomatic spat between China and Costa Rica — which gained little notice outside the Spanish-language press — is the latest example of challenges Beijing faces in its effort to expand its influence overseas.
The barb-trading centered on efforts by a Chinese construction firm to obtain visas for Chinese laborers in Costa Rica. The episode prompted criticism from the Costa Rican ambassador to Beijing and caused the company, Chinafecc Central America S.A., to abandon a condominium project in the Central American country.
Exporting labor is a key element of China’s overseas push in places like Africa and Latin America, though there are signs it has started to encounter resistance, especially as countries work to shore up domestic employment amid the shaky global economy.
In Costa Rica, the election of a new government in February brought policy changes making it harder for Chinese laborers to obtain work visas. Disagreements over the visa issue precipitated claims of attempted bribery of Costa Rican embassy officials in Beijing as well as accusations by Costa Rican ambassador to Beijing of heavy-handedness by a Chinese commerce attaché, according to Costa Rica’s La Nación newspaper.
The country’s ambassador in Beijing, Antonio Burgues, was quoted accusing China of too forcefully involving itself in Costa Rican affairs. In a letter to Costa Rica’s deputy foreign minister that La Nación says it saw, the ambassador, Antonio Burgues, called actions by the Chinese commerce attaché a case of “intervention in Costa Rican internal affairs. I hope it’s the last time,” the newspaper quotes him as saying.
The Costa Rican embassy in Beijing didn’t respond to a request for comment. But the ambassador last month played down the strongly worded letter in comments made to La Nación. “What I did was simply put all the information in writing,” he was quoted as saying.
Both Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla and Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang have since said they hope the diplomatic tussle would remain an isolated incident.
“China and Costa Rica are friendly countries that can properly resolve problems when they arise,” Qin said, according to the Spanish-language EFE news service.
China’s influence in Latin America, like in much of the developing world, has grown in recent years, particularly as Beijing has cultivated closer ties with the region’s natural resource providers such as Venezuela.
Costa Rica was a longtime ally of Taiwan before switching ties to China in 2007, in a coup for Beijing. Latin America has long been a battleground in so-called “checkbook diplomacy” between China and Taiwan, and the China-Costa Rica relationship was beset by some controversy from early on. Documents released in 2008 revealed that Beijing secretly agreed to use $300 million of its foreign exchange reserves to buy Costa Rican government debt as part of the deal.
China quickly became a big economic influence in Costa Rica. The U.S. government reported China had invested $130 million in infrastructure projects alone in Costa Rica in 2008—a considerable sum to receive for a country that reported GDP that year of around $30 billion.
Part of Costa Rica’s decision to break its allegiance with Taiwan was a plan for China to fund and build a new 35,000-seat national stadium at a cost of roughly $80 million.
The recent tension began when Costa Rican Labor Minister Sandra Piszk started restricting Chinese workers’ access to Costa Rica, according to La Nación. As countries around the world battled the economic slowdown, many leaders, including those in Costa Rica, began looking inward to secure employment figures. Unemployment rates in Costa Rica rose to nearly 8% in 2009 from roughly 5% the year before, according to U.S. estimates, and the visa restrictions by Piszk appear, in part, a response to the global economic downturn.
Chinafecc Central America is a subsidiary of the Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Group, which is responsible for building the new national stadium. It has assured Costa Rica that the diplomatic tussle would not delay the stadium’s completion.
An official at the Anhui construction firm, reached for comment last week, said the media reports were untrue, but confirmed that the company has struggled recently to obtain visas for its workers in Costa Rica.
“The labor minister is worried about our workers affecting local employment. Currently the case is still under negotiation,” the official said. La Nación quoted a manager with the apartment complex’s developer in Costa Rica, Kelvin Collado, as saying that politics drove the decision to scrap the project, according to La Nación. “It was demonizing the issue,” he said.
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