President Laura Chinchilla described the country's showing in the World Court in the Hague as dramatically different than the case put up by Nicaragua. She said Costa Rica presented evidence with maps and fact, but Nicaragua simply tried to argue about the evidence.

It was as if the Nicaraguans were on another planet, she said.

Ms. Chinchilla spoke about the case in San José as the first day of hearings at the court wound down.

Nicaragua's main arguments were that the border area is not clearly defined so Costa Rica cannot say that Nicaraguans are on its territory. And, they said, Costa Rica always makes a big fuss whenever Nicaraguans try to do work in the river. They dismissed the case as arguing about a strip of swamp.

There seems to be more at stake than that. Nicaragua is rushing three more dredges to the site to continue working on creating a new mouth to the Río San Juan. In addition to environmental damage there, some Costa Rican experts are concerned that silt from the new river mouth and the San Juan might damage fisheries and ocean habitat as far south as Panamá.

That possibility is considered far graver than the destruction of trees and wetland on the controversial Isla Calero.

Nicaragua seems determined to finish the river mouth before the world court can take action, which may be a month away at the least.

Costa Rica is seeking a court order stopping work on the river and the new river mouth.

Costa Rica came armed with maps, charts and air photos taken by a United Nations agency. The maps and the written history of the border between the two countries shows clearly that Nicaragua has encroached on Tico soil. That may be why Nicaragua put up such a negative case.

There are at least two more days of presentations before the court.


Does this mean that Ticos
have no clocks in the home?


This may be a case of unexpected consequences.

The nation's 911 service found itself inundated Tuesday with callers seeking to know the correct time.

That's because the number that until midnight was for time checks was given to the emergency services as part of a number of changes to prepare for other companies in the telephone business.

The 911 service said it got 28,000 unnecessary calls Tuesday.

The new number for the time is 1112, they noted.

The Superintendenica de Telecomunicaciones ordered the change.

The digits 911 also will continue being an emergency number.


Firemen keep mall fire
from doing major damage


Fire broke out in a sixth-floor storage area in the Mall San Pedro office tower Tuesday morning.

The blaze was confined to a small area, and there was no smoke or water damage to other floors of the structure.

The fire was in the administrative offices of Grupo ARCOR, a call center, said the Cuerpo de Bomberos. The call came in just before 7 a.m.

Firemen said that the eight-floor mall tower has a fire protection system and that they were able to use the mall's hoses and water sources without bringing in their own.

The sixth floor contains 1,000 square meters or about 10,764 square feet. The area of the fire was confined to 17 square meters or a bit more than 180 square feet. There was smoke damage to an additional 120 square meters or about 1,292 square feet, firemen said.

The cause may have been an overloaded electrical device that had a computer, printer and other electronics plugged into it, firemen speculated.


Glacial melt water added
to sea level rise calculations


A new study says that melting mountain glaciers around the world will cause the oceans to rise about 12 centimeters by 2100. That's about 4.7 inches.

The study explains some disparities in the measurement of sea level rise. Part of the increase could not be attributed to any specific reason.

The work was done by Valentina Radic of the University of British Columbia and Regine Hock of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Professor Hock specializes in mountain glaciers and ice caps.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that from 1964 to 1970 there was a 1.7-millimeter rise in the sea levels, about .067 of an inch. About a millimeter was explainable.

The researchers article in Nature Geoscience seeks to add the anticipated melting of glaciers to estimates of the increases in the level of the world's oceans

Coastal residents of Costa Rica could face total sea level increase of between 75 and 190 centimeters by 2100, according to one study by European researchers.  But that study may not have taken glacial melt fully into account.

Converted to the U.S. measurement system, the rise would be between 29.5 and 74.8 inches. That would inundate much of the existing beach properties, at least those held in concessions in maritimes zones and drastically alter the country's geography. The spit that holds Puntarenas centro would vanish under water. The higher levels also would make even more land vulnerable to storm surges of the type that some Pacific coast residents now face because their properties are too close to the sea.

Helsinki University of Technology and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research reported the study jointly in 2009. The paper was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

The new report suggests that the increase would be somewhat higher.

Find out what the papers said today in Spanish By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Here is the section where you can scan short summaries from the Spanish-language press. If you want to know more, just click on a link and you will see and longer summary and have the opportunity to read the entire news story on the page of the Spanish-language newspaper but translated into English. Translations may be a bit rough, but software is improving every day. When you see the Summary in English of news stories not covered today by A.M. Costa Rica, you will have a chance to comment. This is a new service of A.M. Costa Rica called Costa Rica Report. Editor is Daniel Woodall, and you can contact him HERE!

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Brooklyn Museum photo