A 30-year-old grandson faces an allegation that he attacked his wheelchair-bound 98-year-old grandmother and stabbed her to death in her own home.

The bloody event took place in the Azul section of Turriabla about 10 a.m. The dead woman was Clemencia Calvo Calvo, who was well-known to her neighbors because she always took the sun on the sidewalk in front of her home.

The exact reason for the attack in not known, but neighbors said they heard the woman screaming for help. They called the Fuerza Pública.

When officers arrived, they found the suspect, identified as Erik Calvo Calvo standing over the body of his grandmother. He was apprehended there although a second report said that neighbors grabbed him first and roughed him up.

According to a statement released by the Ministerio de Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública Thursday the suspect Calvo had previously been convicted of aggravated assault and had displayed mental problems. 
 

Big police response 
aids in trio’s capture

Three suspects, including a U.S. citizen, were detained by officials in Curridabat Thursday afternoon after bandits attempted a robbery at the Preko Factory. According to officials, three men attempted to rob the mechanical workshop and took hostages when the Fuerza Pública arrived. 

In a joint effort between the Fuerza Pública, the Judicial Investigating Organization and the Dirección de Inteligencia y Seguridad Nacional, the three suspects were taken into custody after they escaped from the factory briefly. More than 80 law officers participated.

After attempting to rob the workshop, the robbers fled into a wooded area behind the shop. Officers from the three governmental agencies worked together to track the suspects down.

A Judicial Investigating Organization spokesperson identified the three suspects as Marchena Villegas, origin unknown, Lamond Paine from the United States and Coronado Obando from Nicaragua. 

Officers found a 9 mm weapon and an M-13 submachine gun at the crime scene.

"The action was a success due to the coordination between the different authorities," said Fuerza Pública Comisionado Randall Picado.

Verdi’s tale of prostitute
will be staged here

The Teatro Melico Salazar will be host to the opera "La Traviata," this month and next.  Performers from the Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires, Argentina will present the opera which has been organized by the Asociacion Voces Liricas, Artes Plasticas Latinoamericano and the Artistic Production group Rivadavia. 

The title of the opera "La Traviata," means the lost woman. It was first produced in Venice in 1853. The plot focuses on reformed prostitute Violetta Valery who falls in love with a baron, whom she then marries, moving out of the city. Finding it hard not to go back to her old ways, the protagonist escapes back to the city, breaks the baron’s heart and dies from consumption. 

The three-hour production will feature over 150 workers made up of singers, dancers, orchestra members,  chorus, and technicians. This production will feature three sopranos sharing the role of Violetta Valery. The soprano Holly Gash from Pensacola, Fla., will be one of the performers sharing the role.

It has been 13 years since the opera "La Traviata," composed by Guiseppe Verdi, was performed in Costa Rica. The opera will run for seven days beginning Friday, Feb. 25, with performances Feb. 26 and 27. It also will run March 1, 3 and 5.  Tickets are now on sale at the ticket office of Teatro Melico Salazar and cost $10-$40. Special discounts are available for BAC San Jose and Credomatic customers, group discounts are also available. 
 

Quake near Desamparados

A 2.5-magnitude earthquake rumbled through the Central Valley Thursday, according to the Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica.

Seismologist Caristian Garita of the observatory said the quake struck two kilometers (about 1.3 miles) south of Desamparados at 5:24 p.m. The location is in the mountains south of San José.
 

Intel declares dividend

The Intel Corp. board of directors has declared an eight-cent-a-share quarterly dividend on the company’s common stock, according to a press release Thursday. Intel maintains two manufacturing plants in Heredia.

Intel, the largest computer chip manufacturer in the world, will make the dividend payable March 1.

The Saturday fruit and vegetable market in San Ramon is special. With grandkids or other peewees, we head for Tilapia Park in Turucares, for the fishing pond. Ultimately the "Pura vidas" and "How lovely"s turn into "Am I the only one who’s hungry?"

I suspect that all of us have our favorite wateringholes out on or off the byways. I’ll start the show and tell, but you will have to help expand the list. 

Heading south from Rio Tarcoles and/or Carara, the highway reaches sandy beach Playa Malo in only 15 minutes. Abutting the sand at the southern tip of the beach sits a large seafood restaurant. The bowls of seafood soup are huge and laden with an assortment of tasty morsels. Entire fish, deep fried, ceviche and lobster specials for about ¢4000 are other popular choices. Gourmet fare? Not quite, but the backdrop of brown pelicans lining the gunwales of the beached pangas and sea breezes enrich the fare. 

From my home, I can scan the top of Poas after sunrise for clouds. If there are none, the volcano will usually stay clear until 9:15 or 9:30 a.m. So off we go in a hurry to beat the cloud cover. After viewing the teal waters and yellow fumaroles in the crater and meandering leisurely back to the park headquarters, we proceed back to the Vara Blanca turn off. At Vara Blanca, we turn left to La Paz Waterfall Garden and its marvelous triple threat: butterfly enclosure, hummingbird feeding area and descent through cloud forest along three grand waterfalls. The buffet, offered for a fee at the entrance is fair, but my choice is always to retrace steps to Vara Blanca, and turn left a short way for very good and moderately priced French food at any hour, any day at Colbert. 

If you are not returning to Vara Blanca, but rather, continuing down the Caribbean slope, e.g. for a boat ride on the Sarapiqui River, you will pass an unassuming restaurant and store called Mirador, on the right side of the road about six kilometers past the waterfall bridge. Standard Tico food is served on the back deck before great views and amidst the buzzing of active hummingbird feeders. Beyond are trees full of silver-throated and blue-gray tanagers and a vista back to the falls. In the terrarium, tarantulas or rhinoceros beetles roam and don’t seem to mind being handled. No, of course they are not edible. 

From Grecia northwest (the road ultimately reaches Alajuela) cane dominates the lush hillsides and undulates in the pre-harvest winds. Extraction of the 

Dr. Lenny Karpman On  the  food we eat

sweet juice historically dates back to pre-Columbian times. Los Trapiches houses picnic grounds, a swimming pool, park, a Nineteenth century Scottish waterwheel-driven cane press and an open air cafeteria/soda. The fare during the week is standard sandwiches, casados and gallo pinto.

On Sunday, when the waterwheel turns and the press spews liquid amber for making tapa dulce, from the open stoves emerge olla de carne and picadillo, prepared by hand by two charming local women. The food fills. The rustic ambiance soothes. 

The Saturday fruit and vegetable market in San Ramon is fun. Great variety and cheap prices make it so. When you leave the autopista and head north into town, the road leads to the church square. A little farther north, a tall narrow lime green second church is visible. Behind it is the feria. If you can resist the grilled corn batter cheese pancakes in the market and stay until lunch time, Mino Arias offers very tender inexpensive steaks just off the northwest corner of the town square. Danilo refuses to sell you a cut unless it has been properly aged, therefore fork tender. 

Turucares is a pretty town south of La Garita guarded by a four-way stop sign. A few minutes east of the stop, in the direction of Ciruelas, a sign for Tilapia Park points south down a well maintained gravel road. Trucks from the quarry below chug up and down the road from Monday through Friday, but on weekends, it becomes the gateway to the Land of Oz for tykes who would catch fish. 

Snuggled in the crook of a wooded ravine below the quarry, a manmade fish pond beckons. Munchkins rent hand lines for ¢100 and a bag of bait ample to serve six of them for another ¢100. The rule is simple: you pay market prices for the fish you catch. There are even pondside benches and canopies for shade and buckets for the fish. Best of all, the cool open air restaurant serves whole fried tilapia and good tilapia ceviche, cold beer for the elders and hot dogs, burgers, fries, ice cream and refrescos for the munchkins who love the place. Parents and grandparents kick back and eat and drink. Pura vida. 

The national park Rincon de la Vieja will be closing every Monday until further notice. The decision to close the park was made by the Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía because officials said they do not have enough staff to run it. Closure of the park will begin Monday.

The decision has been criticized by the Camera Nacional de Turismo de Costa Rica or tourism chamber which said that tourist companies will be greatly affected. The chamber said that tourists who have previously planned to visit the park will have to make other arrangements. 

In recent years the park has seen a significant increase in visitors. In 2001 the park received  15,000 visitors, in 2004 the amount rose to 42,000, making it the most visited park in Guanacaste. The chamber said that the financing for the park is insufficient to hire more staff. 

The park contains the active Rincon de la Vieja volcano, thermal pools, bubbling mud pools and lagoons as well as hundreds of different types of flora and fauna. The park has an extension of 14,000 hectares. It is situated on the Cordillera de Guanacaste and Alajuela and is 25 kms. (16 miles) northeast of Liberia. 

The chamber said that the government has to pay attention to such places of high value for the tourist 

Federal officials said that two Florida residents made and marketed unapproved baby formula in the United States, Central America and South America.

The disclosure came Thursday as the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami, Fla., announced the indictment and arrest of Brian Bishop and Patricia Bishop of Broward County, Florida.

They are principals in Baby’s Best Laboratories, which made the product. They also face a securities charge because they issued $1.14 million in stock.

According to a press release, the two defendants, have been charged with a 75-count indictment, which includes wire fraud and the introduction of misbranded food into interstate commerce. 

The produce was called "Baby's Best II," and was distributed for consumption by infants.

The statement says that the indictment alleges that the defendants used several different companies, including 

The defendants contracted a foreign distribution center in July 2000, to distribute the unapproved and expired product throughout Central and South America, said the indictment.

The foreign distributor returned the product, complaining that the product was expired and requested fresh product.  The defendants repackaged the expired, unapproved product with a later expiration date, said the indictment.  In an effort to conceal the fact that their product had not been FDA approved or tested, they removed the following legend from the bottom of the cans: "NOT FOR INFANT FEEDING" and "TEST SAMPLES ONLY," the indictment said.

According to the statement, the defendants also offered investment opportunities in their company, Baby's Best Laboratories and sold approximately $1.14 million in stock. The indictment claims that they misrepresented the product to would-be investors.

A legislative commission that is considering casino controls heard the security minister say Thursday that licensing should remain in the hands of the executive branch of the national government.

Even then, the regulatory power should not be vested in a single minister or small group, said the minister, Rogelio Ramos. He also said that casinos were not in themselves a place of vice.

Consequently he came down squarely in favor of regulation and not prohibition.

The alternative to central government control is 

Another witness, Guillermo Hernández of the Instituto Costarricense Sobre Drogas, suggested that casinos should be required to report transactions of more than $10,000 as international travelers and banks do now.

Ramos is the minister of Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública. He used the example of the United States as a place where casinos are controlled.

Casino legislation has been under discussion for more than two years. Several deputies, members of the committee, said that the goal should be legal casinos that generate employment and taxes for the government.