 |
 |
Your daily |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||
 |
| A.M. Costa Rica Second newspage |
 |
||||||||
| Home |
Tourism |
Calendar |
Classifieds |
Entertainment |
Real
estate |
Rentals |
Sports |
About us |
|
|
|
|||||||||
 |
| Costa Rica Expertise Ltd http://crexpertise.com E-mail info@crexpertise.com Tel:506-256-8585 Fax:506-256-7575 |
 |
Click HERE for
great
hotel discounts
|
|
in Robert Cohen murder By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A man suspected of being a hit man and kidnapper of U.S. citizen Robert Cohen haS been arrested in Chicago. FBI agents arrested the man, identified as Matthew Francis Nolan, 40, as he left the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse for a bankruptcy court hearing. Costa Rican officials have been looking for him after his name came up in the investigation of the March 6, 2005, kidnapping of Cohen, a man with roots in Florida who split his time between Costa Rica and Nicaragua. A three-judge court in Limón gave a Honduran citizen 27 years in prison after convicting him in May 2007 of the murder of Cohen. The same panel said there was not sufficient evidence to convict a second suspect, a woman named Anabel Chacón Sánchez. The panel said that her participation in the crime was not clear. Sentenced was Luis Alonso Douglas Mejía. The panel gave him 25 years for the murder and two years for depriving Cohen of his liberty. At the time, investigators said that the U.S. citizen who was a hit man and the person who arranged Cohen's kidnapping still was at large. Cohen was grabbed as he left the Intercontinental Hotel and taken to a cabin in the Provincia de Limón where he was tortured. The prosecution said that he was abducted, beaten and murdered as a lesson for losing the $7 million in a business transaction. As a result of the trial, the possibility emerged that Cohen may have been falsely accused and killed for no reason. Both Cohen and another man were employed by the same development company. But the other man committed suicide and may have been the person who took the money. The money had not turned up, Cristian Ulate, the prosecutor on the case, said at the time. Cohen, 64 at the time of his death, was a developer from Granada, Nicaragua, who was found at the Río Chirripó. Cohen was grabbed when he left an Escazú hotel to exercise about 7 a.m. Although he had a development project in Grenada, Cohen was based in Costa Rica. Ulate said that Cohen had made three telephone calls while he was being held. He made a desperate attempt to disclose his location. He spoke with his wife, Susan Cohen, and a daughter, Alisha Cohen, said Ulate. In his third and final call, Cohen told his wife that he was going to drink a limonchelo upon his release. That is the name of a drink he used to tell them that he was being held near Limón, said Ulate. Ulate at the time of the trial identified Nolan as the second suspect. He said Nolan entered the country on a false passport. The man already convicted of the crime has identified Nolan as has Ms. Chacón. Prosecutors are expected to try to get him to confirm the identity of the intellectual author of the crime and the man who hired Nolan. New notification law goes into effect today By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Today is the day that a new notification law goes into effect in Costa Rica. The new law allows a party in a judicial proceeding to be alerted to the case by e-mail, letter, fax or by a visit from a notary. This greatly expands the flexibility. Now notification is done by agents of the court, Fuerza Pública officers or privately by a more complex method. The law also provides that individuals and corporations have to have a permanent e-mail on file with judicial authorities. That system is not yet set up. Notification has been iffy in Costa Rica. Frequently individuals find themselves halfway through a court case without even knowing it exists. Under the new law, a person will be presumed to be notified on the day after an e-mail or fax is sent. A postman will show notification by mailing a return receipt. The Consejo Superior del Poder Judicial is empowered by the law to create a center of notification. Canadian firms visiting for Heredia expo displays By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A commercial mission of six Canadian construction companies will participate in Expoconstrucción in Costa Rica Wednesday through Sunday. The expo is a display of construction products and techniques. The Embassy of Canada said the mission would be here to take advantage of the Canadian-Costa Rican free trade agreement that allows materials from the north to enter the county at a tariff 6 percent lower than similar goods from other countries. Some of the companies are Merit Kitchens, Icynene Inc., Structuremarine, Micro-Énergies, Prodomo and JAFtech Manufacturing Ltd., said the embassy The expo is at the Centro Ferial in Heredia. This is the first year at that location. The expo used to be held at the Herradura Hotel expo center but organizers said there was more room and better parking in Heredia. Women entrepreneurs show their goods in Puriscal By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
An exposition of products produced by women in agriculture in Puriscal is being held in that town Saturday with the help of the Ministerio de Agricultura y Gandería. The event is the II Feria de la Mujer Agroempresaria and it is scheduled to be part of the International Day of the Woman. Being featured are plants, honey, craft items and all kinds of homemade products, said organizers. About 40 women are expected to participate. The event is in the Parque de Agricultor in Pursical.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A.M. Costa Rica third newspage |
|||||||||
| Home |
Tourism |
Calendar |
Classifieds |
Entertainment |
Real
estate |
Rentals |
Sports |
About us |
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
Portable toilets will keep
Parque Manuel Antonio open
|
|
|
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The tourism institute will donate 120 million colons to keep Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio open. The money, about $214,000, will be used to construct new toilets and a treatment plant at the park. The Ministerio de Salud threatened to close down the major tourist attraction because sewage from staff toilets was polluting standing water in the park. Instead, Friday inspectors closed down the toilets and park personnel will now use portable toilets until new ones can be constructed. The is the outcome of a visit by ministers and other officials for an inspection tour of the park. The park had been featured on local television, a development that generated renewed official interest in the facility, which is on the central Pacific coast. At the same time, María Luisa Ávila, the health minister, said that her inspectors would begin a health sweep of the Manuel Antonio community and nearby Quepos in April. Although unrelated to the park, the inspectors certainly will be looking for secret waste lines dumping sewage into the ocean and streams. The park saga bordered on a soap opera for more than a week as health officials threatened to close it down repeatedly. In addition to raw sewages draining into a lagoon in the park, the television station exposé also documented heaps of garbage and rusting, out-of-service |
official vehicles in a makeshift
junk yard there. The vehicle carcasses
created opportunities for the culture of dengue-carrying mosquitoes. Last week the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, the water company, stripped three beaches in the park of their blue flags. The flags denote environmentally friendly locations. The water company, which maintains the major water testing facility in the country, said it feared runoff from the polluted lagoon would contaminate the beaches. Friday the health minister and the minister of Turismo, Carlos Ricardo Benavides, said that the three park beaches were in an excellent state of cleanliness. The parks are under the supervision of the Ministerio de Ambiente, Energía y Telecomunicaciones, which was represented Friday by Jorge Rodríguez, a vice minister. Park workers blame the ministry for failing to provide sufficient money to maintain the facility and for failing to return a significant amount of the entry fees that tourists pay to visit the area. The decision by the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo appears to rule out the use of composting toilets that had been proposed for the park for the last two years. In addition to the portable toilets now in operation at the park, 10 more will be added within 10 days for use until the permanent facility is constructed, said Benavides. |
|
Storm in U.S. disrupts flight
operations at two airports here
|
|
|
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A late winter storm is sweeping through the eastern United States, and the impact of canceled airline flights is being felt in Costa Rica. Sunday Delta canceled its Flight 411 from Atlanta, Georgia, to San José and Flight 353 from Atlanta to Daniel Oduber airport in Liberia. Continental already has announced that its Flight 1762 from Newark, New Jersey, would be canceled today. Each of those flights were to turn around and make a second flight back to the same U.S. city. The storm caused hundreds of flight cancellations at the William B. Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta, according to news reports there. The airport was closed for a time Sunday, but opened in the late afternoon as the storm moved northeast. Gate delays of up to 15 minutes |
were reported in the
mid-evening. Elsewhere in Atlanta transportation officials were urging residents to delay driving their cars after dark. The slush turned to ice due to low temperatures. Many residents are not skilled in winter driving. Because the storm is moving to the northeast, New York City and adjacent New Jersey are expecting up to 10 inches overnight. Both Delta and Continental have issued weather advisories that can provide passengers with travel options. Daniel Oduber does not have any commercial airline flights scheduled from the northeast today, although information on charter flights was not available. Delta told passengers from its canceled Atlanta flight at Juan Santamaría airport that they would be accommodated Tuesday. |
|
Cockfight raid leads to
confiscation of 28 battling roosters
|
|
|
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Law enforcement officers raided a cock fighting operation in Coronado Saturday night and detained briefly 70 persons including 14 minors, they said. Agents confiscated 28 fighting birds and two carcasses, victims of earlier fights. Some of the live birds had suffered injuries. They were turned over to an agency of the Ministerio de Agricultura y Gandería. The Grupo de Apollo Operacional, the security ministry tactical squad, was involved in the raid at a private home in Calle de Choque. The young man who appeared to be the occupant of the home had constructed a makeshift fighting ring for the birds and cages to hold them. Also confiscated were metal spurs that are fastened to the birds during a fight. |
These types of fights are illegal
under Costa Rica law as a type of
animal cruelty, but the tradition runs deep in the Latin world. Most of the spectators bet on the outcome of the fights. Investigators said the typical bet Saturday was 5,000 colons, about $9. The raid also included judicial officers and Judicial Investigating Organization agents. The Fuerza Pública said that all of the minors were 10 or younger. They said of particular concern was the fact that the youngsters were associating with the men there, and alcohol was being served. The only person detained was a man, believed to be Nicaraguan, who did not have identity papers, police said. |
 |
 |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
| A.M. Costa Rica fourth news page |
 |
||||||||
| Home |
Tourism |
Calendar |
Classifieds |
Entertainment |
Real
estate |
Rentals |
Sports |
About us |
|
| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, March 2, 2009, Vol. 9, No. 42 | |||||||||
|
U.S. anti-drug report says
Costa Rica should tighten controls
|
|
|
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The U.S. government says that Costa Rica should pass legislation that removes contradictions in its offshore banking sector and pass laws to cover the cash flow generated by Internet gambling, dealers in precious metals and jewelry and intermediaries in any business activity that might use cash or non-bank financial institutions. These recommendations are in the International Narcotics Control Strategy Report released Friday by the U.S. State Department. The report said that international drug trafficking continues to threaten U.S. security and highlighted drug problems in countries such as Afghanistan and Mexico. In a section on Costa Rica, the report said that the country is not a major regional financial center but does have an offshore financial sector and remains vulnerable to money laundering and other financial crimes. It listed laundering of illicit proceeds of narcotics trafficking, mainly cocaine, fraud, trafficking in persons, arms trafficking, corruption and unregulated Internet gaming. Bank fraud, especially via the Internet, appears to be on the rise, though there has not been a rise in use of counterfeit currency, the report said, adding that while local criminals are active, the majority of criminal proceeds laundered derive primarily from foreign criminal activity. There was little in the report that could not be obtained by a close reading of the local newspapers. |
The report cited Costa Rican
government figures that more than $589
million had been remitted here as of June 2008 mostly from immigrants
in the United States but said there was no indication that this money
was gained from illegal activities. The report also said that Costa Rica still has to enact legislation specifically criminalizing the financing of terrorism and that if it does not do so it risks being expelled from the Egmont Group of countries fighting the illegal flow of money. The report identified 20 countries, including Afghanistan, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan, as major producers and transit points for illegal drugs. Of those, Bolivia, Burma and Venezuela were said to have failed demonstrably to adhere to international counter-narcotics agreements. The report says Afghanistan slashed opium poppy cultivation by 19 percent in 2008 after two years of record highs. But it says the narcotics industry continues to fund the Taliban insurgency and threatens efforts to establish security in the country. In Mexico, the report says the government has made headway in its fight against drug cartels, but the crackdown has led to more violence as gangs battle each other for diminishing profits. At a briefing Friday, a State Department spokesman said Mexico's government is taking courageous steps to confront the drug problem, and is working in cooperation with the United States. |
|
Fuerza Pública says it
broke up a merchandise scam at Juan Santamaría airport
|
|
|
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Fuerza Pública said it has detained two persons who have been scamming individuals in the vicinity of Juan Santamaría airport. They said the case was unique because the suspects were riding around on a motorcycle. The police said that case involved an airport version of the old customs scam. A man would approach someone at the airport and offer to sell a laptop computer at a very good price. Once the man had the money, he would make an excuse that he had to get the merchandise. Then he vanished with the money. |
This scam has been played for years
in the vicinity of the customs
facilities when a man promised goods that have been unclaimed or with
some other story. But working the scam at the airport is new. The Fuerza Pública detained a man identified by the last names of Dipalma Vargas, as he was negotiating with an individual. Police said they found receipts on his person for the supposed sale of computers. A complaint a week ago alleged that the man had taken $3,000. Police said that a man on a motorcycle who was involved in the case was the subject of a complaint the previous week that he took $6,000. |
| News from
the BBC up to the minute |
BBC sports news up to the minute |
| BBC news and sports feeds are disabled on archived pages. |
|
| A.M. Costa Rica fifth news page |
|
||||||||
| Home |
Tourism |
Calendar |
Classifieds |
Entertainment |
Real
estate |
Rentals |
Sports |
About us |
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
pricing agency reports By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The price regulating agency has cut bus fares by 5.13 percent for the 712 routes in the country. In all, some 3,589 tariffs have been changed. The adjustment is based on the complex formula that the Authoridad Reguladora de Servicios Públicos uses to compute the cost. Fuel prices play a role. For many local routes, the reduction is just 5 colons, less than one U.S. cent. The biggest cut was 360 colons, some 64 cents on a long-distance route. John will lose head again this Wednesday By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Oscar Wilde's version of "Salome" comes on the Teatro Nacional stage Wednesday in cooperation with the Compañía Nacional de Teatro and the Compañía Nacional de Danza. Salome, a biblical figure, was the stepdaughter of the Roman-backed ruler of Judea. She was the woman who asked as a gift the head of John the Baptist on a platter. In Wilde's interpretation, the story is one of abuse of power, ambition and obsession.The work inspired the opera by the same name by Richard Strauss. The final scene is not for the weak of stomach. The effort is directed by Luis Carlos Vásquez with choreography by Humberto Canessa. Rocío Carranza is Salome. The show is at 8 p.m. General admission is 3,000 colons ($5.36) and a student ticket is half that. Undocumented Nicaraguans found By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A weekend sweep of the Guararí de Heredia community netted more than 30 undocumented Nicaraguans, said the Fuerza Pública. Nine of the individuals were taken into custody. Officers also confiscated small amounts of various drugs. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
|
|
