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Beach Resort/Hotel, Nicoya Peninsula Visit our WEB at www.brightbay.info
for details then book a room for $55/Night for a couple at the most convenient
significant Resort to San José on the Nicoya Peninsula.
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Auction Sale Tropical home, 5 bedrooms & 2 baths,
Begining bid of $155,000, See it now. Contact Lic. Bernal Vega
All bids or offers to be by e-mail to portillone@hotmail.com |
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Saturday is the International Day of the Woman, and the day is getting more emphasis here because a Nigeria woman is facing death there for having a child out of wedlock. A second round of 100 petition books asking the Nigerian court to spare Amina Lawal were being distributed Thursday, according to the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto. The petition drive was launched last week and also involves the Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres, court justices and lawmakers. The death sentence is particularly repugnant because the method to be used is stoning. The first issue of some 200 petition books already have been available at ministries and other government offices. Each has space for 380 names, said a release from the foreign ministry. |
The books will be collected March
17 and sent through diplomatic channels to the high court in the district
where the woman is being held.
The significance of the day is not lost on others who have more local concerns. The Poder Judicial will hold a program to discuss ways to give women greater access to justice. The discussions will be part of a recreation program held at Centro de Recreo of the Asociación Nacional de Empleados Judiciales in San Rafael de Ojo de Agua in Alajuela, beginning at 9 a.m. National deputies spent a significant part of their legislative session Thursday urging quick approval of a law that would increase penalties for violence against women. Meanwhile, the Ministerio de Cultura, Juventud y Deporte plans a program at the Centro José Figueres Ferrer at the ministry at 5 p.m. Saturday. Information is available at 447- 2178 |
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A Mexican circus, currently performing in Limón, has reported to the Judicial Investigating Organization that one of its prized assets is missing or stolen. The circus, called Hermanos King, told the organization one of its horses was missing Thursday morning, said officials. The last time the horse was seen, it was resting near to one of the circus’ huts Wednesday night, said the officials. According to the officials, the circus members noticed that the horse was missing around 6 a.m., when they were packing up in readiness to move onto Siquirres. The circus members said to officials that the horse |
was valuable to the circus. They
said it was used for many functions.
But the horse is worth much to the circus for other reasons, too. The officials said the horse is valued at $15,000. The horse is described as being twice the size of normal horses. Its breed is Percheron, a horse said to originate from near Normandy in the province of Le Perche in France. This particular Percheron horse is beige in color, has a white mane and has a lame foot, said the officials. It responds to the name, "Chapparo." Anyone with information regarding the horse’s disappearance should call the Judicial Investigating Organization in Limón at 799-1332 or 798-3936. |
Online chat available
for expert on killings By the A.M. Costa Rica staff A U.S. expert on the murder of Honduran street children will be chatting online today from 11 a.m. to noon, Costa Rican time, according to Casa Alianza. They said he is Asma Jahangir, who went to Honduras in 2001 to tour Tegucigalpa, the capital city, and San Pedro Sula, and last year published a report that presents and analyzes information on the extrajudicial killings of Honduran children and juveniles, said Casa Alianza. The report concurs that security forces have been involved with a number of killings and recommends that the government needs to take a more active role in the investigations to signal to the police that their blatant abuse of human rights will not be tolerated or go unpunished, said an announcement from the child welfare organization. Since 1998, more than 1,600 street children and juveniles have been murdered, the organization said. The online meeting with Ms. Jahangir will be in English and is open to the public and will take place at http://chat.dfn.org. Two raids grab four
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Two simultaneous operations by the Judicial Investigating Organization resulted in the detention of four suspected bank robbers Thursday. One was in Plaza América in Hatillo. The other was in Ciudadela 15 de la Setiembre. The men are suspected of involvement in a robbery of a Banco de Costa Rica branch in La Uruca last Friday. Officials said the robbers, who were armed, took 5 million colons, some $13,000. The officials added the robbers fled the scene in a car stolen in Moravia a few days earlier. However, eight people reportedly carried out the robbery, said officials. The investigation is continuing to find more suspects. Chavez says oil company
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez has lifted the emergency status on crude oil and most petroleum exports, telling customers the state-run oil company will be able to fulfill its contracts. Chavez made the announcement Thursday during a swearing-in ceremony for Petroleos de Venezuela's new board of directors. Company officials declared in December that it was impossible to live up to its oil export contracts because of the two-month general strike that crippled the industry and brought the country to a standstill. Chavez says output, which fell to less than 150,000 barrels a day during the strike, is now up to more than 2.6 million barrels a day. It was more than 3 million a day before the strike. But oil workers who were fired because of their participation in the walkout said earlier this week that production is only about one million barrels a day. The opposition called the general strike in December in a failed bid to force Chavez to resign. They say his economic policies are destroying the country. United States bemoans literature ban by Cuba By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States is protesting a Cuban decision to bar U.S. diplomats from importing and distributing books in the Communist-ruled island. Richard Boucher, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, Thursday said the move prevents the sharing of "great books of literature and thought" with the Cuban people. Boucher criticized the government of President Fidel Castro, saying the U.S. government does not place similar restrictions on Cuban officials operating in the United States. Cuban authorities seized the books last month, saying they objected to U.S. plans to give the books to dissident groups and libraries not connected to the Communist government. Boucher said the ban restricts imports as well as books already available in Cuba, which U.S. officials buy for later distribution to independent libraries. Ecuadorian Congress
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services QUITO, Ecuador — Authorities here say a fire has swept through the Congress building, injuring at least two people and damaging part of the structure. Officials say the blaze broke out late Wednesday. At least 12 people had to be rescued from the building but all were unhurt. Authorities say a firefighter was hospitalized for smoke inhalation and at least one other person was injured. The extent of the damage to the building is unclear. Fire officials are investigating the cause of the blaze. Belize set for first re-run
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services BELIZE CITY, Belize — The People's United Party has won the majority of seats in the country's parliament to claim an historic re-election victory. Leader of the party, Prime Minister Said Musa, declared victory Thursday over the rival United Democratic Party. The elections office reported Thursday, that Musa's People's United Party, won 22 seats in parliament. The United Democratic Party won the remaining seven. The results marked the first time a party has won re-election since the Caribbean nation gained independence from Britain 22 years ago. The two leading parties have consistently alternated terms in office. |
State: U.S. shrimp
bans
for protection of turtles Special to A.M. Costa Rica WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of State has banned U.S. imports of shrimp from Honduras and Venezuela harvested from the wild because of inadequate protection for endangered sea turtles, the department has announced. In a release Thursday, the department said that imports of those countries' shrimp harvested by aquaculture and artisanal (non-mechanical) methods are still allowed. "The Department expressed the hope that the import prohibition will be a brief measure," the note said, adding that it could send U.S. experts to work with officials of the two countries on improving turtle protection. U.S. law requires that U.S. fleets shrimping in waters where turtles
are known to migrate must use turtle-excluder devices -- which allow turtles
to escape the shrimp nets. The World Trade Organization has upheld later
U.S. law that applied the same requirements on imported shrimp.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has formulated a simple, inexpensive way for people to purify their drinking water in order to reduce the number of deadly cases of water-borne diarrhea diseases in Latin America, the Caribbean, and elsewhere around the world. The center’s Eric Mintz said the formula, developed with scientific help from the World Health Organization and other support from the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, involves using diluted bleach and germ-resistant jugs to bring cheap, safe drinking water to poor families. Pilot programs using this formula have proven effective in about 15 nations, including Bolivia, Guatemala, Peru, Ecuador, and Haiti, where people often are exposed to drinking water tainted by sewage, natural bacteria and parasites. The goal, Mintz said, is to make the product increasingly available to the more than one billion people around the globe who lack access to safe drinking water. A bottle of the diluted bleach is enough to last a family for a month and sells for about 15 to 30 cents. Mintz said in an interview that in Guatemala, his agency has worked with the Proctor & Gamble Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio, to sell a product called PUR, which consists of a sachet that treats 10 liters of water at a cost of about 10 cents to the Guatemalan consumer. Proctor and Gamble makes products such as toothpaste, laundry detergent, items for baby and feminine care, and snacks and beverages. The PUR formula, he said, involves repeatedly stirring a solution composed of diluted bleach for |
water purification into a narrow-mouth
plastic jug with spigots for disinfecting and storing water. The result
can significantly reduce fecal contamination of beverages in homes and
on food and water sold on the street, said Mintz, who is chief of the center's
diarrhea diseases epidemiology section. He added that the product is also
being test-marketed in the Philippines.
Mintz said food and beverages prepared and sold by street vendors in Latin America have contributed to the transmission of cholera and other diseases because the vendors typically do not have a continuous supply of potable, running water for drinking, cleaning, cooking and preparing beverages. The vendors often use wide-mouth storage vessels that allow dirty hands to dip into the jug, which ends up contaminating the water. The center, working in partnership with the U. N. Children's Fund and Population Services International, a Washington-based non-profit group, hopes to gain further support to expand the water-purification program at the Third World Water Forum, being held in Japan March 16 to 23. Large populations around the world, Mintz said, would greatly benefit from this simple way to take deadly germs out of water. The center's work in purifying drinking water comes as the United Nations released a major study Wednesday which said that 50 percent of the world's population in developing countries is exposed to polluted water sources. Rivers in Asia are the most polluted in the world, with three times the amount of bacteria from human waste as the global average, according to the study. More information about the center's work with purifying drinking water is available at: |
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Louis Milanes |
Luis Enrique Villalobos Camacho |
This newspaper seeks the prompt return of two men who ran high-interest investment operations that have gone out of business. Luis Enrique Villalobos Camacho, 62, was associated with Ofinter S.A., a money exchange house, and with his own private investment business that had about $1 billion in other people’s money on the books. Villalobos closed his business Oct. 14 and vanished. Louis Milanes operated Savings Unlimited and several casinos in San José. He left the country with other members of his firm the weekend of Nov. 23. He may have as much as $260 million in his possession. Both operations catered to North Americans. |
Villalobos had about 6,300 customers. Milanes
had about 2,400.
Villalobos and Milanes are the subjects of international arrest warrants. Associates of both men have been jailed. A.M. Costa Rica has posted a $500 reward for information leading to the detention of either man with the hopes that others will make similar pledges. The newspaper believes that investors only will see some of their money when the two men are in custody. Milanes has few supporters in San José. On the other hand, as the letters frequently on this page show, Villalobos still has supporters who believe that he will reappear and settle his debts. They believe he is in hiding because of a predatory Costa Rican government. |
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