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Second news page |
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| Costa Rica Expertise Ltd http://crexpertise.com E-mail info@crexpertise.com Tel:506-256-8585 Fax:506-256-7575 |
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 A.M. Costa Rica/Saray
Ramírez Vindas
Drama and color are some of the ingredients of the Festival
Internacional de las Artes 2006 at Parque la Sabana where most of the
action will be this weekend. Sunday is the last day.High court outlaws use
of irritating gas sprays By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Sala IV constitutional court ruled Thursday that prison guards could not use mustard gas against unruly inmates. The magistrates issued the same order about MACE or CN gas, as well as the mustard gas that was used during World War I. Two inmates, Alexander Vargas Rojas and Melvin Calvo Mora, raised the issue with the high court. They are two murderers who were hit with some kind of gas spray when they were engaged in a fight inside the prison. The Sala IV said that the use of such gas violated the constitutional provision against degrading and cruel treatment. The court also ordered Adaptación Social, the agency that runs the prisons, and officials at La Reforma prison in Alajuela not to use similar gas in the future and to educate personnel about the decision. The court also sent the case to the Ministerio Público for investigation to see if any crimes were committed, according to a summary released by the press office of the Poder Judicial. Mustard gas, also called blister gas, was used in World War I and as late as 1988 by Saddam Hussein in Iraq. However, mustard gas has a delayed reaction, taking sometimes as much as four hours to cause blistering and suffering. CN gas was used by U.S. forces in Vietnam, but it has a high level of toxicity, so much of the gas used by police today is of the pepper spray variety, which is far less toxic. The high court said that similar petitions had been rejected in the past because there was no evidence that gas had been used. However, two guards admitted using gas in a report prepared about the fight. Three fairs to welcome visitors this weekend By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Three local fairs take place this weekend for the benefit of tourists and visitors. The Feria Ambientalista Río Pejibaye begins the first of two weekends in Pejibaye de Jiménez some seven kilometers from Tucurrique or 22 kilometers (14 miles) from Turrialba. On the Pacific side the first Expoferia Turística del Oro Verde Montes de Oro, Miramar 2006 opens today for a single weekend. Miramar is north of Puntarenas on the Interamerican highway. Saturday there is a horse parade and Sunday there is an exposition of horses, in addition to the tourist products and food on sale. The third fair is in Laguna de Alfaro Ruiz, and it is the Expoferia Turística del Chiverre Laguna 2006, where the chiverre squash is honored. This fair runs for two weekends, ending April 2. The community is four kilometers from the center of Zarcero on the road to San Carlos. The Pejibaye fair also features a horse parade, and it will be Sunday. Tour guide blocks car and helps arrest pair By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A tour guide blocked a parking lot exit with his van Wednesday to allow police to catch two persons suspected of stealing luggage from tourists. The drama took place at a restaurant on highway 32, the main road from San José to Guápiles and then to Limón about 2 p.m. Two men entered the restaurant and one snatched a tourist's bag. The tour guide saw two suspects trying to leave the parking lot in a vehicle, and he blocked their exit until police could arrive. Detained were a Colombian, 40, and a Peruvian, 37, said the Judicial Investigating Organization.  |
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on our real estate page HERE! |
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Third news page |
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| San José,
Costa Rica, Friday, March 24, 2006, Vol. 6, No. 60 |
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| Chief minister-to-be says there will be new tax plan |
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By Saray Ramírez Vindas
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff The new legislature will get the chance to draw up a concise and simple new tax plan, said Rodrigo Arias, the future minister of the Presidencia. "Costa Rica has to understand that without incomes, we are going to collapse, and it is important to work to
Arias did not say that the executive branch that will be headed by Óscar Arias Sánchez after May 8 will introduce the same law. The fiscal plan that has spent three years in the legislature is some 385 pages. However, he did hint at least a value added tax in lieu |
 A.M Costa Rica/Saray
Ramírez Vindas
Franklin Chang Diaz looks more like a college professor than
an asronaut as he arrives Thursday.of the existing 13 percent sales tax. The future minister met with reporters while the president-elect was speaking with those involved in technology in Costa Rica, including former U.S. astronaut Franklin Chang Diaz's, who is starting up a technology company here. |
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| 21 percent of Ticos keep their nest egg at home |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
More than 21 percent of Costa Ricans who save money regularly keep the cash in their house instead of a bank, and only slightly more than 4 percent put their money in places other than a bank. This is the result of a study done of savings habits by a regional bank. The study said that 69.8 percent of those who save regularly put the money in a savings account, even though many express unhappiness with the interest rate and return. Some 14 percent keep the extra money in a checking account. The study was commissioned by Banco Uno, which has |
financial products the
firm says will promote savings. The study, done by PSM – Sigma Dos Panamá, involved 2,109 persons over the age of 18 in Panamá, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, in addition to Costa Rica. Some 64.5 percent of those questioned said they saved money regularly, and 92 percent save less than $100 a month, mostly in anticipation of some emergency. The bank said that it has responded to the need for higher interest rates by creating its unique Plan Horizonte, which rewards regular savers with an interest bonus. More than 9,000 Costa Ricans are enrolled in the plan, the bank said. |
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Fourth news page |
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| San José,
Costa Rica, Friday, March 24, 2006, Vol. 6, No. 60 |
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| Residents of Iraq did not ask to be sacrificed |
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| It is the beginning of the
fourth year that the United States will be fighting its war in Iraq,
and the news is full of pros and cons concerning whether the war is
going well or not. There continues to be controversy over being
there in the first place. And the polls are showing a steady
reduction in the number of Americans who think it is worth it. President Bush is going public frequently to defend and define his position and rebuild support for the war. And the administration as well as others are putting some blame on the media for the dwindling support because, it is claimed, the media show only the bad news, the violence and destruction, and are not reporting the good things that are happening there. Once in a while someone will point out that since news was invented it is the bad news that is going to get the headlines. Put another way, if in one week, two bombs exploded in New York City and six people were killed in Washington by a suicide bomber, no one would expect the media to headline their stories with the news that rebuilding in New Orleans was going well. Of course, when there is a lull in the violence and killing, there is room for good news. An upsurge in the killing brings a new concentration on the bad news. Someone from the Web forum DemocraticUnderground took the trouble to map the reports of violence in Iraq. He chose to track the phrase “recent surge in violence in Iraq.” In the past 31 months there have been 32 news stories reporting the “recent surge in violence” Some of those, of course, had to be referring to the same surge. But the murder of even one person in the States usually merits more than one news story. That doesn’t leave much room on the front page or lead stories for good news about what is happening in Iraq. During President Bush’s campaign to bring more people to his way of thinking, the phrase “we are |
It made sense to send our troops to Afghanistan because that is where
Bin Laden is. It even might have made sense to send them to Saudi
Arabia to rout out the terrorists because that is where most of them
came from. But Iraq was one of the few countries in the Middle East
where there were no terrorists at least not until President Bush said,
“Bring them on.” It would be the same as if the U.S. had chosen Costa
Rica as the battleground for the Contras to fight the Communists in
Nicaragua and death squads in El Salvador in the 80s. (Actually, I
guess the U.S. was not fighting the death squads, it was helping to
fight the rebels in El Salvador.) |
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| Anti-U.S. crowd traps ambassador in building for two hours in Caracas |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. officials in Venezuela say supporters of President Hugo Chávez burned a U.S. flag, set tires on fire and surrounded a building that the American ambassador was visiting Wednesday, temporarily trapping him inside. Officials say Ambassador William Brownfield was stranded for at least two hours as the demonstrators gathered outside, chanting anti-U.S. slogans. No injuries were reported during the protest. |
The incident took place days after a Venezuelan newspaper printed an
interview with Ambassador Brownfield, who said Washington is concerned
over Venezuela's growing ties with Iran. Venezuela's government often clashes with the United States. Chávez recently criticized President George Bush, following a White House report which called Chávez a demagogue. Although relations are tense, Venezuela is still a key supplier of oil to the U.S. market. |
| U.S. citizen held in bombing of two hotels in Bolivian capital |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wires services
LA PAZ, Bolivia — Authorities have detained a U.S. citizen and his Uruguayan girlfriend in connection with Wednesday's deadly bombings of two budget hotels in this capital. American Lestat Claudius de Orleans and Alda Ribeiro of Uruguay were arrested in the nearby city of El Alto hours after the attacks. A Bolivian man and woman were killed when the first |
bomb
exploded late Tuesday night. An American woman was among several people
injured. The second blast occurred four hours later at a nearby hotel.
Police
managed to evacuate the hotel before the explosion. Both hotels were
destroyed. Police say the two suspects were planning to bomb the Chilean consulate later this week. Bolivian President Evo Morales called the bombings an attack on his country's democracy, and accused the U.S. of sending terrorists into Bolivia. |
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| No English language source gives you so much breaking news A.M. Costa Rica |
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