Two children die in fire
after being left alone


Two children died Monday when fire destroyed their small home in Tucurrique while their mother was taking an older sister to kindergarten.

The Cuerpo de Bomberos said that the blaze may have been caused by the children playing with an open flame such as a candle. The call came in at 9:58 a.m., but there was nothing the firemen could do to save the children because the flames were soaring high in the sky when they arrived nearly 20 minutes later. Firemen needed an additional 20 minutes to control the blaze in the mostly wooden dwelling.

The fire was reported by local Fuerza Pública officers.

Dead is Erick Aguilar Brenes, 4, and Kali Aguilar Brenes, 2. One of the youngsters hid under a bed and the other died trying to open the locked front door. The house was leveled.

Firemen think that the blaze started in a room occupied by the children. The father was at work.


Appliance store holdup
leads to six arrests


Six men held up an appliance store in Pavas Monday and then fled.  Moments later, police picked up the pursuit of a vehicle containing six suspects.

The six, including two minor teens, were finally detained in Villa Esperanza de Pavas where police said they stashed merchandise in the ceiling of a home. All six are being questioned about similar robberies that have taken place in the area recently.

The robbery at the Gallo store resulted in the loss of computers, cell phones and other items valued at millions of colons. The store is in the center of Pavas.

Another report of UFO
makes the television news


During a slow news day, editors would like nothing better than a visit by, say Bigfoot, or complaints about a haunted house.

Or maybe even a UFO. Canal 7 Telenoticias is reporting the latter after its correspondent taped a white object in the night sky Saturday while covering police actions against rowdy teens in Heredia. The head of the Fuerza Pública in Heredia, Daniel Calderón, was interviewed as a witness.

The object appears to be a white disk perhaps of some kind of fabric. But it was far away. It emitted light, so it could have been a prank.

Still Costa Rica has more than its share of flying saucer reports. A.M. Costa Rica staffer Saray Ramírez Vindas has taken unintentional photos at different times of unexplained objects in the late afternoon sky. In one case another news photographer unknowingly captured the same image. Neither photographer knew about the object until they studied their images in the office.

The best speculation was that the world powers are using Costa Rica as a high-speed aerial pathway because the country does not have an air force with high performance interceptor jets.

Teletica and Telenoticias have posted the corespondent's report on the television stations Web site


Two face smuggling allegations


Two Spanish visitors have been detained at Juan Santamaría airport as suspected cocaine smugglers.

The first, a man with the last names of Talavera Aguiar, was detained with what the Policía de Drogas said was 3.7 kilos of cocaine in his luggage. That was Wednesday.

Friday a Spanish woman with the last names of Diaz Fort, was detained at the same airport with what police said was 2.9 kilos of cocaine. Both persons were headed back to Spain.