Great weekend appears
to be highly probable


The weekend weather report is promising.

The Instituto Meteorológico Nacional said that winds are gradually increasing and reducing the rain that fell in some sections of the country this week.

There also is a reduction in the humidity in the atmosphere.  The weather institute said that with the exception of clouds over the Caribbean, there would be generally clear skies today in much of the country.

Some isolated showers are possible in the central and southern Pacific, the Central Valley, the Caribbean and the northern zone, the forecast said.

But there is a down side. The weather report said that ultraviolet radiation would be abnormally high. In addition to sunburn, ultraviolet light can predispose skin to cancer.


AmCham gives Ms. Chinchilla
an agenda for development


The  Cámara Costarricense Norteamericana de Comercio board of directors has met with Laura Chinchilla, the president elect, to promote its version of national development.

The chamber, known as AmCham, presented the president elect with written proposals. The delegation was headed by Luis Gamboa, AmCham president.

According to a press release from the chamber, one of the principal points was that a national policy should not only promote aggressively the attraction of foreign investment but should define with clarity its role in the strategy of developing the country and integrate this foreign investment with domestic production.

The chamber also called for stimulating innovations in domestic production in addition to designing incentives for companies that become more competitive. The goal would be to multiply the benefits of foreign investment for the the nation's businesses, it said.

The chamber said it also urged the creation of a national council of competition to overcome bureaucratic obstacles that hinder efficiency.

The chamber also called for modifying the energy rates which punish heavy users without evaluating their efficiency and for working with the educational system to create professionals in careers that are needed in the marketplace.


Salvador paper convicted
of identifying young killer


An El Salvador court has convicted the newspaper La Prensa Gráfica for publishing the identity of a minor who committed a murder on a public street. The paper’s executives argued that the public’s right to information is above that of a minor’s privacy.

In her April 6 ruling Judge María Isabel Ponce Gallardo of San Salvador’s 2nd Juvenile Court ordered the newspaper’s executive editor, José Roberto Dutriz, to pay a fine equivalent to 50 days’ minimum wage on the grounds that La Prensa Gráfica had violated Article 5 of the Juvenile Criminal Law and Article 8 of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child regarding the protection of a minor’s privacy.

The case arose from the publication of a series of photographs taken by a La Prensa Grafica photographer March 11 and published over the following days in the paper and other local media. The photos showed a 17-year-old student at the precise moment he was attacking another youth in a mid afternoon fight on a public street. The victim died from his wounds in the hospital hours later.

The judge had notified the paper not to publish any more details, which the paper complied with. In the audience brought by the judge, Dutriz and editor Gabriel Trillos testified that after hours of consideration whether to adhere to the law or publish, they decided that in this particular case the prevailing factor was that the editorial principle of the people’s right to know and defense of press freedom were above the legally stipulated right for the protection of minors and children. They added that they protected the victim’s identity by not publishing his photo, but they did decide to show and identify his attacker.

A.M. Costa Rica file photo