Motorists who dodge potholes perhaps should be worrying about bridges.

The Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes said Thursday that some 30 bridges in the country are more than 30 years old and are showing signs of wear. The bridges are on some of the nation’s most well-traveled routes.

The Japanese Agency of International Cooperation is entering into an agreement to help Costa Rican officials set up a program to maintain and rehabilitate the bridges.

One of the bridges is just north of San José on Route 32, the main highway to the Caribbean coast. The 306-meter (995-foot) bridge crosses the Río Virilla. Other suspect bridges on the same route are over the Ríos Toro Amarillo, Reventazón, Pacuare and Chirripó.

Four suspect bridges are on the Inter-American Highway west of San José. Ministry officials said that workmen make inspections routinely of these bridges but the current program calls for a more detailed examination.

President Gore would
want Cuban vote, too

EDITOR’S NOTE: This letter related to an opinion piece written by Eric Jackson of The Panama News which appears Thursday. The article discussed pardons given four Cubans who came to Panama to blow up Fidel Castro.

Dear A.M. Costa Rica: 

Who was President of the United States in November 2000 when the individuals entered Panama with the explosives? Who was (and still is) a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee at that time?

Did you hear a peep out of either one of them concerning your information? Of course not.

Surely the Embajada Americana in Panama let Bill's administration know about this. Surely they informed the Senate's Intelligence Committee where Senator Kerry sat as a member about this. Where was the outrage from the powers in charge at the time? Where were Bill and Al Gore then? Where was Senator Kerry's insistence that those people be "brought to justice"? Where was the demand from the Bill's U.S. State Department that these U.S. citizens be extradited to the U.S. for trial?

You know the answer. They are liberals, the folks you like. You would never say anything if Gore was president today instead of President Bush. Don't even hint that this story would have ended differently if Al were in charge, he would want the South Florida Cuban vote at least as much, maybe more, than you claim President Bush does. 

By expressing your opinion that you cannot support the President because these guys went to Florida and got a rousing reception, you imply that Senator Kerry was and is in favor of bringing those folks to justice. Please refer me to Kerry's statement to that effect. You can't because it does not exist. In the unlikely event that you do produce one that is valid, I'll make certain all of the news media in the south of Florida, especially the Español newspeople, become aware of his position. Of course by then, he will have flip-flopped his position. 

What a flake! Perhaps you should put your article in memo form and send it to Dan Rather at CBS. Maybe they would put it on 60 Minutes or 60 Minutes II. That would thrill all of the liberals in La-La-Land, the only ones still watching anything on CBS and claiming that it is true.

Riteve S y C, the vehicle inspection company, will close the doors to its 16 stations around Costa Rica on Monday and Tuesday.

A company spokesman said the firm was doing this in recognition of El Día del Encuentro de Culturas  Oct. 12, but that also is the day a major march is planned in San José. Some participants in the march oppose the current inspection system.

The company also noted that the Instituto Nacional de Seguros requires a valid inspection certificate for vehicles for owners to pay the annual right of circulation.  The firm urged persons who do not have an inspection to get it done this month.

Puppet show is Sunday

Two Guys with Puppets from the U.S. state of Minnesota  will be presenting their variety show Sunday and again Oct. 17 at the Teatro Eugene O’Neill in the Centro Cultural Costarricense Norteamericano.

The show revolves around the dreams of a child and involved some 30 marionettes and puppets, each with their own personalities.

The two individuals are Tom Davis and Wayne Krefting, both of Minneapolis.

Three of us had four appetizers, two entrees, including the most expensive special for ¢8400, three glasses of chardonnay, mineral water, two coffees and one dessert for less than ¢35,000. 

Our friend Joanne is critical of most things. She admits that very little pleases her without qualification. She proclaimed that her meal at De L’Ola del Mar was "better than any I have had in eight years in Costa Rica and as good as the best I have had in New York City, for at least five times the price." We, too, were delighted with our meals, with perhaps a little less hyperbole. 

Let me confess to one of my prejudices. I enjoy artistic presentations, but when food is arranged in a small space in the center of an oversized platter like a Calder mobile, taller than it is wide and is lost in the vastness of Pollack-like splashes of seven different colored but flavorless drizzles, I am put off by the pretentiousness, lack of focus on flavorful food and small portions. 

At De L’Ola del Mar, portions are generous, flavors exhilarating and presentations artistic without garish excesses. In our Tico world, corvina and ceviche are available everywhere but a few gas stations and hardware stores. It isn’t easy to stand head and shoulders above the fish house masses. 

Aside from choosing fillets of snapper, sea bass and mahi mahi with perfect thickness and size, Chef Edgar Alvarez Ramírez never overcooks them. His sauces have distinct imaginative personalities that compliment the seafood without overpowering it. Despite the national sweet tooth, he seems to lean pleasantly towards the tart side of the spectrum. 

Chef Alvarez avoids the trap of mixing too many essences. Try tasting each sauce alone as you would a glass of wine at a tasting. You will be pleased. He offers a bold menu with unconventional variety for Costa Rica. Drawn to the unusual, I opted, at different times, for New England clam chowder, oyster salad, duck confit and Spanish anchovies. I am from New England and love great chowder. 

To borrow a superlative from Joanne, it was the best: no hint of flour, a rich reduction of cream and butter, redolent with baby fresh clams including a few still in their shells, no hint of celery salt or bacon bits, just a generous bowl of ambrosia. 

The cauliflower with egg flower and truffle oil in front of my wife was velvety smooth, perfectly balanced and gorgeously presented. The egg looked like a lotus blossom along side the truffle oil. The salad portion of the oyster dish was a nice melange of greens with a tasty vinaigrette. The four large sweet oysters sat on a canary yellow bed of granita-like frozen citrus frappe, deliciously tart, a wonderful contrast in texture, appearance and taste.

Dr. Lenny Karpman on our food

The confit and anchovies were also quite good. 

My wife loved her mahi mahi on avavado couscous. Joanne is still talking about her snapper atop sweet potato puree adorned with succulent langostinos. On one occasion I ordered a main course special of large squid body stuffed with mushroom duxelle. It is almost impossible to prepare at home because the squid can be rubbery when steamed or pasty when baked unless done properly, and the filling needs to be heated through. It was perfect. 

If you can still manage dessert, the crepe in orange sauce with cointreau is better than a trip down crepe Suzette memory lane. It is not flamed and doesn’t smell of lighter fluid. 

The wine list is impressive. The coffee is strong. The room is elegant in its simplicity, sophisticated and understated with clean lines, draped ceiling, ebony chairs, white linens and two unadorned arched doorways that add a Mediterranean feel. The small dining room was crowded with well-dressed people (smokers banished to a terrace) yet conversation was easy. The wait staff is knowledgeable, attentive, unobtrusive and very professional.

Rating System: + not worth the effort * ok ** good *** very good **** superb, worth a special trip

A peanut butter query

Dear Dr. Lenny,

I love American peanut butter. My wife fears for my waistline and heart. She says that they are full of fat and sugar. Which of the big three, Skippy, Peter Pan or Jiff is the least harmful? 

That only means that they contain less than one gram per serving. The FDA lets them call any amount under one gram, zero, even if it is nine tenths of a gram. Jiff has a gram less fat and a half gram less saturated fat than the other two. For carb watchers, they are all low (6-7 grams per serving.) You might want to spread it thinner and perhaps less often.

This is a country exhausted by allegations of corruption. Each day new personages are paraded before the waiting reporters at the Tribunales de Justicia. Officials, wives, their advisers all have dates with prosecutors.

The country suspected hanky panky among the elite. But disclosures since June have cast a cloud over two former presidents, including one who now heads a major international organization, plus major institutions.

The atmosphere is similar to 1991 Russia when solid citizens learned that Lenin, Stalin and their other icons had done some very bad things.

A number of scandal figures have overlooked their right to remain silent and are incriminating, perhaps unjustly, all their friends.

Meanwhile, television and newspaper reporters seem to have new startling disclosures each day from mysterious sources.

The twin scandals involve a loan from Finland that was used to purchase medical equipment and supplies from that country. Politicians and others seem to have skimmed off $9 million of the $39 million loan as a commission.

President Abel Pacheco wants to lead a parade against corruption Tuesday. But Pacheco has his own scandal of unreported campaign contributions, some from illegal sources. So does his former opponent, Rolando Araya of the Partido Liberación Nacional.

The current scandals seem to have snagged mostly members of the Partido Unidad Social Cristiana, which has been in power for six years. But the second shoe has not yet dropped.

The scandals stem from acts two years or more old.

On a world scale, the scandals are not record breaking. $2 million here, $2 million there.

Compare that with allegations that the Oil-for-Food Program involving Iraq was looted by Saddam Hussein and international diplomats for billions.

But the scandals here do provide fodder for many expats who saw corruption at the root of the government’s investigation into a string of high-interest borrowing operations. 

These unregistered operations lasted for years taking mostly foreign money and paying interest of 3 percent a month.

The definitive report on how they managed to stay out of legal troubles for so long has yet to be written.

Meanwhile, Rodríguez continues to head the Organization of American States. He is three weeks into a five-year term.

Weather and disaster experts will be meeting today on El Niño and what it can mean to Costa Rica.

Some meteorologists warn that a weather pattern known as El Niño may reemerge in the next few months, raising concerns of drought in Southeast Asia and Australia, and flooding in parts of the Americas.

An El Niño occurs when the ocean surface off the western coast of South America warms up more than usual. The warmer ocean alters wind and rain patterns over much of the world, causing drought in some areas, such as Southeast Asia and floods in both North and South America. 

The pattern often is noticed late in the year, the 

The session today is organized by the Comisión Nacional de Prevención de Riesgos y Atención de Emergencias and the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional.

The dry season should be slightly longer this year and the average temperature will be about 1 degree centigrade above the historical average, a weather estimate said.

Already the rain from the current rainy season is below average, the institute said.

The session today will consider agricultural effects as well as possible problems with drinking water supplies and water for hydroelectric generation.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Praising the contributions of international students at U.S. universities, prominent senators say they are determined to ensure U.S. visa policy does not hinder legitimate educational exchange. 

At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Wednesday, lawmakers and representatives of U.S. universities agreed high international student presence on U.S. campuses is in the nation's interest and that the twin goals of U.S. visa policy — secure borders and open doors — must be achieved. 

International educators charged that some post-9/11 U.S. visa policies intended to bolster security have made obtaining a student visa "inefficient, lengthy and opaque," reduced the number of foreign student applications to the United States and made it more difficult for U.S. colleges to compete with other nations for students. Educators warned visa requirements must not become a roadblock to U.S. higher education and said ensuring the United States is a destination of choice for students from other countries is integral to national security and should be a U.S. priority. 

International student enrollments at universities in countries such as Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom increased by 10, 15, and 23 percent from 2002 to 2003. According to the Institute of International Education's "Open Doors 2003" report, the number of international students studying in the United States increased by 0.6 percent for the 2003-2004 academic year, following increases of 6.4 percent in the 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 academic years.

He noted that the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs is now adjudicating student visa applications more efficiently than when new security procedures first took effect.

Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee proposed that the Senate convene a roundtable meeting of international educators and administration officials in 2004 in order to identify specific administrative and legislative actions that could create a more efficient and secure visa process. 

University of Maryland President C.D. Mote told lawmakers intense competition for students, difficulties in obtaining a visa, and efforts of other nations to "stop brain drain" and keep students in their own country, are three compounding factors that have led to a significant decrease in applications at his university — down 36 percent since 2002.

Mote described the university's technical training programs that have brought over 200 managers since 1995 from Jiangsu Province in China for training on economics, commerce, governance, democracy and political-justice systems. 

However, in 2004, a group scheduled to participate in an economics training course has experienced delays in visa processing, he said. 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Violence has returned in Haiti's capital, where armed gangs have taken to the streets in the slums of Port-au-Prince. The Haitian National Police, backed by U.N. troops, are struggling to regain control of the city. 

Enraged supporters of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide patrol the narrow alleyways of downtown slums, torching cars, blocking roads, and ransacking stores. Gunfights and machetes have taken the lives of at least 19 people and wounded more than 46. Since Thursday, three police officers and one former army officer were decapitated in what the violent protesters are calling Operation Baghdad.

Government officials blame the violence on armed factions of Aristide's Lavalas party, known locally as chimeres. The chimeres are calling for the return of Aristide, who was ousted by rebel leaders earlier this year. They are also demanding an end to the U.N. stabilization mission to Haiti, which they call an invasion.

Gen. Amerigo Salvador commands the Brazilian forces, which form the largest contingent of U.N. troops. He says his primary mission has been to disarm the gangs and former military officers. But lack of personnel has been a major problem.

Salvador says that the U.N. mission was planned for 6,700 troops, but to date, only 2,700 have arrived. He says his troops are overstretched, they can not be everywhere at once.

Wednesday, Haitian police and U.N. troops moved into the slum of Belair, arresting over 75 people. Yet no guns were recovered in the arrest, prompting U.N. officials to say that arms have been hidden in other parts of the city.

Former rebel leader Ravix Remissainthe issued an ultimatum to Haitian authorities to control the violence. Otherwise, he says, the rebels will launch their own operation against the Lavalas loyalists.