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Costa Rica Expertise Ltd http://crexpertise.com E-mail info@crexpertise.com Tel:506-256-8585 Fax:506-256-9393 |
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NBA basketball camp
here
fizzles for several reasons By the A.M. Costa Rica staff International Sports Academy had to cancel its basketball camp, and now workers there are wondering how to take the next step. The camp was scheduled to take place this week in the Gimnasio Nacional in Parque la Sabana, but due to complications with the National Basketball Association in the United States and with the staff of the camp, the event was cancelled at the last minute. Maritxu Chastellier works with the International Sports Academy and has spent the last week working around the clock. "Everything was going well until the end of last week," she said by telephone Thursday. Late last week, the academy was informed that one of their celebrity NBA coaches, Craig Hodges, would not be able to attend the camp due to family obligations. "We couldn’t very well have held the camp without the coaches we promised," Mrs. Chastellier said. "It was a difficult situation, however, because we were only a few days from the opening of the camp." The situation worsened early the next week when the National Basketball Association contacted the academy. Ayala Deutsch, vice president and senior intellectual property counsel of NBA Properties, Inc. sent a message stating that the academy did not have the right to use the association's logo. According to Cesar Acavedo of the National Basketball Association, "the group misunderstood their relationship with the league." "Things have been straightened out with the academy," he said. "The league does have plans to work in Central America. . . ." The International Sports Academy still plans to host a basketball clinic
in Costa Rica, but workers are just beginning to plan the event. "We have
found a few sponsors and we might be able to host a camp in January," Mrs.
Chastellier said. "If not in January, however, we will probably have the
camp in March."
Top Christian singer
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Unity-Costa Rica will he holding an open-air bilingual service Sunday beginning at 10 a.m. The service will be followed by a lunch at 11:30 a.m. At 12:30 p.m. the Salvation Army Angels party will be opened by the Emmy award-winning singer Faith Rivera. Faith Rivera is from Hawaii and her Wonder album has been nominated as the Christian album of 2004. Juan Enrique Toro, Unity minister, said that Faith Rivera is a member of Unity in Hawaii. She offered to sing at the service when she chose to come to Costa Rica for a vacation. More information is available at 203-4411. Unity is located 350 meters south of the Shang Hai restaurant in Piedades, Santa Ana. Embassies, government
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Public and governmental offices will be closed during the Christmas holiday. Below is a list of the hours of those offices. The British Embassy will close on Friday, Dec. 24, and will reopen for three days on Wednesday, Dec. 29. The embassy will then close again after normal hours Friday, Dec. 31, until Tuesday, Jan. 4. The Canadian Embassy will be closed on Monday, Dec. 27, Tuesday, Dec. 28, and on Monday, Jan. 3. The U.S. Embassy will close on Friday, Dec. 24, and will reopen on Monday, Dec. 27. The Embassy will then remain open through Wednesday, Dec. 29, and will reopen Monday, Jan. 3. All executive branch government employees in Costa Rica have their last day of work today. Offices will reopen Jan. 3. The courts will close midday Friday, Dec. 24, and will not reopen until Monday, Jan. 17. A skeleton crew will handle criminal cases that come up during the break, and employees will be available to take complaints at the Judicial Investigating Organization. Those who need to leave the country with a car, the Registro Nacional will be filing exit certifications from Tuesday, Dec. 21, through Wednesday, Dec. 23, and again from Monday, Dec. 27, through Thursday, Dec. 30, from 7:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. at the main location in Zapote. Hospitals and other emergency facilities will remain open. Pair held in thefts
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Two suspects were arrested Thursday in connection with thefts from cars in the downtown area of San José. The two, Iris Trejos Mora, 38, and her daughter Ivannia Carvajal Trejos, 23, were arrested at their home in Los Filtros, Alajuelita. The thefts were carried out in commercial centers in and around San José by persons using a vehicle to cruise parking lots. Cars which had valuables in them were targeted. The thieves parked close to the car and then broke into it, stealing items that were left by the owner. |
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with the observations of Dr. Lenny Karpman Click HERE! |
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with more observations of Dr. Lenny Karpman Click HERE! |
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‘Tis the season for trays of hors
d’ouvres, rich sweets and lots of alcohol. Small offerings of finger food
art with large flavors are among my passions.
Hanging out in the second row from the tray bearer brings me in earshot of the guests and fellow gluttons. It’s fun to hear others do as I do and guess ingredients. When the majority agrees that the undertaste is salty walnut puree and I think it is anchovy paste, I go to the kitchen and ask. My palate is fairly sensitive, but, not rarely, others’ are better. It becomes an opportunity to learn more about flavor and relearn a necessary quarter cup of humility. What I find most entertaining is the way people decide to eat a second chocolate dessert or another glass of red wine because "my doctor says it is good for my heart." Another oft repeated phrase, "I only drink wine. The alcohol in it is better for you than whisky or beer." My favorite was uttered by a man twice my substantial girth who had a huge hunk of fruit and nut cake covered with chocolate sauce : "I have to keep up my flavenoid and lycopene intake. Can’t have those dangerous free radicals swimming around my bloodstream." OK, so what is the real skinny? Red wine contains a substance from the skins of grapes that is a mild blood thinner. Red table grapes, grape leather or grape jelly work as well. Another substance, an anti-oxidant flavenoid, scavenges some of those destructive free radicals and improves the ability of vessels to stretch, both good properties, but the substances are very common in nearly all fruits and vegetables and particularly in a small handful of nuts or a helping of berries. The best way to get cancer protection from lycopene is to eat processed tomato products like ketchup, spaghetti sauce and gazpacho along with other vegetables. Comparable numbers of ounces of alcohol from cans of beer, glasses of wine and hard stuff over rocks are identical in your body. Flavenoids are anti-oxidants and do have a beneficial effect on coronary artery health, but sickness and death secondary to the regular ingestion of highly addictive alcohol and calorie rich and saturated fat rich chocolate treats create much more harm than good. Wine offers less clot protection than a baby aspirin a day. If everyone adhered to the two-glasses-of-red-wine-a-day advice, the number of premature deaths would increase exponentially from liver failure, cancer, cardiomyopathy (flabby heart muscle), automobile accidents and domestic violence. Chocolate cakes and candy are particularly harmful for people with tendencies toward abnormal lipids, obesity and diabetes. And to repeat an earlier column, beware the toxic trans fats in nearly all commercially baked pastries, creams, pie crusts and whipped toppings. My message is not "Thou shalt not!" but don’t make bad choices predicated on misinformation. Here are three unusual, easy to prepare, cocktail party finger foods from my kitchen to yours: |
1.) Clams in the shell. Ingredients: Live clams in the shell (you can also use frozen mussels), cilantro leaves, Hoisin sauce (dark brown sauce sold in jars in Chinese markets and upscale supermarkets). Procedure: Rinse the sand off the clams, steam them open in a little water and discard any that don’t open. After they cool, lift clams out of their shells, separate shell halves, rinse prettier half of the shell and line it with two cilantro leaves — shiny side up. Set a clam body back in the shell and top with a dot of Hoisin sauce out of the jar, no bigger than a small pea (use twice the amount for frozen mussels). Serve at room temperature. People will pick up the shell and eat without utensils. Have a dish for the shells. 2.) Potatoes and caviar. Ingredients: For 40 bocas, 20 thin-skinned, yellow flesh, small potatoes about ping pong ball size, a small container of sour cream and a small jar of black, yellow or red caviar. Procedure: Cut the potatoes in half. Slice a thin strip from the underside of each half so they can stand without falling over, make a shallow well in each larger surface with a melon scoop. Boil just until cooked but still firm. When they cool, pat dry, put dollops of sour cream into wells and top with enough caviar to nearly cover the sour cream. Eat at room temperature with fingers. 3.) Scallops, Bacon and Optional Wasabi Cream Ingredients for 24: A dozen frozen sea scallops, a dozen thin strips of bacon, two dozen toothpicks, a half teaspoon of Wasabi paste (Japanese green horseradish) and a half cup of sour cream. Procedure: Pat scallops dry and cut in equal halves. Wrap each half in half strip of bacon and skewer through and through with a toothpick. Broil them in a single layer until the bacon is barely browned. If you broil too long, the scallops will be dry and lose flavor. Drain on paper towels and arrange on their sides. They are fine as is, but for extra pizzazz, mix Wasabi paste and sour cream and spoon a small dollop on each bacon wrapped scallop. Eat as finger food with existing toothpicks. Have a cup for the toothpicks. |
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with the observations of Dr. Lenny Karpman Click HERE! |
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Crooks made contact with employees working for Credomatic, the credit card company, and obtained information that enabled them to impersonate customers. As a result, they were able to use false credit cards to steal upwards of $100,000 in goods from merchants. Five simultaneous operations carried out in the early hours of Thursday resulted in the arrest of five suspects in the case. Four persons were arrested in San Jose and one in Nicoya. The judicial Investigating Organization said that |
in the Urbanization Vizcaya Roger
Mendez, 51, and Mario Pastor Gomez, 30, were detained. In Calle Blancos,
Carlos Jiménez Codinez, 31, was detained, and in San Antonio de
Desamparados the person held was Jimmy Chinchilla Arias, 30, they said.
In Nicoya, Himer Vega Varolla, 31 was detained, agents said. Two are believed
to be employees of the credit card firm.
According to investigators, conmen acquired lists of former Class A clients who had owned Platinum credit cards. Then with false identification the crooks converted themselves into the credit card owners. The thieves then went out and bought electrical appliances, furniture, jewelry, cellular phones and video games using the fake cards, agents said. |
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Security officials are setting up a special unit to guard embassies and other diplomatic locations. The restructuring comes less than five months after an on-duty policeman killed three persons at the Embassy of Chile in Barrio Dent. On stipulation for entry into the new special unit will be periodic psychological evaluation, according to a release from the Ministerio de Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública. The man who did the killings at the embassy July 27, José Orlando Jiménez Jiménez, 54, had been assigned there from the local Fuerza Pública detachment and had worked at the location for five years. The special unit will have 136 members to cover the |
diplomatic sites. The unit will be
headed by a captain, a university graduate, with at least six years of
police experience. Members will undergo special training at the Academia
de la Fuerza Pública.
The killings at the embassy caused great embarrassment among Costa Rican officials. The embassy guard apparently had a long-simmering difference with some of the diplomats at the location. The creation of the special unit is the recommendation of a commission that was set up to study the circumstances leading up to the killings last July. The unit will be backed up with vehicles, Internet connections, telephones with international access and other tools so supervisors can keep in close contact. Those chosen for this special duty will be screened for suitability, said officials. |
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