San José, Costa Rica - Saturday 28 August 2004

1.116 Unique Visitors Daily Average in July!  What's This? 

Updated every day by 8:00AM Central Standard Time

The T-shit of this protestor expresses the sentiments of many protesting against the TLC and the current government policies.. Click for larger image!

Costa Rica in Crisis
Unions, Truckers and Government Talk
Union leaders and truckers and government officials sat down at the bargaining table last night, however, following 45 minutes of discussions, talks were broken off.

OPINION:
What of Today and Tomorrow
In true Costa Rica tradition, this is the weekend and no time for protests, marches and strikes.

What Visitors Think
The most asked question by visitors to Costa Rica during this past week has been, "what this all about?"

Fotos of the Protests:
Monday - Thursday

Costa Rica Expands List of Oil Suppliers
Costa Rica has decided to reduce it's dependency on crude oil from Venezuela due to political problems that nation has been experiencing the last years.

UBC Student Drowns in Costa Rica
A 19-year-old University of British Colombia, Canada (UBS) student who once dreamed of being a synchronized swimmer in the Olympics has drowned in a river-rafting accident in Costa Rica.

Ticos Excel in Technology
Cisco Systems highlighted Costa Rica for its performance in technology and is betting on maintaining its investment in Latin America, by confirming the meaning and need that for the region has the modernization of information technologies.

Favourite Destination
The Spanish traveler, considered the one that consumes the most and spends the most among European tourists, has Costa Rica as his favorite destination, 40 percent of those who came to Central America visited it.

U.S. Latino Leaders Not United on CAFTA
An emotional battle is brewing in the U.S. Latino community over whether a proposed free trade agreement with five Central American nations and the Dominican Republic will bring greater prosperity or despair to the immigrants who have settled in the United States and the relatives they've left behind.

NEWS BRIEFS:
Father Minor Calvo, the priest who is accused of being the principal author in the murder of journalist, Parmenio Medin, has been remanded to four more months of preventive detention.

Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela agree to establish FTA
The Group of Three (G-3), made up of Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela, signed Friday an agreement for the establishment of a free trade area (FTA) that will come into being by 2011, senior officials of the three countries said Friday.

Venezuela withdraws ambassador from Panama
Venezuela announced on Friday night it would withdraw its ambassador from Panama and that President Hugo Chavez will not attend the inaugural ceremony of Panama's President-elect Martin Torrijos.

Panama's Torrijos rejects pardon to 4 Cuban exiles
Panama's President-elect Martin Torrijos on Friday condemned the pardon granted by outgoing Panamanian president to four anti-Castro Cuba-Americans and vowed to take measures to resume diplomatic ties with Cuba. "In accordance with our goal of keeping respectful and cordial relations with all countries of the world, as of Sept. 1 necessary steps will be taken for a prompt normalization of the diplomatic relations with Cuba," said the president-elect.

Colombia agrees to extradite paramilitary chief to US
The Colombian government has approved the extradition of a paramilitary chief of illegal right-wing armed group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) to the United States for drug trafficking, Colombian officials said Friday.

International News from the New York Times
 

SPECIAL REPORTS HEALTH: London Never Further from New York There could hardly be two conferences taking place at the same time whose aims would be further apart than the Republican Party convention in New York and the reproductive health conference in London. Both meetings begin end of this month. The U.S. Administration under President George W. Bush axed funds to UN and other independent agencies providing reproductive health care almost first thing after coming to office. The Bush administration decided to cut funding to a non- governmental organisation (NGO) even if it does no more than provide information on abortion. The London conference called by NGOs to mark ten years after the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994 will assess the damage done by the withdrawal of U.S. support and search ways to get the Cairo aim of reproductive health care to all by 2014 back on track.

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