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updated by 8:00 a.m. CST each day
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It's Cold Baby!
The weather
in San José the last couple of days has left many
wondering when will summer get here.
Strong winds and light rains have been the normal at
a time where it is to be sunny and warm. The
forecast for today, Monday, is a high of 21 Celsius
(70 Farenheit) , well below the normal 28 Celsius
(82 Farenheit) for this time of year.
The National Weather Institute (IMN in Spanish) is
predicting for the Central Valley strong winds,
light rain and cold temperatures for tonight. This
cold spell will continue for another day or so due
to strong northern winds.
Hundreds of
Nicaraguans Left Stranded
For some
Nicaraguans, this year's exodus to visit friends and
celebrate the season with family has became a
nightmare, due to stricter regulations by the
Transit Police.
The number of people and long lines at the Coca-Cola
bus station provoked many to take illegal bus
transportation, in some cases who charge more than
the official bus companies. Transit police stepped
up their patrol of the area.
However, some buses did manage to evade Transit
authorities, but were later stopped either near the
Juan Santamaria airport or in Barranca, Puntarenas,
where they had their license plates confiscated by
police, leaving hundreds of Nicaraguans stranded by
the side of the road.
Transit officials have asked the help of the Fuerza
Publica and the San José municipal Police to help to
control the large crowds at the bus terminal.
Officials estimate about 4.000 people are traveling
daily in the last days before Christmas.
More Wealth and
Poverty in Latin America.
For the first
time in decades Latin America will end 2003 with a
trade surplus and next year all the economies of the
region should expand. However income per capita
remains below the 1997 level and 44% of the
population live in poverty, according to the latest
preliminary report from the Economic Commission for
Latin America, CEPAL, a regional United Nations
office.
Latin America’s economy overall expanded 1,5% in
2003 and for 2004 the forecast is 3,5% given the
strong US and Japanese recovery and excellent
performance of the Chinese economy. The region’s GDP
actually dropped 0,4% in 2002.
The CEPAL report indicates that in 2003, Argentina
experienced a strong 7,3% recovery after contracting
10,8% in 2002.
Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia and Peru grew above 3%,
but Brazil hardly managed 0,1% and the Mexican
economy a mild 1,2%.
Venezuela in 2003 contracted 9,5% after a similar
phenomenon in 2002. In the rest of the region’s
economies “dynamism was scarce and reflected in
growth rates below 2%”.
According to CEPAL the recovery is still
insufficient to revert stagnation in the last few
years and per capita income is 1,5% below 1997.
Actually after six years of negative per capita
growth and stagnant labour markets, 44,4% of the
population equivalent to 227 million people, live
below the poverty line with unemployment remaining
high at an average of 10,7%.
In Central America, the Andean Community and Chile
overseas sales increased 5% and in Mercosur 17,9%.
The combination of greater volumes and better prices
turned 2003 into a record surplus trade year with 41
billion US dollars. And for the first time in half a
century the current account balance of Latin America
was positive, 6 billion US dollars.
Foreign Direct Investments continued to contract and
reached 29 billion US dollars in 2003, 25% below
2002. However remittances from expatriates
represented 33 billion US dollars benefiting
particularly Mexico, Central America and the
Caribbean.
The report also points out that the region received
compensatory funds equivalent to 22 billion US
dollars mostly from the IMF with an increase of
international reserves of 32 billion US dollars.
Inflation continued to drop in 2003 in most Latin
American countries with an average 8,5%.
The exchange rate appreciated against the US dollar
in the Southern Cone after the devaluations of 2002.
In Central America and Mexico local currencies began
a slow depreciation process.
CEPAL estimates that the overall strengthening of
domestic finances following the turbulences of
previous years, stringent fiscal and monetary
policies plus more realistic currency exchange rates
anticipate a positive 2004 with an average growth
above 3,5%.
After several years of receding, real salaries are
expected to grow favouring consumption and
employment.
AeTec Expands Costa Rica
Operation
AeTec, a
leading provider of Electronics Manufacturing
Services, announced the Company has transferred in full to its Costa Rica facility the
manufacturing operations of
two companies and has been awarded a new contract
with automotive product
manufacturer Wetherill Associates, Inc.
Reliability Inc.'s DC/DC and Bias Power's AC/DC
Power Sources Converter
manufacturing operations in Costa Rica have been
transferred to AeTec's Costa
Rica facility, along with select employees, allowing
AeTec to produce a full
line of power supplies. AeTec values this
outsourcing arrangement at more
than $1 million.
AeTec's Costa Rica operation will also begin
manufacturing several
automotive electronic components for WAI Semicon, a
Wetherill Associates
subsidiary. In order to create additional capacity
for their Costa Rican
plant, WAI Semicon awarded this contract to
outsource the electronics portion
of their product to AeTec. The partnership is
expected to add $1 million in
additional business to AeTec's Costa Rica facility.
"These partnerships allow companies to significantly
reduce their
operating costs while still providing uninterrupted
volume support to their
customers," commented AeTec President & CEO, Dan
Stuber. "This has been an
exciting year for AeTec with even more growth on the
horizon in 2004."
While absorbing these production lines into its
Costa Rica operation,
AeTec has expanded its burn-in and test capability
as well as added
transformer and inductor coil winding to its service
portfolio.
"An ongoing challenge within the electronics
manufacturing industry will
continue to be the balance between production of
quality components and cost
efficiency," added Barry Coffey, President & CEO of
Bias Power. "We're very
pleased with AeTec's ability to provide that
balance."
AeTec's new business surge is reflective of turnkey
production designed to
provide value to their customers. With its offshore
capabilities and seamless
two-factory integration model, the Company continues
to offer superior
products at competitive rates.
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Security heightened in US as terror alert raised
Security was heightened Sunday in major cities and
around critical infrastructures in the United States
as the government raised the nation's threat alert
to the second-highest level.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, citing
reports saying terrorists abroad were attempting to
strike the United States in a magnitude which would
"rival or exceed" the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, raised
the threat alert to Orange from Yellow, the middle
scale of the five-color alert system.
"The information we have indicates that extremists
abroad are anticipating near-term attacks that they
believe will either rival or exceed the attacks that
occurred in New York and the Pentagon and the fields
of Pennsylvania nearly two years ago," Ridge said at
a hastily arranged news conference.
As the holiday season is approaching, he also tried
to reassure Americans, urging them not to disrupt
holiday travel plans. "America is a country that
will not be bent by terror," he said.
"Your government will stand at the ready 24 hours a
day, seven days a week, to stop terrorism during the
holiday season and beyond," he said.
Each of the five levels in the terror alert system
is associated with a suggested protective measure
and will trigger specific actions by federal
agencies and local law enforcement.
Orange, which means "high" risk, mandates additional
precaution at public events, necessary security
coordination with armed forces or law enforcement
agencies, and readiness to work at an alternate site
or with a dispersed workforce, restricting access to
essential personnel only.
According to local reports, US officials singled out
New York and Washington as possibly the
highest-profile targets.
In New York, more police would be deployed at
landmarks and financial institutions, checkpoints
would be set up at bridges and tunnels, and patrols
would be increased on waterways and subways, Mayor
Michael Bloomberg said.
The city has remained on Orange level since the
color-coded alert system was put in place in March
2002. "No city is better prepared than New York,"
Bloomberg said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said airspace
restrictions would be set up Monday morning for
small planes, primarily in the Washington area.
Similar restrictions were enacted during previous
Orange alerts.
In Los Angeles, officials said there would be extra
patrols at up to 600 "critical locations." Patrols
at the Golden Gate Bridge and other San Francisco
Bay-area spans have been beefed up.
Airports, nuclear facilities, power plants and oil
refineries around the country have been put under
increased protection, officials said.
Also on Sunday, Ridge spoke about the increased
terror risk to governors and other state officials
in a conference call. The State Department has
reissued a "Worldwide Caution" warning of potential
threats to American citizens overseas.
The unexpected announcement by Ridge came one day
after an audiotape purportedly from al-Qaida leader
Osama bin Laden was aired by Dubai-based Al Arabiya
satellite television. The tape called the US-led war
on Iraq "a new crusade against the Islamic world."
On Friday, the Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite TV
broadcast an audiotape attributed to Bin Laden's top
aide Ayman al-Zawahri threatening new attacks on the
United States.
American intelligence authorities have warned that
any broadcast message by bin Laden and his senior
aides might include signals for new attacks.
General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, told "Fox News Sunday" that intelligence
officials were still trying to determine the nature
of increased terrorist chatter being intercepted
recently. "We take all these intelligence tips very,
very seriously," he said.
Ridge's announcement marked the fifth time that the
US government has raised the threat level from
Yellow to Orange. The threat level was last raised
in May after massive attacks killed dozens of people
in Saudi Arabia and Morocco.
British adventurers' pole-to-pole flight ended
with helicopter crash
Two British adventurers had to give up their attempt
to set a pole-to-pole helicopter voyage record as
their aircraft crashed in the Antarctic on Saturday.
Jennifer Murray, 63, broke her arm and her fellow
pilot Colin Bodil, 53, hurt his chest in the
accident that happened 193 kms north of the Patriot
Hills base.
Both are in stable health condition and will be
evacuated from the Patriot Hills station to Punta
Arenas, Chile, for medical treatment, the expedition
organizer said in a statement.
Murray and Bodil, who set off from New York on Oct.
22, flew down the east coast of the United Sates,
across the Caribbean, central Brazil, Argentina and
reached the South Pole on Dec. 17, the 100th
anniversary of the Wright brothers' first powered
flight in the human history.
The two Britons had planned to arrive at the North
Pole on April 8 and then fly back to New York to
complete their 32,000-nautical-mile (about 59,000
kilometers) circumpolar voyage with helicopter.
Murray has circumnavigated the globe in a helicopter
in 1997. In 2000, she completed the same flight by
herself alone without an autopilot within only 99
days, which still remains as a world record.
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