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updated by 7:00 a.m. CST each day
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Teacher's Strike Continues: Day
19
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Strike to continue unless membership approves all
points
The first reaction was to reject the
Government's proposal. The majority of the teachers
who are members of two unions and have been on
strike for 19 days now, was the latest government
proposal was a joke.
Nonetheless, union leaders will have today to get a
final reaction from it's membership and make a
decision to end or continue the strike.
ANDE and APSE, the two unions, have called meetings
for today. Some teachers are not happy with the
plans, especially those in some rural areas.
The Government has stated firmly that it will not
budge on the pension issue.
Anonos Bridge
re-opened. Finally!
Without
pomp and ceremony, the Ministerio de Obras Publicas
y Transito (MOPT) re-opened the Anons Bridge that
connects west San José to Escazu.
Although the original estimate for the work had been
172 Million Colones ($471.000 Dollars), in the end,
many months later than the original delivery date,
the total cost came to 265 Million Colones ($665.000
Dollars).
According
to MOPT, the increase in costs for the
widening and re-inforcing of the bridge was
due to the fact that the structure had to be
re-built rather than simply re-inforced.
The bridge, which expands 105.15 meters in
length, is now wider - 2 lanes - and has a
increased tonnage capacity from 13 to 32 tons
The completed bridge had been promised to be
finished for last December, when delays
started occurring due to the discovery of the
additional work required. Before Easter, the
original contractor was fired and work came to
a stand still as officials had to make a
formal request to the Comptrollers office
cover the additional costs. |
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According to the MOPT,
the "old" road to Escazu and the Anonos
bridge see an 19.039 vehicles daily, of which 93%
are light vehicles and 7% heavy.
More exports of
antivenin
The antivenin
made in Costa Rica could travel beyond Central
America in order to benefit people who are bitten by
snakes in the United States, South America, and
Africa.
The Clodomiro Picado Institute (CPI) of the
University of Costa Rica currently produces 100,000
vials of antivenin a year, 70,000 of which are
exported to the other Central American nations. CPI
director Dr. Gustavo Rojas said that they would
double the production if, as planned, they obtain a
$1 million loan from the Inter American Development
Bank through the Costa Rican Ministry of the Science
and Technology.
According to Dr. Rojas, with the increased
production they would be able to handle orders
destined to the US, South America, and Africa. The
CPI sells each vial for $15, while
strictly-commercial companies charge 63 times that
amount.
Mexican connection
Led by
confidential reports of unregistered flights of
small planes in the southern Pacific area, Costa
Rican law enforcement agents staged an operation in
which they seized 380 kilos (826 pounds) of cocaine
and a single-engine plane registered in
Mexico.
The police also confiscated two pick-up trucks and a
van, and arrested four Mexicans allegedly involved
in smuggling the drug.
According to a police officer, the pilot of the
small plane offered $25,000 to an agent, who refused
the bribe. Apparently, the cocaine had been brought
by sea and was to be flown to Guatemala or other
places in North America.
Another small plane of Mexican registry apparently
involved in drug smuggling had been abandoned in
Coto 47 -also in southern Costa Rica- last January.
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Argentine parliament to impeach supreme court president
A committee of the Argentine parliament approved a bill on Thursday to start the impeachment course of Supreme Court President Julio
Nazareno.
The impeachment committee of the parliament's lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, also decided to summon Nazareno to a hearing on June 26, at which he is expected to defend himself in 15 lawsuits against him, including violation of the Constitution, malfeasance and misuse of power.
The lower house planned to submit a resolution on the impeachment to the Senate by mid-July. If the resolution is not infavor of Nazareno and the Senate passes it, Nazareno will be removed from office.
The parliament's action against Nazareno followed its attempt in February last year to remove all the nine judges of the court after a constitutional crisis was triggered by a ruling of the court that said former president Eduardo Duhalde's government violated the Constitution by freezing bank accounts at the end of 2001 amid a financial crisis.
Duhalde, who was replaced by Nestor Kirchner in the elections last month, unfroze the 400,000 clients' bank accounts with total deposits of 18 billion pesos (6.5 billion US dollars) at the end of March.
The parliament canceled the debate over the nine judges' fate later for failing to get majority votes to impeach them.
The government was involved in another constitutional crisis soon after Kirchner was sworn in, when the Supreme Court announcedit would begin the trial of a new lawsuit against the government relating to its re-dollarizing of bank accounts.
The tension between the government and the court intensified when Kirchner's call for Nazareno's resignation was rejected.
The impeachment initiative of the parliament, which was controlled by pro-Kirchner members, will undoubtedly benefit Kirchner's efforts to consolidate his power, political analysts said.
Nazareno is seen as a confidant of former president Carlos Menem, Kirchner's rival in this year's presidential race. Menem increased the number of judges from five to nine during his presidency from 1989 to 1999. The four new members are still sitting on the court.
The impeachment of Nazareno is likely to succeed, given the current political atmosphere. If the attempt fails, a more seriousconstitutional crisis will erupt, analysts warned.
Venezuelan central banker concerned over internal debt
Venezuelan Central Bank chief Domingo Maza has expressed deep concerns over the 11-billion-US dollar internal debt accumulated by late 2002, warning that the government may have to default unless action is taken.
Although the public debt represents less than 20 percent of thegross domestic product (GDP), it is not justified to use it to fill fiscal gaps and budget deficits, local daily El Nacional Thursday quoted Maza as saying.
He said the public credit must be reorganized.
Should this situation be allowed unchecked, the accumulation offiscal compromises with the financial system will surpass the immediate paying capacity, Maza said.
The public debt increased by 17 percent in the first five months of this year, reports said.
Maza said the government's revenues have dropped as oil production has not fully recovered. This slowed down the government's pace in paying off its internal debt, he said.
Venezuela is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter with its oil exports accounting for 12.4 percent of the OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) quota.
Half of the government's revenues are from oil exports which accounts for about 30 percent of the GDP.
The Venezuelan oil industry was severely affected by a two-month-long general strike called by the opposition in December to press for President Hugo Chavez's resignation.
Putin holds annual news conference
Russian President Vladimir Putin held here Friday his annual news conference.
The event, the third of its kind since 2001, attracted over 700 reporters from all federal and regional Russian media outlets as well as foreign journalists from 30 countries. Over 100 TV reporters and 30 photographers have been accredited, Interfax reported.
In 2001, a similar news conference involved over 400 reporters and the president answered 22 questions.
Over 600 journalists were accredited to the gathering last year and almost 40 questions were answered
Harry Potter author sues New York paper for leaking secrets of latest book
The author of Harry Potter, one of the best-selling book series, is lodging a 100-million-dollar lawsuit against The New York Daily News for giving away secrets of the latest installment ahead of its weekend release.
Author J.K. Rowling's publisher accused the Daily News of infringing on the author's copyright by running a synopsis of theyet-to-be released "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" in Wednesday's paper.
The lawsuit against the Daily News, prepared by lawyers for Rowling and the US publisher Scholastic Inc. claimed that the newspaper damaged Rowling's intellectual property rights and harmed Scholastic's 3-million-dollar worldwide marketing campaign.
The book, the fifth installment of the adventure of the boy wizard, has been kept in extreme secrecy ahead of its release. Ina statement, Scholastic said it hoped "this unfortunate situation will not spoil the surprise for millions of children around the country who have been eagerly awaiting the book."
The Daily News insisted it did nothing wrong by publishing the synopsis. The paper bought the book at an organic food store in Brooklyn that had mistakenly put the book out for sale Wednesday despite an embargo until Saturday.
"We will vigorously defend any action and are confident we did nothing wrong journalistically or legally," said the paper's spokesman Ken
Frydman.
Carlos Aguila, the owner of the Karrot Health Food Store, said he had no idea that he could not start selling the highly anticipated book before Saturday.
"We began selling the book on Monday as an innocent mistake," said Aguila. "We had no idea there was going to be a release dateon the 21st, and obviously if we had known we would have honored that. But we're not in the bookselling business here - we sell health foods."
The book is scheduled for sale at 12:01 a.m. local time on Saturday. Many bookstores are planning Harry Potter-theme parties,but the biggest celebration could be the countdown to midnight being held in Times Square on Friday night.
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