MOPT Announces Changes to Vehicular Inspection Requirements
The Ministro de Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT) yesterday announced changes to the Riteve vehicle inspection requirements. MOPT Minister, Javier Chaves, sad the list of changes include some 100 items.

Today's Stories: MOPT Announces Changes to Vehicular Inspection Requirements Gas Hike Approved No Miniskirts in This Year's Independence Day Parades Dole Shifts jobs to Costa Rica Costa Rica Won't Refuge Cuban Exile Terry Fox Run tomorrow! Did you know?

Terry Fox Run tomorrow! The annual Terry Fox run will be held tomorrow in La Sabana park, starting at 8:00am. All proceeds from the run will go to the Terry Fox Foundation Before Terry died, he knew that an annual event would be held to commemorate his Marathon of Hope. It would be called, appropriately, The Terry Fox Run. The first Terry Fox Run in 1981 attracted 300,000 participants across Canada and raised $3.5 million. To date, more than $340 million has been raised worldwide for cancer research in Terry's name. Each year, thousands of volunteers organize Terry Fox Run events in Canada and around the world. In Canada, the annual Terry Fox Run is held every September, usually on the second Sunday following Labour Day. In countries outside Canada, the Run is organized at a time that is convenient for organizers. The Run is a non-competitive event where people get together as individuals, families and groups to raise money in Terry’s name. It is a day of celebrating Terry’s legacy and helping to keep his dream of a cure for cancer alive. Click for more on Terry Fox.

Did you Know? Canada and Costa Rica have enjoyed solid commercial relations since 1950. In April 2002, the two countries signed the Canada-Costa Rica Free Trade Agreement (CCRFTA) which entered into force on November 1 of that year. The negotiations encompassed several areas of interest to Canada, including market access for goods, trade facilitation and competition policy. The CCRFTA is the first bilateral free trade agreement to contain innovative stand-alone provisions on trade facilitation.  Since implementation of the agreement, two-way trade between Canada and Costa Rica has grown by 12%.

Some of the items that are now "leve" or minor and the vehicle will not fail the inspection if it has defects like the the motor does not a serial number and the license plate is not attached to the vehicle or entirely missing.

Tinted windows will now be allowed and no problem if the vehicle does not have seatbelts, however, Transit officials will fine a driver caught not using a seatbelt.

The initiative is to appease the truckers who took the streets last week and demanded changes to the vehicular inspection. Minister Chaves said that the changes will now be sent to the Consejo de Transporte Público (CTP), that will allow 10 days for truckers, bus and taxi companies to voice their opinion and propose other changes.

Chaves was very firm in that anything related to brakes, lights and other safety concerns will not be down graded. Vehicular safety is of primary importance and there will be no flexibility there, added a spokesperson for the CTP.

The changes must then be published in the official newspaper La Gaceta before they can take effect. The MOPT expects to have the changes in place by the end of September.
 

Gas Hike Approved
The cost of gasoline is going up again in the coming days. The new increase will mean an additional ¢1.000 colones to fill a 45 litre gas tank.

The Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (Aresep) - the government body that regulates public prices and services - has agreed to the Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo request of a 7% increase made on August 25.

The increase will see ¢22.9 colones added to the current price of super gasoline, ¢21.8 to regular and ¢17.6 for diesel.

A litre of super will go from the current ¢326.9 to ¢349.8; regular from ¢312.5 to ¢334.3; and diesel to ¢250 from ¢232.

At today's current exchange rate, the price of super will soon cost $3.15 per US gallon.

At the new prices, the cost to fill a 45 litre tank with super will cost ¢15.740 colones. At the beginning of this year, it cost only ¢12.000 colones to fill the same tank.

The increase is expected to be published in the official newspaper La Gaceta in the coming days, at which time the prices at the pump will be changed.
 

No Miniskirts in This Year's Independence Day Parades
The Ministry of Educatio (MEP) has announced that this September 15 there will NO miniskirts in the parades.

Traditionally, girls taking part in the Independence Day parades on Sep. 15 wear their short school uniform dresses, that this year is a no-no, according to Education Minister, Manuel Antonio Bolaños.

Bolaños, said that the "dress code" manual is being printed and will be distributed to all schools.

In addition to the dress code, students on parade will not perform military march steps, nor use popular music themes in their performances. The manual came into effect last year following complaints that many young girls were abusing the proper dress attire and music in their interpretations.

Bolaños said that students will not penalized if they don't conform to the rules, however, their teachers and school administrators will be reprimanded.

Anyone living near a public school can attest to the Saturday morning drum practices that have been going on for several weeks, as students take time to practice their presentations.

In San José a number of schools will represent the big parade that held each year on Avenida Segunda. However, all school children will participate in some form of parade or event that is being planned in every community around the country.
 

Dole Shifts jobs to Costa Rica
About a dozen administrative positions at Dole Fresh Vegetables Inc. will be moved to a Costa Rica facility as part of corporate restructuring, the company announced to employees this week.

The Salinas-based subsidiary of Dole Foods Co. may displace as many as 11 employees in its accounts payable and information technology departments with the move, executives said. Those jobs, as well as about 20 more from Dole's other U.S. facilities, will be placed in a corporate office in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Though the jobs are moving out of the United States, the change is not viewed as outsourcing, said Kent Hansen, vice president of human relations for Dole Fresh Vegetables.

"This really isn't like outsourcing. This is really just kind of a transfer," Hansen said from his Salinas office. "Certain jobs here will be affected, but there's no net loss to the company."

Dole Fresh Vegetables has roughly 2,800 people on its payroll in Monterey County, including about 300 salaried employees and about 2,500 plant and field workers. It also has a cooler facility near Marina and a salad packaging plant in Soledad.

Its administrative offices, include finance, sales, marketing and information technology departments. Jobs will be transferred to Costa Rica in about six months, Hansen said.

Employees were notified Thursday in a memo to North America divisions after executives met with affected employees individually, he said.

"Part of our philosophy is to give as much advance notice as possible so that people have time to react to the news," he said. "We are hopeful that they will be able to find another job that becomes vacant within the company."

The positions will be folded into the company's new shared-service model, in which certain divisions such as accounts payable and technical support will be placed in one office rather than several throughout the country.

Costa Rica, which is home to Dole's Fresh Fruit Latin America headquarters, was chosen for its "many advantages, including a well-educated bilingual labor pool, expanding economy, (and) stable rapidly expanding telecommunications," according to the memo.

Privately-held Dole Food Co. is based in Westlake Village and is the world's largest producer and marketer of fresh fruit, vegetables and fresh-cut flowers. The 153-year-old company does business in more than 90 countries and has roughly 36,000 full-time permanent and 23,000 full-time seasonal or temporary employees worldwide, according to its Web site.

Costa Rica Won't Refuge Cuban Exile
Costa Rican authorities announced they would not provide refuge to Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles.

Posada - who is wanted by Cuba on numerous terrorism and assassination charges - was among four exiles pardoned last month by Panama's former President Mireya Moscoso.

They had been imprisoned four years ago on convictions tied to an assassination plot against Cuban President Fidel Castro.

Cuba, has said that Posada would be condemned to death when and if he is returned to Cuba. There, the explosives expert would face a firing squad.

Three of the exiles, Gaspar Jiménez, Pedro Remón and Guillermo Novo -- all of whom are U.S. citizens - returned to their homes in Miami. Posada, 76, who is not a U.S. citizen, is believed to have fled to Honduras where he went into hiding.

Authorities in that country said they have information indicating Posada fled to the Bahamas or another Caribbean country but could not be absolutely certain.

Leónidas Rosa Bautista, Honduras' Minister of Foreign Relations, told reporters on Thursday that an extradition request had been submitted by Cuba and that, if Posada is apprehended, he would be ``immediately deported.''

''We still believe that he left the country, but we can't determine how he did that,'' Armando Calidonio, Honduras' Vice Minister of Security told the press. ``The investigation continues.''

Branded by Castro as ''the worst terrorist in the hemisphere,'' Posada is wanted in connection with the 1976 midair bombing of a Cuban jetliner in which 73 people were killed. The former CIA operative also is accused of orchestrating a dozen terror bombings of Havana tourist spots in 1997, and numerous plots to assassinate Castro.

Posada and the three Miami exiles have denied any role in the alleged assassination plot in Panama during a heads-of-state summit in 2000, where Castro made the accusations.

A Panamanian court dropped initial charges of conspiracy to murder and possession of explosives, but convicted them in April of endangering public safety and sentenced them to up to eight years.