San José, Costa Rica -   Monday 04 October 2004

1.396 Daily Average Visits in September!

Updated every day by 8:00AM Central Standard Time

Every Sunday morning, Paseo Colón becomes a pedestrian mall, where children and adults can enjoy the day's events. Yesterday, Costa Rica's firemen took time to give children rides and showing off their equipment. Click for larger image!

insidenicaragua A new weekly feature published on Sundays, featuring a summary  of current news and events in Nicaragua.

ICE-ALCATEL SCANDAL:
Pacheco To Call for Rodríguez Resgination
Yesterday we reported that President Abel Pacheco was going to give former Costa Rican president Miguel Ángel Rodríguez until noon today to give a full explanation of his role in the ICE-Alcatel scandal.

Kanev Trial Begins Today
Suspected pedophile Arthur Kanev, will start his day in court today, with the commencement of his trial for providing drugs to minors, corruption of minors and having sexual relations with willing children under the age of 15.

Costa Rica Urged To Remain Competitive In Tax And Labor Markets
Costa Rica needs to boost the number of English speakers in its workforce and ensure that tax rates remain competitive if the country is to increase levels of foreign direct investment, experts have concluded following the release of a UN report. 

Tourism Chiefs Fear Airport Can't Cope
Guanacaste tourist industry leaders, gearing up for the coming high season, fear Liberia’s international airport is inadequately equipped to handle the huge increase in incoming passengers.

Brazil's ruling party hopes to double mayoral positions in municipal elections
With its eye on the next presidential election in 2006, Brazil's ruling Workers' Party (PT)hopes to double its number of mayors as 120 million Brazilians cast their votes on Sunday in the nationwide municipal elections.

Opposition party confident of winning Mexican presidential elections
Mexico's opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) said on Saturday it will win the 2006 presidential elections, local media reported Saturday.

International News from the New York Times
 

THE INTERNET Why use A9.com The web is easy to use, but using it well is not easy. A9.com is inventing new ways to take search one step farther and make it more effective, by providing a unique set of powerful features to find information, organize it, and remember it—all in one place.  A9.com is a powerful search engine, using web search and image search results enhanced by Google, Search Inside the Book® results from Amazon.com, reference results from GuruNet, movies results from IMDb, and more. SPECIAL REPORTS: OIL-LATIN AMERICA Soaring Prices Line Pockets or Force Belt Tightening Soaring oil prices, reaching 50 dollars a barrel, are lining the pockets of several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, forcing others to tighten their belts -- and reminding everyone that regional energy integration remains a distant dream. Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter with sales of between two and 2.5 million barrels per day, will take in extra revenues of at least 5.5 billion dollars this year, since the average price for 2004 is expected to stand at around 33 dollars a barrel, 13 dollars higher than the price on which the government budget was based. But in Central America, "the high price of oil is destroying our economies," Salvadoran President Tony Saca recently complained. "Even if the price stabilises at around 30 dollars a barrel, that would still represent a huge increase, because five years ago we were paying nine dollars."

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