=========================================
>>Costa Rica News Digest<<
=========================================

A publication of Destiny Worldwide Net
http://www.destiny-worldwide.net

Also Visit the Costa Rica Page:
http://www.destiny-worldwide.net/costa-rica/

Subscribe: costa-rica-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe: costa-rica-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
=========================================
TODAY'S CONTENTS
=========================================

*News Digest

=========================================
LUXURY OFFICES FOR RENT IN SAN PEDRO!
=========================================
TWo small luxury offices are available for immediate occupancy in
the finest office building in San Pedro Montes de Oca. High speed
internet available. Building has power generator so when power
outages occur, YOUR business is not interrupted. Can be used as
professional offices or turn key call center. Email us at
porongo@safe-mail.net for full details and to make arrangements to
talk to the listing agent.

=========================================
FEATURE ARTICLE
=========================================


=========================================
WHAT'S NEW AT THE COSTA RICA PAGE!
=========================================
Our real estate section has just been totally updated with lots of
new listings, mostly in the residential real estate section, but also
we have a new rental on the rental page and some new additions to the
land for sale section.

http://www.destiny-worldwide.net/costa-rica/real.htm

We are adding new things every day, and when our merger comes with
COSTARICACENTER.COM, we will have a fully operational Mercado Central
for you to buy Costa Rican products over the internet from local merchants
[if you have a reputable business here, and want to sell through the
Mercado, just let us know. We can help you to accept credit cards and
all the major e-currencies on the net! We break through the Great Barrier
that many Costa Rican merchants face getting their products on the net!].

Hotels and tourist businesses will be able to add their own links, and you
will be able to place your own online classifieds and MUCH MUCH MORE!

Watch this newsletter for our official launch, coming soon!

=========================================
DISCUSSION
=========================================

Please send your discussion topics to

costarica@destiny-worldwide.net

=========================================
SPONSOR'S MESSAGE
=========================================
If you want to be successful in the years to
come, with the new technology of the internet,
you need to break free of the limitations that
bind the majority of people. ONe of the worst
problems individuals and businesses face today
are high taxes, unfair litigation, lack of
privacy in financial matters, etc.

You cannot be truly successful and free unless
you use all the tools at your disposal, which
includes being financially free, and learning
the ingredients to true success.

These secrets used to not be available to the
ordinary person. They were the guarded secrets
of the elite.

Destiny Worldwide is unique in that we not only give
you the education you need to succeed, but we also
give you access to cutting edge tools in many
different aspects.

From e-commerce to success in your career, regular
business, and handling your finances secure from
the many risks out there today, our constellation
of services gives you the advantages you need to
succeed.


Go to these websites to begin running down the road
to your successful future today!

http://www.destiny-worldwide.net

http://www.offshorearnings.com

You'll be glad you did!

=========================================
NEWS DIGEST
=========================================
*Costa Rica OKs refugee status for Cubans

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- A man who gained attention while trying to reach

Florida aboard a 1959 Buick converted into a boat was among 20 Cubans held by

U.S. authorities who were granted refugee status in Costa Rica, authorities

said Wednesday.

The Cubans were transferred this week from the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo

Bay Cuba to Costa Rica.

Luis Grass Rodriguez first attempted the trip across the Florida Straits in a

seagoing Chevrolet pickup in July 2002 and was sent back to Cuba. He tried

again the following February, this time in a converted 1959 Buick sedan, and

U.S. officials brought him to Guantanamo.

U.S. officials first asked the government to accept the 20 refugees last

summer, shortly after they arrived at Guantanamo along with a larger group of

rafters, all of whom originally had set out for Florida.

Grass Rodriguez and several others went on a brief hunger strike in September

to protest their detention while awaiting the chance for asylum.

Costa Rica chose the 20 arriving Wednesday based on personal interviews with

government officials, said Rogelio Ramos, this country's foreign minister.

The refugees include a medical anesthesiologist, mechanics, and tourism

experts among others, Ramos said, adding, "We're talking about a majority of

people with very high education levels.

The United States has agreed to provide financial help to the refugees while

they adapt to life in Costa Rica, Ramos said.



*Figueres Called Rebellious

The refusal by former president José María Figueres Olsen to appear before

the Comisión de Control de Ingreso y Gasto Público is being called a

"rebellious" and that Figueres should stop playing with Costa Ricans.

Mario Redondo, a legislative deputy eith the Partido Unidad Social Cristiana

(PUSC) - the same party that president Pacheco and former presidents

Rodríguez and Calderón belong to - said "we presented a motion that not the

commission by the legislature make a request that don José María Figueres

present himself in the Assembly this month and failing such the act should be

declared rebellious and that he stop playing with the people of Costa Rica

and this Assembly..."

The motion has the support of the all the parties and different groups that

make up the Legislative Assembly,

Luis Gerardo Villanueva, a deputy with the Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN)

- the party that former presidents Figueres and Oscar Arias Sanchez belongs

to - and is heading the commission, says that Figueres must come to Costa

Rica to give an accounting of his actions. Villaneuva says he will support

the motion. He said, "I believe it is important and necessary that we all

give an accounting of our actions, above all those actions that are linked to

corruption.."

Legislators are insisting that the Poder Judicial - the Ministerio Público

and the Fiscalía - to open a case against the former president and take the

necessary steps to have him return, as in the case of former president Miguel

Angel Rodríguez, who following the announcement of an arrest warrant and

listed on the INTERPOL wanted list, returned to Costa Rica voluntarily.


*Pacheco Urges Figueres To Honour Costa Rica By His Return

President Abel Pacheco made his strongest comments on the case yesterday,

following the news that Figueres would not return, asking the former

president to honour Costa Rica.

The president sent Figueres a short letter asking the former president to

honour Costa Rica as he did during his presidency between 1994 and 1998.

"Mr. ex-President: having had the honour to occupy the presidential chair,

means forever having the obligation to answer the questions being put to you

by the people. Your duty is to present yourself and give explanations on the

accusations made against you. If your respect to the people and the

institutions do not compel you, then as an example of the life your father,

you should feel obligated to do so."

The letter was sent to Figueres in Geneva, Switzerland, where the former

president lives and until recently worked for the World Economic Forum.

Pacheco, during the celebrations of the 56th anniversary of the abolition of

an army in Costa Rica, commented that "it is regrettable - very regrettable -

that even though our other former presidents are in jail and only a court can

decide if they are guilty or not, they had the 'gallardia' (the bravery) and

respect of the laws of our country that made them presidents."

"José María is obligated, if only by his conscience, to come to Costa Rica

and give face to justice. It is a duty of a gentleman and a patriot and of a

man to demonstrate courage."

Pachecho said he cannot order that Figueres return nor can he order that he

brought back by force. It is up to the Ministerio Público and the Fiscalía to

make the demands and use the law to that end. By way of the Ministerio de

Relaciones Exteriores (Foreign Ministry), the Fiscalía can make a request for

extradition, but that is beyond his powers as president.

"I frankly believed he would return. I knew his father José Figueres Ferrer

and know his answer regarding his son."

José Figueres Ferrer - Don Pepe - was three times president of Costa Rica.

In 1948 he headed the revolutionary movement of National Liberation in

protest for the government's disrespect of democratic suffrage, due to

Teodoro Picado's administration's decision not to accept the decision of the

people of the newly elected President Mr. Otilio Ulate Blanco.

Among many other achivements in his political life, he has the following: He

established the "Junta Fundadora" (Founding committee) of the Second Republic

of Costa Rica, which in time summoned a Constituent Assembly that drafted the

1949 Constitution of Costa Rica, and he exercised as President during a year

and half.

Don Pepe he abolished the army, which is perhaps the most acclaimed and

famous of his achievements. He also established the new official lyrics of

the National Anthem and created the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity

(ICE) that ended the electrical power crisis that the country had suffered

until then.


*Free AIDS Testing at Caja Hospital and Clinics

Authorities at the Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social (CCSS) - commonly

referred to at the Caja - estimate 12.000 cases of HIV in Costa Rica,

however, they only know only of 4.000, meaning there are some 8.000 out there

who are infected but don't know it.

Of those known to be HIV positive, 1.897 cases are under treatment for AIDS

and another 1.664 have died since 1983 when the first case of AIDS was

discovered in Costa Rica.

The Caja reports that it spends about ¢8 million colones (us$17.500) each

year on each AIDS patients only in pills and other medication.

Caja authorities are launching a campaign to find those who are infected but

don't know it or too scared to go in for an examination, offering free

testing at any Caja hospital or clinic in the country.

Caja statistics show that in the past a patient diagnosed HIV positive lived

only 2 years before succuming to the virus, but now life expectancy can reach

20 years or more. In Costa Rica most of those infected are males between the

ages of 15 and 49. The incidence of women contracting the virus is growing

daily.

In the world there are 42.000.000 reported cases of AIDS.



*Police Intensify Downtown Patrols for the Holiday Season

The Christmas season is officially underway in Costa Rica with the start of

the "aguinaldo" - the Christmas bonus that all salaried employees - both in

the public and private sector - receive each year in December.

Employers are obligated to pay their employees the equivalent of one month's

salary during the 1st and 15th of December. Government employees will get

theirs on the 6th, the government announced this week.

This means that shoppers with pockets full of cash are subject to being

mugged by those taking advantage of the seasonal rush.

As of yesterday monring, the Fuerza Pública added more than 1.000 police

officers in addition to the 300 municipal police that will be ensuring a

"safe Christmas". In addition to the uniformed officers, there will be more

"undercover" operatives walking the downtown streets.

The Fuerza Publica has already parked their mobile police station on Avenida

Central, in front of the Parque Central. The trailer serves as a

communications station as well as a temporary holding cell for those arrested

and a place for citizens to make complaints.

Rogelio Ramos, Minister of Public Security, said that his police force will

keep an watchful eye on "habitual" criminals, criminals known to police and

frequently in police custody.

Police says that at night is when the criminal elements do their most work

with the most number of assaults reported.


*Private Rescue Team Searching for Missing Tourists in Nicaragua

A private rescue team has taken over the search for two missing tourists from

England and the United States who set out to climb a Nicaraguan volcano and

disappeared.

Briton Nicholas Roth, 28, and Jordan Alexander Ressler, 23, of San Diego,

were last seen as they left to climb the 4,600-foot Maderas volcano, 60 miles

southeast of Managua, on Nov. 15.

A search led by the Nicaraguan army was called off over the weekend, but a

private team contracted by the parents of Ressler set up a field camp at the

base of the Maderas and continued to look for the pair on Tuesday, said Mario

Molina, owner to the Hotel Merida, the area's only major lodging center.

Nicaragua still has personnel assigned to the search, and Red Cross members

from Costa Rica have joined the effort, Molina said.

The head of the private squad of searchers, 48-year-old Bruce Donaldson, is a

former soldier directing a team of six Americans. He said Wednesday he

remains optimistic the team will find Ressler and Roth alive - even though

they haven't been seen in 15-plus days.


High court rejects appeal by Alex Solís

The Sala IV constitutional court has rejected an appeal by Alex Solís, thus

clearing the way for a vote on the future of the contralor de la república

Monday in the Asamblea Legislativa.

The court made the decision Tuesday, but the result was not made public until

Wednesday by the press office of the Poder Judicial.

Solís claimed he did not have adequate time to defend himself and that the

assembly did not have facilities to conduct a proper investigation.

The judicial vote was 5-2, and two magistrates said they thought the court

should consider more elements before voting.

Solís got the fiscal watchdog job through a legislative vote last June. But

almost immediately he ran into trouble when a lawmaker revealed that a number

of signatures notarized by Solís seemed fraudulent. In fact, Solís admitted

in a television interview that he himself signed the names of family members

and then applied his notary validation to various documents.

In his court appeal, Solís said that these acts were private ones and took

place before his appointment. Experts of the Judicial Investigating

Organization, at the request of the legislature, studied the signatures and

found nearly three dozen that were suspect.

In no case, however, is there any suggestion that the persons involved would

not have signed the documents themselves. They were routine matters of family

business.

Lawmakers, many of them lawyers and notaries themselves, set up a committee

to conduct an investigation. The discussion Monday will involve the full

legislature.


U.S. Embassy plans meeting for citizens near San Carlos

The U.S. Embassy is having a meeting for U.S. citizens today at 11:30 a.m. in

the Hotel Tilajari north of San Carlos.

The idea is to fill in U.S. citizens who live in the northern zone about

services and give them basic information about what to do in case of

emergencies.

For some reason, the embassy only sent out the announcement in Spanish and

only to Spanish-language news outlets.


=========================================
COSTA RICA DIGEST DISPLAY AD RATES
=========================================
This publication is designed to have one display add
between each article or section. Thus, the more
articles or sections we have per day, the more room we
have for advertisements. Advertisements are filled
on a first come first served basis, and prices vary
depending on placement and frequency. You must order
a minimum of 5 insertions with your order. If there
are no advertising positions available right away,
you will be placed on a waiting list and notified
when a spot becomes available. Please email us
at destinads@safe-mail.net for more details.

One final note, if you want to do a solo mailing
to the list, that is available on a limited basis
if we decide that your product or service has merit.
Email us at the above address for more details.
=========================================
COSTA RICA CLASSIFIEDS
=========================================

If you have a worthwhile, honest offering, please
email us. New subscribers get a free five line
ad for a month. If you have used up your free
ad, or would like to place another one, the low
price is only $1.00 per line per issue. we have
a min. ad of three lines and you must insert in
at least three issues. to submit your ad, please
email your ad to destinyads@safe-mail.net
We accept Visa, Mastercard, Diners, Discover,
e-checks, e-gold, evocash, netpay, pecunix,
e-bullion, Picpay, Moneybookers, and
Offshorearnings. We make e-commerce EASY!

=========================================
We give you hard hitting, timely, common sense articles and
news that the mainstream, or corporate media, either will
not or cannot give you. Several times a week we bring you
an up to date digest on what is going on in the world around
you.

At The Costa Rica Digest, we don't give you hype or BS or
"common knowledge" solutions, but we aim to give you
the cutting edge information you need. If you wish to
become a writer for us, submit your article[s] for
approval to costarica@destiny-worldwide.net. We cannot
pay for articles, but, instead, you may include a resource
box at the end of your article promoting your website
or product. We welcome submissions of all kinds to
make this a great publication for all to read!
=========================================
Find out about our OTHER Exciting E-mail groups on a broad
range of important topics. Subscription boxes for all of
them may be found here:

http://www.destiny-worldwide.net/boards.htm

The Restoration Website:
http://www.destiny-worldwide.net/rcg/

Destiny Central Success Resources
http://www.destiny-worldwide.net

The Costa Rica Page --
The Fun, the Sun.... The business opportunity
http://www.destiny-worldwide.net/costa-rica/

Your Safe, Secure, Offshore Payment Processor
http://www.offshorearnings.com

-----------------> Visit our Blogs! <-----------------
----> SuccessQuest http://successquest.blogspot.com/
----> The Real Truth http://destiny-worldwide.blogspot.com/
----> Costa Rica News http://costa-rica-news.blogspot.com/

=========================================