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Juan Santamaría Enforces Restrictions
Following Alleged Foiled Terrorist Attack
By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff
aroberson@ticotimes.net
Like airports around the world, Costa Rica's Juan Santamaría International Airport, northwest of San José, reacted yesterday to news of an alleged foiled terrorist attack on flights from London's Heathrow International Airport to the United States.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff yesterday told U.S. reporters yesterday that investigators believe terrorists were plotting to bring liquids on board these flights, “each one of which would be benign, but mixed together could be used to create a bomb,” the New York Times reported.
As a result, new regulations went into effect yesterday at Juan Santamaría regarding the types of materials passengers on flights to the United States can bring in their carry-on luggage, said Gabriela Hernández, an official at Alterra, the company that operates Juan Santamaría.
All liquids -- including gels, shampoos, sunscreens, perfumes and beverages – may not be carried on board in carry-on luggage and must instead be packed in passengers' checked luggage, Hernández said.
Exceptions include formula milk, breast milk and juice, which will be allowed for passengers traveling with babies and young children, and prescription medicine, which will be permitted if the name on the medicine's label matches the name on the passenger's ticket.
Airport officials will be conducting stricter checks of carry-on luggage to enforce this regulation, Hernández said.
TACA airlines yesterday released a statement advising its passengers traveling from Costa Rica to the United States to arrive to the airport three hours before their flight to allow for extra time in security lines.
In Great Britain, police officers in three cities made 21 arrests Wednesday night after uncovering a planned terrorist attack, Peter Clark, head of the counterterrorism branch of the London police, told The New York Times.
Chertoff yesterday announced that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security raised the threat level to “Code Orange” or High for all commercial flights to and from United States, according to the department's Web site.
Additionally, the department raised the threat level to Code Red or Severe for flights originating in the United Kingdom bound for the United States, the site said.
Three weeks after the head of the massive sports betting call center BetonSports was arrested by U.S. authorities, rumors are flying around the Internet and local papers that the call center's more than 1,500 Costa Rican employees could be out of a job any day.
BetonSports, which operates on the 9 th floor of the San Pedro Mall, east of San José, suspended its Web site July 19 following the arrest of its Chief Executive Officer British citizen David Carruthers at the Dallas, Texas, airport (TT, July 21). He, along with 10 other people working for four online gambling companies, is being charged with racketeering, conspiracy and fraud, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Though the company has since made no official statement regarding Carruther's arrest or the company's future and employees have been reporting to work as normal, one BetonSports employee told the daily La Nación the atmosphere at the company has been “tense” during the past few days and that rumor has it an important announcement could be made today.
Additionally, the sports betting industry Web site TheOnlineWire.com reported that Bet on Sports employees said the company is “negotiating with the U.S. Department of Justice an agreement according to which BetonSports would stop doing business with U.S. customers.”
This would allow the company to continue taking bets from European and Asian customers but would cause significant loses and force it to shut down its Costa Rican call centers, TheOnlineWire.com reported.
-Tico Times
Symposium Encourages Private Funds For Public Works
By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff
aroberson@ticotimes.net
Creating strategic alliances between private companies to create public infrastructure projects was the topic at hand yesterday during a symposium attended by business owners, Public Works and Transport Minister Karla González, Minister of the Presidency Rodrigo Arias and representatives from the Andean Growth Corporation (CAF), a private company that works in 17 Latin American countries to create these types of alliances.
At the symposium, held at a San José hotel, González and Arias both remarked on their desire to see more of these types of alliances in Costa Rica and expressed hopes that the Legislative Assembly will approve reforms to the Law of Concessions for Public Works, which have passed through the first round of debate in the Legislative Assembly and been sent to the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) for review.
“We're proposing a vigorous plan to attract national and international savings to finance a vast plan of projects in roads, ports and airports,” Arias said, adding that the reforms would improve the framework for this type of investment to take place.
González also remarked on the need for private investment in public works, telling business owners she “hopes to see a lot of serious offers,” for these projects in the months to come.
CAF president Jaime Molina Ulloa gave a presentation of the company's work in Latin America, citing Spain and Chile as countries where these types of alliances have been successful in promoting development, stimulating the economy and improving roads, airports and ports.
CAF works with government offices, private companies and banks to find ways to foster investment in infrastructure, he explained.
Alleged Colombian Terrorist Arrested in Costa Rica
A Colombian man accused of murder and participating in terrorist activities identified by the name Héctor Orlando Martínez was arrested yesterday in the Pacific port town of Puntarenas, according to a statement from International Police (INTERPOL).
Martínez is accused of belonging to the Colombian guerrilla organization Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which has led attacks on civilian populations with weapons of war.
He is also believed to have carried out logistics for FARC to transport, sell and distribute drugs in exchange for arms and munitions in Central American countries, the statement said.
An investigation revealed Martínez entered Costa Rica for the first time in 1997 and left and reentered the country several times.
Authorities located him in Puntarenas in 2004, where he was working as a fisherman and married a Costa Rican woman to obtain Costa Rican residency, the statement said.
Public Security Minister Fernando Berrocal said at a press conference yesterday that Martínez was granted residency less than a week after applying, indicating “a clear case of corruption” within Costa Rica's General Immigration Administration.
Martínez is in a maximum-security prison and faces deportation to Colombia.
-Tico Times
Ginger Has It All: Attractive Foliage, Exotic Flowers and Delicious Roots
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Those of you who enjoy the hot, spicy tang of ginger as a seasoning will find growing it in the home garden easy and practically care-free. Recently a reader sent me an e-mail and asked how she could grow ginger. This article gives you all the tips you need to harvest ginger at home.
First, you'll have to shop around for some ginger. Most supermarkets sell the Asian variety, which is plump and succulent and most desired for kitchen use. However, local markets often carry Jamaican ginger, which is smaller but very pungent.
Select roots (rhizomes, actually) that look healthy and are not wrinkled from dehydration. I'd suggest planting six palm-sized roots for a large family. Once you have acquired your ginger, you can prepare a space for them in the garden. I recommend planting ginger in areas around the main garden; the plants become permanent stands and can get in the way of annual garden vegetable production. Ginger plants make nice ornamentals, blooming August through October in most regions of Costa Rica.
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Exotic Blooms: Ginger flowers bloom August to October in Costa Rica. |
For each rhizome, prepare an area 50 centimeters in diameter, well dug to 50 cm deep. Add a shovel full of aged compost and mix it well with the soil. Then plant one ginger rhizome very superficially in the center of your prepared circle. Cover with soil in such a way that you can see several of the buds protruding from the soil. Sunlight will activate the rhizome to produce new roots and leaves.
Now comes the time to be patient. It will be at least nine months before you can begin harvesting from your ginger plants. Meanwhile, keep the stands of ginger weed-free and cultivated. Ginger plants like to have soil tilled up around the base of the plant, which stimulates more production of rhizomes.
If new leaves look pale green, try foliar-spraying your plants, preferably with organic fertilizers such as compost tea or seaweed extract. Adding more compost around the base of the plant helps improve growth and production.
Ginger dedicates its first stage of growth to roots and vegetation, followed by production of new rhizomes. At this time, you can start treasure hunting in your ginger patch. Since new rhizomes grow close to the surface of the soil, you can lightly brush away the soil to uncover them. A sharp kitchen knife is useful for separating a new clone from the mother plant. That's right; each root is an identical genetic copy of the mother rhizome you planted.
If you leave about half of the new growth on each mother plant, you'll have a bumper crop for the following year, and will be able to harvest fresh ginger all year long.
For more info on home gardening in the tropics, visit www.thenewdawncenter.org or e-mail the newdawncenter@yahoo.com.
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