Ex-President Calderón
Appeals Jail Order

Former President Rafael Ángel Calderón is scheduled to appear in court at 1:30 p.m. today to appeal his nine-month preventive detention order for his alleged involvement in corruption, the Judicial Branch announced.

Calderón (1990-1994) has been accused of masterminding the distribution of a $9.2 million “commission” connected to a $39.5 million government contract with a Finnish medical supply company to update Costa Rica 's public hospital equipment.

He has been behind bars since Oct. 22 in a private cell in La Reforma medium-security prison, in Alajuela, northwest of San José (TT, Oct. 29).

Prosecutors Begin Probe of
Payments to Ex-President Figueres

Prosecutors announced Tuesday they have initiated a “review of banking transactions” connected to payments by French telecommunications equipment manufacturer Alcatel to former Costa Rican President José María Figueres (1994-1998).

The move was described in a statement as a “first step toward determining the veracity of the allegations” and does not entail lifting the banking secrecy laws that protect Figueres' accounts, but rather is an effort to determine the dates the ex-President received the payments.

Prosecutors said that at this point, they are only looking into the alleged payments and Figueres is not the subject of a formal investigation.

Last week, former Figueres aide Roberto Hidalgo said the ex-President had received $906,000 from Alcatel in consulting fees from 2000 to 2003, after he left office.

The allegations prompted Figueres to resign as the head of the private, Swiss-based World Economic Forum because his work for Alcatel constituted a conflict of interest, though he maintains he is not guilty of any wrongdoing.

Figueres is one of three former leaders of Costa Rica to be implicated in alleged corruption scandals.

Former Presidents Rafael Ángel Calderón (1990-1994), and Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (1998-2002) are currently in custody while the Prosecutor's Office investigates the allegations.

--EFE

Study Investigates
What Children Fear

School children in San José fear staying alone in the house, fires, drug addicts in their neighborhoods and around their schools, street dogs, people who follow them, and getting hit, among other things, according to a study conducted jointly by the United Nations Development Program and the Paniamor Foundation.

Released yesterday, the study, called “Perception of Safety and Insecurity Among School Children in San José 's Central Cantón ,” interviewed 230 children ages 7-11 in five schools in San José .

Those schools, the study reports, are overcrowded and in disrepair. They lack playgrounds and are located in areas frequented by drug addicts, gang members and homeless people.

The study said 58% of the children interviewed stay home alone in the house after school, 31% said they are hit in their homes, and an unspecified number of the girls reported harassment by adults in the streets of their neighborhoods such as obscene gestures and vulgarities.

Some of the recommendations of the study included the improvement of the physical condition of the schools, the removal of street dogs from areas where children walk, the creation of safe playgrounds or parks, adult supervision while playing outside, the assignment of more police officers to those communities, and that parents arrange for supervision for their young children after they come home after school.