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30 Jan 2006 |
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Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, January 30, 2006
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Arias Campaigns With a
“Walk Toward the Future”
National Liberation Party (PLN) presidential candidate Oscar Arias held a public rally yesterday and promised “to walk toward the future” in the development of Costa Rica.
(Click for more)
Soccer Star Drowns While
Swimming in Caribbean
Former member of Costa Rica's national soccer team Derman Ernesto Moss drowned Saturday at Playa Cieneguita, on the coast of the Caribbean region of Limón, after being pulled under by strong currents while swimming with two friends, reported the daily Al Día.
(Click for more)
Franklin Chang to Open Lab
For Plasma Rocket in July
Costa Rican scientist Franklin Chang, an astronaut at the United States ' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for 24 years, will open a laboratory in Costa Rica next July to develop parts of a plasma rocket he hopes will travel to Mars.
(Click for more)
January 30
Seminar “Visions and Experiences in Contemporary Latin American Art:”
With artists, critics and curators. Registration today, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, CENAC, Av. 3/5, Ca. 11/15. Info: 221-2154.
Free Literature Workshop for Children
Kids 8-12, Jan. 30-Feb. 3, 9 a.m., Spanish Cultural Center, Av.13, Calle 31. Info: 257-2919, ext. 118, mediateca@ccecr.org.
Edited By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff
aroberson@ticotimes.net
Arias Campaigns With a
“Walk Toward the Future”
National Liberation Party (PLN) presidential candidate Oscar Arias held a public rally yesterday and promised “to walk toward the future” in the development of Costa Rica.
Before thousands of followers, Arias, an ex-President and Nobel Peace Prize winner who is favored in polls to win the upcoming Feb. 5 election, offered to “walk toward the future.”
“I offer you a walk toward the future to recover social programs for the poor and give real financial options to the middle class,” said Arias, 65, who was applauded by followers waving flags with the green and white colors of his party.
PLN, the only political group that held a public rally to close its campaign, gathered crowds along four blocks of downtown San José 's Paseo Colón.
“I offer you a walk toward the future to combat all forms of discrimination against women. I offer a walk toward the future to give Costa Rica the place it deserves in the world,” Arias said.
During his campaign, Arias proclaimed his desire to convert Costa Rica into the first developed country in Latin America by 2021 by combating poverty and strengthening education.
The candidate also said that if he is elected president, “we will be hard on delinquency but even harder on the causes of delinquency.”
According to a poll conducted by the firm Unimer Research International and published yesterday in the daily La Nación, Arias is favored to win the election with 49.6% of votes.
With this percentage, the ex-President would win in the first round by obtaining more than the 40% necessary to win under electoral law.
In second place is Citizen Action Party (PAC) candidate Ottón Solis, with 25.4%.
Libertarian Movement candidate Otto Guevara is in third place with 12%.
According to the poll, of the rest of the 11 presidential candidates, none won more than 4%.
On Feb. 5, 2.5 million voters are eligible to vote for President, two vice presidents, 57 legislators and municipal leaders.
-ACAN-EFE
Soccer Star Drowns While
Swimming in Caribbean
Former member of Costa Rica's national soccer team Derman Ernesto Moss drowned Saturday at Playa Cieneguita, on the coast of the Caribbean region of Limón, after being pulled under by strong currents while swimming with two friends, reported the daily Al Día.
Moss, 23, played on Costa Rica 's team in the Youth World Soccer Championship in Argentina in 2001.
After playing soccer on the beach Saturday, he apparently jumped in the water with friends to cool off.
“He is the only son I had in Costa Rica. The others live in other countries,” Moss's father Ernesto Moss told Al Día.
News of Moss's drowning reached Red Cross workers after they had recently finished an extensive search for police officer Mario Molina who drowned last Tuesday in the Banano river, also in the Limón province, while chasing two suspects. His body was discovered Friday afternoon in nearby Playa Bananito.
Franklin Chang to Open Lab
For Plasma Rocket in July
Costa Rican scientist Franklin Chang, an astronaut at the United States ' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for 24 years, will open a laboratory in Costa Rica next July to develop parts of a plasma rocket he hopes will travel to Mars.
The laboratory will be located on the Daniel Oduber campus of EARTH tropical agricultural university in Liberia, the capital of the northwestern Guanacaste province.
EARTH announced Friday in a statement that the project will be carried out through an alliance between Chang's company Ad Astra Technologies (AAT), NASA, the local laboratory “ Oak Ridge,” the University of Texas, the University of Houston and other companies and research centers.
Chang said initial designs of the rocket are ready and that he will begin working July 1 with the help of a small group of scientists and engineers with experience in plasma systems.
According to the scientist, Costa Ricans are developing their own technologies to compliment advances made by the United States and AAT and enter them into the world market.
T he laboratory's scientists hope to support the development of new technology systems to complete the first prototype of the plasma rocket VX200 by 2007, followed by later versions, which are estimated to fly in space between 2010 and 2011.
The laboratory will also work on plasma technologies for use on land, such as the destruction of toxic wastes and the development of solar energy.
EARTH is a private, non-profit international university which focuses on the study of agricultural sciences and natural resources in the humid tropical region.
-ACAN-EFE
