HP Expands: Hewlett-Packard (HP) yesterday informed the press that business has gone well since the company opened operations in Costa Rica four years ago and that the company is planning on adding another 2,000 jobs here in the next few years. At the moment, HP employs nearly 5,000 Costa Ricans in service-related jobs. Present at a press conference at HP headquarters in Heredia, north of San José, were (left to right) First Vice-President Kevin Casas, HP Costa Rica Director Steven Demaayer, Foreign Trade Minister Marco Vinicio Ruíz, HP Director of Central American and Caribbean Operations Martín Castillo and Vice-Minister of the Economy Jorge Woodbridge.

Plans to replace a dilapidated hospital in Heredia, north of San José, with a modern new facility were unveiled yesterday to members of this community.

Conference on Fertility
With by Dr. Armando Hernández-Rey of the Fertility and IVF Center of Miami, Florida, 6:30 p.m., Hotel Real Intercontinental, Escazú. Info: 596-4013 ext. 247, info@miami-ivf.com

Free Documentary Screening
About the life of former Chilean President Salvador Allende, 7 p.m., Sala Calle 15, Ave. 2, south side of Plaza de la Democracia, San José.

By Gillian Gillers
Tico Times Staff | ggillers@ticotimes.net

Two representatives from the Organization of American States (OAS) are scheduled to arrive tonight in Costa Rica for a fact-finding mission as they prepare to monitor an Oct. 7 national referendum on the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA).

OAS officials Paul Durand and Betilde Muñoz will spend 10 days meeting with authorities at the Supreme Elections Tribunal (TSE), President Oscar Arias, representatives of political parties, anti- and pro-CAFTA figureheads and church leaders, according to Javier Vega, the Tribunal official in charge of receiving the missions.

Elections officials expect about 150 international observers to monitor the referendum from groups including the Carter Center, the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme.

The OAS visit is the first international mission to come to Costa Rica before the referendum. “We hope more come,” Vega said. “We want to be very observed, no problem.”

By Blake Schmidt
Tico Times Staff | bschmidt@ticotimes.net

Costa Rican authorities nabbed a wily U.S. fugitive yesterday. Then they nabbed him again.

Nicholas Himmelsbach is accused in the United States of crimes including attempted murder, assault with a lethal weapon, damaging property and shooting in public, according to a statement from the Public Security Ministry.

He fought off five Costa Rican cops who tried to detain him at a house in the western suburb of Rohrmoser yesterday morning. They had to call for back-up before they were able to arrest him.

Himmelsbach was then taken to an immigrantion shelter in nearby Hatillo, which he escaped from an hour after arriving. Authorities tracked him down and arrested him again. He is now in a high-security detention center and faces deportation to the United States, according to a statement from the international policy agency Interpol.

“They have really strong security measures because he's really strong and really violent. All of us were beat up,” the statement said.

Himmelsbach, 26, fled the United States, where he is accused of conspiring to kill his ex-girlfriend while he was in jail in 2005 and of being involved in a drive-by shooting of an occupied home with a high-powered rifle in the state of New Mexico.

The Decorah Newspapers -- a news organization in Decorah, Iowa, where Himmelsbach served jail time after being accused of shooting into an occupied dwelling, conspiracy and shooting from a motor vehicle -- reported that he posted a fraction of his bond and fled the country in March.

Costa Rican authorities have found no records of Himmelsbach entering the country and believe he did so illegally, according to the Public Security Ministry statement.

Patrick Cunningham, a former employee at the travel agency Costa Rican Vacations in Rohrmoser, said he worked with Himmelsbach before the fugitive was fired in July after working for the company a few months.

Cunningham described Himmelsbach as “pretty stocky” and added that he seemed to have mood swings.

“His moods would turn on a dime,” Cunningham added in a phone interview from the United States.

The Tico Times tried to contact Costa Rican Vacations yesterday but received no response by press time.

Plans to replace a dilapidated hospital in Heredia, north of San José, with a modern new facility were unveiled yesterday to members of this community.

Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias announced an agreement made by the Social Security System (Caja) to contract the company EDICA Limitada to build a new hospital, to be named San Vicente de Paúl after the old facility it is replacing, according to a statement from Casa Presidencial.

The minister represented his brother, President Oscar Arias, who is staying close to his home because of a doctor's orders to rest his Achilles tendon.

The new $85 million hospital is expected to serve about 500 residents of Heredia and be completed in a little more than two years.

Caja president Eduardo Doryan said the hospital will be a “21 st century” facility with six buildings housing a laboratory, pharmacy, X-ray machines and outpatient area and will offer surgery, prenatal care, intensive care and rehabilitation facilities, among other health services.

“Finally we are getting out of a historic debt we have with the poor, with the elderly and the children of Heredia who greatly need a hospital where they are attended with quality,” said Fernando Sánchez, a National Liberation Party legislator from the province.