A man identified as Douglas Henry Happer who was sentenced to 63 years in jail for various counts of rape and sexual abuse yesterday disappeared before the judge could read his sentence, according to a statement from the Judicial Branch.

Japanese Week Activities
2 p.m., screening of film “Zatoichi,” Center for Arts, National University (UNA), Heredia; 6:30 p.m., martial arts demonstration, Outlet Mall, San Pedro; 7 p.m., dance and concert, Outlet Mall; 6 p.m., screening of film “Princess Mononoke,” University of Costa Rica (UCR) Law School auditorium; 7 p.m., Japanese film festival, Centro de Cine, San José.

VI Penitentiary Encounter
With folkloric dances, theater, music, crafts made by the inmates, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., National Culture Center (CENAC), San José, Ave. 3/5, Calle 11/15. Info: 221-2154.

By Peter Krupa
Tico Times Staff | pkrupa@ticotimes.net

The prediction that 5,000 Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) employees would march down San José's Paseo Colón yesterday proved a drastic exaggeration as the ICE unions' strike fizzled into threats and a mixed gathering of several hundred protestors outside the Legislative Assembly.

The unions were protesting laws the Legislative Assembly is considering that would put Costa Rica in compliance with the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA), which Costa Ricans approved in a referendum last month.

Last week, after calling for a “general strike” at a press conference, Fabio Chaves, president of the Association of Costa Rican Electricity and Telecom Workers Union (ASDEICE), called for 5,000 ICE workers to participate in the walkout.

But only about 400 protestors showed up at the ICE building on the north side of La Sabana Park in western San José. At the gathering, the unions decided to limit the strike to a single day, while threatening a general strike should the CAFTA implementation laws – and particularly the telecom laws – be approved.

On the other side of town near the University of Costa Rica (UCR) in San Pedro, a group of students blocked streets, burned tires and waved signs expressing their opposition to CAFTA.

No services were interrupted during the one-day walkout, and the ICE management was not impressed. ICE spokesman Elbert Durán called the strike a “pathetic act of desperation” and said the workers who walked out would not get paid for that day

By Dave Sherwood
Tico Times Staff | dsherwood@ticotimes.net

Meteorologists and representatives of the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) warned yesterday that climate change is already happening in Costa Rica, citing extreme weather and its subsequent effects, from health problems to rat infestations.

“It would be an error to think that climate change will only affect future generations. Today in Costa Rica, we are already starting to feel the effects,” said José Manuel Hermida, the program's representative in Costa Rica, during a conference in San José.

Hermida rattled off a list of gloom-and-doom predictions if countries don't initiate efforts to cut the emission of greenhouse gases, including a five-degree-Celsius increase in temperature and a rise of global sea levels by as much as one meter.

Roberto Villalobos, climate change specialist for the National Meteorological Institute (IMN), warned of the possibility of extended droughts along the Pacific slope – an area already parched during the summer dry season. About 3.5 million Ticos depend on water from that region, he said.

Villalobos also warned of the potentially serious effects on electricity generation. Water, he said, is Costa Rica's “petroleum.”

Villalobos and Hermida also spoke of potential health risks caused by more variable and warmer weather, including the spread of mosquito-borne viruses, such as dengue fever and malaria, to higher altitudes.

“These were once considered lowland diseases,” Villalobos said. “Now we are seeing them in the higher regions of the Central Valley.”

Incidence of skin cancer has also gone up 33% in women and 43% in men over the past 10 years, he said.

Extended rains this year drove field rats out of caves and holes in the ground and into people's homes, yet another example of the effects of unpredictable weather, said Villalobos

A man identified as Douglas Henry Happer who was sentenced to 63 years in jail for various counts of rape and sexual abuse yesterday disappeared before the judge could read his sentence, according to a statement from the Judicial Branch.

A court in Goicoechea, north of San José, decided Happer's sentence at 10 a.m. and was preparing to read it about an hour and a half later. By that time, Happer had disappeared.

Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) officials with the Sex Crimes Unit are searching for him.

He was found guilty on three charges of first-degree rape and three charges of sexual abuse against minors.