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| Me Tarzan: Some 300 runners are set to race through the Costa Rican jungle Feb. 23 in the 42-kilometer Jungleman Marathon and 21-kilometer Half Marathon that begin in southern Caribbean Puerto Viejo de Limón. |
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| Export Growth Slows to 14% |
| Export growth slowed in 2007 as a result of weaker activity in industrial and agricultural exports. Costa Rica exported $9.34 billion worth of goods in 2007, up 14% from 2006. |
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| Shaman killed allegedly for casting
spell on indigenous community |
| Costa Rican police are investigating the killing in the southern indigenous territory of the Guaymí of a man who two murder suspects claim was a shaman who had “put a spell” on their relatives, the Judicial Investigation Police said. |
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| Saprissa gets friendly in Uruguay's
Copa Ricard soccer tournament |
| Costa Rican soccer club Deportivo Saprissa has been summoned to Montevideo, Uruguay, this week for a tournament of friendlies between the Ticos and Olimpia de Paraguay, Liechtensteiners Vaduz and Uruguayans Defensor, Nacional and Peñarol. |
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| January 23 |
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Flamenco
Spanish gypsy and Arab fusion group Alhambra play at Jazz Café, San Pedro, 10 p.m., ¢3,000 ($6).
Open Classes
The Technology Institute invites everyone to register in one or more of its 107 classes, for kids, adults and seniors, including painting, mathematics, baking, computer, music and more. Registration is today at the Institute campus, Cartago, San José. Info: 550-2757.
Free Classes for Children
Librería Internacional is holding free classes for kids 3-6, Working with Wood, today at 3 p.m. Librería Internacional Paseo de las Flores, Heredia; Little Noises, tomorrow at 3 p.m., Rohrmoser; Workshop about the Bee Movie (4-8 years), Saturday, 11 a.m., Santa Ana.
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Edited By Alex Leff
Tico Times Staff | aleff@ticotimes.net |
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| Export Growth Slows to 14% |
By Peter Krupa
Tico Times Staff | pkrupa@ticotimes.net |
Export growth slowed in 2007 as a result of weaker activity in industrial and agricultural exports. Costa Rica exported $9.34 billion worth of goods in 2007, up 14% from 2006.
Growth from 2005 to 2006 was 17%.
The slowdown in growth, coupled with a looming recession in the United States, Costa Rica's largest trading partner, makes it increasingly unlikely that Costa Rica will meet President Oscar Arias' ambitious goal of $16 billion in exports by the end of his term in 2010.
“We're seeing a complicated outlook for some sectors,” said Foreign Trade Minister Marco Ruíz on the release of the 2007 export numbers.
Industrial exports marked slower than average growth, at 13%. Exports like electronics, medical equipment, textiles and plastics make up 78% of the country's total exports by value.
Electronics, medical equipment, machined goods and paper goods marking above-average gains, but those gains were tempered by single-digit growth in plastics and chemical exports, while textile exports shrank 10%, to $501.7 million.
Likewise, agricultural exports, which make up 20% of the total, grew only 9.2%, with pineapple showing characteristically strong 12.8% growth and banana exports growing only by 8.3%.
Bright spots included processed food exports, which went up 33% to almost the $1 billion mark, and livestock and fish exports, which recovered from negative growth in 2006 to post an 8.1% gain in 2007, with $186.67 million in exports for the year.
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Shaman killed allegedly for casting
spell on indigenous community |
Costa Rican police are investigating the killing in the southern indigenous territory of the Guaymí of a man who two murder suspects claim was a shaman who had “put a spell” on their relatives, the Judicial Investigation Police said.
The victim, Joaquín Bejarono, 24, was found with signs of having been clubbed to death on Sunday.
Police arrived Monday morning to the scene in the Alto Copey de Limón community of Coto Brus, reachable only on foot, and arrested two indigenous brothers, with the last name García, ages 24 and 32, who said they acted to “free the people” of the sorcerer's spell, the daily La Nación reported. |
-Tico Times
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Saprissa gets friendly in Uruguay's
Copa Ricard soccer tournament |
Costa Rican soccer club Deportivo Saprissa has been summoned to Montevideo, Uruguay, this week for a tournament of friendlies between the Ticos and Olimpia de Paraguay, Liechtensteiners Vaduz and Uruguayans Defensor, Nacional and Peñarol.
The championship “will serve to extend our friendly ties,” said Uruguayan Soccer Association President José Luis Corbo. “And it will definitely put on some good shows.”
Vaduz, from Liechtenstein but enlisted in the Swiss league, join Peñarol and Nacional in Group A; Saprissa, Olimpia and Defensor are battling it out in B.
Two matches are scheduled per day, starting today and continuing Saturday, next Monday and Wednesday, in Montevideo's Centenario stadium.
At home, Costa Rican soccer continued this week to leave much to be desired, with Tico summertime Torneo de Verano off to a start of draws: Saprissa, Alajuense and Herediano all played home games that ended in a tie.
Meanwhile, the Costa Rican national team coach Hernán Medford has announced a 22-man squad for the Jan. 30 friendly against Iran. The crew added Brujas midfielder Daniel Jiménez to substitute an injured Roy Myrie of Alajuela.
“I'm so happy, it took me by surprise and I'm really glad,” Jiménez told the daily La Nación. |
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