Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul yesterday announced that their countries will resume diplomatic relations, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

The two ministers are both in Havana, Cuba, at a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). They met and discussed topics “of bilateral interest” including diplomatic relations and policies, commercial cooperation and investment, the statement said.

They also discussed plans to reopen embassies in both countries in the near future.

Stagno recently expressed interest in gradually increasing relations with moderate Arab nations following Costa Rica’s decision Aug. 16 to move its embassy from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv in compliance with U.N. resolutions (TT, Sept. 8).

Costa Rica and El Salvador were the last countries in the world with embassies in Jerusalem, a territory contested by Israel and Palestine; El Salvador also announced plans to with draw its embassy at the end of last month.

Stagno said resuming relations with Egypt will “allow for better political and diplomatic relations with the Arab and Islamic world in general, in addition to opening commercial opportunities with these markets.” Resumed relations with Egypt will also “speed up” plans to resume diplomatic relations with Jordan, he said. 

-Tico Times

Diesel fuel is going from 383 colons a liter to 364 colons or about 70 U.S. cents. This is a 5 percent reduction.

The price of liquid natural gas, which many Costa Ricans use to cook, also is dropping 10.5 colons a liter or 115 colons per 8.5 liter tank.

The reductions, sought by Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo, were approved by the Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos.

This is the fifth cut in the price of these products this year.

Today is the day before the Día de Independencia, but it is the day with the most ceremony. The parades are Friday.

The Fuerza Pública said it has 315 patrol cars and 266 motorcycles earmarked to protect student runners and those who participate in parades all over the country Friday. The flame is replicated as it travels, and a torch comes to most  towns in all seven provinces of the country. Thousands of school children participate.

For example, two teams will leave the Ruinas de la Parroquía de Cartago tonight, one for the Provincia de Limón and the other en route to the border with Panama.

Tránsito officers and Cruz Roja workers are on the job, too.
A.M. Costa Rica will publish Friday even though the day is a holiday, and staffers will keep watch for any pressing news over the weekend.

Then the students will board another train for a trip to Los Yoses to witness the anticipated passage of the torch on its way to Cartago.

The executive president of the telecommunications giant Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, Jorge Gutiérrez, has resigned after just four months on the job. The  resignation — said to be for health reasons — takes effect Friday.

President Óscar Arias Sánchez quickly named the No. 2 man at the government agency to lead it and said that he would present the name for confirmation today to the Consejo de Gobierno.

The new head of the electrical generating, telephone and Internet institute will be Pedro Pablo Quirós, an electrical engineer who was educated and worked for more than 20 years in the United States. He now serves as vice president of the institute board.

Quirós has an undergraduate degree in mathematics from St. Michael’s College in Winooski, Vermont, and one in electrical engineering from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He also holds a master’s of business administration in applied math from the University of Vermont. His last position was with TMX International, in Miami, Florida, where he was general manager for five years.

The Sala IV constitution court has ordered a credit bureau to delete information about a pubic defender because the woman is afraid organized crime will use the data to threaten her and her family.

The action was brought last November by Karina Redondo Gómez and was decided Friday by the court magistrates. The result was announced Tuesday.

The firm involved is the credit bureau WWW.Datum Net, S.A. The court told the company to delete addresses, photographs, and telephone numbers of the woman.

The principals of the private firm face a fine or jail if they do not comply with the court order, according to Costa Rican law.

The credit bureau obtains its information from public sources, such as driver license records and property ownership documents. So the data that the pubic defender seeks to hide remains available.