Panama in Campaign against Dengue
Panama, Dec 10 (Prensa Latina) Panamanian public health authorities are fostering a campaign to avoid a dengue fever epidemics, after the death of two people and the proliferation of breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Panamanian Public Health Minister Camilo Alleyne called regional directors to intensify operations to eradicate vectors. Official sources said fines of up to 1,000 and 3,000 dollars will be applied for those who do not contribute with vector eradication in their homes. A total of 2,220 cases have been reported in the course of the year, less than 50 percent of the cases in 2005, and Control Department Director Oscar Gonzalez showed himself worried by the situation. The number of cases might be much bigger this year, because experts consider that for each confirmed case, there are between 10 and 25 people infected.
By Shannon Roxborough, Special to 
By Carol Hazard for the 
We have the pleasure to inform you that to better serve you we have moved our offices in Panama City to Balboa Avenue, at the main entrance of Multicentro Mall and have changed our phone number to (507) 202-2121. Our 
This coming Sunday, 17 December 2006 at 5:30 pm we are celebrating an Anglican Christmas service of "lessons and carols" at La Casa de Lourdes. We will have drinks at a special price and dinner wil be served at $10 per person. Come and join us and make this a happy holiday season for everybody! RSVP 6612-2028 (Lourdes Ward) or 983-6450 (La Casa de Lourdes) We are happy to inform you that the hotel La Casa de Lourdes has a special lodging rate for the "Lessons and Carols" celebration on Sunday, that will be $65 for an Executive Room plus tax including breakfast. This is a great option for those who would like to stay at the hotel after dinner.
I was knocking around in 
Panama, Dec 7 (
Everything is ready for the big "Christmas in the City" parade that will be held tomorrow, Sunday, the 10th of December 2006. The parade will consist of 31 floats and 31 marching bands. There will be 12,000 children who are being taken to the city from the interior of the country at the invitation of Panama's Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro. The parade will start at 3:30 pm in Bella Vista at 44th street and Balboa Avenue which is the assembly point for the participating units, bands, and floats. From there they will march down Balboa Avenue and will turn left on to Avenida Aquilino de la Guardia (which runs past the Banco General building). At Calle 50 they will turn right and will continue to the end of the parade route at Vía Cincuentenario. The length of the parade route is 5.6 kilometers. The parade route will be closed to vehicle traffic starting at 10:00 am and will remain closed until the parade finishes. Only official, police, and security vehicles will be allowed. One half of Balboa Avenue will be closed as well.
Last Tuesday the Panamanian rock band Cage9 was listed in USA Today's "Playlist" which is compiled by music critic Brian Mansfield. He writes "the initial impact could cause whiplash, but this Panamanian rock band makes great use of subtle surprises, too." These guys came out of the old Canal Zone and are one great rock band. If you are lucky enough to live somewhere near the left coast make an effort to find out where they are and go hear them play. Really good rock is hard to find, and really good hard rock is worth it's weight in mixed metaphors. Whatever. They're good.
By Saúl Quintero Quirós for 
Allow me to welcome aboard two new link-swappers, 
I have been asked by Laura Alexander from the Expats in Panama organization to send this message to various forums and members of various organization. Please do not write back to me at this email address inquiring for information or making reservations. I will not respond from this address. Please use the email address nye2007@expatsinpanama.com to inquire about this event, the best New Year's Party in Panama! Let's Party! charly garcia Dear Friends; Well, we finally have it down pat enough to send you the basic information for.....THE NEW YEAR'S EVE DINE & DANCE CRUISE!! The website for the event is http://www.expatsinpanama.com/nye4mausi This email address (nye2007@expatsinpanama.com) has been created to deal exclusively with the New Year's Eve Cruise, and I am very pleased to announce that Dr. Charly Garcia has kindly offered to assist me with answering questions, promotion, and ticket sales for this event; both Charly & I will be answering from, and monitoring incoming emails for, this email address. (more)
By Tom Giles - Hello Folks, We successfully completed the Magoo Overhaul Project and installed our new 4-stroke outboards with 14 days to spare before our first guests arrived on 13 November. The Magoo is performing very well but we are still needing to properly size our propellers. We fished a total of 6 days in November. Jim Clary, Mark Fleming, Jim & Tom Kelly were our first guests this season. Although we were still in rainy season, the weather held out reasonably well for us. Baits were made easy their first day but slowed down during their visit. They caught several nice amberjacks, Wahoo and lots of yellow-fin tunas. They were followed by Jaime Chen and Juan Lataste, from Panama City, who fished with us for one day. The weather was perfect and they filled their cooler with lots of tuna, Wahoo and snapper. Our final guests in November were the Kat family from the Panama Canal Area, who brought with them a great thanksgiving dinner. We fished and went sight seeing the following day. Meg and Tan Kat caught some very large Wahoo, the largest weighing about 90 pounds. We also introduced the girls to our style of popping. They caught several nice blue-fin trevally and lost some snapper and a roosterfish. (more)
By Manuel Vega Loo for 
Please join us on December 12th for our Second Tuesday Dinner Christmas Celebration and Silent Auction! Our event this month will be held at the City Club and in time to buy some exclusive gifts courtesy of some great sponsors. All profits and silent auction proceeds will support our Escuela Nautica Scholarship Fund for two worthy students to be awarded in March. Our special guest will be Luis E. Arreaga, Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy. The star of the evening will be the Silent Auction so and we will have live musical entertainment with Omar Constantino. He and his group will entertain us starting at 8:30. They are lively, musical and fun with a great Christmas selection. The Silent Auction items are: Signed print by world-famous artist, author, scientist, diver, angler, conservationist and explorer Guy Harvey -- courtesy of Marcos Ostrander and Tropic Star Lodge -- Value $300 Restaurant Package: Dinner for two at Los Anos Locos, Limoncillo, Peperoncini, La Novena, Trattoria de America. (more)
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- One person is dead following an electrical explosion and fire at a 17-story office building in Cambridge. N-Star says the victim is Kevin Fidalgo, 28, who had worked for the company since 2000. Another N-Star worker was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital after the explosion, which occurred shortly before 11 a.m. while the men were doing maintenance work in the basement. Christopher Carey is being treated for smoke inhalation. Cambridge Fire Chief Gerald Reardon says the fire sent "thick, acrid smoke" into stairwells of the MIT-owned building. Reardon says nearly 100 people were evaluated at the scene with at least 30 taken to area hospitals. Many inhaled smoke in the stairwells while trying to evacuate. MGH reported 14 people in fair condition. Occupants of the building reported a harrowing and chaotic scene after the first fire alarms went off. Some workers had to be rescued over ladders by firefighters. Others reportedly broke windows to get ventilation. A hotel across the street from the building became a temporary treatment site for the injured.
25 year-old Ana Patricia Barrios, daughter of a person who works for the office of the First Lady of Panama, survived a kidnapping attempt last night. Two armed men car-jacked her as she left her parents house in Bethania late last night and she screamed. They took her and her car at gunpoint and fled the scene. Her parents alerted police who responded, found the car, gave chase and eventually the kidnappers crashed into a telephone pole at 2:00 am. They were arrested, and the woman was found in the trunk of her own car, scared but otherwise unharmed. Editor's Comment: In these days leading up to Christmas there is always a spike in crime and robbery. Punks and criminals all want to score at the same time in order to get some spending money for Christmas presents. Stay alert and keep your eyes open for anything unusual.
The daughter of 61 year-old Beatriz Poveda said that her mother was simply running errands and had nothing to do with the on-going protests by retirees in the area of Juan Diaz and Pedregal who are protesting for increases to their retirement pay. She simply collapsed in the street and died of a heart attack. She said that "anyone who knows my mother knows that she has never been interested or involved in any kind of politics, political activity, or protests. The people who said she was participating in the protest are lying." Others who were in the area said that emergency response was delayed due to the traffic jams caused by the protest.
A drunk driver killed three people and injured five more when he lost control of the car he was driving at 5:30 in the morning and slammed in the people who were waiting for a bus at the Chivo-Chivo bus stop on the part of the Transistmican highway that goes from Colon to Panama City. One man was killed with his six year-old daughter as they waited to catch a bus to Santiago to visit his mother for Mother's Day. The driver, Agustin Nieto, 25 years-old, is in custody. Another woman who had both legs crushed was transported to the Santo Tomas hospital and later died from her injuries.
Approximately 350 houses and 1,750 people were affected by flooding caused by heavy rains in the early morning hours today in the area of Cristóbal in the province of Colon. According to a press release from the 
(DEC 8) 
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fitch assigns a preliminary rating of 'BBB-' to AES Panama proposed issuance of $300 million in senior unsecured notes. Fitch has also assigned a 'BBB-' foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) to AES Panama, S.A. The Rating Outlook is Stable. The notes will have a tenor of 10 years with a bullet amortization. The notes benefit from a six months debt service reserve account. The proceeds of the notes will be mainly used to repay existing debt of the company, $271 million as of Sept. 30, 2006, for financing costs and repayment premiums, and a small portion for general corporate purposes. This new bullet maturity transaction is expected to improve the debt service payments of the company and extend the final maturity, although the bullet amortization will increase refinancing risk at maturity. AES Panama's ratings are based on its strong portfolio of assets, competitive dispatch position, solid multiple power purchase agreements (PPAs), adequate financial profile, healthy projected debt service coverage under various stress scenarios, and the absence of foreign-exchange risk. The ratings also incorporate potential weaknesses, including exposure to hydrology, commodity price risks, regulatory considerations and potential for long-term competitive price pressures.
I scrounge through the Internet every day looking for interesting things about Panama. Every now and then I run into sports articles that usually talk talk about the "Panama Girls Softball Team Wins in Last Minute Upset Over the Hooters" or something like that. Everyone knows about Panama (the one with the canal) and Panama City, Florida (spring-break) but did you know there is a 
One person died from 
Putting people first to link health and biodiversity conservation: By training professionals in high-biodiversity regions to advance the drug discovery process in-country, a novel program drives drug discovery costs down as it promotes tropical biodiversity conservation. An international team describes a successful test of the program in Panama in the December, 2006 issue of BioScience. "Instead of sending samples to the U.S. or Switzerland, we identify natural substances that may control cancer, AIDS, malaria and other tropical diseases here, at the University of Panama," explains Luis Cubilla-Rios, one of the chemists on the project. Over 70 Panamanian students participated during the first seven years of the project, and 22 continue to seek graduate degrees in the sciences. Phyllis Coley and Tom Kursar, University of Utah, studied basic chemical ecology of plants at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's station on Barro Colorado Island in Panama: "We were alarmed by the lack of conservation strategies that provide immediate benefits for people living in high biodiversity regions," explains Kursar, who sought funding for this project, called the International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups (ICBG) from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Agriculture. (more)
By Elena Valdez for 
One of my best-kept secrets in Panama is Alvaro. He's a very good and much more than competent mechanic who will either fix your car or find someone who can if he runs into something that's beyond his capabilities. You really should write this down and stick it in your wallet. He has two cell phone numbers, his "old" number is 6-593-8844 and his "new" number is 6-634-8101. He answers both of them so you can use either one to get in touch with him. He is bilingual, has years of experience working in the former canal zone and knows how to take care of his customers. He has a rolling garage in the back of his mini-van with enough tools and equipment to get you running again no matter where you are if your car breaks down on the side of the road somewhere, at least enough to limp back to his shop. And the most important part is that he's honest to a fault. This man will not rip you off, and I think he's physically incapable of telling a lie. And if you've got squeaky brakes or something you've been putting off to get fixed, now (a couple of weeks before Christmas) would be a good time to get it taken care of and you'll be throwing some work to a good man. Tell him "Mr. Don" sent you, and he will hook you up.
