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I am a big history nut, and old articles and stories really fascinate me.  Sometimes it´s amazing to look at how Panama was 50 or 100 years ago, and see just how far the Republic of Panama has come along.  So here it is, the first installment of our weekly look at what English News Panama readers would have had in the past:

Consumer prices rose 0.4 percent in April from the previous month, while 12-month inflation at the end of the month was 8.5 percent, the Comptroller General's office said.

An increase in food prices, transport costs and other household expenditures was offset by a 0.9 percent drop in utility costs like water, gas and electricity.

Prices had risen 1.2 percent in March, pushing annual inflation up to 8.8 percent that month. Inflation in Panama gained steadily throughout 2007, and 12-month inflation in April of that year was clocked at just 2.7 percent.

Panama, which uses the dollar as national currency and used to enjoy lower rates of inflation than those in the United States, has suffered from the rising price of food and oil.

The cheaper dollar also has made imports more costly.

According to Standard & Poor's analyst, Roberto Sifon, Panama is struggling against dual pressures, internal and external.

"You have external pressure from global high commodity prices, which Panama is dependent on, particularly oil. At the same time you have high domestic growth causing a demand shock," he told Reuters on Thursday.

With the Microsoft-sponsored program, "Connect to Knowledge," Panama could become an international case study, said President Martín Torrijos at yesterday´s inauguration of the fourth annual Microsoft Research Academic Summit.

"We're moving ahead and we´ve decided to adopt this tool that to strengthen the learning process," stressed the President.

"Connect to Knowledge," which the government has introduced in about 700 public schools, is aimed at teaching students how to use computers as an academic tool. Panama will have the largest number of schools involved in the program in Central America.

Jaime Puente, the manager of external investigation for Microsoft Research Panamá, said that a lack of clarity of agenda and collaboration are obstacles to the program´s success in Latin America.

"There is much work to do," said Rick Rashid, vice president of Microsoft Research, "but there are good opportunities here."

Environmentalists have inaugurated a new, 14-kilometer trail through the Lagunas Perdidas de Boquete, in the hope that more Panamanians and tourists alike will come to appreciate the area and want to care for it.

The trail, which winds through a section of Chiriquí´s majestic Parque Internacional La Amistad, starts at Cerro El Pianista, and passes through the Ngöbe-Bugle community of Horqueta and Bajo Mono before ending at the Lagunas Perdidas, so-called for their "hidden" location at the base of the Salamanca mountain range.

The trek takes about two days and guides nature lovers through jungle areas teeming with wildlife.

The president of the Asociación para la Conservación de la Biósfera, Ezequiel Miranda, said that the opening of the trail is part of a project to involve the community in the nationwide development of ecotourism activities.

The trail´s designers also built an observation center out of local materials, where park rangers can monitor remote areas and aid in controlling illegal hunting, logging and land poaching, which frequently occurs along the park´s buffer zones.

The park, which straddles the border with Costa Rica, is home to Baird's tapirs, giant anteaters, all six species of neotropical cats, including the jaguar, puma, ocelot, margay, oncilla and jaguarundi. Monkeys, coatis and over 600 bird species of birds live in the park´s protected rainforest canopies.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated the Parque Internacional La Amistad as a World Heritage Site in 1983.

Rice growers will soon be able to plant a new seed which is expected to increase their yields. The Instituto de Investigación Agropecuaria de Panamá (Idiap) plans to release the seed in the next 20 days. Experts say "it's more resistant to insects and climate change and more adapted to market demands." The new variety is known as IDIAP-5205.

Seed program coordinator Alberto Yau said the new rice can be harvested 120 days after planting, assuming its receives sufficient rain and the soil retains enough moisture.

Israel Camargo, a scientist who works on developing new rice varieties, said the new seed is better than the one released in August of 2007 because it has better milling qualities and is more tolerant of the spinky mite, bacteria, and fungi that often damage rice. It's also more resistant to disease and requires fewer agrochemical inputs, thereby reducing farmers's costs.

The new seed will produce a long grain rice that's expected to satisfy the current market demand for a variety that remains loose after cooking.

The president of the Asociación de Productores de Arroz de Chiriquí (Apach), Alexander Araúz, said any new seed that improves the quality of rice and increases yields is good for the industry. But he warned that the new seed cannot be used in the 2008-2009 growing season because it has first to be sown, reproduce, and prove its viability. Some 70 quintals (1 quintal > 100 lbs.) will be tested initially. If all goes well, Idiap will then sell the seed to farmers.

More than $700,000 and ten years of laboratory and field tests were spent on developing the new seed.

A draft bill to unify the nation's health care system has been sent to the Presidencia de la Republica amid criticism from a union representing many of the country's doctors.

The president's office noted that extra time will be allowed for organizations to comment on the proposal and for revisions to be made.

A new round of discussions about the proposal is expected to start next week.

But Fernando Castañedas, the leader of the doctor's union Comisión Médica Negociadora Nacional (Comenenal), is not waiting until then to offer his opinion of the draft and the process that led to its creation. He described the proposal as "malicious" because it does not include any provisions that will improve access to medical care.

He also said that Comenenal's attempts to provide input on the legislation have been stymied. President Martín Torrijos never responded to a letter the union sent him asking for a meeting about the proposal, Castañedas said.

The Ministerio de Salud, however, issued a statement yesterday claiming that Comenenal has been involved in the process, and the union's recommendations were incorporated into the draft.

Comenenal members conducted a vigil yesterday at the Iglesia del Carmen to highlight its position on the issue.

The government is looking at consolidating services currently offered by the Caja de Seguro Social and the Ministerio de Salud.

Panama will promote the creation of a regional surplus food pool to help alleviate the crisis prevailing in the sector, Foreign Minister Samuel Lewis announced on Wednesday.

Lewis, who is also First Vice President of the Republic, added that the draft initiative, currently under study by experts, will be informally presented during the summit of the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean in Lima, Peru, this week.

Currently, Panama has surplus pork, while other nations have surplus rice, beans, corn and other basic grains, he said, adding that once in a pool, these items can be exchanged among countries to supply their populations with food at reasonable prices.

The surplus food pool issue is a different approach to manage surplus food to face food crisis, creating regional aid and support mechanisms beyond trade agreements, said the Panamanian top diplomat.

As of June 1 retirees living in the capital will benefit from a 20 percent discount in the cost of trash collection services.

The measure, proposed by mayor and presidential hopeful Juan Carlos Navarro, was approved yesterday by the Consejo Municipal. Applause erupted from a group of retirees attending the meeting after the vote was taken.

"This has been a struggle for months," said Ángel Tello, president of the Confederación Nacional de Jubilados.

Navarro explained that the measure will apply to retirees who have a residence or an Aseo account in their name. Retirees who rent must prove that the account is in their name.

Panama has about 175,000 retirees and pensioners, 50 percent of whom live in the districts of Panama and San Miguelito, said Tello. Eligible retirees must go to the business office at Plaza Concordia, Vía España.

According to the Municipio de Panamá, trash collection rates differ from one corregimiento to another. The highest rate charged for the service is $11.50, and the lowest is $2.50.

For those who have never seen San Miguelito as much of a tourist destination, Rogelio Justiniani, chairman of the district´s Comité de Desarrollo Turístico since January 2006, says to look again.

Justiniani´s 25-member committee recently put together a walking tour of the area´s little-known points of interest, inviting residents and visitors alike to partake of San Miguelito´s rich historical, cultural and religious life.

The tour begins with a visit to the ruins of the La Palangana chapel, built by Spanish settlers in1519, said Justiniani, who guided La Prensa journalists along the tourist route. The chapel´s ruins lie in the heart of the Parque Nacional Camino de Cruces, which was once used by conquistadors to transport gold and other booty from their South American colonies to ports on the Atlantic coast.

La iglesia del Cristo Redentor, built in 1963 by the Archdiocese of Chicago, in the United States, is the second stop on the tour. In addition to building the church, the Americans brought a replica of the Christ that towers above Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The third destination is undoubtedly the tour´s high point. Sitting on the peak of Cerro Sonsonate is the egg-shaped Bahá' í temple, one of only seven worldwide, and the only temple of its kind in Latin America.

According to Bahá' í literature, leaders of the faith chose to build the temple in Panama "because at this point the West and the East are united by the Panama Canal." The temple, where visitors are invited inside to pray regardless of their faith, has an impressive oval dome rising 92 feet high and 200 feet wide. "You can enjoy one of the best views of Panama from there," said Justiniani.

The Comité de Desarrollo Turístico especially wants to encourage high school and university students to take the tour. "Once a month, we put together groups of between 35 and 60 people and organize an excursion," Justiniani said. And the tour is always being updated. "We want more people to visit the Estadio Rod Carew," he said.

The United Nations has included the development of tourism in San Miguelito among the projects funded by the Concertación Nacional para el Desarrollo de Panama, which helps to redirect Canal profits into social development programs.

    The two countries established diplomatic ties on May 9, a statement released on the ministry's website said.

    Panama's Representative to the United Nations Ricardo Arrias and his Montenegrin counterpart signed the joint statement on behalf of their respective countries in New York on May 9.

    By establishing diplomatic ties, the two governments hope to pursue continuous bilateral cooperation and friendship in the future, the statement said.

    The Republic of Montenegro, formerly a part of Serbia and Montenegro, is located in Europe's Balkan peninsula and has a population of less than 700,000. It officially announced independence on June 3, 2006.

President Martín Torrijos announced yesterday that he will rid the city's streets of the infamous "diablos rojos" and that the state will take over the public transportation system.

Torrijos will put his Plan de Movilidad Urbana y Modernización del Transporte on the road once the first part of a new fleet of buses arrives.

To make good on its promise, the state is planning to buy 400 of 1,500 new buses through an international tender in the next few weeks. The buses will be assigned to the two major routes that divide the city in the northeast and southeast.

After a transition period of 18 months, which began yesterday, the new transportation system, including the buses, will be offered as concession to private enterprises.

The buses, which are expected to start circulating in the first months of 2009 and which will have two doors, air conditioning and comfortable seats, will be financed by the Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF).

A work slowdown by pilots who guide ships through the Panama Canal is causing unprecedented delays and creating a costly bottleneck for shipping companies, canal employees and shippers say.

Some 250 Panama Canal pilots, who take charge of all vessels while they travel between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, want a pay raise and formal work contracts, and are protesting by giving only limited help to clear gridlocks in the busy trade route.

With around 5 per cent of global trade passing through Panama, scores of vessels laden with containers are stretching out off the coast of Panama City, waiting to enter the canal.

The average time ships spent in canal waters stood at 42 hours early this week, compared with an average of 24.5 hours last year.

The delays are costing shippers tens of thousands of dollars per day.