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A.M.
Costa Rica
Your daily English-language news source Monday through Friday |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 5
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Flipper was
on paleo menu, researchers say
By the Smithsonian Tropical Research
Institute news staff
Precolumbian seafarers left what is now mainland Panama to settle on Pedro González Island in the Perlas archipelago about 6,000 years ago, crossing 50 to 70 kilometers (31 to 44 miles) of choppy seas probably in dugout canoes. Dolphins were an important part of the diet of island residents according to Smithsonian archaeologist Richard Cooke and colleagues from the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California Los Angeles and Colombia’s Universidad del Norte. “This raises intriguing questions,” said Cooke, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. “Were the island’s first known inhabitants dolphin hunters or did they merely scavenge beached animals?” According to the results of recent excavations, published in Journal of Archaeological Science Reports, 8 percent of the mammal specimens, bones and teeth, recovered from a prehistoric scrap heap or midden, belonged to dolphins. No other known settlement in Central America shows evidence of systematic dolphin consumption. The absence of dolphins in the diet of precolumbian peoples is usually attributed to the difficultly of navigating canoes and spearing dolphins at sea. Researchers have yet to find artifacts that indicate systematized hunting, such as evidence of nets or spears. One dolphin skull does have a puncture wound inflicted by a blunt-pointed tool. Seasonal upwelling brings nutrient-rich water to the Gulf of Panama. This attracts huge schools of fish. Hungry dolphins follow into shallow water, bringing them close to shore. There were also teeth from 2.5 to 3.5-meter-long tiger sharks in the midden. If sharks were pursuing pods of dolphins, they might have been driven even closer to the shoreline. But natural stranding of dolphins is also probably not enough to explain the abundance of bones in the midden. Cooke believes there is another explanation: Islanders could simply have positioned their canoes at the entrance to the u-shaped Don Bernardo Beach to wait for the dolphins to swim into the inlet. By creating noise to disorient the dolphins and drive them on shore, they could easily have harvested them. Similar corralling methods are used in the Solomon Islands today. The earliest settlers of Pedro González Island certainly hunted the island’s creatures, including pygmy deer. They were also agriculturalists. The midden shows the first evidence for the cultivation of maize on Central American platform islands consistent in time with the mainland data. The archaeological record includes turtle and fish bones and shellfish remains. In 2016, Pearl Island, Inc., a development company, financed a four-month salvage of parts of the site in accordance with Panama’s cultural heritage laws. Further excavation on Pedro Gonzalez Island and its larger neighbor, Isla del Rey, may paint a more detailed picture, including why these islanders disappeared after about 800 years. Newcomers settled the island a few thousand years later, but the record of their time shows no dolphin use. “I would argue, though it’s speculative, that the retention of dolphin hunting is probably due to an early circum-Pacific maritime adaptation by humans,” Cooke said. “Even though with the data we have we cannot really prove they were hunting. But the age of the site puts it at a time when people all around the Pacific Rim in Mexico, Chile and Japan were hunting dolphins.” Minor accident rule going into effect By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Motorists are being encouraged to carry that DAM form when they travel. That is the Declaración de Accidente Menor form that can be used when there is a minor accident. The law as of Saturday will allows motorists involved in accidents without injuries to settle the incident among themselves. Another stipulation is that the damage is so minor that the vehicles can still move by their own power. The Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes urged motorists who have insurance policies in addition to the obligatory one to contact their insurer to see what is advised. The ministry contains the Policía de Tránsito, and the idea of the law change is to free police for all the minor mishaps. There were more than 86,000 accident calls in 2015. However, the use of the form, which is HERE, is not obligatory, and expats may want to call police even for a minor mishap. The ministry says that in addition to using the form, motorists involved in accidents should take photos. Two concerts for the Nicoya peninsula By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Festival Internacional de Música Cóbano finishes up with a concert tonight in Cóbano and one Saturday morning at the Hotel Luz de Mono in Montezuma. The festival in its eighth year has adopted a theme of Latin American symphonies this year. The Escuela de Música Cóbano organizes the festival which is preceded by a gathering of young musicians. Some 85 young musicians, mainly from the Pacific coast, are involved in the orchestra. Students range from 5 to 23 years, and instructors come from other countries as well as Costa Rica. The Universidad de Costa Rica and the national music system also are involved. The 8 p.m. concert tonight will be in the Casa de la Cultura de Cóbano which is to the rear of the Clínica de Cóbano. Both concerts are free and open to the public. The Saturday concert is at 10 a.m. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this Web site are
copyrighted by Consultantes Ro Colorado S.A 2065 and may not be
reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
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| A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 5 | ||
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| Health officials suggest precautions but decline to close
down Palmares |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Even though 17 persons have been listed now as having died of swine flu, the national health authorities have decided not to cancel large gatherings. One of the biggest this month is the Fiestas Palmares, which runs from next Wednesday to Jan. 25. This is a major event second only to the Zapote Christmas fiesta. To cancel the fiestas would be a major financial blow to the community of Palmares and also to those who plan to set up businesses there. And health officials have discounted fears of an epidemic. Those who died had other complications, including the three new cases announced Thursday. But the Ministerio de Salud has come out with some rules that are designed to reduce the spread of disease, including the AH1N1 swine flu virus. Although not mentioning Palmares, the Ministerio de Salud said Thursday that those firms that set up stands at large events have to make sure that there is adequate hand-washing facilities for both employees and the public. Organizers are on notice that they must provided ample |
 sanitary facilities and garbage containers. The ministry also is requiring the use of alcohol gel. The ministry has put out a colorful poster showing the correct way to wash hands, and firms, such as the ones selling food and drink at Palmares, are requested to post it. The poster also advises that those sneezing should cover their face. The ministry inspects such facilities and has the power to shut them down for health violations. The Palmares event features a horse parade, international-level entertainers and a half marathon Jan. 23. It is organized by the Asociación Civica Palmareña, which has a Facebook page HERE! |
| Security ministry defends policy of disarming those with
legal permits |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The security ministry is defending the Fuerza Pública's policy of stripping firearms from those stopped at checkpoints even if they have a legal carry permit. The ministry said that a recent Sala IV constitutional court decision supports the policy. The ministry issued the directive to the Fuerza Pública Dec. 10 as a way to fight organized crime. The person who filed and lost the Sala IV appeal appears to have been stopped twice by police. Both times his firearm was confiscated while officers inspected his vehicle. The case was featured in a Spanish-language newspaper Thursday. |
The Fuerza
Pública has a long-standing policy of stopping without
probable cause motorists either individually or at checkpoints.
Officers also do that with pedestrians, mostly young people, on the
streets. The police agency cites a spike in murders as a reason to also stop those on motorcycles and vehicles containing two or more persons. The Fuerza Pública said in a release that the Sala IV magistrates considered the action justified and said it did not represent a violation of rights. The police agency also said that the magistrates rejected the idea that the officers should return a firearm at a checkpoint once a search is completed. Instead, the holder of a valid carry permit will have to appear at a police station to seek the weapon and complete paperwork. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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be
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 5 |
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| Biophysicist pioneers a new use for the coffee bean: Healthy
flour |
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By the Brandeis University news staff
Brandeis biophysicist Dan Perlman has come up with a new invention, the parbaked coffee bean. According to Perlman, this method of roasting green coffee beans enhances the health benefits of coffee. Perlman is developing the flour milled from parbaked beans both as a food ingredient and a nutritional supplement. It’s a world of difference from the traditional coffee bean, Perlman says. Research has shown that drinking coffee is healthful. A recent Harvard study found that people who drank three to five cups a day had a 15 percent lower chance of prematurely dying than non-drinkers. Nobody knows for certain what causes coffee to be salutary, but one leading explanation involves a natural chemical compound called chlorogenic acid. An antioxidant, the acid is thought to be beneficial in modulating sugar metabolism, controlling blood pressure and possibly treating heart disease and cancer. Unfortunately, when coffee is roasted the traditional way, typically above 400 degrees F for 10 to 15 minutes, the chlorogenic acid content drops dramatically. One study found the decrease ranged from 50 to nearly 100 percent. Perlman wondered what would happen if the coffee bean was baked for less time and at a lower temperature. This took some trial and error until he got it right. In the end, he determined that parbaking the beans at 300 degrees at approximately 10 minutes worked best. The concentration of acid in the bean, around 10 percent of the bean’s weight, barely dropped. The parbaked coffee bean can’t be used to make coffee. It isn’t roasted long enough to develop flavor. Instead Perlman cryogenically mills the bean in an ultra-cold and chemically inert liquid nitrogen atmosphere to protect the bean's beneficial constituents from oxidation. At the end of the process, a wheat-colored flour is produced. Its taste is nutty, pleasant and mild. |
 Brandeis University
photo
This is the result of milling
parbaked coffee beansPerlman sees his coffee flour being blended with regular flours for baking, used in breakfast cereals and snack bars and added to soups, juices and nutritional drinks. To compensate for the acid lost during traditional coffee roasting, it would be possible to blend parbaked beans with regularly roasted ones. There are green coffee bean extract-based nutritional supplements already on the market. They have been touted as a way to lose weight and fight obesity, but there is scant research to support these claims. The scientific evidence that illustrates chlorogenic acid’s benefits for other conditions is much stronger. Perlman also says parbaking is far less expensive than the extraction methods used to produce the green coffee bean extract supplements currently on the market. Brandeis University has patented Perlman's process. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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contents of this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río
Colorado
S.A. 2016 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
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A.M. Costa Rica's
Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 5 | |||||||
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| 2015 declared second hottest on record in United States By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A hot December made 2015 the second hottest year on record in the contiguous United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "It was quite an exceptional month," said Jake Crouch, climate scientist at the agency's National Centers for Environmental Information. Temperatures for the year averaged 12.4 degrees C ( 54.3 F), just off 2012’s 12.9 C (55.2 F), the hottest year since records started in 1895. The agency also said there were 10 major weather and climate events in 2015, resulting in the deaths of 155 and causing more than $1 billion in damage. They included a drought, two floods, five severe storms, a wildfire event and a winter storm. The Western U.S. was particularly warm, as was the Southeast. Texas and Oklahoma set records for precipitation. "Every state had an above average temperature for the year," said Crouch. The World Meteorological Organization said 2015 would be the hottest year ever globally and that 2016 could be hotter because of El Niño. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said 2015 was the 19th straight year that the average temperatures topped the average for the 20th century. Nearly 200 countries that met at the United Nations’ climate summit in Paris in December agreed to try to stem climate change by restraining the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees C. Climate change is a highly charged political issue in the U.S. with Republican presidential candidates critical of President Barack Obama’s statement that it was the biggest threat to national security. Alabama chief justice orders halt to gay marriage licenses By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Alabama's top justice has ordered the state's probate judges not to issue same-sex marriage licenses, despite the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last year legalizing gay marriage. Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore cited conflicting court rulings as his reason for issuing the order. "Until further decision by the Alabama Supreme Court … Alabama probate judges have a ministerial duty not to issue any marriage license contrary to the Alabama Sanctity of Marriage Amendment or the Alabama Marriage Protection Act," Moore wrote in an administrative order Wednesday. In Mobile County, the probate court said it would stop issuing marriage licenses to all couples. "In order to comply with the administrative order of Alabama Chief Justice Roy S. Moore … the court is not issuing marriage licenses to any applicants until further notice," it said in a message posted to its Web site. "This action is necessary to ensure full compliance with all court rulings that apply to the court and to Mobile County." Elsewhere in the state, reaction has been mixed. In Montgomery, Probate Judge Steven Reed said Moore has soiled the court with his decision. "Judge Moore's latest charade is just sad and pathetic," Reed wrote on Twitter. "My office will ignore him and this." Moore, a conservative Republican, has previously attempted to block same-sex marriage in the state, but backed down after legal challenges. In 2003, he was removed from office after refusing a court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building. World commodities declined again, U.N. food agency says By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
World food prices fell for the fourth year in a row in 2015, amid plentiful supplies and a slowing global economy. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said prices of leading food commodities plunged 19 percent, led by dairy and sugar. “Abundant supplies in the face of a timid world demand and an appreciating dollar are the main reason for the general weakness that dominated food prices in 2015,” said Abdolreza Abbassian, Food and Agriculture senior economist. Agricultural prices as measured by the agency’s price index have fallen almost 30 percent since 2011, thanks to increased production. The index measures monthly changes in prices for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar. In December, the index fell 1 percent from the previous month, with falling prices for meat, dairy and cereals more than offsetting gains in sugar and vegetable oils. Motorcycle club president and two others are detained By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Federal agents and local police officers surrounded a house in Conroe, Texas, north of Houston, Wednesday and arrested Jeffrey Fay Pike, the national president of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club. A federal indictment issued Dec. 16 in San Antonio, charges the 60-year-old and two other men of directing, approving and allowing violence against members of the rival Cossacks club. Federal agents in San Antonio arrested the other two men, Bandidos Vice President John Xavier Portillo and National Sergeant at Arms Justin Cole Forster on similar charges. They also charged Forster with possession and intent to distribute methamphetamine. Speaking after his client’s initial hearing, Pike’s attorney, Kent Schaffer, said the specific charges against the Bandidos leader are much more limited than the general charges outlined against all three in the indictment. Schaffer said, “It does not really allege that Jeff Pike did anything other than that he was aware of the fact that Bandidos out in west Texas were fighting with Cossacks.” Deliberately remaining ignorant of criminal activity being carried out by others is a crime, but Schaffer said it is usually accompanied by other charges. He also questioned the alleged urgency of stopping further Bandidos violence against Cossacks through an indictment issued on Dec. 16 and not acted on until now. Schaffer said, “You would think that if they were that concerned about the safety of the Cossacks that they would have either, one, indicted the case much sooner than they did or, secondly, at the time they returned an indictment they would have made the arrests.” Schaffer said federal authorities may have been motivated to act because of the shootout at a biker gathering in Waco, Texas, in May that left nine people dead and around two dozen wounded. Pike was not there, having just had surgery that left him recuperating for a few months. During that time, Schaffer said, Portillo took control of executive duties for the club, which was founded in Houston in the 1960s and now has some 2,000 members in 15 countries. But federal officials say the indictment is the result of a 23-month investigation that uncovered criminal activity on a broad spectrum, including plans to commit violent assaults and murders. The indictment refers to the Bandidos as a highly organized criminal organization. Both federal authorities and Texas law enforcement officials regard the Bandidos as a gang that flaunts the law and threatens society. Special Agent Joseph M. Arabit, the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Houston Field Division said the operation that led to the indictment "has inflicted a debilitating blow to the leadership hierarchy and violent perpetrators of the Bandidos Outlaw Motorcycle Gang.” But Civil Rights organizations and legal experts alike have criticized the mass arrests by police and indictments brought by prosecutors in Waco, and some are maintaining wariness in regard to the federal indictment as well. At Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, a history professor, Randy McBee, objects to police and the media using the word gangs in referring to clubs and he expresses concern that people may view all bikers as criminals because of crimes committed by a relative minority within the clubs. “You take the average guy who rides a bike,” he said in an interview, “and he is attracting the attention and the scrutiny of the police and the odd stare from the public just as much as these other guys are, just because he is on a bike.” McBee, who owns a motorcycle and has written a book about biker culture, said biker clubs offer social solidarity for many people that is difficult to find anywhere else in American society today. “There really is a sense of community,” he said. “Whenever I am on my bike and I see someone else on one there is an unspoken solidarity that exists. It is the basis of identity.” McBee thinks it is possible, even in groups like the Bandidos, for some members to be involved in criminal activities while others belong only for the social bonding. Some law enforcement officials agree, but they say there is plenty of evidence to show that violence and illegal schemes have become the norm within at least some of the clubs and that, in their view, justifies their use of the word gangs. New Year's gropers can face deportation from Germany By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
German Justice Minister Heiko Maas said that if there are asylum-seekers among the people responsible for the spate of thefts and sexual assaults in Cologne, they could be kicked out of the country. Maas spoke Thursday to the Funke media group about the string of reported crimes. Maas said German law allows for asylum seekers to be deported if they are sentenced to a year or more in prison, which is possible with sexual offenses. But German officials have cautioned that very little information is available about the perpetrators of the attacks over New Year's weekend, including whether the attackers were asylum seekers. Officials said Wednesday that the attacks were likely part of a coordinated effort by a criminal gang. Police say about 1,000 men, most of Arab or North African origin, had gathered near Cologne's main train station around midnight throwing fireworks. After police moved in to break up the revelry, smaller groups of men began surrounding women passing through the area, groping and harassing them and stealing their belongings. A plainclothes police woman said she was among those attacked. About 90 people have filed criminal complaints, including one report of a rape. The DPA news agency reports that three suspects are being investigated. Both Justice Minister Maas and Chancellor Angela Merkel have condemned the assaults and called for the perpetrators to be punished. Police in the German cities of Hamburg and Stuttgart have said similar crimes were committed during New Year's Eve festivities, but to a lesser extent. Tuesday, hundreds of women demonstrated in front of Cologne's cathedral calling for more respect for women. Although the nationalities and residency status of the perpetrators are unknown, the assaults have intensified the debate about Germany's immigration policies. Some 1.1 million people registered as asylum seekers in Germany in 2015. Kerry expresses displeasure at stalled diplomatic votes By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Secretary of State John Kerry used strong words Thursday in a call for the Senate to move forward on key diplomatic nominations, saying the delay is hurting American security. “It just doesn't make sense. It hurts our country, to do what the Senate has allowed to happen over the course of these last couple of years. And that is to leave open, for sometimes more than a year, vacant important positions for our nation,” said Kerry. According to the State Department, 17 nominees are waiting for Senate confirmation, eight on the floor and nine in the committee. One of the stalled nomination votes is for Tom Shannon, who was nominated to be undersecretary of State for political affairs, the State Department’s third-highest position. “We have an ambassador, Tom Shannon, a outstanding nominee for undersecretary, a veteran, a foreign service officer whose nomination was approved unanimously by the Senate Foreign Relations committee. And yet, for months, one person has been holding up his nomination: no vote on the Senate floor,” said Kerry. Kerry also scolded the Senate for procrastinating on Roberta Jacobson’s nomination. As the assistant secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere affairs, Ms. Jacobson has played a key role in U.S. efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. She has been tapped for ambassador to Mexico. The delay in her appointment has been viewed by some analysts to be likely related to the Cuba Policy. “One of our most significant bilateral relationships is with Mexico, and this is true economically, environmentally, socially on border security,” said Kerry, "and it is disparaging to that country that we don't have the respect to send the ambassador that that country needs and deserves.” The Republican-led Senate did not vote on several nominations before the holiday break. Obama says his gun actions will make getting one harder By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
President Barack Obama said Thursday that combining gun safety with background checks would save lives while respecting the constitutional right of Americans to own weapons. Obama made his comments at a town-hall-style meeting on his new executive orders for tighter gun control. The meeting at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, outside Washington, was proposed by and broadcast on CNN television. The president said increased background checks would not prevent many people from being able to purchase guns. But he said the loopholes in the current system do not keep someone from buying guns in one state without a background check, crossing the border to another state, and reselling those guns for a profit. Obama said there are places in the U.S. where it is easier and cheaper for a 12-year-old child to get a gun than to buy a book. The president said that many times, police and others do not know ahead of time who is going to be a criminal. He pointed out that the person who killed more than 20 schoolchildren in Connecticut in 2012 had no criminal record. He said that while no one can guarantee a criminal cannot get his hands on a gun, tighter background checks will make it a bit harder and more expensive. At the close of the meeting, Obama said it is not just deaths at the hands of criminals that are the problem. He said tighter laws could stop many accidental killings and suicides by distraught teenagers looking to escape their problems. Thursday's audience was filled with specially selected advocates for and against more gun control. They included gun owners, gun dealers and victims of gun violence, such as former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who barely survived a bullet wound to the head in 2011. CNN invited the National Rifle Association to send representatives. It declined. Obama said NRA rhetoric was over the top and overheated. He said he would be happy to meet and talk with the NRA as long as it dealt with what he called the facts. In an opinion piece published Thursday in The New York Times, the president said he accepted that common-sense gun reform would not pass in Congress during his presidency. But he urged Americans, including responsible gun owners, to demand that the firearms industry and the nation's leaders do their part to help protect our fellow citizens. Earlier this week, in an emotional appearance at the White House, the president announced his series of measures affecting both gun sellers and buyers. At one point as he spoke, he wiped away tears while remembering the victims of gun violence, especially children. The new rules tighten licensing procedures for those who sell firearms and tighten requirements for background checks before purchasers can acquire weapons. Republican lawmakers who rejected Obama's attempts to tighten gun regulations in 2013 said the president overstepped his authority by issuing the new rules, which they contended would not help reduce the number of violent crimes involving guns. Guns are involved in about 32,000 deaths every year in the United States. About 60 percent of those deaths are suicides. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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Colorado S.A. 2016 and may not be reproduced anywhere without
permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
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| A.M. Costa Rica sixth news page |
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 5 | |||||||||
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Show seeks British living off-the-grid By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A British production company is seeking countrymen to be featured in a show that demonstrates how they have escaped to the wilds in Costa Rica. The production company is Optomen Television, which makes "Escape to the Wild" for the United Kingdom broadcaster Channel 4. “The programs tell the inspirational stories of people who’ve quit the rat race in the UK and moved overseas for a more sustainable way of life,” said Executive Producer Patrick Furlong in a release. He heads the London team. “These families have traded the daily grind for simple self-sufficiency. They’re living off-the-grid and are finding happiness in some of the most beautiful places on the planet.” The first series of "Escape to the Wild" featured expats now living closer to nature in Tonga, Chile, Belize and Sweden. Ruth Overend, a content producer at Optomen Television, said, “We’d like to hear from British couples and families who’ve chosen to source their own water, harness their own power, grow vegetables, keep chickens and fish for their supper. Not a shopping mall or a motorway in sight!” The company can be contacted by e-mail at EscapeToTheWild@Optomen.com.  Caroline Walde-Jensen
photo
This is the runaway dog,
RicciReward
offered for runaway shih tzu
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
New Year's Eve fireworks caused a vacationers' dog to bolt, and now the search is on. Caroline Walde-Jensen said her 4-year-old gray shih tzu named Ricci was last seen around the Linda Vista Residence near Santa Ana and also in Brasil de Mora. She has promised a $350 reward. "He is microchipped but was not wearing his collar when he ran away," the woman said via email. "He is about 16 pounds. He is 4 years old. He is from the United States. He is short haired because he got hot in Costa Rica, so we shaved him. He is a dark grey. He is very friendly and sweet. He isn't always sure about children or other dogs, but he likes people. Anyone who finds Ricci can report that to adelabean@hotmail.com or pomgirl1626@gmail.com. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| From
Page 7: Chinese markets up slightly at midday today By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
After twice triggering a circuit breaker mechanism earlier this week because of huge losses, Chinese stocks swung wildly in the first hours of trading today but seemed to settle by midday. The trading halt, called a circuit breaker, was intended to calm markets, but it seemed to be having the opposite effect, so Chinese officials suspended the rule late Thursday. With the circuit breaker deactivated, the CSI300 index was up 1.75 percent at 3,351.97 points in morning trade today, while the Shanghai Composite Index was up 1.9 percent to 3,185.67 points by 8:30 p.m. Thursday Costa Rican time. Other Asian markets were also volatile early in the day, but many were edging toward positive territory. Hong Kong was 1 percent higher, having also swung from as much as 0.9 percent up to 0.7 percent down. Tokyo was up 0.4 percent after a volatile and negative start. Sydney and Seoul also drifted in and out of positive territory. Chinese markets have had a turbulent start to 2016. Experts blame the global market plunge on investor worries that growth is slowing in China, the world's second-largest economy and a source of global economic growth for many years. Beijing recently moved to weaken the Chinese currency in a bid to bolster exports and growth, a move that nervous investors took as a sign that China's economy was even weaker than previously thought. Worries about growth in China and elsewhere are also hurting oil prices, as investors bet that less economic growth will cut demand for energy. Investors were also shaken by North Korea's suspected nuclear test and tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, key members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Thursday, U.S. and European stock markets fell sharply after China again suspended trading. |
