 |
|
||||
 |
 |
 |
||
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
|
Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for more details |
A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
|
|
|
San
José, Costa Rica, Friday, Jan. 16, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 11
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
|
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The price regulating agency said Thursday that the Compañía Nacional de Fuerza y Luz would get a 6 percent boost in rates. The percentage is about half what the company sought, said the price regulating agency. The agency estimated that the average home would pay 1,100 colons more under the new rates. That is a bit more than $2. The new rate will go into effect when it is published. The company covers much of the Central Valley but not Heredia or Cartago, which have their own utility companies. Cheaper gasoline draws customers By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Residents flooded local service stations Thursday, the first day that gasoline took more than a 100-colon drop. The Autoridad Reguladora de Servicios Públicos said Friday that the super gasoline would decline in price 109 colons per liter to 580 colons. Plus gasoline would decline 103 colons a liter to 552 colons and that diesel would decline 85 colons to 522 colons. The decreases are from 15.5 to 20 U.S. cents per liter. The prices did not take effect until the decree was published. Prices still are high by world standards. Gasoline prices in some U.S. states are approaching $2 a gallon. In Costa Rica, super with the price cut is now $5.03 a gallon. Plus is $3.83, and diesel is 3.63. Government to create purchasing system By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The finance minister says that the current MerLink purchasing system will be phased out and a new system will be created and run by Radiográfica Costarricense S.A., the Internet provider. The announcement Thursday was another step in the effort by the Solís administration to abolish the MerLink system. The Ministerio de Hacienda has its own system, CompraRed, which it has been promoting. The government will create what is being called Sistema Integrado de Compras Públicas. Official estimate that the savings in running the system will be more than $500 million in the first year. The Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología will participate in creating and operating the new system. Both MerLink and CompraRed use online technology to display bid offers from government agencies and to post the winning bids. Officials want to have the new system running by next Dec. 31 and all the government agencies online with it a year later The choice of the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad subsidiary known as RACSA was a surprise because the company is known to be in financial trouble. Agents say man pretended to be doctor By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Judicial investigators detained a man Thursday morning and said he was pretending to be a medical doctor. Agents said this is the third time they have detained the man for the same crime. They said he had been detained last January and also in December. The man is accused of making house calls to treat obesity with injections. He was detained near his home in Los Sitios de Moravia. The man gave his patients various explanations as to why he did not maintain an office and said he worked at a medical examiner for the Poder Judicial, agents reported. The Judicial Investigating Organization said the man probably had other patients, and they urged them to make contact. Volunteers to help at summit By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The foreign ministry says that it has enlisted more than 200 volunteers to work at the summit that is expected to attract 32 visiting heads of state and their aides. This is the third annual summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, and Costa Rica holds a one-year term as president. The volunteers are mainly university students, the ministry said. They met with Manuel A. González, the foreign minster, Thursday. The ministry also said that Glenda Umaña, the former U.S. television presenter, would be the moderator. Multiple grants from United States By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The United States is giving $1.3 million to eight Costa Rican non-profit organizations for education, personal development, new technology, language learning, nature conservation and sustainable development, the embassy said Thursday. Programs also will be designed to reduce delinquency and organized crime, it said. The grants are part of the Central American Regional Security Initiative. The United States also is giving the Policía de Fronteras boats to patrol waterways in the northern zone.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| 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 2015
and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
 |
A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
|
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Jan. 16, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 11 | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| Researchers provide support that loggerheads use magnetic
homing |
|
|
By the Cell Press news staff
Adult sea turtles find their way back to the beaches where they hatched by seeking out unique magnetic signatures along the coast, according to new evidence reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology. "Sea turtles migrate across thousands of miles of ocean before returning to nest on the same stretch of coastline where they hatched, but how they do this has mystified scientists for more than fifty years," says J. Roger Brothers of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. "Our results provide evidence that turtles imprint on the unique magnetic field of their natal beach as hatchlings and then use this information to return as adults." While earlier studies have shown that sea turtles use the Earth's magnetic field as a guide while out at sea, it has remained unclear whether adult turtles also depend on magnetic features to recognize and return to the nesting sites chosen by their mothers before them, the researchers explain. Several years ago, Kenneth Lohmann, the co-author of the new study, proposed that animals including sea turtles and salmon might imprint on magnetic fields early in life, but that idea has proven difficult to test in the open ocean. In the new study, Brothers and Lohmann took a different approach by studying changes in the behavior of nesting turtles over time. "We reasoned that if turtles use the magnetic field to find their natal beaches, then naturally occurring changes in the Earth's field might influence where turtles nest," Brothers says. To investigate, the researchers analyzed a 19-year database of loggerhead nesting along the eastern coast of Florida, the largest sea turtle rookery in North America. They found a strong association between the spatial distribution of turtle nests and subtle shifts in the Earth's magnetic field. In some times and places, the Earth's field shifted so that the magnetic signatures of adjacent locations along the beach |
 University of North Carolina/J. Roger
Brothers
Loggerhead sea turtle is
nesting most likely on the same beach where she hatched.moved closer together. When that happened, nesting turtles packed themselves in along a shorter stretch of coastline, just as the researchers had predicted. In places where magnetic signatures diverged, sea turtles spread out and laid their eggs in nests that were fewer and farther between. Brothers says that little is known about how turtles detect the geomagnetic field. Most likely, tiny magnetic particles in the turtles' brains respond to the Earth's field and provide the basis for the magnetic sense, but no one knows for sure. Sea turtles likely go to great lengths to find the places where they began life because successful nesting requires a combination of environmental features that are rare: soft sand, the right temperature, few predators, and an easily accessible beach. "The only way a female turtle can be sure that she is nesting in a place favorable for egg development is to nest on the same beach where she hatched," Brothers says. "The logic of sea turtles seems to be that 'if it worked for me, it should work for my offspring.'" |
| Bank employees in Quepos face allegations of money laundering |
|
|
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Three bank employees in Quepos have been detained on the allegation that they faked the exchange for some $200,000 for colons by using the names of unknowing bank customers. They did this, according to the Judicial Investigating Organization, to avoid reporting the exchange of funds over $10,000 or more. Officials consider this money laundering. The crime happened from last April to June, investigators said. They added that the bank was a private one, but did not |
give the
name. There are at least two branches of private banks in Quepos. More arrests are likely, including that of the person who brought the funds to the bank in the first place. Those arrested include two women, an account executive and the local treasurer and a male cashier, agents said. Investigators said that the trio used the names of bank customers who had not even been in the bank to legitimize the exchange of dollars to colons. Investigators did not disclose the origin of the dollars. |
| Location of Desamparados man's suicide generated a big news
flap |
|
|
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The news media generally report suicides briefly, if at all. To make the newspapers or television, someone would have to take his or her own life in a very public fashion. Bridge and building jumpers are in this category. A suicide at home seldom makes the papers unless the individual is well known or a performer. But when a Desamparados man shot himself in the head inside the country's holiest location Wednesday, the news was big. A television station even prepared an animation of the man |
sprawled dead
in a pew of the Basilica de Nuestra Señora de los
Ángeles. That is the Cartago church to which more than a million
persons walk to in late July or in the first two days of August. Those who arrived there after the 10 a.m. suicide faced disappointment Wednesday. Church officials closed the building. The man was Carlos Luis Badilla Delgado, and the sensational El Diario Extra even published his suicide note and apology. Channel Six Repretel repeated the news Thursday and linked it to a full report on Costa Rican suicides. Thursday a host of prelates conducted a cleansing ceremony at the basilica that was well attended. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2015 and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
 |
|
||||
| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Jan. 16, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 11 | |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| Financial decision-making for seniors tied to experience,
study says |
|
|
By the Columbia Business School news staff
Growing older leaves many with a gloomy prognosis, namely that cognitive aging will slow the mind and the ability to make decisions. However, when it comes to making financial decisions, many baby boomers would be pleased to know that experience, knowledge, and expertise can compensate for the challenges that age-related deterioration present in finance, according to new research from Columbia Business School in New York.. The study, “Sound Credit Scores and Financial Decisions Despite Cognitive Aging,” recently published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found evidence that crystallized intelligence, which is gained through experience and accumulated knowledge, can be more important that fluid intelligence, the ability to think logically and process new information. “Our research shows that cognitive decline is real, but does not spell doom for making financial choices,” says Eric Johnson a professor at Columbia Business School and co-author of the study. “An alternative route to making sound financial decisions comes from experience — and that improves with age.” According to the U. S. Census Bureau projections, the number of Americans 65 and older will more than double by the year 2050. Policy changes (e.g. defined contribution retirement plans, such as 401Ks) puts more complex decisions in the hands of individuals, and those 65 and older may find these financial decisions increasingly challenging. The research suggests guidelines for future policy makers to help those 65 and older with these complex financial decisions. |
“With the
proliferation of self-directed benefit plans and the demise
of traditional pensions, those who have accumulated wealth over their
lifetime face even greater challenges and more responsibility when
managing their finances than the older population of previous
generations,” said Elke Weber, also a professor and co-author of the
study. “One way to improve financial decisions across lifespan is to
reduce the reliance on fluid intelligence by limiting decision options,
or allowing decision makers to sort options.” In a four-part, Web-based study, researchers assessed the cognitive ability and economic preferences of 478 U.S. residents between the ages of 18 and 86. The study included a battery of cognitive, decision-making, and demographic measures. Researchers then leveraged a unique data set combining measures of cognitive ability and knowledge with credit scores, a measure of credit-worthiness that reflects sustained ability for sound financial decision-making. This dataset allowed researchers to explore whether knowledge and expertise accumulated from past decisions could offset age-related declines in cognitive ability. “It can be misleading to only assess the effect of age on decision quality,” said Johnson. “Policy makers and future researchers should also examine the distinct roles of decreasing cognitive abilities and increasing but eventually plateauing domain-specific knowledge and expertise when developing tools for the aging population.” Researchers believe that age-specific decision aids and interventions that build on conduits to good decisions will not only produce better outcomes for older individuals, but also reduce potentially large costs to society. |
Here's reasonable medical care
Costa Rica's world class medical specialists are at your command. Get the top care for much less than U.S. prices. It is really a great way to spend a vacation. See our list of recommended professionals HERE!amcr-prom
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2015 and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
|
A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
news page
|
||
 |
 |
|
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Jan. 16, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 11 | |||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
 |
| U.S. opposes hate mongers without blasphemy laws By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Last week’s killings in Paris were carried out by militants professing to avenge the Prophet Muhammad. When they attacked the office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher grocery store, they slaughtered iconoclastic cartoonists and Jews shopping for kosher food, shot dead a Muslim policeman and unleashed an emotional debate about blasphemy, bigotry and the limits of free speech. France, like other European countries, has laws against anti-Semitism and xenophobia. And many majority Muslim countries outlaw depictions of the Prophet Muhammad and criticism of Islam. The United States has no such laws. Most Muslim and Jewish civil rights organizations in America argue that such measures don’t work to prevent racial or religious attacks. “We think, as a rule, expression is something that is enriching society, even when it is ugly expressions,” said David Friedman of the Anti-Defamation League. As the league’s law enforcement coordinator, he works with American police departments to help them identify when anti-Semitism is a motivating factor in so-called hate crimes. Friedman says that just because people may have the right to offend Muslims, that does not mean they should. “In a world in which people’s sensitivities are very great, rubbing salt in their wounds or rubbing their nose in that, ‘We can do this,’ is not necessarily helping us to be a more kind, compassionate, understanding world,” he said. In 2010, protests erupted in the U.S. against the proposed construction of a mosque near the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and also over a Florida pastor’s threat to burn a copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book. In response, a group of multifaith clergy in Washington formed a group called Shoulder to Shoulder, aimed at stopping Islamophobia. Haris Tarin of the Muslim Public Affairs Council says Shoulder to Shoulder and other campaigns have convinced American journalists that caricatures of Muhammad, like those that have appeared in Charlie Hebdo as well as the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten a decade ago, were offensive. “Although we do not have any laws that prohibit newspapers from reprinting the cartoons, we have seen in the past that when the cartoons were published, American newspapers did not publish those cartoons,” he said. By contrast, Tarin said, outright bans on insulting Islam, as exist in many majority Muslim countries, are rarely just. “In places like Pakistan, in Indonesia, in Egypt, when we have government which has laws against blasphemy, it is used for political reasons, generally,” he said. “It is used against minority groups; it is used against people who do not have the power and who are not the majority.” Turkish government probes newspaper over Charlie text By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Turkish prosecutors have launched an investigation into a national newspaper for publishing extracts from the latest edition of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The investigation follows the Turkish prime minister condemning the magazine for publishing a cartoon depicting the Muslim Prophet Muhammad. Prosecutors in Istanbul announced they are investigating Turkey’s Cumhurriyet newspaper for inciting people to hatred or humiliation after it published the excerpts. Cumhurriyet published four pages of the magazine as a special supplement, but it did not include the cartoon depicting Muhammad. Two columnists in the newspaper did include the cartoon in their columns and, according to local reports, they too are under investigation. The probes follow Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu strongly condemning both publications. He said Turkey does not allow insults to Muhammad and that very clear, sharp and principled stance have been explained to press institutions. Depicting Muhammad is forbidden under the Islamic faith. A Turkish court has banned access to Web sites depicting the controversial Charlie Hebdo cartoon, while social media site Twitter has also taken down links to comply with the ruling. And, according to local media, the country’s national air-carrier, Turkish Airlines, has stopped distributing copies of Cumhurriyet. Political scientist Cengiz Aktar of Istanbul’s Suleyman Sah University says political tensions are rising over the issue. "Some newspapers and the social media are calling for revenge. They are openly supporting the killers of the Charlie Hebdo team," Aktar explained. "They imply openly or covertly that those people who insult the prophet have no place in Turkey. But the government does not make moves to soothe things down. They have talked exactly the same way as the protesters. This is something worrisome." While Turkey is a secular state, its population is overwhelming Muslim. The country is no stranger to religious disputes. Diplomatic columnist Semih Idiz of the Turkey’s Taraf newspaper and Al Monitor Web site warns the latest controversy could turn violent. "Well it is a highly controversial issue," noted Idiz. "It has the potential to drive people onto the streets and cause violence. It is nothing new for Turkey. In the past, we have staunchly secular writers, columnists, commentators and professors who were murdered, most people believe, because of their secular and anti-Islamist views. Being, if one may say so, a crusader for secularism in Turkey has always been a dangerous thing." The controversy has again put the spotlight on press freedom in Turkey. The European Parliament Thursday passed a motion strongly condemning Turkey over press freedom for recent police raids on media establishments. Political scientist Aktar says the outcome of the Charlie Hebdo controversy is an important sign as to whether media freedom is being curtailed further in Turkey. "This freedom of speech has been extremely badly treated by the government," Aktar said. "Jailed journalists, pressure on the editorial boards, fired journalists because the government did not like them, forbidden YouTube and Twitter occasionally. So the record is appalling. So in that sense it will be an important test for Turkey’s freedom of speech. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the prime minister insist Turkey has some of the most liberal rules regarding press freedom. But observers say international pressure is growing on Turkey over this issue and the latest controversy over Charlie Hebdo is likely to only add to that pressure. Belgian police report stopping terrorist attack By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Belgian police have stopped what they call an imminent terrorist attack, killing two heavily armed suspects and arresting one. The two were killed in a counterterrorism operation Thursday in the eastern Belgium town of Verviers. The plot raises concerns about security in Europe a week after Islamist militants killed 17 people in Paris. At a news briefing, a representative for the national prosecutor's office said police raided a terrorist cell intent on conducting major and imminent attacks in Belgium. Some of the cell's members had returned from Syria. One person was detained in the raid, he said. He made no mention of possible links to last week's terrorist attacks in France. Belgium's public television station RTBF reported that one person was gravely wounded in the raid. Earlier Thursday, Belgian authorities said they had detained a man they suspected of supplying weapons to Amedy Coulibaly, who prosecutors say killed a police officer and four people in a Paris kosher supermarket last week. RTBF said police raids were also under way in Brussels. Belga news agency said police were hunting a man who witnesses said had brandished a weapon and shouted religious slogans in Arabic at a Brussels metro station. In a report that could not be immediately confirmed, the Web site of La Meuse newspaper quoted an unidentified police officer as saying: "We've averted a Belgian Charlie Hebdo." Meanwhile, a verdict in the trial of more than 40 members of an outlawed Belgian-based group accused of recruiting young men for jihad has been postponed for a month. The verdict had been expected this week. The trial, against members of Sharia4Belgium, began in October in Antwerp. It's one of Europe's largest such efforts to prosecute extremists who recruit potential terrorists. Belgium has seen significant radical activity among its Muslim population. Per capita, Belgium has Europe's highest number of citizens or residents who've fought alongside Syrian rebels in the past four years. The Washington-based International Center for the Study of Radicalization estimates nearly 300 citizens have traveled to fight in Syria from late 2011 to December 2013. "We have seen Belgium at the center of things for quite some time," the center's Matthew Levitt said. Paris kosher store hero honored with citizenship By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
When a gunman stormed a kosher grocery store last Friday in Paris, a quick-thinking employee hid customers in a basement refrigerator before escaping to alert police. France's Interior Ministry announced Thursday that Lassana Bathily's bravery has earned the Mali native French citizenship. Bathily, a practicing Muslim, said religion was irrelevant to his actions. The 24-year-old told France's BFM TV, "We are all brothers. It's not a question of being Jews, Christians or Muslims. We were all in the same boat. We had to help each other to get out of that crisis." After living in France for seven years, Bathily applied for citizenship in 2014. The Interior Ministry said it expedited that paperwork following the attacks. France's Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve will preside over Bathily's naturalization Tuesday. Amedy Coulibaly, the gunman who attacked the store, recorded a video, released posthumously, in which he identified with Islamist extremists. In an interview, Bathily described hearing gunfire above as he worked in the basement. "I was down in the basement for five minutes when I heard shots up there. … After the problems at Charlie Hebdo, I thought maybe the same thing was happening to us. At the same time, if not a few minutes later, I saw everyone running down. They started screaming, “They are there, they are there, they're in the shop!, " he said. Bathily described fleeing through a small but noisy freight lift. The frightened shoppers he harbored in the refrigerator chose to remain behind, with the lights turned off to avoid detection as gunman Coulibaly loomed overhead on the store's main floor. Outside, a police force still reeling from the deadly attack on the magazine offices and the fatal shooting of a policewoman, handcuffed Bathily for 90 minutes until people who knew him confirmed he was not the attacker. Coulibaly was also black, French-speaking and of Malian origin. With his hands freed, Bathily then drew a map of the store for police, detailing the offices, aisles and cash registers. He pointed them to where the group was hidden in the basement. After four years of working there and praying within its walls during his shifts, he knew the shop by heart. "I do not think they are Muslims, they are bandits. They are bandits. I am a Muslim, and this is not our religion. Our religion is not based on this. A terrorist is not a Muslim. Anyone can be a terrorist, anyone. These are bandits,” he said. Obama to tout economy in State of Union address By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
With his popularity ratings starting to improve as a result of an improving economy and lower unemployment, President Barack Obama is preparing to focus on his domestic accomplishments in his upcoming State of the Union address Tuesday. But analysts say the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Americans’ uneasiness about threats by extremists will be reason for him to speak about his foreign policy as well. In the days before the annual address, President Obama has been highlighting his domestic successes, flying around the United States and, in a largely unprecedented move, giving previews of the announcements he will make in the areas of jobs, housing, cyber security, and education. But the terrorist attacks in France are a sobering reminder for the president that the fight against extremists is far from over and remains at the top of his global agenda. “In the streets of Paris, the world has seen once again what terrorists stand for. They have nothing to offer but hatred and human suffering. And we stand for freedom and hope and the dignity of all human beings. And that is what the city of Paris represents to the world, and that spirit will endure forever, long after the scourge of terrorism is banished from this world," said Obama. Obama in 2014 launched a bombing campaign and sent in U.S. troops to help combat Islamic State militants. But that fight, he has said, will take years. The legacy he will want to talk about is more likely to be his effort for a deal to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons. Analyst Larry Korb, who served as Obama’s campaign foreign policy adviser, said the president sees more reason to focus on domestic issues than global matters. “He will talk about those issues, but I think he recognizes that we have got to get strong at home before we can be strong in the world," said Korb. Relations with Russia have been at a low point since the invasion of Ukraine, but Korb does not expect too much focus on what the administration is finding to be an especially complex relationship. That complexity became apparent Wednesday, when the Russians assisted U.S. astronauts during an emergency aboard the International Space Station. “Everybody is upset about the Russians in Ukraine. Who saved our astronauts today up in space? The Russians! We need the Russians. They helped us get stuff in and out of Afghanistan. So, yeah, you are not happy with them in Ukraine and so it is not like, 'We, gee, we ought to have a strategy that is anti-Russian.' No, we need the Russians and we have worked with them in a couple of areas," said Korb. Among the foreign policy successes for Obama to highlight: a landmark climate change deal with China, and the deployment of hundreds of U.S. troops to fight Ebola in West Africa. Muhammad Al expected to leave hospital today By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. boxing great Muhammad Ali was back in a hospital Thursday for the second time in four weeks. He was being given follow-up care related to a urinary tract infection that first put him in a hospital Dec. 20. A family spokesman declined to give the name or location of the hospital or say what day Ali checked in, but he said the three-time world heavyweight champion was in stable condition. Ali was expected to be released today in time for his birthday on Saturday, when he turns 73. Ali suffers from Parkinson's disease, which was diagnosed in the mid-1980s. He had a storied career as a professional heavyweight boxer from 1960 to 1981. Leading corruption figure admits guilt in Navy probe By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A Malaysian military contractor at the center of a corruption scandal rocking the U.S. Navy has pleaded guilty to bribery and fraud charges, admitting he presided over a decade-long conspiracy involving scores of U.S. Navy officials, tens of millions of dollars in fraud, and millions of dollars in bribes and gifts, including cash, prostitutes, Cuban cigars and Kobe beef. Leonard Francis entered his guilty plea Thursday in federal court in San Diego, California. Known in military circles as Fat Leonard because of his large size, Francis and his firm, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, obtained classified information from Navy officials in exchange for the bribes, allowing his company to over bill the U.S. military for tens of millions of dollars. Prosecutors say the classified data included information on ship movements and schedules, and, later on, the Navy investigation into his billing practices. The 50-year-old Leonard will be sentenced in April and has agreed to forfeit $35 million he made in the scheme. Earlier Thursday in the same courthouse, Capt. Daniel Dusek became the highest-ranking Navy officer to enter a guilty plea in the case. He is one of five current and former Navy officials to plead guilty so far. Prosecutors say more officers will likely face charges. Dusek admitted to using his position as a senior officer to ensure ships stopped at ports where Francis' company operated. Officials say Dusek arranged, on one occasion, for an aircraft carrier and its strike group to stop at Port Klang, Malaysia, a terminal owned by Francis. Target closed all its stores in Canada due to losses By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Target is closing all of its 133 stores in Canada less than two years after launching there, the U.S. discount retailer said on Thursday. Target Chairman and CEO Brian Cornell said the company was unable to find a realistic scenario in which the 133-store Target Canada would become profitable before at least 2021. Cornell, in his first major decision since becoming CEO in August, said it was a difficult decision "but it was the right decision for our company." The surprise retreat that will put more than 17,000 employees out of work, and the company said it expects to report about $5.4 billion in pretax losses for its fourth quarter, which finishes at the end of January. Losses are mostly due to the writedown of the Canadian investment, along with exit costs and operating losses. Target expects cash costs for the exit to be between $500 million and $600 million, with most of those costs taking place in fiscal 2015 or later. Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Target, the No. 2 discount chain in the United States, has struggled in Canada since its 2013 launch. There were costly regulations, a slow economy and increasing competition. Cornell said on his blog, called A Bullseye View, that when Target Canada first opened the company knew that many Canadian consumers already shopped its U.S. stores and liked the brand. Cornell said on his blog that Target "is in a very healthy financial position, but our Target Canada business had reached the point where, without additional funding, it could not continue to meet its liabilities. Simply put, we were losing money every day." But its supply problems disappointed shoppers, who had eagerly anticipated the retailer's arrival in a market where the discount space had long been dominated by Walmart stores. The failed international expansion bodes poorly for Target's long-term growth prospects, said Jim Danahy, director of the Center for Retail Leadership at York University's Schulich School of Business in Toronto. "There isn't a bigger implosion and it needs to be really understood this it's entirely their fault," Danahy said. Target's experience in Canada hasn't been unique, though. Big Lots and Best Buy have shuttered stores there and Walmart has seen its sales in Canada weaken. Target has acknowledged it took on too much too fast in Canada and the disastrous launch spurred the exit of top executives last year. Target said stores would remain open during liquidation, and that with court approval, it would pay all of its Canadian employees a minimum of 16 weeks of compensation. Shares of Target, which was granted creditor protection for its money-losing Canadian subsidiary, rose 3 percent after the news. The company has 1,801 stores in the U.S. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2015 and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
|
||||||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Jan. 16, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 11 | |||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
||
|
More wind
predicted for today
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The forecast for today calls for a return to the windy conditions that have gripped the country since New Year's. The Instituto Meteorológico Nacional said that more high pressure in the Gulf of México and the Caribbean will produce the wind. The forecast predicts variable cloudiness and isolated showers on the Caribbean coast and the northern zone for a good part of the day. The Pacific should be clear with winds in the north, said the forecast. There is a chance of light rain in higher locations and cloudiness in the metro area, it said. Vice minister tries to duck latest flap By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Presidencia is clamming up on the latest scandal. Daniel Soley Gutiérrez, vice minister of the Presidencia, issued a statement Thursday that said the Solís administration intended to intimidate or limit the powers of Ana Lorena Brenes, the procuraduría general de la República. That is the same Daniel Soley who met with Ms. Brenes Tuesday. The Spanish-language press reported that he offered her an ambassadorship if she would resign from her office where she has about 18 months still to serve. President Luis Guillermo Solís is said to be unhappy with her because she disagreed with him on key legal issues. She heads the agency that is basically the government's lawyer. Ms. Brenes is of the opinion that the Costa Rican Constitution prevents the naming of Melvin Jiménez as minister of the Presidencia. He is a Lutheran bishop and the Constitution forbids the appointment of clergy. In a politically motivated decision, the Sala IV constitutional court sided with the president, but one magistrate said that Jiménez was barred from holding the job. Ms. Brenes also did not agree that the president had the power to lift a veto that had been imposed years earlier by then-president Óscar Arias Sánchez. That involved the occupation of a street at the Plaza de la Democracia by the artisans market. That lifting of the veto is being appealed to the Sala IV by the municipality. The meeting between Ms. Brenes and Soley has created an uproar and some lawmakers call any possible offer of an ambassadorship to be blackmail and bribery, although it probably is not. In his statement Thursday Soley said that as a public official and as vice minister he always has respected the legality and adhered to the ethical principals. He also said that he was not going to make another statement on the matter. |
| Costa Rican News |
AMCostaRicaArchives.com |
Retire NOW
in Costa Rica |
CostaRicaReport.com |
| Fine Dining
in Costa Rica |
The CAFTA Report |
Fish
fabulous Costa Rica |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2015 and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
| From Page 7: Asian airline pact seen benefiting tourism By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Costa Rica and Singapore have signed an agreement that will give national aircraft access to the other country. The Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes said that this is a strategic move that takes advantage of Singapore's role as a transportation hub. The ministries of both countries will now work on the detailed agreement. The agreement will cover aircraft even if they are flying to third countries. The agreement is seen as a boost for Asian tourism. The transport minister, Carlos Segnini, was in Singapore to reach the agreement. The open skies pact is a way to take advantage of the dynamism of the Asian region, he said. |
