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A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
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José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 18
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
So far the impact of a major snow storm in the U.S. northeast is minimal for Costa Rica. Each year snow or heavy rains slow transportation, and now New York is expected to get up to three feet of snow. New England also is expected to feel the effects of the storm. United has canceled two flights out of New York today, and Jetblue has canceled one scheduled for the Daniel Oduber airport in Liberia. That means some tourists might be delayed in arriving or making a return flight. In the United States there have been more than 6,000 cancellations. A high-impact winter storm is expected to bring crippling snowfall amounts and life-threatening blizzard conditions to much of the Northeast, said the U.S. National Weather Service. However, the New York Daily news was more alarming: IT'S A BIG APPLE LOCKDOWN! NYC subway system, commuter railroads, bridges and tunnels all shut down; cars will not be allowed on roads and all schools will be closed Tuesday. Early today the snowfall was heaviest in Pennsylvania. In Costa Rica the winds and choppy Pacific seas continue. A report from the Pacific said that a woman and a child had died in the surf when they were caught in an undertow. A full report still is not available. More Circunvalación overpasses planned By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
In the short term motorists will have to struggle through three more projects on the Circunvalación. The first starts in September, said the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes. But when the jobs are done, the traffic circles will be converted into slip ramps and overpasses. The ministry said that the first job will be at the Rotunda traffic circle of Las Garantías Sociales in Zapote. Two months later, work will begin at the Rotunda de Las Banderas in San Pedro and the intersection in Guadalupe. Work already is going on at the traffic circle in Paso Ancho, known locally as the Rotunda de Guacamaya. The new projects carry a $50 million price tag backed by the Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica. There have been some delays due to evictions, but the ministry also is in the process of constructing the northern loop of the Circunvalación from the current terminus in La Uruca to Ruta 32 north of San José. This job, when completed, will keep heavy trucks off San José streets. Escazú robbery suspects held By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Armed men held up patrons in the Pizza Hut restaurant in San Rafael de Escazú Monday afternoon and stripped them of jewelry, handbags, wallets and cell telephones. The Fuerza Pública said they were able to locate four suspects on the roadway to Alajuelita about 15 minutes later, they said. Officers said that within the vehicle of the suspects were some of the items that appeared to be those reported robbed. Computer ads can have unexpected impact By the University of Illinois news service
Those video ads playing in the corner of the computer screen, in the midst of multitasking, may have more impact than computer users realize. They may be as effective as the ads that are really watched, such as those during the Super Bowl, says a University of Illinois researcher. It depends on how a computer user perceives and processes media content – whether the processing “style” is to focus more on one thing or to take it all in, according to Brittany Duff, a professor at the University of Illinois Ms. Duff led two different studies on multitasking and ad recognition, each with a different group of undergraduates at a different Midwestern university. The results were recently published online in a paper for the Journal of Advertising. As part of each study, participants were evaluated and categorized as being more analytic or holistic in their style of processing media. Analytic processors tend to focus on specific items, looking at them in isolation from the environment in which they’re found, Ms. Duff said. Holistic processors tend to take in everything at once, or as part of a whole. Ms. Duff found in both studies that analytic processors did better than holistic processors on ad retention when their only task was to watch a series of video ads on a computer screen. When asked to split their time with a second simple task on the same computer, however, the results were dramatically different. “For holistic processors, however, it’s like you did nothing to them,” Ms. Duff said. They were just as effective in remembering aspects of the ads." Our reader's opinion
He's content with credit card biteDear A.M. Costa Rica: I read the article in Monday's edition about the government taking 1.78 percent withholding from all credit card purchases. It made it sound like this was a new and onerous tax payment, but that is not so. Every business in Costa Rica is taxed at a flat rate of 30 percent of profits. We have all heard that tax payment and tax collection is seldom achieved. This small portion of tax ensures that restaurants and bars and other businesses will file or if they fail to file will have, at least, submitted something to the tax department. Seems fair to me. There certainly would be no justification for a statement or action like "good business practices would mean ratcheting up slightly the amount charged to the customer to compensate for the governmental bite". K. Noel Montagano
San Pedro de Poás, Alajuela
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 18 | |
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| Parents struggling to find uniforms and school supplies for
their kids |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Costa Rica is suppose to have free public education. Parents running around now buying mandatory items for their youngsters might have a different opinion. The economics ministry said that supplies and school uniforms might cost from 78,331 to 97,445 for each child. The ministry, the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Comercio, does a consumer survey each year at the start of school. The range in dollars is from about $148 to $184. Although various items may not be used for months, students are supposed to have all the required material at the start of the year. Each school issues a list, and teachers check the items. One item in some grades is a plastic flute. Ministry surveys found a wide range of prices for the identical flute. In Almacén El Rey in San José, the flute could be purchased for 1,800 colons, but in Tres Ríos in the Pasoca store, the price was 3,475 colons. That was a difference of 93 percent and the biggest found by the survey team that checked prices in 20 outlets. But there were plenty of other identical items that had price differences from 71 to 93 percent. The biggest difference was in school clothes. A girl's blouse could be had for 200 colons or for 7,900 colons. The average price was 4,786 colons. Naturally the qualities were different. Much of the school clothing comes from China. The required articles also vary depending on the child's grade level. Some parents save money by swapping clothing with neighbors or fitting used clothing. The Ministerio de |
 Ministerio de
Economía, Industria y Comercio photo
This is a time youngsters
learn about smart shoppingEducación
Pública has said that the use of used backpacks is permitted
this year.
A number of expat organizations provide school supplies for children of low-income families as does the government. The prices reported by the survey may include some for loss-leader items or in-store sales, and the prices also are affected by the individual store overhead and rent. |
| Visiting heads of state might find themselves beating dead
horses |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Community of Latin America and Caribbean States will be beating a few dead horses when heads of state meet, according to some advanced reports from meetings of the technical staff. Among these are sovereignty for Puerto Rico and a resumption of negotiations over the Falkland Islands, which Argentina calls the Islas Malvinas. The two-day session that begins with heads of state Wednesday also will be considering the state of U.S. and Cuban relations. Alejandro Solano, a Costa Rican vice minister, said that the technical staff had reached agreement on the majority of the 17 issues being discussed. He did not list them all but did cite Puerto Rico, the British islands off Argentina and U.S. relations with Cuba. Puerto Rico is a U.S. commonwealth, and the wishes of voters there have been ambiguous. The election in 2012 presented |
voters
with a
two-part question that many did not answer. Residents have the
possibility of independence, statehood or continue commonwealth status. The United Kingdom fought a 10-week war to retake the Falklands from an Argentine invasion in 1982. The islands have been in British hands since 1841. Residents have voted overwhelmingly to remain a United Kingdom territory. Still Argentina officials continue to push for some form of negotiations involving the islands. The continuation of the U.S embargo on Cuba is another topic for discussion. The U.S. designation of Cuba as a sponsor of terrorism also is on the agenda. There was no mention if the human rights situation in Cuba would be brought up. The foreign ministry said Monday that it has enlisted some 223 government vehicles to ferry the estimated 3,000 persons who will be attending the summit in Belén. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 18 | |||||
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| Social media does not increase stress levels of users, new
study reports |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A new study suggests that frequent users of social media experience no greater stress in their lives than non-users and that some groups may benefit from their use. The results are contrary to several previous studies that found a link between social media use and negative conditions, such as depression. “The biggest finding was that there was no relationship whatsoever between the use of these technologies and men’s self-reported levels of stress, but women who used a number of these technologies actually reported lower levels of stress,” said Keith Hampton, associate professor of communications at Rutgers University and the study’s lead author. The report, “Social Media and the Cost of Caring,” was sponsored by the Pew Research Center Internet Project. Participants’ stress levels were assessed, as well as the frequency of their use of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and more traditional digital tools like email or text messaging. Men who used these tools experienced no greater stress than non-users and female social media users experienced less stress, according to the study. “It could be that women are gaining positive social support from using these technologies that counteract any stress,” Hampton said. “It could also be that women are better able to balance some of the competing demands they have in life. "Or it could be that social sharing through these technologies -- just sharing positive and negative events as they happen in a very low-demand way such as email -- may provide women with a way to help manage their stress," he added. Hampton said the results also suggest that heavy users of social media, notably women, can experience greater stress as they become aware of stressful events in the lives of friends and family. “People who saw things happening to their friends and family that were unfortunate, such as the loss of jobs or illness or death, they tended to report more stress as a result of their awareness of other people’s stress,” he said. “This is what’s often been called the cost of caring. ” |
Importantly,
all study participants live in the United States,
where the use of social media overall can cause significantly less
stress than in countries where liberties are curtained and
communication tightly controlled. Dating back at least to the 1990s, previous studies have pointed to the negative effects of heavy use of digital media such as the Internet. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in 1999 found that "greater use of the Internet was associated with declines in participants' communication with family members in the household, declines in the size of their social circle, and increases in their depression and loneliness.” That result was echoed in a 2013 study that found the more people used Facebook, the less happy they felt. Hampton said he and his fellow researchers had expected similar results when measuring stress and were surprised by the results. “I think we had expected to initially find that there was a relationship between these technologies and higher levels of stress,” he said. “But counter to the expectation that the more you use these technologies, the more stress you have, it actually seems to be opposite for women -- those who use these technologies a lot actually have lower levels of stress.” Hampton said that this is only one study and that it’s difficult to make sweeping generalizations about the positive or negative effects of social media use. But the results suggest to him that one unexpected benefit of these tools is something he calls persistent awareness. “A lot of social media are increasing our interaction with people by reminding us just how present they are in our lives, as well as keeping us in contact with people we might have lost contact with in the past,” Hampton said. “I think areas we’re interested in exploring in the future are just how connected people are over time,” he said. “In other words, whether people who would have disappeared from our lives are actually staying more present than they would before.” |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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2015 and may
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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| Some see God's influence in top sports performances By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Forty years ago, after a professional American football player threw the game-winning pass, he told reporters that before throwing the ball, “I closed my eyes and said a ‘Hail Mary.’” There’s no way to confirm whether a higher being had a hand in the outcome of that game, but it turns out that more than half of Americans do believe that God rewards religious athletes. A new survey finds that 53 percent of Americans believe God rewards pious athletes with good health and success. However, 45 percent of people surveyed, about four out of every 10, disagreed. Professional athlete Aaron Rodgers is one of them. The quarterback’s Green Bay Packers football team blew a big lead to lose a critical conference championship game earlier this month. “I don’t think God cares a whole lot about the outcome,” Rodgers said when a fan asked whether he thought God intervenes or plays a role in the outcome of football games. “He cares about the people involved, but I don’t think he’s a big football fan.” It is common for American athletes to thank God for their successes. Rodger’s counterpart on the opposing team, Seahawks’ quarterback Russell Wilson, credited God for his team’s overtime win. “That’s God setting it up, to make it so dramatic, so rewarding, so special,” he said about the come-from-behind win. Catholics (65 percent) and Protestants (68 percent) were the most likely to believe God rewards pious athletes. By contrast, about one out of every three people who say they are religiously unaffiliated believe athletes with faith are rewarded. “I think God has a hand in the gift of talent in the athletes,” said Betty Mattimore, a Virginia mother whose daughter is an accomplished high school athlete. “The rest is up to them.” When it comes to winning, about one out of every four Americans, 26 percent, believe God plays a role in determining which team wins a sporting event. The majority of Americans (71 percent) disagree with that notion. “I do not believe God directly carries the baseball over the wall or pushes the field goal attempt through the uprights,” said Cleveland, Ohio, resident Daune Robinson, who majored in theology and religious studies in college. “I think God puts all things in motion but does not intervene in a sporting event.” Still, as an avid sports fan, Ms. Robinson isn’t above asking for a little divine intervention when her team is in a tight spot. “I have to admit to praying about these things, but I usually just ask for my team/players to be blessed or helped by God’s grace, knowing its a silly request, but it helps me in the moment to feel I’m helping,” she said. Meanwhile, on the campus of football powerhouse Norte Dame is a mural of Jesus Christ with arms upraised. The mural is still visible from some sections of the stadium. The mural's correct title is obscured by the popular name of Touchdown Jesus. Islamic State's legal views come under strong attack By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The images of the so-called Islamic State’s meting out their version of justice are brutal. In the last week, men accused of being gay appear to have been thrown off buildings. Another woman is shown being stoned to death for allegedly committing adultery. Yet another image shows two men accused of banditry crucified and shot to death. The Islamic State boasts it governs through strict observance of sharia law, but experts say it’s doing anything but that. According to the U.N. High Commission for Human Rights, the sharia courts set up by the Islamic State are unlawful and the punishment doled out by them is cruel and inhuman. It is difficult to confirm reports from people under the rule of the Islamic State. But there have been reports from Raqqa, Syria, in which residents said they were not sure the sharia courts actually listened to evidence. The brutal punishments, they said, were to instill fear. Mainstream Muslims have sharply criticized the Islamic State version of sharia. Hundreds of Muslim scholars penned what they called an open letter to Baghdadi, referring to the self-proclaimed caliph of the Islamic State, condemning the oversimplification of sharia matters, and stating that it is forbidden to “ignore the reality of contemporary times when deriving legal rulings.” “The only things that we have seen show a completely lack of due process,” said Joseph Lumbard, an assistant professor of classical Islam at Brandeis University. “They are not grounded in any methodologies in the classical school of Islamic law.” He added that many of the so-called judges likely lack the qualifications needed to make legal rulings. “We should really be calling them pseudo courts,” he said. The violence of the punishments have a political agenda, experts say. “My intuition is that they’re trying to do these spectacularly violent things to show they’re making a break with modernity in a radical way, said Mohammad Fadel an associate professor at the University of Toronto specializing in Islamic legal history. “The default assumption is the more anti-modern, the more authentic it must be.” Lumbard said the West and other Muslims are likely audiences for the militant group’s medieval punishments. “What they’re trying to communicate is ‘we take no quarter,’ and ‘we will not be messed with any more,’” Lumbard said. In classical Islamic jurisprudence the law was a check, Lumbard said, not an arm of the state as it appears to be in the Islamic State. Much of the Islamic State spin on sharia is isolated verbiage cherry-picked from Islamic history, experts said. “I could take a verse from the Bible and say my neighbor was working on that Sabbath and kill him,” Lumbard said. Fadel echoed the sentiment. “These people, given their theological bent, are applying what the earliest community did based on reports one can find in books in Islamic history,” said Fadel. “They didn’t mean them to be binding.” Fadel said you could find a report of a homosexual being punished by having a wall collapse on them, but “that doesn’t mean it was the usual manner for dealing with homosexuality.” “Most of these crimes require a very high level of evidence,” Fadel said. “It’s hard to believe they could reach that,” citing that in order to make the case for adultery, there must be “four male eyewitnesses to penetration” or a confession. “It’s hard to imagine that’s being applied,” he said. The scholars also point out that some punishments fly in the face of orthodox Islamic law. For example, the letter to Baghdadi says it is forbidden to force anyone to convert to Islam. But recently an elderly Christian woman named Raheel told reporters that she was hauled out of a Mosul elderly home and brought before an Islamic State court and forced to convert. She said armed guards stood in the room as she stood in front of the judge. “The judge began his speech, in a soft and elegant manner, and he was citing verses of the Koran and sayings of the Prophet Mohammad," she said. "He said that Islam is the true religion and that we must embrace it or we would die as infidels,” she said after her freedom was obtained this month in an arrangement between Islamic State and Chaldean church representatives. Many of the punishments and proclamations are brutal, but some are also absurd. Last week the Islamic State released a dozen pigeon breeders after they’d been paid off. Islamic State members told the family members of one breeder that the practice was un-Islamic. "He is not following the real Islam, he must be punished for being a pigeon breeder,” the fighters told the father of a breeder, according to NBC news. “This habit is taking him away from worshiping Allah." Greek election result shaking up eurozone By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Greece’s youngest ever prime minister, 40-year-old Alexis Tsipras, was sworn in Monday after his victorious far-left Syriza party entered a coalition with far right rivals. Tsipras says he will restore dignity to Greece by ending spending cuts. From the outset Tsipras appears determined to shake up Greek politics. Arriving at his swearing-in ceremony wearing an open collar with no tie, he refused the traditional blessing from Orthodox priests. As he entered the prime minister’s office for the first time, supporters applauded and embraced their new leader. His popularity is based on a promise of ending austerity. He has pledged to re-negotiate the terms of the $268 billion EU and International Monetary Fund bailout, and he may stand a chance, says Dionyssis Dimitrakopoulos, political analyst at Birkbeck College, University of London. “Institutions of the EU and other member states realize that the program that has been implemented in Greece is not producing the desired results to the extent that they wanted," he said. "So something has to change. In my book this is common ground for negotiation.” Far-left Syriza fell just short of an outright majority and entered a coalition with the far-right Independent Greeks Party. They are unlikely partners, says Dimitrakopoulos. “The glue that is opposition to austerity can be powerful, but I am not sure it is going to be powerful enough," he said. "Because Greece is faced with a lot of problems that require broad consensus domestically.” EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker gave a diplomatic response when questioned on the Greek demands for re-negotiation. "The European Union has its rules, which were established through a common agreement with Greek authorities," he said. "We are going to see what the demands of the new Greek government will be." Germany is seen as the driving force behind austerity. Government officials have stated that it may be better for Greece to leave the euro currency. But that is posturing to the German public, says Christian Odendahl, chief economist at the Center for European Reform in London. “Angela Merkel herself is a very careful politician," he said. "So before considering a eurozone exit she would need to be sure that it does not have negative implications for the rest of the eurozone. And I can not imagine that she is sure of that, so I do not see German politicians pushing actively for a eurozone exit of Greece.” The costs of a Greek exit may be too high for both Athens and Brussels, agrees Dimitrakopoulos. “It is in nobody’s interests, and that concerns not only Greece but also Germany, France and so on, for Greece to withdraw from the eurozone," he said. "Because the next question will be, ‘who will be the next country to withdraw?’” That question has echoed across European capitals. Spain also received a bailout, and faces elections this year. Leader of the anti-austerity Podemos Party, Pablo Iglesias, hailed the Greek result. He said that Syriza's victory in Greece has proven the failure of austerity policies. As Syriza supporters celebrate, Brussels and the Monetary Fund now face tough negotiations with Athens. Give too much ground and analysts say other indebted European countries will be next in line. But forcing Greece to stick to the bailout terms could drive Athens to leave the euro currency, potentially delivering the first cut to one of the key threads that binds the European Union. Russian spy ring alleged as New York arrest made By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says federal agents have broken up an alleged Russian spy ring in New York City where three suspects tried to recruit U.S. residents. The FBI arrested Evgeny Buryakov in the Bronx section of New York Monday. Two other suspects — Victor Podobny and Igor Sporyshev — are no longer in the United States and have diplomatic immunity, but were still charged. According to the Justice Department's complaint, Buryakov broke U.S. law by not informing officials that he was in the country as a covert Russian intelligence agent. He was working in a New York City office of a Russian bank. Podobnyy was an attache to Russia's United Nations mission, and Sporyshev was a Russian trade representative. They are accused of trying to gather information about U.S. sanctions on Russian banks and plans to develop alternative energy sources, and send that information back to Russia's foreign intelligence agency. The three also allegedly tried to recruit people already living in the United States. They include employees of major corporations and women connected to a major university. More than 20 years after the end of the Cold War, Russian spies continue to work in the U.S., and are a direct threat to U.S. national security, say Justice Department officials. The three Russian suspects face up to 15 years in prison if convicted. Genital mutilation case ends in prison for doctor By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
An Egyptian court has convicted a doctor of manslaughter in the death of a 13-year-old girl following a botched female genital mutilation procedure. Raslan Fadl was sentenced to two years, three months in prison Monday after a judge overturned his original acquittal on an appeal. The court also ordered the doctor to close his clinic for one year. Soheir al-Batea died in 2013, the victim of a widespread practice performed on more than 90 percent of girls and women in Egypt. Lawyer Reda el-Danbouki, who represented the deceased, called the verdict a triumph for women. Female genital mutilation continues to be performed in Egypt despite a government ban in 2008. Recreational drone flies into White House grounds By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A small drone crashed onto the grounds of the White House early Monday, prompting a lockdown of the complex while authorities examined it. A man later came forward to say he was responsible, telling authorities he was flying the drone recreationally and accidentally lost control of the craft. Officials say the man is a Washington resident and is cooperating with law enforcement officials. U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, were visiting India at the time of the incident, however, their daughters stayed behind in Washington. Earlier, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said indications are that the drone "does not pose any sort of ongoing threat to anybody at the White House." The Secret Service described the drone as a 61-centimeter quadcopter, a small, unmanned aircraft that is lifted by four propellers. It said the drone was spotted flying at a low altitude around 3 a.m. local time before it crashed on the southeast side of White House grounds. In a statement immediately following the crash, the Secret Service said an investigation is underway to "determine the origins of the commercially available device, motive, and to identify suspects." The incident is likely to reignite debate about the use of commercial drones in the United States, as well as White House security. The Secret Service has come under scrutiny following several security lapses that have raised questions about whether the president is adequately protected. Chinese widen investigation into top-level corruption By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A top Chinese security official and 16 senior People’s Liberation Army officers are reported to be the latest high-level suspects swept up in President Xi’s Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign. The Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced this month that Vice-Minister for State Security Ma Jian is under investigation for what were called serious violations of the law. The announcement did not specify what those violations are, but it mentioned the words party discipline, signaling a corruption probe, according to numerous observers. The South China Morning Post reports that Ma’s relatives are also under investigation. Another publication, the International Business Times, said the probe into Ma and his relatives are expected to be part of a high-profile investigation into activities at the Founder Group, a Beijing University-owned technology conglomerate.” The newspaper adds that “Ma is suspected to have close relations with Founder Group CEO Li You, who allegedly helped one of Ma’s relatives to conduct highly profitable securities trades.” The Founder Group was created in 1986 to focus on information technology, pharmaceuticals, real estate, finance, and commodities trading. It, too, is ensnared in corruption allegations. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Australiaplus.com news site says those under investigation include the deputy commander of a major military unit in Chengdu, the former political commissar in Sichuan, the deputy political commissar for Tibet, and the commander in Shanxi. This is not the first time the state security ministry has been the target of a corruption investigation. Former state security minister Zhou Yongkang has been detained on corruption charges. The state also seized $14.5 billion in assets from the minister’s family and members of his inner circle. |
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2015 and may
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Mexican mayor
linked to editor's murder
Special to A.M. Costa Rica
The Inter American Press Association has expressed outrage at the murder of Mexican journalist Moisés Sánchez Cerezo, who had gone missing at the beginning of this month, and called on Mexico’s authorities to apply justice in an exemplary manner on those who masterminded and carried out the crime. Sánchez Cerezo, 49, was the editor and publisher of the community weekly La Unión, in the city of Medellín de Bravo, Veracruz state. Jan. 2 a group of armed men in civilian clothes broke into his home and forcefully dragged him out, along with his computer, camera and mobile phone. Association President Gustavo Mohme, editor of the Lima, Peru, newspaper La República, expressed his sympathy to the journalist’s family and colleagues and urged the authorities to “act promptly in the investigations and application of justice against all those who masterminded and carried out the murder.” The chairman of the association's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Claudio Paolillo, added, “The violence and risks that journalists face in México have claimed a new victim.” Paolillo, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda, stressed “the need for protection mechanisms created in México to function effectively so that journalists can be sure that they can count on a tool that ensures their safety so they can continue doing their work.” Concerning the case the Veracruz public prosecutor’s office reported that there was being investigated the apparent responsibility of the Medellín mayor, Omar Cruz Reyes, who was believed to have ordered the murder, according to a confession by a former municipal policeman, the alleged murderer, now under arrest. The public prosecutor’s office asked congress to strip the mayor of his immunity in order to go ahead with his detention. In his publication Sánchez Cerezo was denouncing an increase in violence and delinquency, lack of safety and of municipal action to deal with these problems and the alleged involvement of the mayor in drug trafficking. Last year he was threatened on several occasions. Veracruz is one of the most violent places in Mexico with a large number of crimes of journalists in recent years and where most reporters have been ousted due to threats. Last year journalist Gregorio Jiménez de la Cruz was killed, but his case has not been solved yet. Reporter flees Argentina due to fears Special
to A.M. Costa Rica
Argentine journalist Damián Pachter has been forced to leave his country out of fear of being a victim of reprisals and at the same time, echoing local press associations, blasted state agencies for broadcasting the reporter’s itinerary. Pachter, a reporter with the English-language newspaper Buenos Aires Herald and a stringer for the Israeli paper Haaretz, was the first to give the news of the death of public prosecutor Alberto Nisman on his Twitter account. Pachter, also of Israeli nationality, arrived in Tel Aviv at the weekend shortly before declaring to Argentine media that “my life is in danger.” He felt he had ruined something for them, linking his fears to the Tweets he had written about Nisman’s death. Gustavo Mohme, editor of the Lima, Peru, newspaper La República, expressed his solidarity with Pachter, who he understood had “sought to protect himself in the face of uncertainty and defenselessness that comes from this case.” Mohme is president the Inter American Press Association. He urged the government of President Cristina Kirchner to act on “its obligation to investigate whether a real risk for the journalist exists and ensure his safety, and that of any other citizen in similar circumstances.” Outside the rules governing personal information the official news agency Télam published Pachter’s travel itinerary that had been obtained from the state airline Aerolíneas Argentinas. The information was replicated by the federal government on its Twitter account. The chairman of the press association's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Claudio Paolillo, declared, “To disclose personal data through state agencies is an act of irresponsibility and unlawful that must be investigated and punished urgently.” Paolillo, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda, added, “This case shows serious aggravating circumstances, thus our deep concern, considering that there are complaints about groups said to be acting outside the law and the lack of protection that has been endured by wide sectors of the press in the face of actions in which the government itself has been involved.” In an article that he wrote for Haaretz Pachter disclosed that before leaving the country he was trailed by an unidentified man who was a security agent according to his news sources. Nisman, the public prosecutor in charge of investigating the attack on the Argentine Mutual Israeli Association, died in unclear circumstances at his apartment in Buenos Aires the day before he had been due to go before congress to give a report on his denunciation. He had been called to expand on and clarify his complaint against President Kirchner and other officials whom he had accused of covering up employees of the Iran government in having planned and carried out the attack on the Israel association in 1994 in which 85 people were killed and more than 300 injured. |
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| From Page 7L Governmental deficit in 2014 was 5.6 percent By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The finance ministry said Monday that the government ended 2014 with a deficit 5.6 percent of the total of all goods and services in the country. The minister, Helio Fallas, said this was less than had been predicted in the national budget. However, he noted that tax collection had decreased slightly. He said that with the application of policies that he has been mandating the deficit is now controlled. He cited austerity in expenses and stronger efforts to collect taxes. And this was done, he said without reducing social spending. |
