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| A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page | |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 29
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to just the $94 million it lost By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Infinito Gold Ltd. has backed off its demand for $1 billion from Costa Rica. Now the Calgary-based firm only seeks $94 million, about what it invested in the ill-fated Las Crucitas open pit gold mine since 1993. The company said Monday that it has filed an arbitration request with the World Bank's arbitration organization and seeks $94 million from Costa Rica. The information came from the firm's local subsidiary. The arbitration demand was expected. Editors posted a news story about the demand Monday afternoon. The Las Crucitas mine was in Cutris de San Carlos. The initial amount does not include interest and legal costs which the company seeks, too, the firm said. The case is being filed under the Costa Rica-Canadian trade treaty, which includes protection for investors, said the local subsidiary, Industrias Infinito S.A., which had been trying to open a pit mine since 1993. The mining concession was supported by the Óscar Arias Sánchez administration, but a panel of the Tribunal Contencioso Administrativo annulled the concession after a hearing, the last in a lengthy legal process. Environmentalists opposed the project. The company said the action was taken because the government declined to negotiate. The local spokesperson, Yokebec Soto, said the company still hoped for a friendly resolution. The vast reduction in the amount demanded appears to stem from the company's decision to seek compensation for actual expenses and not the estimated value of the gold that would have been extracted. The company earlier had placed its lost investment in Costa Rica at $92 million. The project site holds an estimated 800,000 ounces of recoverable gold, the company has estimated. The case is in the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. More wind expected today with some possible showers By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Today is expected to be another windy one with gusts up to 85 kph or a bit more than 50 mph. The high pressure is causing the winds. There is expected to be cloudy skies today in the Caribbean, the northern zone and the Central Valley. The clouds are expected to bring isolated showers. The Caribbean and the northern zone should expect 50 to 80 millimeters of rain through nightfall, about two to a bit more than three inches, said the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional. The weather institute said that Guanacaste would be cloudy with winds but that the rest of the Pacific coast would be clear except for some possible showers in the afternoon. As usual, rain is more likely in the mountains. The weather institute issued a caution about objects falling due to the winds. Identity theft suspect held case involving fake loans By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Agents have detained a man who is suspected of using a stolen identity to obtain mortgages on property he did not own. The man was detained in Santa Ana. The Judicial Investigating Organization said that the amount of money involved is about 200 million colons or about $400,000. Restrictions on foreign money approved by lawmakers By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The legislature Monday approved on first reading a proposed law that would give the Banco Central the power to penalize depositors of money from outside the country. The measure, No. 18.685 was sought because higher interest rates in Costa Rica were attracting money from outside the country. At its discretion, the board of directors of the central bank can impose restrictions for up to six months. Bankers claim such inflows of money put the economy out of balance. The penalty would be a stiff tax on money deposited by entities not from Costa Rica. The measure requires one more positive vote. Towns along River Thames face more days of serious flooding By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Waterlogged British towns on the River Thames prepared Monday for days of new flooding, with officials issuing 14 more warnings as the fabled river burst its banks about 30 kilometers upstream of London. The new alerts were issued as Prime Minister David Cameron toured parts of the devastated region for a second time in three days. Forecasters say new rains this week are expected to put thousands more homes at risk with water levels surpassing record flooding in 2003 in much of the region. Storms and tidal surges have battered Britain since December, inundating entire communities, destroying roads and infrastructure, and cutting rail connections between the southwestern city of Plymouth and the rest of England. Forecasters are calling the British winter the wettest in nearly 250 years. Television footage Monday showed British troops and civilians piling sandbags to protect real estate in the village of Datchet, before the river breached its banks and left much of the community submerged. There are no flood alerts in London itself, where river banks are protected by a series of giant metal gates known as the Thames Barrier. The gates can be closed against tidal surges, creating more space for excess water to pool upriver. The flooding has sparked a political firestorm, with locals accusing Cameron's government of failing to dredge rivers and implement other flood prevention measures. The prime minister told reporters Monday his only interest is ensuring maximum government efforts to curb the impact of the disaster. Sunday Communities Minister Eric Pickles acknowledged that the government made a mistake in not dredging area rivers. But he said the decision was based on the advice of the Environment Agency, a government body. Pickles, a member of Prime Minister Cameron's Conservative Party, apologized for taking the advice, telling the BBC "we made a mistake."
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 29 | |
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| Five detained in suspected case of faking
property documents |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Investigators broke up a real estate closing Monday and detained five men on suspicion that they were involved in a property fraud. The arrests took place at a lawyer's office in Guadalupe. Agents described an elaborate effort in which a lot was secretly segregated from a larger piece of land and the appropriate maps and documents were prepared. The Judicial Investigating Organization said that the lot was put up for sale and that at the closing agents confiscated two checks of $25,000 each. The unusual aspect is that agents were able to move in at the |
closing. They said they
received a tip last week and managed to contact the real owner of the
property who said that his land was not for sale. One of the suspects is 82, and the others range from 35 to 52, said the agency. The land involved is in Tres Ríos in Cartago province. No names were given by the agency, but the speed with which agents acted also is unusual. Typically property fraud cases have low priority and there are thousands of them under investigation. |
| Agents seeking motive in murder of U.S.
expat in San Ramón |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Investigators are seeking a motive other than robbery for the killing of a U.S. expat Sunday night in San Isidro de Peñas Blancas de San Ramón. The man, identified as Kurt Hergis, was ambushed by his killers between 7:30 and 8 p.m. They placed a vehicle that blocked the road under a bridge. The Judicial Investigating Organization said that when the man got out of his own car perhaps to offer aid, he was set upon by his killers. Men jumped from the car and surrounded him. They took the |
victim to the banks of a river
located 25 meters from the parked car, said agents. There they stabbed
him twice, once on the head and once on the throat. The killers fled
the scene, and the female was able to escape without any harm. There were other witnesses that police interviewed. In the car with Hergis was a woman agents identified as a girl friend. She was reported to be unharmed. Unofficial sources said that the man was carrying as much as $4,000 in colons, and that was not taken. He lived in Barrio Los Angeles near La Fortuna. |
| Non-profit says it is seeking reports of
sex abuse against kids |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A non-profit organization wants tipsters to call them to report cases of sexual abuse against children. The organization is Alianza por Tus Derechos, which says it is investigating networks that are exploiting children on the coast and at the borders but that workers there do not have enough information yet to go to police. The organization also said that in the metro area there are apartments and houses where contact between clients and children are being arranged. Rocío Rodríguez, executive director of the organization, said in a release that many children are being victims of pimps and |
are being exploited in bars, massage
parlors, cantinas and when cruise ships arrive. The organization also seeks tips about children who are being abused in their homes. The complaints are confidential and can be anonymous, said the release. The organization also is involved in what it says is the increase in the use of youngsters for the making of pornographic materials. Also of concern is violence in general, said the organization. It said that an average of seven cases each day of suspected beatings come to the Hospital Nacional de Niños. The organization said that it will receive complaints by telephone at 2524-1329 at this email address: denuncia@aliadere.org |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 29 | |||||
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| Crocodile may be awaiting dinner in the tree tops, research
study concludes |
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By
the University of Tennessee news staff
When most people envision crocodiles, they think of them waddling on the ground or wading in water not climbing trees. However, a University of Tennessee, Knoxville, study has found that the reptiles can climb trees as far as the crowns. Vladimir Dinets, a research assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, is the first to thoroughly study the tree-climbing and -basking behavior. The research is published in the journal Herpetology Notes. Dinets and his colleagues observed crocodile species on three continents, Australia, Africa and North America, and examined previous studies and anecdotal observations. They found that four species climbed trees usually above water, but how far they ventured upward and outward varied by their sizes. The smaller crocodiles were able to climb higher and further than the larger ones. Some species were observed climbing as far as four meters high in a tree and five meters down a branch. "Climbing a steep hill or steep branch is mechanically similar, assuming the branch is wide enough to walk on," the authors wrote. "Still, the ability to climb vertically is a measure of crocodiles' spectacular agility on land." The crocodiles seen climbing trees, whether at night or during the day, were skittish of being approached, jumping or falling into the water when an approaching observer was as far as 10 meters away. This response led the researchers to believe that the tree climbing and basking are driven by two conditions: thermoregulation and surveillance of habitat. "The most frequent observations of tree-basking were in areas where there were few places to bask on the ground, implying that the individuals needed alternatives for regulating their body temperature," the authors wrote. "Likewise, their wary nature suggests that climbing leads to improved site surveillance of potential threats and prey." The data suggests that at least some crocodile species are able to climb trees despite lacking any obvious morphological adaptations to do so. Research by Dinets published in 2013 found another surprising crocodile characteristic, the use of lures such as sticks to hunt prey. More of his crocodile research can be found in his book "Dragon Songs." |
 University of Tennessee/ Kristine Gingras
American alligator perches on
branch in Pearl River Delta, Mississippi. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 29 | |||||
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| European Union seeking closer relations with Cuba By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The European Union has agreed to launch talks with Cuba aimed at forging closer political and economic ties, with human rights central to any discussions. The decision could mark a turning point in EU-Cuban relations. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement Monday she hoped Cuba would take up the EU offer to launch negations and the two sides could begin working soon on building a closer relationship. The announcement was made during an EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels. The 28-member bloc wants to forge a new bilateral agreement with Havana, underscoring the warming relations between the European Union and Cuba in recent years. In 2008, Brussels lifted economic sanctions it had imposed on Cuba more than a decade ago, following a crackdown there against dissidents. The United States also lifted travel restrictions against Cuba in 2011, and there are other signs relations are thawing. During a visit to Cuba last month, Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans urged the European Union to reconsider its relationship with Cuba, saying the country's economic reforms are encouraging. Monday Timmermans expressed satisfaction with the EU decision to reach out to Havana. "I am very happy that we now have a different position on Cuba," he said. "That does not mean we have a different judgement on the situation in Cuba, but we have a different approach to engage Cuba in a dialogue, to try and bring about political change, to stimulate economic reform and political change. I mean to have a more inclusive dialogue in Cuba and with Cuba." EU officials say human rights issues must be central to the talks. The European Union remains a major foreign investor in Cuba and has given the country about $110 million in development aid since 2008. Havana is also a popular destination for EU tourists. EU officials downplay chances that EU-Cuban relations will change dramatically in the short term. Some member states, including Poland and the Czech Republic, remain skeptical about Havana, but officials say the talks are symbolically important. Military scandals raising questions of accountability By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The Pentagon is embroiled in a series of corruption scandals that span the globe and have rocked the Navy, Air Force, and Army National Guard. Both sides of Congress are holding hearings into the matters. But the number of scandals is raising questions about a lack of accountability across the U.S. military that many say is unprecedented. The Navy is dealing with a bribery scandal involving a Singapore-based company that investigators say bought the illicit help of a group of naval officers with cash, lavish trips, and prostitutes. In another investigation, Air Force and Navy officers allegedly cheated on proficiency exams that dealt with nuclear missile launch codes and nuclear propulsion systems. The Army’s National Guard is also dealing with an alleged scam involving cash improperly taken for getting people to enlist. “You start to wonder if we need to get a little more discipline here, if nothing else than to send a clear message that this kind of stuff needs to be rooted out – and whatever oversight laxity might be happening is not tolerable or sustainable,” said Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution in Washington. The situation has prompted Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to announce last Friday that he will appoint a senior general to review the Pentagon’s ethics standards and implement changes meant to ensure proper behavior. “Competence and character…are woven together. They must be.” Hagel said. ”And, an uncompromising culture of accountability must exist at every level of command.” The U.S. House of Representatives in Congress announced that a key committee on government oversight, chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa will hold hearings into the alleged scandal involving Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia, a contractor with the U.S. Navy. The head of that company, Malaysian national Leonard Glenn Francis, has been arrested on bribery related charges. So have several Navy officers. One of them is Commander Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz. Born in Cambodia, he came to the United States as a child refugee, and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy. He was given command of a guided missile destroyer, the USS Mustin, which he sailed in December 2010 to Sihanoukville, Cambodia in a triumphant return to his native land. Later, he became a logistics officer for the Navy’s 7th Fleet, which covers the Pacific. Misiewicz and another logistics officer, Commander Jose Luis Sanchez, are accused of providing internal information to Leonard Francis and Glenn Defense on ship movements and port calls. Prosecutors say they steered ships to ports where Glenn Defense had facilities so that the company could grossly overcharge the Navy for fuel and other services. In return, Francis rewarded them with money, trips, and the services of prostitutes. Also snared by the Navy’s probe into Glenn Defense was one of its own investigators, Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent John Beliveau II. He has already entered a guilty plea of providing Francis with internal NCIS documents ostensibly to help Francis stay one step ahead of investigators. Commanders Misiewicz and Sanchez have entered not guilty pleas and are awaiting further court action. The Navy is also embroiled in an alleged scandal involving its famed SEAL Team Six. Acting Navy Undersecretary Robert Martinage was asked to resign in mid-January after investigators found that the brother of a senior Navy intelligence official had manufactured weapons silencers for the SEALS at a cost of $8,000 for which the military was billed $1.6 million. The Congress too has been holding hearings into an alleged scheme in which people improperly collected money, possibly up to $66 million, for getting young men and women to sign up for the National Guard. Investigators say that recruiters and others not eligible to receive the bonuses used proxies and other schemes to collect the cash and share it with them. “It is disappointing that people who wore the uniform saw a way to get one over on the government, and they did,” said U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, who is leading hearings into the matter. Brookings analyst O’Hanlon said the Congressional hearings can serve as a prod to get the Pentagon back on the right track. “You know, they can scare people into better behavior – they can put some pressure on the Pentagon to do more than just discipline the ten or twenty bad apples that were specifically involved, “ he said. “But, if there is a more general problem of organizational rot or decline of standards, they can hold people accountable, and force the broader military services or the Department of Defense to relieve people at a higher level of command, potentially, if that seems appropriate.” O’Hanlon said there are broader concerns about the proficiency exam cheating scandals that have implicated at least 92 Air Force nuclear ICBM launch control officers and more than 30 Navy personnel connected to nuclear propulsion systems. Those entrusted with America’s nuclear arsenal and its nuclear systems are held to extremely high standards with periodic exams to prove that they know precisely what they are trained to do. And the pressures to pass those tests allegedly prompted those accused to share questions and answers. “You can’t be lax with nuclear weapons,” said O’Hanlon. These things erode the nation’s safety and security, and over time, can damage that very fabric of the armed forces.” He added “You’ve got to stop them now, before it gets worse.” District of Columbia planning to decriminalize marijuana By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
After Colorado and Washington State legalized marijuana for recreational use, other states and cities around the country began taking a fresh look at their own marijuana laws. Some are bowing to political pressure to fully legalize marijuana, which recent polls indicate a majority of Americans support. Others, like Washington, D.C., are leaning more toward only decriminalizing the drug. If it does, the city would join 17 states with similar laws. The Washington, D.C. city council is moving forward with a bill to decriminalize marijuana. The bill would change the penalty for possession from a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail to a simple $25 fine. But it would leave criminal penalties for smoking in public. Council member David Grosso, a supporter of the bill, said, “Putting people in jail is no longer the solution to this problem. I think the war on drugs has really failed. And what we need to do is to find a way to heal our communities from that and to make sure that people are no longer being thrown in jail for non-violent offenses.” Council member Yvette Alexander was the lone dissenter in a preliminary vote. She is concerned the bill would make Washington a top drug market. “It will increase more attraction to this area for the sale of drugs. Because the purchase of drugs has little to no repercussion,” she said. Supporters argue decriminalization will cut law enforcement costs and address racial disparities recently outlined in a report by the American Civil Liberties Union, which advocates for American civil rights. The report found people of color are eight times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession in Washington, even though usage rates are often higher in certain white communities. Washington attorney Paul Zuckerberg has represented marijuana defendants for 28 years. “We are arresting 6,000 people a year for simple marijuana possession," he said. "D.C. leads the nation in marijuana arrests per capita. And we also lead the nation in racially-biased arrests.” Decriminalization advocates say racial disparities in arrests are a nationwide problem and threaten a generation of black Americans with the stigma of criminal records. “Besides the arrests there is the fact that they have the scarlet letter," said Bill Piper, who is with the Drug Policy Alliance which calls for drug policy reform. "And it is with them for the rest of their lives, which makes it hard for them to get jobs, makes it hard for them to get housing.” City Council Chairman Phil Mendelson voted for the decriminalization bill, but he said he thinks the racial disparities argument is the wrong reason to change the law. “I think that is a false argument. To be sure, if there are discriminatory practices in policing, we should vigorously investigate and put an end to that," he said. "But that is not the basis of whether something should be a crime or not. And, in fact, most members of the council don’t support criminalizing drug use.” The bill faces another city council vote before it goes before Mayor Vincent Gray. Then, it must be approved by the U.S. Congress which oversees laws in Washington, D.C. AOL exec issues an apology for criticizing sick babies By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
An American corporate executive is apologizing after he cited the high cost of the birth of two distressed babies as a reason to trim the retirement benefits of his employees. The chief executive of Internet company AOL, Tim Armstrong, last week told workers that he was changing the timing of company contributions to their retirement accounts. The change would save the company money and likely cost employees thousands of dollars. Armstrong cited AOL's rising health care costs, noting the company's health insurance plan had paid $1 million in benefits for two women who had given birth to distressed babies. One of the new mothers, Deanna Fei, wrote an essay criticizing Armstrong's "absurd justification for corporate cost-cutting." With the outcry, Armstrong abandoned changes in the retirement plan and said he made a mistake in linking them to the cost of the birth of the babies. Ms. Fei said in the NBC's Today show Monday that she accepted Armstrong's heartfelt apology he made to her in a phone call. Ms. Fei, the wife of an AOL editor, said her baby was born unexpectedly and prematurely in late 2012. She said the baby spent three months in intensive care, but now is more than a year old and healthy. Turkey's controversial law on Internet may be vetoed By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Opposition parties in Turkey have called on President Abdullah Gul to veto controversial Internet restrictions that were approved last week by the country's parliament and have increased the international community's concerns over freedoms and rights in the country. Gul is under mounting pressure to veto the legislation, which empowers the government to block Web sites without a court order and gives it access to user information for up to two years. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, called on the president to take a “position on democracy and veto the law.” "We are calling for the president to veto the new law," said Emma Sinclair Webb, senior Turkey researcher at the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch. "It has passed through parliament very quickly without consultation, without sufficient expert input. And we feel the president now has a chance to really stand up for free speech by vetoing that law, and to uphold citizens' right to access information on the Internet and uphold the right to privacy." Both the European Union and the Council of Europe have also called for the law to be withdrawn. Saturday night, police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse thousands of demonstrators protesting the new Internet law. Turkey’s main business confederation has also called for the law to be withdrawn. In comments widely seen as signaling unease over the restrictions, Gul last month stressed the importance of freedom of the Internet, and especially social media. But the Turkish president is also a founding member of the ruling AK Party. Kadri Gursel, diplomatic columnist for the Turkish newspaper Milliyet and Al-Monitor Web site, says the president is performing a delicate political balancing act. "Mr. Gul has cleverly positioned himself as the natural alternative to Erdogan from within the Islamist conservative political movement. And Mr. Gul cleverly does not do that by challenging Erdogan’s government. He is very government-friendly in signing government draft laws. He is not creating problems in terms of limiting or balancing the government’s power," said Gursel, referring to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Adding to the pressure on the president, Erdogan, addressing a rally in Istanbul on Sunday, resolutely defended the new Internet law and slammed its critics. "These regulations do not impose any censorship on the Internet. On the contrary, they make it safer and freer," he said. "Those protesting against the law are part of what he called a pornography lobby." Erdogan also repeated a warning to the country’s business leaders, saying they will all face auditing by the tax authorities. Political scientist Cengiz Aktar of the Istanbul Policy Forum says that with the political temperature rising, Gul faces a critical choice. "This will be a real yardstick of his intentions, whether he will challenge now the prime minister, Erdogan, or not," said Aktar. Even if the president were to veto the Internet legislation, he would be obliged to sign it into law if the government passed it a second time unamended. But observers argue such a veto would be politically damaging to Erdogan and likely intensify the growing opposition to the controversial legislation. The issue could also have consequences for this year’s presidential election, which neither the prime minister nor the president have ruled out running in.  Voice of America/J. Taboh
A worker at the Bureau of
Engraving and Printing examines sheets of U.S. currency before they are
made into wallet-ready bills. Plenty of hard
work goes
into securing U.S. currency By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
American dollars are a popular currency both in the United States and around the world. Ensuring that the bills are distinctive and trustworthy is the job of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, a government entity that's been printing American bank notes for more than 150 years. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing, within the U.S. Department of the Treasury, designs and produces millions of U.S. banknotes each day at its facilities in Texas and in Washington, making it one of the largest currency printing operations in the world. The agency was established in 1862 under President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. Creating a United States banknote from start to finish is a complex process, according to Bureau Director Larry Felix. “It looks like ink on paper, and it is ink on paper, but there are an extraordinary amount of systems that are on that bank note,” he said. During the first stage of printing, the background color is applied. On a $20 bill for example, the blue eagle in the background and the subtle orange and green coloring, are put on by the bureau’s offset printing. Next, the notes are pressed onto inked, engraved plates. Intaglio printing where the ink is etched into the bill is used for the portraits, vignettes, scrollwork, numerals and lettering that is unique to each denomination. “Just about anyone who produces a banknote wants to put intaglio on that note. It gives banknotes that distinctive touch, that feel,” said Felix. "The United States puts more intaglio than almost any other country because we put intaglio in the front and on the back.” The next stage involves the letter press printing process where the serial numbers and seals are added. “So we put these features in these notes to assist people, to make sure that they can tell if the note is real,” said Felix. “And every step of the way it also helps machines to identify if that note is real or not.” Regarding the issue of counterfeiting, Felix said the bureau is always evaluating the threats against bank notes in terms of digital and other evolving technologies “that would have an impact on the future of the integrity of a banknote. We’ve anticipated those threats and designed those features into the banknotes.” While there’s no such thing as a counterfeit-proof note, Felix says counterfeit notes in circulation is less than 1/100th of 1 percent. “That means,” he said, “that the designs are effective and the United States Secret Service and our partners at the Federal Reserve are very effective in ensuring that U.S. currency rates remains strong and used worldwide and widely accepted.” Rosie Rios is the treasurer of the United States and has direct oversight over both the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the U.S. Mint, which produces coins. They are separate bureaus within the Treasury. Ms. Rios' signature along with that of the secretary of the Treasury are stamped on all U.S. banknotes during their time in office. While the percentage of counterfeit notes in circulation remains very small, she says the government continues to redesign American currency to stay ahead of advancing technologies and tech-savvy counterfeiters. She pointed to the newly designed $100 note as an example. “So on the overt features, the features you can see, one of the first things you notice about this new $100 bill which was issued in October 2013, is that it has this blue, 3-D security ribbon.” The ribbon, along with other new security features, makes it easier for the public to authenticate and more difficult for counterfeiters to replicate. “U.S. currency is trusted worldwide. People recognize it,” said Ms. Rios. “So we want to make sure that we produce something that’s trusted, that’s secure, that’s safe and people can continue to use in the future.” And if anyone is wondering whether cash transactions are becoming a thing of the past, Ms. Rios says there’s no need for concern. “Even though there’s been this enormous amount of electronic transactions over the last few years, the amount of currency that we’re producing in absolute numbers has been increasing,” she said. “So we’re still producing on average seven billion notes per year." Sixty percent of those notes are in circulation outside the United States, currency, said Ms. Rios, that will be in demand for many years to come. Ex-Guatemalan commander sentenced in massacre spinoff By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
An ex-Guatemalan army commander was sentenced Monday in a U.S. court to a 10-year prison term for covering up his role in a 1982 massacre during his country's bloody civil war, in order to gain U.S. citizenship. Prosecutors say Jorge Sosa lied to U.S. immigration officials about his involvement in the mass killings of 250 men, women and children, in what is believed to be one of the worst atrocities in 36 years of war. A U.S. jury last year found Sosa willfully omitted both his military affiliation and his role in the killings, when he applied for permanent U.S. residence in 1997 and for naturalized citizenship 10 years later. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2009 in connection with the false statements and subsequently fled to Canada. He was arrested there and later returned to the United States for trial. At the October 2013 trial, U.S. prosecutors presented evidence that Sosa and other members of an elite army unit known as the Kaibiles entered the village of Dos Erres in December 1982 seeking stolen weapons. When none were found, the unit removed villagers from their homes and separated the men from the women and children. A U.S. statement Monday said analysis showed some of the young girls had been raped, before the unit systematically began killing the villagers with sledgehammers and guns, and then throwing the bodies into a well. Testimony from two Kaibiles who participated in the massacre showed that Sosa supervised the unit as its members filled the well with the mortally wounded villagers. The testimony also showed that Sosa at one point threw a hand grenade into the mass of bodies in the well. Argentine forensic specialists exhumed the 12-meter-deep well in the mid-1990s, and one of the Argentineans testified in 2009 that his team found 162 skeletons. Of those, he testified that 67 appeared to be children under age 12. Sea Shepherd will patrol Pacific waters off Guatemala Special
to A.M. Costa Rica
Sea Shepherd Global and Sea Shepherd USA have entered into an agreement met with Guatemalan officials. Based on these talks, Sea Shepherd has been asked to assist the Guatemalan department of fisheries by operating anti-poaching enforcement patrols in the Pacific Ocean. Guatemalan law protects marlin and other billfish species from commercial exploitation, but such fish are lucrative targets for poachers in Guatemalan waters. Sea Shepherd’s assistance is timely, as the crew will be able to help with patrols during prime poaching season for marlin, February and March. The Sea Shepherd vessel "Brigitte Bardot" arrived in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala, on Jan. 24. Sea Shepherd will provide the "Bardot" and her crew as assistance in anti-poaching patrols beginning in the coming days and will operate for the next several weeks. The crew is joining investigators from the Guatemalan department of fisheries, police officers, and naval officers on their patrols. In addition, Sea Shepherd said its crew members will assist department of fisheries personnel in providing presentations to schools and universities in Guatemala, helping to educate and spread awareness about the poaching crisis and the critical need for ocean conservation. It has been a goal of Sea Shepherd Global to boost Sea Shepherd’s outreach in Latin America, the organization said. Following the formation of a Sea Shepherd entity in Costa Rica in 2013, the organization’s reach in Central America continues to expand. Guatemalan Sea Shepherd supporters are currently organizing to create a Sea Shepherd presence in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 29 | |||||||||
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Computer
role-playing said to have effect afterwards By
the Association for Psychological Science news staff
How you represent yourself in the virtual world of video games may affect how you behave toward others in the real world, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “Our results indicate that just five minutes of role-play in virtual environments as either a hero or villain can easily cause people to reward or punish anonymous strangers,” says lead researcher Gunwoo Yoon of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As Yoon and co-author Patrick Vargas note, virtual environments afford people the opportunity to take on identities and experience circumstances that they otherwise can’t in real life, providing “a vehicle for observation, imitation, and modeling.” They wondered whether these virtual experiences — specifically, the experiences of taking on heroic or villainous avatars — might carry over into everyday behavior. The researchers recruited 194 undergraduates to participate in two supposedly unrelated studies. The participants were randomly assigned to play as Superman (a hero), Voldemort (a villain), or a circle (a neutral individual). They played a game for five minutes in which they were asked to fight enemies. Then, in a presumably unrelated study, they participated in a blind taste test. They were asked to taste and then give either chocolate or chili sauce to a future participant. They were told to pour the chosen food item into a plastic dish and that the future participant would consume all of the food provided. The results were revealing: Participants who played as Superman poured, on average, nearly twice as much chocolate as chili sauce for the future participant. And they poured significantly more chocolate than those who played either of the other roles. Participants who played as Voldemort, a Harry Potter villain, on the other hand, poured out nearly twice as much of the spicy chili sauce than they did chocolate, and they poured significantly more chili sauce compared to the other participants. A second experiment with 125 undergraduates confirmed these findings. Interestingly, the degree to which participants actually identified with their role didn’t seem to play a part. “These behaviors occur despite modest, equivalent levels of self-reported identification with heroic and villainous avatars, alike,” Yoon and Vargas note. “People are prone to be unaware of the influence of their virtual representations on their behavioral responses.” The researchers hypothesize that that arousal, the degree to which participants are keyed into the game, might be an important factor driving the behavioral effects they observed. The findings, though preliminary, may have implications for social behavior, the researchers argue: “In virtual environments, people can freely choose avatars that allow them to opt into or opt out of a certain entity, group, or situation,” says Yoon. “Consumers and practitioners should remember that powerful imitative effects can occur when people put on virtual masks.” |
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| From
Page 7: Digital marketing conference will be Feb. 19 By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A conference on the trends of digital marketing will be held at the Hotel Corocibi on Feb. 19. EKA Consultores Internacional hosts the gathering with a schedule that hopes to give patrons a look into the digital industry's future. Discussion topics include the difference between traditional markets and digital markets and planning ad campaigns over digital media. Presentations will be led by digital marketing expert Esteban Vallejo Ramírez. Vallejo will also take the group into a discussion regarding advertisements on Google, Facebook, and other social media outlets. He poses the question how they create their advertisements and will offer examples as to how to make effective ads for each platform, according to an announcement. The event begins at 8 a.m. and lasts until noon. Admission is $185 per participant. |
