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A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, March 25, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 59
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Caja declines to
support medical cannabis
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social has declined to support the medical use of cannabis. The board of directors made that decision Friday. María del Rocío Sáenz Madrigal, the executive president of the Caja, said the discussion was based on a proposed law that promoted the cultivation, processing and use of cannabis for medical purposes. She said the discussion was generated by a request from the legislature to comment on the bill. Lawmakers introduced the bill last August, and there has been little action since. Dr. Sáenz said that there was little chance of quick approval. The proposal is No. 19.256. and it covers the three types of cannabis, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica and Cannabis ruderalis. The bill would not legalize the recreational use of the drug but establishes regulations for the chain of production for medical use, the doctor noted. The recreational and medical use of cannabis or marijuana is well entrenched here. Even A.M. Costa Rica columnist Jo Stuart, who died last April at 84, admitted to the medical use of the weed in her writings. The recreational use must be substantial because security ministry crewmen intercepted yet another boat this week in the Caribbean, and it contained 1,815 kilos, nearly two tons, presumably of Jamacian origin. Such confiscations are frequent, suggesting that Costa Rica is a major market. The Talamanca mountains are well known as a source for Costa Rican marijuana. And individuals even can be seen on the street smoking marijuana cigarettes. Some marijuana users hope the country accepts the example of Colorado, which legalized the weed. Our readers' opinions
Costa Rica must preserve its unique aspectDear A.M. Costa Rica: Since we know you personally as visitor to our home, we wish you had taken up the invitation we made to attend with us the lecture today by Steven Druker. In the late 1980s, the then-president of Costa Rica, invited Michio Kushi to speak at a conference in this country warning of the problem of dietary dysfunction due to the fast food industrialization of the food chain. Kushi urged Costa Rica at that time to consider becoming the first country to adopt an organic traditional diet based on whole foods, particularly whole grains. After many years of leaving their heads under the sand during the 1970s both the Harvard Medical Society and the New England Journal of Medicine along with the U. S. Senate and the Smithsonian have all concurred with the dietary recommendations of Michio Kushi who publicized the teachings of George Ohsawa. Ohsawa's first book in English, "Zen Macrobiotics" started the change to natural organic food selections which now results in billion dollar companies like Whole Foods. If either of these men were alive today, they would consider genetically-modified foods to be insane. What GMO has not had enough time to create is dementia, Alzheimer's, abnormalities like four arms and six legs, but if it continues to be in the food chain it may be late to bar the door. A small country like Costa Rica cannot afford to become the servant of large multi-national food corporations and lose the one unique aspect we have today. I hope that this group who invited Druker to the University Medical School will file a plea against this with the supreme court of Costa Rica since they have the science background to address this issue. We were ecstatic to also note that Druker commented on the danger of synthetic pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. Lic. Angela Jiménez Rocha
Escazú Students had to hear speech by Ted Cruz Dear A.M. Costa Rica: You left out an important point in your coverage of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s entry into the 2016 U.S. presidential race at Liberty University on Monday. The large crowd was comprised mostly of Liberty University students for whom attendance was mandatory. Had their presence been optional, the turnout might have been much less impressive. In your story, you make mention of Sen. Cruz’s U.S. citizenship based upon his mother’s U.S. citizenship despite the Senator’s having been born in Canada. Mrs. Cruz’s citizenship, of course, is based upon her own (supposed) birth in the United States, but so far no one has produced a credible copy of her birth certificate to prove her citizenship. This unfolding story should be fun to watch. David C. Murray
Grecia Beach visitors should pickup their trash Dear A.M. Costa Rica: Soon many city people will be heading to the playas on the Pacific coast. They come for a week or only the weekend, and we, the locals, pick up their trash for the rest of the month. We want to welcome them to our tranquilla setting to enjoy the beauty and fabulous restaurants, music venues and ferias. We are a loving bunch of folks on the playas, but we sure wish they'd respect our home and pick up after themselves. Kimberly Toberman
Playa Dominicalito Researchers pioneer a better chocolate By the American Chemical Society news staff
Chocolate has many health benefits. It can potentially lower blood pressure and cholesterol and reduce stroke risk. But just as connoisseurs thought it couldn’t get any better, there’s this tasty new tidbit: Researchers have found a way to make the treat even more nutritious and sweeter. They presented their research at the 249th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society. Cocoa undergoes several steps before it takes shape as a candy bar. Workers cut down pods from cocoa trees, then split open the pods to remove the white or purple cocoa beans. They are fermented in banana-lined baskets for a few days and then set out to dry in the sun. Roasting, the next step, brings out the flavor. But some of the healthful polyphenols (antioxidants) are lost during the roasting process, so the researchers wanted to figure out a way to retain as much of the polyphenols and good flavors as possible. “We decided to add a pod-storage step before the beans were even fermented to see whether that would have an effect on the polyphenol content,” says Emmanuel Ohene Afoakwa, who is at the University of Ghana. “This is not traditionally done, and this is what makes our research fundamentally different. It’s also not known how roasting affects polyphenol content.” Afoakwa’s team divided 300 pods into four groups that were either not stored at all or stored for three, seven or 10 days before processing. This technique is called pulp preconditioning. After each storage period passed, fermentation and drying were done as usual. He reports that the seven-day storage resulted in the highest antioxidant activity after roasting. Afoakwa explained that pulp preconditioning likely allowed the sweet pulp surrounding the beans inside the pod to alter the biochemical and physical constituents of the beans before the fermentation. “This aided the fermentation processes and enhanced antioxidant capacity of the beans, as well as the flavor,” he says. He adds that the new technique would be particularly useful for countries in Southeast Asia and Latin America where cocoa beans produce a chocolate with a less intense chocolate flavor and have reduced antioxidant activity. Semana
Santa information
Banco Nacional gives Semana Santa hours By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Banco Nacional said that it would close Holy Thursday, April 2, and reopen Monday, April 6. The reason is the Semana Santa holidays. In addition, the bank said that it would not provide evening services on Wednesday, April 1. The bank will close at 3:45 p.m. that day. There may be some variations at individual bank offices outside the metro area. For example, the office at the Depósito Libre de Golfito will be open Saturday, April 4, and Easter Sunday, April 5. The closing in the evening of April 2 might be a hardship to workers who are paid by check. But the automatic tellers will be in service all days. Good Shepherd Episcopal Church lists services By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Good Shepherd Episcopal (Anglican) Church has announced Holy Week services. All services are bilingual, an announcement said. The special services begin Palm Sunday, March 29, at 9 a.m. The Holy Wednesday services April 1 also is at 9 a.m. The service Holy Thursday, April 2, is at 6 p.m. The Good Friday service April 3 is from noon to 3 p.m., and the Great Vigil of Easter is Saturday, April 4, at 6 p.m. The Easter Sunday service April 5 is at 9 a.m. The church is on Avenida 4 at Calle 5 next to McDonald's.
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and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, March 25, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 59 | |
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Beach
awaits The Municipalidad de Nicoya submitted this photo with an announcement that the alcohol dry law will not be enforced in the canton April 2 and 3. The mayor, Marco Antonio Jiménez, noted that the current law gives the power on this matter to municipalities. So those who visit this beach in Sámara during Semana Santa can pick up joy juice locally. |
 Municipalidad de Nicoya photo
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| Semana Santa operations begin Saturday for police and Cruz
Roja |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Rescue and police agencies begin their Semana Santa efforts Saturday. The security ministry said that the Servicio Nacional de Guardacostas will have 25 of its boats on patrol off popular beaches. The Servicio de Vigilancia Aérea will have up to four aircraft in the skies, it added. The Cruz Roja said that it will set up and maintain 148 first aid stations around the country and that ambulances and water rescue teams will be standing by. In one development this year, the Consejo de Transporte Público said that bus operators can reduce their trips but may not eliminate them on the legal holidays Thursday, April 2, and Friday, April 3. Traditionally public bus transportation |
does
not
operate on these days, but this year the buses will run if the
companies follow the edict. The Consejo said that bus firms must make a clear announcement of the holiday schedule. The Semana Santa schedule for Cruz Roja and the security ministry run through Monday, April 5. Public employees are supposed to work through Wednesday unless they are allowed to take vacation days. However, President Luis Guillermo Solís said that he will be taking the entire week off. This did not set well with many of the public employees. A.M. Costa Rica will publish during Semana Santa, but April 3, Good Friday, is one of the newspaper's three annual holidays. |
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Beekeepers
unite
to face their problems By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Bees are under threat everywhere, and in Costa Rica there has been a dramatic decrease in the production of honey. Agricultural officials are responding with a three-year project that provides more training. The project is being assisted by experts from Argentina, Uruguay and the Domnican Republic. The Servicio Nacional de Salud Animal and the Instituto Nacional de Investigación, Innovación y Transferencia de Tecnología also are involved. The first effort was a weekend workshop at the Universidad Técnica Nacional in Atenas. Organizers hope that the training reaches up to 500 beekeepers of the 1,782 in the country. In all, Costa Rica hosts 45,500 colonies of bees. |
 Servicio Nacional de Salud Animal photo
The workshop included some
hands-on training. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, March 25, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 59 | |||||
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| New prediction says innovations will provide water for
future citizens |
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By the Duke University news service
Population growth could cause global demand for water to outpace supply by mid-century if current levels of consumption continue. But it wouldn't be the first time this has happened, a Duke University study finds. Using a delayed-feedback mathematical model that analyzes historic data to help project future trends, the researchers identified a regularly recurring pattern of global water use in recent centuries. Periods of increased demand for water, often coinciding with population growth or other major demographic and social changes, were followed by periods of rapid innovation of new water technologies that helped end or ease any shortages. Based on this recurring pattern, the model predicts a similar period of innovation could occur in coming decades. “Researchers in other fields have previously used this model to predict earthquakes and other complex processes, including events like the boom and bust of the stock market during financial crises, but this is the first time it’s been applied to water use,” said Anthony Parolari, postdoctoral research associate in civil and environmental engineering at Duke, who led the new study. “What the model shows us is that there will likely be a new phase of change in the global water supply system by the mid-21st century,” Parolari said. “This could take the form of a gradual move toward new policies that encourage a sustainable rate of water use, or it could be a technological advancement that provides a new source of water for us to tap into. There’s a range of possibilities,” he said. Data on global water use shows humans are currently in a period of relatively stagnant growth, he said. Per-capita water use has been declining since 1980, largely due to improved efficiency measures and heightened public awareness of the importance of conserving Earth’s limited supply of freshwater. This has helped offset the impacts of recent population growth. |
“But if
population growth trends continue, per-capita water use will
have to decline even more sharply for there to be enough water to meet
demand,” he said. The world’s population is projected to surge to 9.6 billion by 2050, up from an estimated 7 billion today. “For every new person who is born, how much more water can we supply? The model suggests we may reach a tipping point where efficiency measures are no longer sufficient and water scarcity either impacts population growth or pushes us to find new water supplies,” Parolari said. Water recycling, and finding new and better ways to remove salt from seawater, are among the more likely technological advances that could help alleviate or avoid future water shortages, he said. Parolari was inspired to conduct his study by the work of Austrian physicist and philosopher Heinz von Foerster, who in 1960 collaborated with students to publish a tongue-in-cheek study in the journal Science predicting that through feedbacks between human demographics and technological development, population growth would overcome any limitation imposed on it by finite resources and become infinite by November 13, 2026, the 115th anniversary of von Foerster’s birthday. The prediction became known as the Doomsday Equation. “Historically, many hypotheses about future population and resource trends have been pessimistic. Von Foerster’s hypothesis poked fun at these projections. But the serious part of his study provided an alternative and exciting view of the future: Humans are creative and resourceful, and when push comes to shove, we find new ways to either increase our supply or use what we have more efficiently,” Parolari said. “Our model supports this more optimistic outlook. The demand for water will push us to innovate as it has repeatedly done before.” Parolari and his colleagues published their study this month in the peer-reviewed journal Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water. |
Here's reasonable medical care
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2015 and may
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, March 25, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 59 | |||||||
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| Heads of state plan visits to crash site in France By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy are expected to visit the crash site of a German jetliner that went down in the French Alps Tuesday, killing all 150 people aboard. The Germanwings Airbus A320 crashed Tuesday morning without issuing any distress signals, while en route from Barcelona, Spain, to the German city of Dusseldorf. Lufthansa, the parent company of the budget subsidiary Germanwings, says it is treating the crash as an accident at this time, and cautioned that any immediate references to possible terrorism are speculative. The White House also reported no preliminary links to terrorism. One of the flight recorders has been recovered and is undergoing analysis in Paris. Search efforts at the crash site were suspended for the night late Tuesday. Germanwings released a statement saying it has canceled several flights scheduled for Wednesday because of crew members requesting not to fly. The airline has also said it is shocked and saddened by the crash and is promising a full investigation. About a dozen specially trained mountain police were guarding the site overnight in southeastern France, as rescue teams prepared to begin retrieving bodies at daybreak today. Thomas Winkelmann, the airline's managing director, said radar showed the jetliner flying at 11,500 meters before entering a deadly 8-minute descent into the Alpes de Haute-Provence region, 100 kilometers north of Nice. He said radar contact was lost at 1,800 meters, and said the jetliner underwent routine inspection in Dusseldorf on Monday. He and others said land access to the snow covered site is virtually impossible, and that rescue personnel reached the wreckage by helicopter. Recovery efforts are expected to last at least a week. In Washington, President Barack Obama delivered a message offering condolences to "our friends in Europe, especially the people of Germany and Spain." Earlier, German Foreign Minister Frank Walter-Steinmeier, who viewed the crash site by air, called the scene a picture of horror. Lacking distress calls, the French aviation authority said air traffic controllers declared an emergency because they lost contact with the cockpit. French President Francois Hollande said those killed included Germans, Spaniards and probably Turks. Hollande said he could not say with total certainty that no French nationals were aboard the flight. "It's a tragedy on our soil," the French leader said. Hollande called German Chancellor Merkel to express his condolences. Her spokesman said she was deeply shocked by the accident and canceled all of her other appointments for the day. Ms. Merkel said she would visit the crash site today. Germanwings is a budget airline subsidiary of the German-based airline Lufthansa. The A320 aircraft that crashed was 24 years old and was at the upper end of its normal use as a commercial airliner. It had undergone a mechanical inspection on Monday. Cruz says he will sign up for Obamacare insurance By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
One of the most vocal opponents of the U.S. Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, is about to sign up for health insurance under the program. Sen. Ted Cruz, the first declared Republican presidential candidate for 2016, said Tuesday that he was signing up for the coverage because it is a requirement for members of Congress. Cruz's family has been covered through his wife's employer, but he said she would be taking a leave of absence from her job to join him on the campaign trail. The Texas senator has vowed to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature health care law if he becomes president. He told The Des Moines Register that he still wanted to see the program repealed, and that he believed it would be if a Republican succeeded Obama as president in 2017. In late 2013, efforts by Cruz and other conservatives in Congress to gut Obamacare by holding up a government spending bill led to a 16-day shutdown of most of the federal government. Previously, members of Congress were covered, like millions of other federal government employees, by the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, which includes a wide variety of private health care plans. But because of an amendment to the Affordable Care Act pushed through by Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, members of Congress not eligible for Medicare must receive their government-funded health care through insurance exchanges like millions of other Americans who are not covered through their employers.  Voice of America photo
These are the current
dollar coinsU.S. dollar
coins gaining
support due to their cost By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
With America's national debt continuing to climb, Congress is constantly debating ways to save money. The Dollar Coin Alliance, a lobbying group, says billions could be saved if dollar coins were used instead of paper bills. But many people won't use them. The U.S. government tried to push dollar coins again in recent years, but then suspended almost all production in 2011. Jim Kolbe, co-chairman of the Dollar Coin Alliance, thinks switching to the coin is worth it. “The coin does cost more to produce, roughly on the neighborhood of 17 cents versus the 5 or 6 cents that a paper dollar costs to produce," he said. "However, the coin lasts 35 years, and it’s made of mostly recycled metals, and the paper has to be produced from new materials, and we shred 3 billion of those every year because they wear out.” For years, the former Arizona congressman has been pushing legislation that would prop up the dollar coin by phasing out the greenback, a move that has met resistance from both politicians and the public. But today, he said, the climate has changed, and a recent poll indicates 61 percent of Americans like the idea. “When they learn of the savings that can be involved with this, they will support the idea of substituting the coin for the paper dollar,” he said. Kolbe points to a study by the Government Accountability Office, which investigates how the government spends taxpayer dollars. The office estimates taxpayers would save more than $4 billion over 30 years, and that figure could be much higher. That appeals to taxpayer Christy Thompson, who said, “I’d probably say, yes, we need to do it.” But plenty of people aren't convinced, including Kim Doering of Alexandria, Virginia. “It’s easier to carry the paper bill than a bunch of coins. They’re louder. They’re heavier in your pocket,” she said. Washington, D.C., restaurant owner Sue Fouladi doesn’t like the idea of having more dollar coins in her cash register. "It’s very inconvenient," she said. "If I don’t have a choice, then I’ll do it, but I’ll be a very unhappy person.” Adding to the problem is that the gold- and silver-colored metal coins are about the same size as the 25-cent quarter. Robert Blecker, an economics professor at American University in Washington, says the dollar coins should be a different size and thickness. “And if we can design a dollar coin that’s not so big and bulky, probably Americans would like it better,” he added. But that doesn’t bother college student Emily Sturgill. “Sometimes they fit into your pocket easily and you don’t have to worry about them slipping out, like a dollar would if you brought your keys or your phone out,” she said. Both Kolbe and Blecker agree that widespread usage won’t happen easily. "We will never give up the bill until it's abolished and we have no choice but to use the coins," Blecker said. That’s what happened in other countries, like Canada, Blecker said, where the public now takes one- and two-dollar coins for granted. He thinks the American public would get used to the U.S. dollar coin. "I guess I would, but I wouldn’t like it at first," said Ms. Doering. Thompson is more optimistic: “If we were just circulating the dollar coins, you would get used to it.” But stacks of the coins are piled in government vaults, instead of in American pockets. Referendum in Boston sought over Olympics bid By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The group bidding to bring the 2024 Summer Olympics to the northeastern U.S. city of Boston wants to have public support from its citizens and plans to try to get a referendum put on next year's Massachusetts state ballot. Two months ago, the U.S. Olympic Committee chose Boston as the U.S. bid city for 2024, bypassing Washington, San Francisco and Los Angeles. But a poll last month by a Boston radio station showed only 36 percent support among residents for holding the games in their city. The chairman of Boston 2024, John Fish, told local business leaders Tuesday that the privately funded group would end its bid if a ballot issue failed to gain sufficient support. The group purchased advertisements in two major Boston newspapers this week that outlined 10 core principles that must be met before making a bid to the International Olympic Committee. A key one is having a majority of people in Massachusetts support bidding for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Another is making sure tens of thousands of good-paying jobs are created for Massachusetts residents leading up to and during the 2024 Games. U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman Patrick Sandusky told one of the Boston newspapers that "community support is extremely important to the success of any Olympic bid." Boston Mayor Marty Walsh endorses having a referendum. He said that if the city was going to be successful in pursuing the Olympics, it had to have the backing of residents. The International Olympic Committee will not select the host for the 2024 Summer Games until 2017. The early competition includes Rome and Hamburg, Germany, but others are expected to enter the race by this year's mid-September deadline. Angelina Jolie explains her decision on surgery By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Hollywood actress and filmmaker Angelina Jolie has revealed she had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed to lower her odds of getting cancer. Writing in The New York Times, the 39-year-old Ms. Jolie, who had a preventive double mastectomy two years ago, said she carries a mutation in a gene that gave her an estimated 87 percent risk of breast cancer and 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer. Both her mother and grandmother died of cancer. Ms. Jolie said she went public with her decision so that women would know about options available to them. Only a small percentage of women inherit the same faulty gene. These mutations are most commonly found in women of Eastern European Jewish descent, although other groups, including Norwegians, Dutch and Icelandics, also have slightly higher rates of the mutations. "A positive test does not mean a leap to surgery. I have spoken to many doctors, surgeons and naturopaths. There are other options," she wrote. "The most important thing is to learn about the options and choose what is right for you personally." The surgery showed no signs of cancer, she said, but it triggered early menopause, and she will not be able to have more children. She now has six. "I feel feminine, and grounded in the choices I am making for myself and my family,'' said Ms. Jolie, who travels the globe as a United Nations ambassador for refugees. " I know my children will never have to say, 'Mom died of ovarian cancer.'" The average woman has a 12 percent risk of developing breast cancer sometime during her life. Women who have inherited a faulty gene are about five times more likely to get breast cancer. English-speaking doctors said to be Islamic recruits By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
On the Turkish border with Syria, Turkish lawmaker Mehmet Ali Ediboglu says he is in touch with the families of the 11 doctors and medical students who sneaked into Syrian territory held by the Islamic State. The families from the United Kingdom, the United States, Sudan and Canada are still hoping their children traveled to Syria to help treat civilians, not terrorists, he said. "They are in a war zone. God forbid, they might be killed by an attack any minute," he said. "That's their concern and, more importantly, they want to know what their children are doing in Syria." But some analysts say IS militants could be recruiting English-speaking doctors as part of a plan to expand their force of foreign fighters, which already number in the tens of thousands. They also say IS leaders may be putting these outsiders on the front lines as part of a longer-term strategy to fulfill the terror group's motto of remain and expand. According to Sameh Seif Elyazal, head of the Al Gomhouria Center for Political and Security Studies in Cairo, the new trend, if confirmed, represents a troubling new development. “Maybe this is a new direction that has to be monitored quite well that now they have reached a certain kind of educated people,” he said. Describing many foreign recruits as brainwashed, Elyazal says their religious fervor coupled with ignorance or a desire for adventure and blood can make them susceptible to militant group's flashy online recruitment campaigns. Those that regret signing up cannot change their minds, he adds, explaining that nearly 2,000 recruits from Asia, the Arab World and Europe have already been killed. "‘It’s a one-way ticket. If you go back, we’ll kill you,'” Elyazal said, quoting the group's message to new recruits. "And they killed in front of others, just to threaten them . . . No one can even think about going home unless they want to send them home for a mission.” Daniel Wagner, who heads U.S.-based security firm Country Risk Solutions, says these missions — IS fighters returning home to wage terror attacks — would be nearly impossible for authorities to prevent. “What if these individuals change passports? What if they change identities? Then what do they do?" he said. "It raises the old problem of security services having to be right 100 percent of the time and those who want to create havoc having to be right only once.” But reports that many foreign fighters die quickly on the front lines, or as suicide bombers, indicate the threat of foreign fighters returning home to carry out attacks may be exaggerated. “There is some sort of paranoia that really surrounds the entire thing," said Ziad Akl, senior researcher at the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. "There is a lot of prediction in the way the Islamic State is covered. It’s covered basically as an image or a perception. It’s not directly related to what they do or how they do it.” Rather than worry about doomsday scenarios, he says, observers should evaluate domestic conditions that make their own nationals vulnerable to the IS propaganda. Rising unemployment, massive wealth disparities and other injustices, he says, breed fanatic radicalism. Gathering information on how the militant organization is actually fighting, rather than predicting how it will fight in the future, is also critical to mitigating the threat of attacks outside of the war zone. “The potential threat of these foreign fighters coming back and committing similar acts where they are originally from, or in their native land, seems to me something that depends on the strategy of the organization itself,” he said. While the extremist militants are strategic in their efforts to remain and expand, he said, exactly how the group operates can vary from country to country. Curiosity finds nitrates in testing Martian rocks By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. space researchers said Tuesday that they had found more evidence that the planet Mars could have once been able to support life. NASA scientists said the Curiosity rover found nitrates in Martian rocks. Nitrates are compounds that contain nitrogen, an element essential for life. But the scientists said there was no evidence that the nitrogen had come from living things, and they stressed that the Martian surface could not support any forms of life. They said they thought the nitrates were ancient and probably had come from meteorites or lightning strikes. This was not the first sign that the planet might have been habitable at one time. Past discoveries have shown signs that fresh water once covered the Martian surface. New treatments applied to drug resistant tuberculosis By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The world’s leading medical organizations are coming together to bring new tuberculosis treatments to more than 2,600 patients in 16 countries who are diagnosed with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. In Kenya, one clinic in Nairobi's Mathare slum is treating 48 patients suffering from resistant tuberculosis. One of the patients suffers from the extreme-drug resistant form of the disease, which requires one to be under constant injection and oral medication for a minimum of 24-months. Thirty-year old Elizabeth Wangechi, a Mathare resident, started feeling ill in early 2013. She started coughing, feeling chest pains and experiencing night sweats. She thought she was suffering from normal flu and believed it would go away in a matter of days or a week. After two months without much change she went to a local clinic near her home for treatment. Ms. Wangechi said after the check-up she was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She said at the government clinic she took medication for about four to five months, but the medications did not work and her situation worsened. The mother of two was not responding to the medication, and four months later she was diagnosed with extreme-drug resistant TB. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, extensively drug-resistant TB is a rare type of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis that is resistant to medicines normally used to treat tuberculosis and leprosy. Ms. Wangechi said some of the medications prescribed to her for the condition were not available in the country. She said she had to wait for about a month to get the right medicines, but that she now has been under medications for 10 months. International Organizations Partners in Health, estimates 500,000 people develop resistant tuberculosis. every year, and about 10 percent of that number are extreme. Hussein Kerrow, an infectious diseases specialist with the international medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders, said after months of struggle, Ms. Wangechi is responding to the new medications. "It took us three months to get these drugs, and this drug is called Bedaquiline and is one of the new drugs that have been developed in the past 50 years," said Kerrow. "So we got the drug, she was put on new medication, we made a cocktail for her, and she did well on medication." Kerrow said they suspect Ms. Wangechi might have caught the disease from someone who did not know about his or her TB status. "This is an airborne disease. If you live in an overcrowded place with very little light coming in, and people don't go for TB screening, if you are living with someone who is coughing, you are likely to get TB again. Its an airborne disease it can be transmitted from person to person if the person is infected," he said. Medical officials say the new drugs currently have to be combined in treatments that last up to two years. There are severe side effects, and only a 50-percent success rate for resistant tuberculosis. overall and less than 20 percent for the extreme form. Ms. Wangechi got 14 months to complete her dose of medicines and her 3-year-old son, who also is infected got five months. She said she hopes that when she is done with her medications she will be able to go back to her teaching career or even get a better job to take care of her young family. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, March 25, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 59 | |||||||||
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Special to A.M. Costa Rica
The Inter American Press Association has expressed its support for the “remarkable and brave effort” of the Ecuador newspaper La Hora which has abided by its constitutional right to resist in the face of a fine imposed by the state agency in charge of enforcing the communication organic law, more widely known as the gag law. The Information and Communication Superintendence determined on March 18 that La Hora infringed Article 60 of the law, which classifies types of content. It fined the newspaper the equivalent of five minimum wages because it felt that the paper described a paid announcement by an opposition leader as advertising when, according to Supercom, it should have been classified as an opinion piece. The announcement was paid for by David Rosero, a member of the Citizens Participation Council, which is opposed to the government of President Rafael Correa. The Ecuadorean communication law requires media to expressly classify all content, whether news, opinion pieces or advertising. The newspaper’s executives said in its defense, backed up by documentation, that the paid-for item, titled “Open letter for the Saturday insults,” published on March 8, was a piece of advertising whose cost was borne by a member of the public, and not an opinion piece of the newspaper. In addition, they said that the law lacks rules on the definition of contents, and that it does not specify that advertising must be of an exclusively commercial nature. Inter American Press Association President Gustavo Mohme declared, “We unconditionally support the decision of La Hora to confront and resist an authoritarian and discriminatory decision of the government that is based on a law whose application restricts freedom of the press, imposes censorship and generates self-censorship.” For his part Claudio Paolillo, chairman of the association's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, added, “We show solidarity with the decision to resist, a notable and brave effort by the editor of La Hora, Francisco Vivanco, who has decided to confront orders that contravene the very constitution of his country and international treaties on matters of freedom of the press and of expression.” In a letter sent to the Supercom chief, Vivanco, in his role as legal representative of the Editorial Minotauro, company which publishes La Hora, said that the fine was “a penalty that violates our constitutional rights, due process and legal safeguards.” He added that the fine levied by the government’s censorship body headed by President Correa “creates a terrible precedent for the independent media and for members of the public who will not be able to exercise their rights.” “Any announcement or advertisement carries a message and, given this decision, there is no place in advertising for obituary, sports, political or cultural announcements, because they are not commercial matters,” Vivanco added. He warned of the enormous danger implied by the precedent set by this fine for the already deteriorating panorama of press freedom in Ecuador. He noted that the Ecuadorean law “provides for news media to assume responsibility for the information and opinions that they disseminate.” Therefore, the law forces the media “to practice prior censorship, which is prohibited by both the law and the constitution, on all opinions of political, social, religious, sports and cultural players, and of the members of the public in general, who wish to exercise their political and constitutional rights and freely express their thoughts and views.” As a consequence of this situation La Hora embraced the right to resistance contemplated in Article 98 of Ecuador’s constitution. Vivanco added that it would go before “all competent judges in the jurisdictions for an acknowledgement and reparation of the violated rights.” Mohme, editor of the Lima, Peru, newspaper La República, and Paolillo, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda, jointly declared that “it is important that we, as journalists and news media in the Americas, express solidarity in the face of the government’s attack on press freedom in Ecuador.” |
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| From Page 7: U.S. may decide to raise interest rate soon By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Economic reports published Tuesday show new home sales surging in the United States, while consumer prices rose slightly in February. Some economists say the data may encourage the U.S. central bank to boost interest rates as soon as June. Labor Department data show consumer prices rose two-tenths of a percent in February, after declining previously. U.S. oil prices had fallen sharply, and the savings rippled through the entire economy, keeping prices in check. That left inflation below the 2 percent annual rate Federal Reserve experts say is healthy for the economy. As the Fed tries to guide the economy, it aims for full employment and stable prices. The Fed encouraged growth during the financial crisis by cutting the key interest rate nearly to zero. Now that the job market, economic growth, and the housing market have improved, the Fed is considering how soon and how much to raise the rate. Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen recently told journalists that tepid economic data weakened the case for an interest rate hike, but said the weakness will probably be temporary. "My colleagues and I continue to expect that as the effects of these transitory factors dissipate and as the labor market improves further, inflation will move gradually back toward our two percent objective over the medium term," said Yellen. PNC Bank senior economist Gus Faucher predicts that inflation will rise toward the 2 percent target rate over the next couple of months, and says the Fed will probably raise rates in mid-2015. Tuesday’s Commerce Department report may be more evidence of a strengthening economy that no longer needs the support of ultra-low interest rates. The data show sales of new homes climbed to their highest pace in seven years during February. If new home sales continued at that rate for a full year, 539,000 homes would change hands. |
