|
|
||||
 |
 |
 |
||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
|
Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for more details |
A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
|
|
|
San
José, Costa Rica, Friday, March 27, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 61
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
|
|
 |
|
Discussion set on
child support changes
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Costa Rican men who fail to pay required child support can be slapped in jail. A growing sentiment among legal scholars thinks this is wrong. They are urging that the men be allowed to work during the day and return to their cell at night. The male support group, Asociación Igualdad de derechos para los hombres, has set up a forum for April 9 at 5 p.m. to discuss the issue. A former judge, a judicial representative and others will talk. The location is the auditorium of the Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones. The association has conducted marches spotlighting what members say are discriminatory practices against men. Nearly all child support payment cases involve men. Police treat those who fail to pay the same way they treat anyone who is the subject of an arrest warrant. Police will show up at a home or workplace, put the individual in handcuffs and then escort him to one of those trucks designed to carry prisoners. The association said that the matter of child support payments, called pensiones alimentarias in Spanish, affects thousands of households. The organization said that it has presented ballot initiative to change the current law. The association said that a specific goal is the protection of children. It noted that when men are jailed for failing to pay child support, they are unable to see their children as well. Trio held in motorcycle murder By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A man and twin brothers in Goicoechea has been detained on the allegation that they were the motorcycle killers that were involved in one murder and one attempt. The Fiscalía Adjunta contra la Delincuencia Organizada supervised the arrest at two homes in Ipís de Goicoechea, said the Poder Judicial. There have been so many murders by persons riding double on motorcycles that the head of the judicial police wants to prohibit the motorcyclists from carrying passengers. The announcement of the arrest said that the twins are the nephews of the detained man. The Poder Judicial attributed the murder of a man in Metrópolis II de Pavas Monday to the man and one of the nephews. The trio are accused of taking prisoner a man last Nov. 16 in Rincón Grande de Pavas. The victim was tortured but managed to escape, the Poder Judicial said. Judicial police reported that they confiscated marijuana and cocaine when they made the arrests. Women journalists suffering harassment Special to A.M. Cost Rica
Women journalists in Trinidad and Tobago have become targets of social media harassment, and the Inter American Press Association condemned these defamatory attacks. The Association of Caribbean Media Workers also protested the continuous defamatory attacks, declaring that this is a concerted attempt to intimidate and smear the characters of the women journalists who are investigating wrongdoing in the public administration. Among those concerned are Asha Javeed, Denyse Renne and Anika Gumbs of the newspaper Trinidad Express and Sunity Maharaj, columnist of the Sunday Express. According to local media, the harassment, mainly carried out on Facebook, was understood to have come from users supporting the People’s Partnership, the governing political alliance. In the Inter American Press Association report on press freedom presented at the organization’s membership meeting in Panamá it was stated that in Trinidad and Tobago, due to the imminence of general elections, threats to journalists have increased, as have disclosures and denunciations of corruption in government. More talks between U.S. and Cuba By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A U.S. delegation visited Cuba this week as the two nations continued efforts to restore diplomatic relations broken over 50 years ago. The delegation, led by Daniel Sepulveda, the U.S. State Department's coordinator for international communications, held talks with Cuban officials led by Jose Luis Perdomo, the island nation's deputy communications minister. A statement by Havana says the Cuban side offered the U.S. delegation information about the country's computer systems and cybersecurity policy. Earlier this month, Cuba's state-owned telephone company ETECSA announced it had signed a deal with New Jersey-based IDT to restore direct telephone connections between the U.S. and Cuba. The U.S. Treasury Department announced Tuesday it had removed dozens of Cuban companies and individuals from its list of specially designated nationals who are banned from doing business in the United States. Motorcyclist dies from crash injuries on Caribbean coast By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A 19-year-old motorcyclist with the last name of Camacho died in Limon's Hospital Tony Facio Wednesday night after his vehicle collided with the rear of a larger one in Hone Creek on the Caribbean coast. The accident was about 8 p.m., said the Judicial Investigating Organization. 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. •
The Municipalidad de Palmares said that it would enforce the
dry law next Thursday and Friday, April 2 and April 3.
•
The Municipalidad de
Montes de Oca will be open Monday, March 30, and Tuesday, March
31. Then the municipal offices close until April 6.The canton also will enforce the Easter dry law April 2 and April 3, Holy Thursday and Friday. •
The Municipalidad de Nicoya
will not enforce the dry law.•
A.M. Costa Rica will
not be published Friday, April 3.•
The Caja
Costarricense de Seguro Social will only offer hospital and
emergency services April 2 and 3. Employees in many areas that re not
directlyinvolved with the public will be closed all of Semna Santa, but
financial and adminstraive officers will be open Monday, March 30,
through Wednesday, April 1.•
Good Shepherd Episcopal Church lists servicesBy 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.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Ro Colorado S.A 2015
and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
|
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, March 27, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 61 | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
 |
 Municipalidad de Nicoya photo
This beach at Tamarindo
will be a likely destination for many vacationers starting today. |
|
| The Semana Santa vacation rush begins today, as do religious
events |
|
|
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Even though the central government is supposed to work through Wednesday next week, a number of independent agencies are taking off all of Semana Santa. Still, traffic police will be enforcing the license plate restrictions in the metro area through Wednesday, the agency announced. Plenty of private firms are letting their employees go today for a full week of vacation. This does not include retailers who will be working through Semana Santa. At various churches, the faithful are preparing for processions, depending on the size of the congregation. There may be one or more times when they take to the streets. At the San José cathedral some half dozen such events are |
planned
leading up to the much-photographed, funeral procession of Jesus late
Friday afternoon. Sunday is Palm Sunday for Costa Rican Catholics, and there will be a procession on Avenida 6 from the La Merced church to the cathedral that morning representing the biblical account of the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. This, too, is highly photogenic. The Semana Santa dry law that forbids alcohol sales next Thursday and Friday resembles a checkerboard over the country. Some cantons are enforcing the law, and others are not. Even in the face of the law, many tourism operations serve alcohol anyway with local police turning a blind eye. Merchants may agree to use plastic cups instead of more traditional glasses. |
| 10 involved in migrant smuggling admit guilt and get prison
time |
|
|
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Poder Judicial said that 10 persons have admitted their roll in a human smuggling operation and have been sentenced to prison terms of from four to seven years. Five of the accused were members of the Fuerza Pública. The Poder Judicial said that 10 other persons are awaiting trial. This is the case that resulted in 17 raids last April 26 in |
Liberia, La
Cruz, Cañas, Bagaces and San José Centro. The case involved the smuggling and housing of illegal Nicaraguans. The group had a sophisticated system of moving the illegal migrants around the country to avoid detection. The police officers were paid to warn of road checkpoints set up by their colleagues. The group even had contacts with bus drivers who made unscheduled stops for the migrants, said the Poder Judicial. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2015 and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
 |
 |
||||
| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, March 27, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 61 | |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| Genetic engineering for better photosynthesis studied to feed world |
|
|
By the University of Illinois news staff
Using high-performance computing and genetic engineering to boost the photosynthetic efficiency of plants offers the best hope of increasing crop yields enough to feed a planet expected to have 9.5 billion people on it by 2050, researchers report in the journal Cell. There has never been a better time to try this, said a University of Illinois plant biology professor, Stephen P. Long, who wrote the report with colleagues from Illinois and the Institute of Computational Biology in Shanghai, China. “We now know every step in the processes that drive photosynthesis in C3 crop plants such as soybeans and C4 plants such as maize,” Long said. “We have unprecedented computational resources that allow us to model every stage of photosynthesis and determine where the bottlenecks are, and advances in genetic engineering will help us augment or circumvent those steps that impede efficiency.” C3 and C4 refer to the processes the plants use for carbon fixation. Substantial progress has already been made in the lab and in computer models of photosynthesis, Long said. “Our lab and others have put a gene from cyanobacteria into crop plants and found that it boosts the photosynthetic rate by 30 percent,” he said. Photosynthetic microbes offer other clues to improving photosynthesis in plants, the researchers report. For example, some bacteria and algae contain pigments that utilize more of the solar spectrum than plant pigments do. If added to plants, those pigments could bolster the plants’ access to solar energy. Some scientists are trying to engineer C4 photosynthesis in C3 plants, but this means altering plant anatomy, changing the expression of many genes and inserting new genes from C4 plants, Long said. “Another, possibly simpler approach is to add to the C3 chloroplast the system used by blue-green algae,” he said. This would increase the activity of rubisco, an enzyme that catalyzes a vital step of the conversion of atmospheric carbon dioxide into plant biomass. Computer models suggest adding this system would increase photosynthesis as much as 60 percent, Long said. Computer analyses of the way plant leaves intercept sunlight have revealed other ways to improve photosynthesis. Many plants intercept too much light in their topmost leaves and |
 A.M. Costa Rica graphic
too little in lower leaves; this probably allows them to outcompete their neighbors, but in a farmer’s field such competition is counterproductive, Long said. Studies headed by Illinois plant biology professor Donald Ort aim to make plants’ upper leaves lighter, allowing more sunlight to penetrate to the light-starved lower leaves. Computer modeling of photosynthesis also shows researchers where the traffic jams occur, the steps that slow the process down and reduce efficiency. “The computer model predicts that by altering this system by up-regulating some genes and down-regulating others, a 60 percent improvement could be achieved without any additional resource – so 60 percent more carbon could be assimilated for no more nitrogen,” Long said. “The next step is to create an in silico plant to virtually simulate the amazingly complex interactions among biological scales,” said Illinois plant biology Professor Amy Marshall-Colon, a co-author on the report. The phrase in silico means a computer simulation. “This type of model is essential to fill current gaps in knowledge and better direct our engineering efforts.” While many scientific, political and regulatory hurdles remain for plants engineered to do a better job of converting the sun’s energy into biomass, the work should be undertaken now, Long said. “If we have a success today, it won’t appear in farmers’ fields for 15 years at the very earliest,” he said. “We have to be doing today what we may need in 30 years.” |
Here's reasonable medical care
Costa Rica's world class medical specialists are at your command. Get the top care for much less than U.S. prices. It is really a great way to spend a vacation. See our list of recommended professionals HERE!amcr-prom
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2015 and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
|
A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
news page
|
||
 |
 |
|
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, March 27, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 61 | |||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
 |
| Army National Guard soldier held as terror support suspect By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A soldier in the U.S. Army National Guard and his cousin have been charged with forming a plan to fight for the Islamic State terrorist group in the Middle East and kill dozens at a U.S. military installation. The soldier, Hasan Edmonds, 22, was taken into custody at Chicago's Midway Airport late Wednesday before boarding a flight to Egypt, and Jonas Edmonds, 29, was arrested at his home. Both men are U.S. citizens from the Midwestern city of Aurora, Illinois. The alleged plan was for Jonas Edmonds to wear his cousin's uniforms and to carry out an attack in the U.S. after Hasan Edmonds left the country to join the Islamic State. Jonas Edmonds would attack a U.S. military installation in northern Illinois where his cousin had trained. In Internet messages to an undercover FBI agent in January, Hasan Edmonds said that if he was unable to make it to the Middle East, he would help bring "the flames of war to the heart'' of America and "cause as much damage and mayhem as possible,'' a federal complaint says. The two men were charged with conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Their lawyers did not comment after an initial appearance in federal court on Thursday afternoon. Putin blames foreign agents for destabilizing Russia By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
President Vladimir Putin said Western intelligence services have set it as their goal to destabilize Russia especially during upcoming elections, according to the Kremlin’s Web site. In a speech Thursday in Moscow before top officials of the Federal Security Service, he said non-governmental organizations and politicized groups will take the lead in this effort. " . . . to attain their goals, Western intelligence services are unceasingly using civic non-governmental organizations and politicized associations, above all to discredit the government and destabilize the domestic situation in Russia, whereby operations are already planned for the upcoming 2016-12018 election campaigns,” Putin told officials of the KGB successor agency, according to a transcript of his speech posted by the Kremlin. Russia is scheduled to hold parliamentary election in 2016, followed by a presidential poll in 2018, in which Putin could seek a fourth term as president. Putin added that for these reasons, “the Russian government will continue to monitor NGOs for their sources of foreign financing, ascertaining that their activities are in line with their statutory objectives, so that we can take steps in response to any violations.” Lauding the efforts of Russian counter-intelligence services, Putin said that last year alone they helped uncover and thwart the activities of more than 300 spies and agents. But he said the government is always open to constructive criticism. “We always listen to constructive criticism of the authorities' action or lack of action at any level and this dialogue is always useful and simply necessary,” he said. "But it would be pointless to have debates with those who take orders from an outsider, in the interest of . . . another country,” he added. Following protests against his rule in 2012, Putin approved a law requiring non-government organizations engaged in political activity to register as foreign agents, and provide regular reports on their work and funding sources. Putin claimed that a variety of tools are being used to contain Russia, ranging from "attempts at political isolation and economic pressure" to a large-scale information war and the tools of special services. He also cited NATO's decision to ramp up its infrastructure on Russia's borders, pointing specifically to the Western military alliance's creation of a rapid reaction force in Europe. Putin also condemned what he called attempts to disrupt nuclear parity, pointing to U.S. plans to create or expand missile defense systems and a worldwide global strike system based on precision-guided weapons, and to deploy space-based weapons systems. He told the security service that attempts to frighten the country will never succeed, adding that it has always had and will always have an adequate response to all external and internal threats. The Russian president has more than once expressed concern about the West attempting to orchestrate in Russia a color revolution, a reference to popular uprisings akin to those that occurred in Ukraine and Georgia. Thailand takes legal action against trafficking violators By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Thailand’s National Assembly has passed amendments to anti-trafficking laws with harsh penalties. The legislation comes as American media reports put spotlight on slave-like conditions on Thai fishing vessels triggering calls for Thailand to crack down on labor exploitation, especially in the seafood industry. Thailand’s tough new measures to combat human trafficking were passed overwhelmingly Thursday by the military-backed national legislative assembly, allowing prosecutors to seek life prison terms for those convicted of human trafficking. The amendments to the anti-trafficking laws will open the way for more robust factory and industry inspections, especially in the fishing and seafood industry, which could lead to suspension of operating licenses. Thailand is under intense international pressure, especially from the United States, to curb human trafficking and abusive labor practices for migrant workers. Thai Deputy Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai says the government is serious about a crackdown on the multi-million dollar human trafficking and smuggling networks. “We are very, very confident that from December until now we have done a very good job, a good enough job. Not just structural change but also the new act, the legislation with the new measures could take care of the concerns of all parties,” he said. Thailand’s migrant worker population numbers around three million, especially in construction, agriculture and manufacturing, many of whom are undocumented workers from Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. The international spotlight has been thrust back on Thailand this week with publication of a detailed report by the U.S.-based news agency, The Associated Press. In the report, The AP says hundreds of men are working in slave-like conditions in the fishing industry and trapped on a remote Indonesian island. The news agency later tracked seafood caught by the men to Thai exporters and fish processing plants. Following the report, Thailand’s largest seafood company, Thai Union Frozen Products, with annual sales of $3.5 billion, announced it had severed ties with a supplier named in The AP story. But rights groups say there are some doubts whether the new measures will succeed in addressing the problems. Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network coordinator Anoop Sukumaran says human trafficking legislation is more likely to affect those being smuggled. The U.S. State Department and U.S. industry groups such as the National Retail Federation, Retail Industry Leaders Association and National Fisheries Institute criticized Thailand over its labor practices. In 2014, the United States dropped Thailand’s rating in its Trafficking in Person’s report to the lowest rating of Tier 3, after the country was seen as failing to show signs of progress in its record on human trafficking and illegal labor. At this level, Thailand faces the threat of a range of sanctions. Other groups, such as the Thailand-based Migrant Working Group, say the problem is beyond an individual country and see the need for greater regional cooperation. The Association of South East Asian Nations has taken up the issue of human smuggling and trafficking, but international observers say greater political will is needed for a broad based regional solution to address the problem. Austin festival featured visitors from all over By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Many of the people who come to Austin, Texas, for the South by Southwest film, music and technology festival each year come mainly for the parties and the music, and some of them come from very far away. The city of Austin bills itself as the Live Music Capital of the World and during South by Southwest visitors can find music from all over the world. The annual South by Southwest conference ended this weekend, but tens of thousands of music fans, film buffs and high-tech entrepreneurs have crowded downtown Austin streets since the event started March 13, meeting up, networking and partying. Among the 500 international acts there are plenty who play hard rock, but there are also musicians playing ancient Chinese instruments and a woman from Pakistan who sings in traditional folkloric style. Austin resident Neena Nguyen, whose parents are Vietnamese and Russian, likes the cosmopolitan atmosphere. “There have been a lot of people coming from different states and different countries and I just like the feel when you walk down the street you can see this different variety of people," Ms. Nguyen said. She grew up in Russia and enjoys seeing Russian groups like Mumiy Troll from Vladivostok. Groups often gain valuable exposure at South by Southwest and Mumiy Troll lead singer Ilya Laguntenko has such hopes. “There are a few bands who made it successful commercial, and I hope we are one of them. That is why we saved enough money to get to Austin," Ms. Laguntenko said. The international flavor of South by Southwest is also evident in the interactive and film events and quite often they draw the same people. Carlos Adriano de Lima Santana, who represents a film company in Sao Paulo, Brazil, said, "We came to enjoy the festival, to listen to some music, and to learn about some new things here." Brazil was well-represented this year with 59 companies, more than double the number from last year. Companies from around the world set up displays to show their products and enhance their brands. Event organizers said more than 72,000 people registered for this year’s conference. Local residents complain about the crowds and the traffic, but the city estimates this year’s economic impact at $315 million. Austin, with its booming economy and vibrant cultural scene, is one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States, but South by Southwest enhances the city’s standing on the world stage. Co-pilot is getting blame for Germanwings crash By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A French prosecutor says the co-pilot of the Germanwings passenger jet that crashed in the French Alps this week made a deliberate attempt to destroy the aircraft. Marseilles prosecutor Brice Robin said Thursday the co-pilot, 28-year-old Andreas Lubitz, locked the pilot out of the cockpit, leaving himself alone in control of the Airbus A320. The prosecutor said Lubitz then accelerated the descent of the aircraft, flying it at 700 kilometers an hour and crashing it into the mountains in southeastern France, killing all 150 people aboard. At a press conference in Marseille, Robin said that the most plausible explanation was the copilot wanted to deliberately destroy the plane. "The descent could only have been done deliberately," Robin said. "In all circumstances, it is deliberate. There is nothing to suggest a terrorist attack, but we will see the circumstances of that person." He added the co-pilot, a German national, crashed the plane "for a reason we cannot fathom right now." The prosecutor said investigators, after listening to sounds in the aircraft from the flight's last moments that were recorded on the plane's cockpit voice recorder, heard increasingly desperate knocks on the cockpit's locked door from the captain, whose name has not been disclosed, as he tried to get back into the cockpit. But Robin said Lubitz refused to open the door and had no contact with air traffic controllers in the final minutes of the flight. It was bound from Barcelona, Spain, to the German city of Dusseldorf, with 144 passengers on board and six crew members. Robin said that based on the sounds on the cockpit voice recorder, passengers only realized at the very end that the plane was about to crash. "We hear some screams only at the last moment," he said. "Death was instant." The prosecutor declined to call Lubitz's actions a suicide. "I do not call it a suicide when you have 150 people behind you," he said. The prosecutor said Lubitz had flown the A320 a few months, about 100 hours on this type of plane. Lufthansa, the corporate parent of its budget carrier Germanwings, said that overall the pilot had 6,000 hours of flight experience and Lubitz 630. Robin said he met with families of the victims before disclosing his conclusions about the flight's demise. "The families were in shock," he said. "They found it difficult to believe." At a later press conference on Thursday, Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr said he was stunned by the French prosecutor's conclusion that Lubitz deliberately crashed the jet. He described Lubitz as "100 percent fit to fly without any restrictions" and said he had passed all of the airline's technical and medical examinations, although the medical oversight did not include psychological testing. Spohr said the airline chooses its staff "very, very carefully." Lufthansa said co-pilot Lubitz was accepted in 2008 into a pilot training program that normally lasts from a year and a-half to two years. Lubitz is said to have interrupted his training at one point, for reasons not immediately clear on Thursday. One source familiar with the cockpit voice recording said the pilot "is knocking lightly on the door and there is no answer. And then he hits the door stronger and no answer. There is never an answer.'' One investigator said the pilot could be heard trying to break the cockpit door down. While recovery teams probe the wreckage for victims' remains, the second black box and for other clues to the cause of the crash, family and friends of the passengers and crew are making their way to the crash site. Lufthansa has said it will provide counselors at the site and ask for help identifying remains. In the small German town of Haltern, home to 16 teenage students and two teachers presumed dead in the crash, students at their school gathered around a makeshift memorial of candles, flowers, and signed messages for a moment of silence Thursday. People from at least 18 countries were aboard the flight, with 72 Germans and at least 35 Spaniards among the casualties. In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, "Something like this goes beyond the realms of the imaginable. This is a terrible burden for the relatives of the victims." The investigation has broadened to look at Lubitz's background. The picture on his Facebook page shows Andreas Lubitz wearing a jacket and a smile as his sits on a rocky ledge over San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. He looks carefree and happy, not the kind of person who would deliberately crash a plane into a mountain, killing himself and the other 149 people on board. The first media reports into Lubitz background offer few clues about a possible motive. He lived in the town of Montabaur, near Frankfurt, and apparently had many friends. A member of the glider club to which he belonged told The Associated Press he was happy with his Germanwings job and was doing well. But aviation experts suggest a pilot's job can be mentally and emotionally stressful. The book "Anxiety at 35,000 Feet" notes that pilots must juggle complex tasks, are closely scrutinized, and live with the fear of losing their job if they do not meet the mark. Some have problems with substance abuse and relationships because of their difficult and transient lifestyles. There have been previous plane crashes that investigators believe to have been deliberate. Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said the company's pilots underwent yearly medical exams. In 1999, an EgyptAir plane crashed en route from New York to Cairo under what appears to be eerily similar circumstances. A report by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board concluded it was because of a co-pilot manipulation of the airplane controls, but did not use the word suicide.  Campaign will spotlight nine imprisoned journalists By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Two international organizations launched campaigns Thursday to raise public awareness about journalists around the world who are jailed because of their work or are killed in the line of duty. The Committee to Protect Journalists launched the "Press Uncuffed: Free the Press" campaign at the Newseum in Washington. A joint partnership with students at the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism, the committee campaign highlights nine cases of imprisoned journalists and calls for their release. "These journalists were imprisoned for doing their jobs by governments fearful of a free press," the organization's advocacy director, Courtney Radsch, said in a news release. "By recognizing these nine intrepid journalists ... we hope to increase public pressure for their release and draw attention to the hundreds of others who have been silenced by their governments." The journalists are from China (Ilham Tohti, jailed in 2014), Swaziland (Bheki Makhubu, 2014), Ethiopia (Reeyot Alemu, 2011), Azerbaijan (Khadija Ismayilova, 2014), Iran (Jason Rezaian, 2014), Uzbekistan (Yusuf Ruzimuradov, 1999), Egypt (Mahmoud Abou Zeid, known professionally as Shawkan, 2013), Vietnam (Ta Phong Tan, 2011) and Bahrain (Ammar Abdulrasool, 2014). According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the nine journalists face anti-state or retaliatory charges in connection with their coverage of news in the public interest. Two are being held without charges. The University of Maryland journalism students, under the leadership of their professor, Dana Priest, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post journalist, came up with the idea of designing, producing and selling bracelets with names of the jailed journalists. They have launched an Indiegogo fundraising campaign to produce the bracelets. The campaign funds will be donated to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Meanwhile, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is holding a two-day conference on protecting the safety and integrity of journalists. The chairperson, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić, said at the opening of the talks Thursday that “violence against journalists is unacceptable and must be treated like violence against society as a whole.” “The OSCE and Serbia's OSCE chairmanship continually put journalists’ safety high on the agenda,” a press release quoted Dačić as saying. The organization cannot ignore “the problems and dangers journalists face on a daily basis,” he said, adding that member states “must discuss ways to improve the current legislative framework concerning the protection of journalists.” "Journalists’ safety is a more relevant topic today than ever before,” said Dunja Mijatović, the organization representative on freedom of the media. She said the increasing number of attacks on journalists across the OSCE region was deeply worrying, and she called on all 57 participating states to do their utmost "to ensure that journalists can do their work in a free and safe manner.” According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 19 journalists have been killed worldwide this year, including the eight killed in the January attack on the office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris. As of December 2014, when the Committee to Protect Journalists conducted its last prison census, 221 journalists were in jail worldwide. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2015 and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
|
||||||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, March 27, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 61 | |||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
||
|
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
There’s another kind of March Madness going on thousands of miles away from the U.S. basketball courts. Except this one involves hundreds of millions of passionate viewers cheering on four continents across at least 14 time zones. Cricket hits its high point Saturday when six weeks of tournament play and four years of qualifying play culminates in the final match and bragging rights to be the world’s best team. The showdown between Australia and New Zealand at the historic Melbourne Cricket Ground will be witnessed by more than 100,000 fans. Hundreds of millions are expected to watch live on TV. “Global viewership will be bigger than the Superbowl, but since India is not playing in the finals, viewership and interest will take a huge hit,” said Atul Huckoo, assistant vice president for advertising and sales at Willow TV, a U.S-based, 24/7 cricket channel. Still, “it will be a good story as both hosts are meeting in the finals” While soccer has long been the dominant global sport, in terms of participation, money, viewership, cricket is a close second with an audience that often watches with religious fervor from Harare to Wellington, London to Islamabad. The sport is a launch pad for prosperity, fame and even political careers in places like Pakistan and India. This year’s tournament for the first time featured war-torn Afghanistan, which upset Scotland early on behind the gritty batting of Sami Shenwari. England, considered the birthplace of the game, lost to Bangladesh in preliminary round in what many thought was a shocking defeat. And South Africa suffered heartbreak when the team lost in the semifinals to New Zealand, which went on to reach the final after six previous failures. Among compelling personalities, South African bowler (the equivalent of a pitcher) Imran Tahir may top the list. Known for his unique style of celebrations after getting a wicket (getting a batsman out), Tahir, who was born and raised in Pakistan and later became South African by marriage, made his debut for the rainbow nation four years ago and is a large reason why the team made it so far. Perennial powerhouse India, meanwhile, was decisively defeated in the semifinals by Australia. Team captain Michael Clark had to urge home team fans to turn up so the stadium wasn’t entirely cheering on India. The sport’s organizing body, the International Cricket Council, said viewership grew markedly in this year’s tournament, with the council’s Web site hitting new records— more than 26 million unique visitors— and over 225 million page views. That includes a growing audience in the United States, where cricket is gaining in notoriety, even while competing with basketball, American football and ice hockey. And baseball. Costa Rica has a cricket league, too. Cricket shares similarities with baseball: both are played with a bat and a ball, for example, and there are batters, outs and pitches, though pitchers in cricket are known as bowler. Some historians say that baseball’s earliest pioneers honed their batting playing cricket. But the rest of the sport is much different. Unlike baseball when a batsman hits a home run, they don’t have to go back and sit in the dugout. They continue to bat until they are out or until a set number of pitches are completed. Like baseball, whichever team scores the most runs wins. Commonly associated with starchy dress whites and days-long matches, the sport has evolved to a one-day format. In India, a condensed version known as Twenty20, which usually lasts for about four hours, is also popular. In a sign of the sport’s economic potential, last year ESPN acquired the rights for the 2015 World Cup along with rights to Twenty20 matches. ESPN refused to say how much it paid. |
| Costa Rican News |
AMCostaRicaArchives.com |
Retire NOW
in Costa Rica |
CostaRicaReport.com |
| Fine Dining
in Costa Rica |
The CAFTA Report |
Fish
fabulous Costa Rica |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2015 and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
| From
Page 7: Mercado Central plans fish festival By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Mercado Central de San José generally has not been known for its marketing efforts. Until now. The merchants who sell fish at the 135-year-old market have announced a promotion complete with mascaradas, music and face-painting for the kids. The event begins Saturday and runs through next Wednesday. The merchants, members of the Union de Comerciantes Pesqueros del Mercado Central say that a recent economics ministry survey verified that they have low prices. Sea food is a traditional meal during Semana Santa. The central market is a place where shoppers can find about anything. There are a number of butcher shops and fish merchants as well as tourism stores, flower shops, coffee vendors and small restaurants. The market is a tourism stop, too. The market is on the pedestrian walkway in San José that used to be Avenida Central, between calles 6 and 8. |
