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A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Thursday, April 2, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 65
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Escazú
murder victim found in San Pedro
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A former boyfriend is being sought in the murder of an Escazú woman Tuesday night. The 33-year-old victim had the last names of García Soto. She was staying with parents for an unknown reason in Bello Horizonte, Escazú, according to the Judicial Investigating Organization. A witness told investigators that he saw a man shoot a woman who was on the ground. That was outside of her home. When Fuerza Pública officers arrived, they reported that they could find no body, only some blood and some expended cartridges. Police then said they launched a search for the woman. There were no clues until Wednesday when a worker at a parking structure at Mall San Pedro noticed a car that had been parked overnight on the upper and sixth level. Police located the woman's body on the rear seat. The woman had suffered two bullet wounds to the head. The former boyfriend has been described as aggressive and unstable. Investigators know his identity. Billions scammed in illicit financial flows Special to A.M. Costa Rica
with staff inputs A record $991.2 billion in illicit capital flowed out of developing and emerging economies in 2012 facilitating crime, corruption, and tax evasion, according to the latest study released Tuesday by Global Financial Integrity, a Washington, D.C.-based research and advisory organization. The study is the first analysis to include estimates of illicit financial flows for 2012. The report, the organization's 2014 annual global update on illicit financial flows, pegs cumulative illicit outflows from developing economies at US$6.6 trillion between 2003 and 2012, the latest year for which data is available. Titled “Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2003-2012,” the report finds that illicit outflows are growing at an inflation-adjusted 9.4 percent per year, roughly double global gross domestic product growth over the same period. Costa Rica was in 14th place behind such countries as China, Russia and México, as the biggest exporters of illicit financial flows. The country exported $9.4 billion in 2012 and $94 billion over the period under study. Costa Rica was 10th in the world for the export of illegal capital, according to the study. That amount was $21.55 billion, according to the study. “As this report demonstrates, illicit financial flows are the most damaging economic problem plaguing the world’s developing and emerging economies,” said Raymond Baker, a longtime authority on financial crime. “These outflows . . . are sapping roughly a trillion dollars per year from the world’s poor and middle-income economies.” He is president of Global Financial Integrity. “Most troubling, however, is the fact that these outflows are growing at an alarming rate of 9.4 percent per year, twice as fast as global GDP,” continued Baker. “It is simply impossible to achieve sustainable global development unless world leaders agree to address this issue head-on." Illicit financial flows include such techniques as misinvoicing. This is when an individual or firm uses a third party to skim money from a legitimate import by creating an inflated invoice. The organization said that policy makers should require multinational companies to publicly disclose their revenues, profits, losses, sales, taxes paid, subsidiaries, and staff levels on a country-by-country basis. All countries should actively participate in the worldwide movement towards the automatic exchange of tax information, it said. Holiday toll continues to grow By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Caribbean coast has contributed two victims to the growing Semana Santa death toll. The Cruz Roja said that one person died in Cahuita Wednesday as the result of a traffic accident and that the body of a 24-year-old vacationer was found on Playa Chiquita in Puerto Viejo. He had vanished Tuesday. Cruz Roja crews said they are continuing the search for the body of a 23 year old in the Pacific Ocean at Jacó. And they said a man died at the waterfalls in Montezuma on the Nicoya peninsula. The rescue organization said there had been 26 deaths from violent causes already this holiday week. The organization also said that 35 persons had sought medical help at the many aid stations that had been set up around the country. 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. •
Escazú Christian Fellowship By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Escazú Christian Fellowship plans a Maundy Thursday service that includes voluntary foot washing following the details in the Gospel of John. The congregation also plans a Good Friday liturgy starting at noon and what is being described as a Stations of the Forest Saturday at 9 a.m. at a rural location. There also is an Easter Sunday 7 a.m. service at Parque La Sabana and one at 5 p.m. at the church.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, April 2, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 65 | |
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| New UK law supports push here to list corporate shareholders |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The United Kingdom has moved to curb abuse of anonymous companies, which are widely used for tax evasion and criminal purposes. The private Global Financial Integrity said that the Parliament approved a bill that establishes a central, public registry of corporate ownership information. This is an international first, the organization said. As Garland Baker noted in a 2013 news article many foreigners who own Costa Rican corporations here do not have their name as the responsible party. A common practice has been to name a lawyer or someone with similar business background to be the president or holder of a power of attorney to handle day-to-day affairs, he said. The Costa Rican tax agency has threatened to issue a decree requiring the registration of all shareholders in a company. The reason has more to do with getting taxes than with curbing criminality. The agency, the Dirección General de Tributación, wants to be able to levy sales tax when all or part of a corporation's ownership is transferred. A draft of a decree has been on the tax agency's Web site since 2013. And in January the parent Ministerio de Hacienda put forth the decree for public comment. There have been a lot of objections from lawyers and others about the publication of the names of people who own interest in corporations. The decree that would create a registry would . |
seem to make
the
information a public record Some argue that a law and not a decree is required to do this. The action in the United Kingdom would seem to give ammunition to officials here who want to create such a registry. Until now the only listing of most shareholders has been on the private books of the Costa Rican corporation. Sometimes they would be disclosed. For example, for a firm to do business with the government, the names of major shareholders must be disclosed to avoid officials bidding on major contracts. Media companies also must publicize the names of their shareholders each year. And a law requires the operators of corporations to surrender the list of shareholders to tax investigators on request. The proposal would make the list searchable. “This is a landmark piece of legislation,” said Joshua Simmons. “Anonymous companies are one of the biggest tools for laundering the proceeds of crime, corruption, and tax evasion. Creating registries of the true, human, beneficial owners of each company is a common sense approach to curbing financial crime and the tremendous flow of illegal money. We are very pleased to see the UK take the lead on this issue, and we call on all countries — especially the United States— to follow the straightforward standard set by the UK.” He is policy counsel for Global Financial Integrity, which says it promotes transparency in the international financial system as a means to global development. |
| Innocent or guilty, Judas still will be strung up and burned
Saturday |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
An unofficial tradition here is the burning of Judas the night before Easter. In Christian theology, Judas Iscariot is the apostle who fingered Jesus Christ to officials in exchange for money. He has been the paramount traitor in modern history and the character that Dante put in the final and ninth circle of Hell in his 14th century allegory. With that history, Judas is the target of young people who create a dummy, string it up and set it ablaze the night before Easter. Never mind that Judas is getting a redemption of sort with the recent publication of the "Gospel of Judas," which cast him as a hero and the best of the apostles. The Fuerza Pública typically detains dozens of Judas burners on that night. And sometimes motorists are hampered and threatened by aggressive revelers. Alajuela, Pavas, Santa Ana and Heredia are hot spots, and some years there are 500 or more incidents of burning material in the streets. The Cuerpo de Bomberos said that there have been nearly 30 major incidents every year, and in the past a car, and two buildings have been torched. A release Wednesday warned of unscrupulous individuals taking advantage of the situation. Fire fighters have been injured in the past, too, when they were pelleted with rocks. The Second or Third century "Gospel of Judas" got a lot of publicity with a television documentary and publications in major magazines. In it, Judas claims he was acting on the |
 A.M. Costa Rica file photo
Youngsters take Judas dummy for ride before
the burning.
Lord's request when he turned Him in. He also claims to be the only apostle with the correct understanding of the teachings of Jesus. Some scholars note that hatred of Judas encourages anti-Semitism. This gospel is one of those books that is not included in the Christian Bibles. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, April 2, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 65 | |||||
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 University of California at Berkeley/ Katie
Preece
This is the summit caldera
of Tambora, about 6 kilometers wide and 7 kilometers long. |
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| Scientist urges preparations for world impact of big
volcanoes |
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By the University of California at Berkeley
news staff
The 2010 eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull grounded thousands of air flights and spread ash over much of western Europe, yet it was puny compared to the eruption 200 years ago of Tambora. That volcano probably killed more than 60,000 people in what is now Indonesia and turned summer into winter over much of the Northern Hemisphere. “Because Tambora ejected sulfurous gas that generated sulfate aerosols in the atmosphere, which block sunlight, the eruption created a year without a summer, leading to food shortages. People were eating cats and rats. And very general hardship throughout Europe and eastern North America,” said Stephen Self, an adjunct professor of earth and planetary science at the University of California, Berkeley. He is an expert on volcanoes, in particular supervolcano eruptions 10 times larger than Tambora. Tambora, which blew its top on April 10 and 11, 1815, is an example of the destruction volcanoes can wreak, he said, possibly made worse today by denser populations and the reliance on air transport. Self will deliver an invited address Tuesday at the opening of a four-day conference on Tambora in Bern, Switzerland, and will publish a commentary on the risk posed by volcanic eruptions in the April issue of the journal Nature Geoscience. “An eruption of that size today would certainly have major effects on air traffic as well as atmospheric circulation around the globe, so we would like to know when the next big one is coming,” Self said. “But we can’t predict that if we don’t know the size of past eruptions and when they took place.” That information is simply unavailable even for big, Tambora-like eruptions over the past thousand years, he said. “Even in a country with well-studied volcanoes, like Japan, at least 40 percent of the big eruptions are missing from the record,” he said. “And if you look back beyond the past 1,000 years, to 3,000 or 4,000 years ago, the record gets worse and worse. We know there are big eruptions hiding from the record that we don’t know about.” Many explosive eruptions send sulfate molecules, primarily sulfuric acid, around the globe that fall as acidic snow on glaciers and ice caps, leaving traces that can be seen in ice cores from Greenland and elsewhere. Self recently suggested that one mysterious ice-core sulfate peak, dating from 1452, resulted from an eruption off the island of Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean that left behind a submerged hole, or caldera, remembered only through local legend. “It is high time for a systematic exploration of all the available eruption archives — ice cores, ocean sediments, remotely sensed caldera volumes and geochronological analysis of eruption deposits — so that we have a better chance to understand potential future hazards,” he wrote in Nature Geosciences with coauthor Ralf Gertisser of Keele University in the United Kingdom. In January, the Global Volcano Model and the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior issued a report on the hazards and risks of eruptions around the world. The groups noted a lack of information on the frequency and size of eruptions like Tambora, which makes it hard to estimate the danger to life and property from historically active but not currently erupting volcanoes. Not surprisingly, the report identified Indonesia as the most dangerous place for volcanoes. Tambora, located on the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia, was the largest and deadliest known eruption of the last 750 years. A possibly larger explosion occurred on the nearby island of Lombok in 1257. Krakatau, on the western end of the Indonesian archipelago, is |
perhaps the
best-known of the Indonesian volcanoes. Its
1883 eruption
killed more than 34,000 people and was the second
deadliest after Tambora. Tambora erupted three times the amount of ash
and lava as Krakatau, Self said. Recently, scientists have proposed that the eruption of Toba on the island of Sumatra 74,000 years ago was the most destructive super-eruption ever recorded. The explosion created a 100 by 60 kilometer caldera now occupied by Lake Toba, and spread ash as far away as the Himalayas 3,000 kilometers to the northwest. According to the January report, 90 percent of the volcano risk worldwide is in the five nations of Indonesia, Philippines, Japan, Mexico and Ethiopia. Self has spent much of his career visiting the calderas of major volcanic eruptions and collecting samples of ash and lava in order to determine when and how much they erupted in the past. In 1979, he was the first modern-day scientist to visit Tambora, a low-profile shield volcano somewhat like those in Hawaii, to collect rock for analysis. He later estimated that when it exploded in 1815, it blew out 30 to 50 cubic kilometers of material, a major change from the volcano’s earlier behavior. Sulfur gas ascended into the stratosphere, spawning sulfate aerosol particles that were carried around the world, blocking sunlight for more than a year. This is the best-known example of volcano-induced global cooling, Self said. Some estimate that the global average temperature dropped more than 1 degree C (1.4 degrees F) as a result, causing crop failures in Asia as well as Europe and North America. For comparison, Mount St. Helens in Washington erupted about 1 cubic kilometer of material in 1980, while Pinatubo’s output in 1991 was about 5 cubic kilometers. Mainland North America has its own worrisome volcanoes. Crater Lake was created by an eruption of Tambora’s size 7,700 years ago, while the area around Yellowstone National Park was ground zero for a long series of super-eruptions, the most recent about 640,000 years ago, that blanketed much of the North American continent with ash. Long Valley caldera east of California’s Sierra Nevada, within which sits the town of Mammoth, is considered an active supervolcano, though it’s one and only huge eruption was 760,000 years ago. “We can’t stop an eruption, but we can prepare to adapt to the immediate impact of ash on air traffic and the delayed effect of sulfate aerosols on crops and vegetation,” Self said. Aside from the immediate, ground-level danger from ash flows, lava and hot gas to people living around an erupting volcano, ash thrown into the air, and sulfate aerosols, can pit airplane windows and damage jet engines, while both can cause respiratory problems downwind. Self said that the 1816 year without a summer was not immediately associated with the Mount Tambora eruption because the western world didn’t learn of its explosion until months later when reports finally made their way by ship from the Dutch East Indies. Krakatau’s fame comes as much from the existence of a new device, the telegraph, which immediately carried news of the eruption around the world in 1883, as from its size and global impact, he said. The Tambora eruption may have had one famous outcome. Had it not been for the cold, wet weather it brought to Europe, Mary and Percy Shelley and Lord Byron might not have spent the summer of 1816 telling ghost stories around a log fire in a rented house on Lake Geneva, and Mary Shelley might never have turned the best of those tales into a famous book, "Frankenstein." “Frankenstein was wrought from the year without a summer, all due to this volcano that nobody’s ever heard of,” Self said. |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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| Top U.S. Senate Democrat indicted in bribery scheme By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, has been indicted in connection with an alleged bribery scheme. Menendez, 61, and a friend, Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, were indicted Wednesday on one count of conspiracy, one count of violating the travel act, eight counts of bribery and three counts of honest services fraud. Menendez was also charged with one count of making false statements. The indictment came after federal prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had investigated Menendez for years on suspicion of corruption. Allegations in the indictment say that Menendez accepted close to $1 million worth of lavish gifts and campaign contributions from Melgen in exchange for using the power of his Senate office to influence ongoing Medicare billing disputes Melgen was involved in and to support the visa applications of several of Melgen's girlfriends. Menendez has repeatedly said that he is innocent of any wrongdoing and that he is not going anywhere, meaning he has no plans to resign from the Senate. Senate rules do not require him to step down unless he is convicted of the charges against him. At a late afternoon news conference in his home state Wednesday, the New Jersey senator predicted he will be vindicated. He said he is ready to fight the corruption charges against him. Menendez is scheduled to appear in court in Newark, New Jersey, today. Menendez, a Cuban-American, served as Foreign Relations Committee chairman until January, when Republicans took majority control of the Senate. He is now the ranking Democrat on the committee and has taken a strong stand against President Barack Obama, a fellow Democrat, on some issues. Menendez has been a vocal critic of a possible deal with Iran on nuclear weapons, and he also criticized the president for his unexpected policy of relaxing some restrictions on Cuba. But he has been a strong supporter of the president on immigration reform. News of the indictment came as international negotiations on a deal to curb Iran's nuclear program continued into a second day after a self-imposed deadline. Menendez had expressed strong skepticism about a deal but agreed to give the Obama administration time to pursue a pact before voting to impose new sanctions. It was not clear what impact his legal problems might have on efforts by Congress to have a say on any Iran nuclear deal. The Menendez indictment raised the possibility of Republicans gaining a 55th Senate seat to strengthen their hand in policy fights with Obama. If Menendez were to step down, New Jersey's Republican governor, Chris Christie, would most likely appoint a Republican replacement to serve until a special election. That would bring the number of Republicans in the Senate one seat closer to the 60-seat “supermajority” needed to overcome Democrats' procedural roadblocks and advance legislation. Gaining that incremental edge could mean the difference in a political fight over confirming Loretta Lynch, Obama's nominee to be the next U.S. attorney general, whom many Republicans oppose. That vote is expected to be very close. A Menendez resignation could also put Republicans just one vote shy of clearing the way for passage of a human-trafficking bill with anti-abortion language, which Democrats have blocked. The last senator to be indicted, Alaska Republican Ted Stevens, did not resign after he was charged with failing to report gifts and services from an oil company in 2008. Stevens lost his race for re-election that year, and his conviction was set aside in 2009. Democrat Harrison Williams was convicted in 1981 for taking bribes and resigned from the Senate in 1982. He held the New Jersey Senate seat now occupied by Menendez. Republican lawmaker faces investigation on mileage By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Two members of the U.S. Congress are in hot water over allegations they used their offices to garner extravagant perks that ran afoul of federal campaign contributions Sen. Robert Menendez, a two-term Democrat from the East Coast state of New Jersey, was indicted Wednesday on 14 federal corruption charges. Menendez is accused of accepting improper favors, including Caribbean vacations and loans arranged by Florida eye surgeon Salomon Melgen. Menendez, in turn, acted on behalf of Melgen in congressional matters, investigators say. Melgen was indicted along with the senator. Menendez is only the 12th senator indicted since the 1800s, according to the Senate Historical Office. Four among them were convicted. Over in the House, flamboyant, 33-year-old Aaron Schock is getting investigators’ attention. The Republican from the Midwestern state of Illinois began his fourth congressional term in January. The FBI and federal prosecutors both in Washington and the state capital of Springfield reportedly have launched a probe into Schock, who announced his resignation from the House March 17. The inquiry reportedly centers on three issues: huge mileage reimbursements by Schock for use of a personal vehicle said to be purchased with campaign funds, travel paid for by political donors, and other donations the lawmaker may not have reported. Schock’s resignation, effective March 31, came a day after the Washington newspaper Politico challenged his expense report claims of a total of 170,000 official-use miles (273,588 km) over the four years he owned a personal vehicle, a Chevy Tahoe SUV. Politico went to the Illinois motor vehicle records division, where records of Schock’s 2014 disposal sale of the SUV are located, and found that the vehicle was traded in after going slightly over 81,000 miles (roughly 130,500km). Along with the massive mileage reimbursement claims, investigators also are looking into the possibility that Schock improperly spent campaign funds to decorate his official Capitol Hill office in the Edwardian style of the TV series "Downton Abbey," with vermillion walls and baroque decorations. Schock had been under scrutiny for some time by ethics watchdogs, who have demanded an official investigation into his behavior. One such group, the Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington, repeatedly asked Capitol Hill’s nonpartisan Office for Congressional Ethics to investigate whether that lavish office decoration was indeed done using campaign funds, a violation of congressional ethics rules. Another issue raised by the organization and others was Schock’s extensive use of private luxury jets owned by contributors. The Citizens for Responsible Ethics deputy communications director, Stephen Santulli, said via email: "The public deserves to know the full extent of all laws and rules that Rep. Schock may have broken during his time in office, and how he was able to avoid accountability for so long. It would do a great disservice to the public for the search for the truth to end simply because Rep. Schock’s political career has." A Georgetown University government professor, Mark Rom, wondered why Schock, once seen as a rising star in the Republican Party, would throw his career away for seemingly so little. "What surprises me about Rep. Schock is not the corruption charges. What surprises me is that the corruption is so petty," Rom said. "Is it worth selling your office, your reputation and your soul for a few thousand dollars in phony travel reimbursements?" Private jet travel arranged by wealthy contributors is also a focus in the charges faced by Menendez, who was the powerful chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee until the GOP gained control of the Senate this year. Menendez is accused of using Melgen’s private jet for two personal trips to the Dominican Republic in 2010. Menendez failed to follow Senate rules requiring him to report the trips as gifts or to promptly reimburse the surgeon for their costs. The senator says he paid Melgen $58,000 for the use of the plane – in 2013. Questions also are being raised about $70,000 that Melgen gave to the senator, a sum the lawmaker says he has since repaid. Menendez strongly maintained his innocence before the indictment, telling reporters he has "always conducted myself appropriately and in accordance with the law." Investigators also are looking into whether Menendez improperly tried to pressure officials of Medicare, the U.S. government’s health program for the elderly, to change its reimbursement policies so that Melgen could make millions of dollars more. The New Jersey lawmaker admits he urged Medicare to change its doctor reimbursement policies, but claims his motivation was a belief that the present structure was unfair. The FBI, incidentally, raided the doctor’s offices in 2013 in search of unspecified evidence. Along with the Department of Justice probes, both lawmakers could also face scrutiny by the Federal Election Commission because campaign contributions are involved. But one official at the better-governance group Public Citizen says the commission's very structure and present nature may make it difficult for that body to take action in both cases. "The FEC is comprised of three Democrats and three Republicans" and needs four votes to make a decision, Craig Holman, a Public Citizen lobbyist, said via email. "The number of deadlocked votes has risen ninefold over the previous history of the commission. So there is little expectation that the FEC will step in and enforce any violations," he said. There are many dark horses in the herd after presidency By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
At this early stage of the campaign they seem the longest of longshots: Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina and Martin O’Malley. And the fact is they probably are. But that doesn’t appear to be enough to deter them from their ultimate goal of becoming president of the United States, and they are already trying to lay the groundwork. Trump told a crowd in New Hampshire recently that he is actively considering a 2016 bid. “You know I do have a great television show. I do have a great life. I have a business that I love. But the country is going to hell.” Neurosurgeon Ben Carson, the only African American preparing to join the race, got a huge reception at a recent conservative conference and is fast emerging as a favorite of socially conservative activists. “We live in the land of the free and the home of the brave, but you cannot be free if you are not brave.” For Republicans most concerned with foreign policy and national security, former United Nations ambassador John Bolton is casting about for support. Bolton said that he is actively considering a White House bid for 2016. “I am because I think it’s absolutely critical in a dangerous world where we find ourselves today that U.S. national security be at the center of the political debate,” said Bolton. “The president has no higher responsibility than protecting the country. There are a lot of other important issues out there, the economy and so on, but if the country itself is in danger everything else is secondary. I think the people realize that and I think they want to hear this debate.” Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, the only woman in the field of potential Republican contenders, told Fox News Sunday she would have an advantage if she ran because “I have a deep understanding of how the economy actually works, having started as a secretary and become the chief executive of the largest technology company in the world.” In the next few weeks Republican senators Rand Paul and Marco Rubio will join Ted Cruz as official candidates. More big names are expected to follow, including Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush. It is easy to see why Mrs. Clinton and Bush get so much attention. Both are well known to American voters, can raise lots of money and have lots of supporters among party leaders. Simply say their last names and people know who you are talking about. But that is not likely to deter a large crowd of contenders from seeking the Republican nomination in a 2016 race that shapes up to be the most wide open and unpredictable in decades. Republican strategist Ford O’Connell said Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker lead public opinion polls at the moment but not by much. “Anything can happen and we are likely to see 10 or 12 potential candidates hop in this field and they are really going to have to elbow each other to get the spotlight.” Walker in particular has been able to raise his national profile. “Scott Walker has emerged, at least for this moment, as the leading alternative for all kinds of reasons, more kind of populist and fiery and a fire-breathing conservative, but also someone who was a governor,” said Matt Dallek of the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University. Democrats are likely to have their longshots as well. That list could include independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, former Virginia senator Jim Webb and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley. O’Malley took a thinly veiled shot at Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush on ABC’s “This Week” program. “I think that our country always benefits from new leadership and new perspectives. Let’s be honest here. The presidency of the United States is not some crown to be passed between two families.” Analysts say O’Malley and several other little known contenders face a huge challenge in mounting a presidential campaign. “It is hard if you are not a household name or at least a household name among political activists to run for president,” said Quinnipiac pollster Peter Brown. “History tells us that many of these potential candidates with a name recognition problem in much of the country won’t do very well. But there is an opportunity that involves working very hard and history says that if you are going to break in, you break through in the early primary and caucus states like Iowa and New Hampshire.” Democrat Jimmy Carter is perhaps the best modern example of a candidate who emerged from relative obscurity to win not only his party’s nomination but the presidency in 1976. And it’s that kind of rags to riches story that still motivates longshots today, especially among Republicans, according to strategist Ford O’Connell. “It could turn into a real battle royal, if you will, and there is going to be a lot of ups and downs regardless of what the polls say today. The question is, can someone catch lightning in a bottle and then expand it to all major swaths of the party?” It’s still early in the campaign and the odds seem long, but it appears there will be no shortage of those willing to try. Arkansas woman becomes oldest human at 116 years By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A woman in the Southern U.S. state of Arkansas who has invited President Barack Obama to her birthday party is now the world's oldest person. Gertrude Weaver, 116, inherited the title Wednesday upon the death of Misao Okawa of Osaka, Japan, at age 117. Officials at Okawa's nursing home said her death was peaceful, as if she had just fallen asleep. Weaver, who will turn 117 July 4, said she wants Obama to celebrate with her. A former domestic worker in private homes and mother of four children, Ms. Weaver has experienced a lot in her 116 years, said Kathy Langley, administrator of the Silver Oaks Health and Rehabilitation Center in Camden, Arkansas. But she still has one dream she would like to realize. "She really wants to meet the president. She's voted for him twice now, and it's just her lifelong dream,'' Langley said. ``We sent him an invitation to come to her birthday party last year, and we will send him another one this year.'' Weaver said the secret to long life is treating everyone with kindness. Top terrorist is reported killed in The Philippines By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday confirmed that one of its most wanted terrorists was killed during a police raid in The Philippines in January. The man, Zulkifli bin Hir, was a leading member of the Islamist militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, which is responsible for numerous bombing attacks in the Philippines. The group Jemaah Islamiyah is believed to be linked to al-Qaida and has a long track record of attacks in Indonesia, including the deadly 2002 bombing of a nightclub in Bali. The FBI said DNA taken from the scene of the raid matched that of bin Hir's relatives. The raid that killed the terrorist also killed 44 police commandos. The U.S. State Department had offered $5 million for the arrest of bin Hir. Three years ago, the Philippine military reported that he had died in an air strike, but he surfaced again last year in Mindanao under protection of a Moro Islamic Liberation Front splinter group. In a statement, David Bowdich, assistant director in charge at the FBI Los Angeles field office, said the agency had taken bin Hir off its most-wanted-terrorists list and thanked the Philippine police. "Once again, the men and women of the FBI express sincere condolences to the brave officers of the Special Action Force who lost their lives while attempting to apprehend this dangerous fugitive," Bowdich said. Tiny camera takes shots inside ailing blood vessels By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Ahead of any surgical procedure, doctors try to learn as much as possible about the state of the organs they plan to operate on. A new camera developed in the Netherlands can now make that easier, giving surgeons an incredibly detailed look inside blood vessels, all the way to the patient’s heart. Blockages in coronary arteries, caused by the buildup of plaque, are the main cause of heart attacks. In most cases, doctors treat the problem by widening the artery with a mechanical device called a stent, inserted at the end of a long thin wire-like catheter. But within a year, about 10 percent of patients have to return for another procedure, says cardiologist Evelyn Reger. “Roughly half of the patients have to come back because we did not do an excellent job in the blockage that is causing the heart attack, and the other half of the patients have to come back because we overlook additional lesions, problems that are present in the artery," she said. This situation could improve considerably with a new camera that provides a clearer, more detailed view from inside arteries, developed at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Currently, to take different images through the catheter, surgeons control the rotation of the catheter's camera from outside the body. The new camera has its own tiny electrical motor. Professor Ton van der Steen is the head of Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Erasmus Medical Center. “With this system you have rotation where it exactly needs to be, only in the tip. So you have a micro-motor in the tip that can rotate and that's why it can rotate so fast and so accurately," said van der Steen. Researchers are still experimenting on lab animals, but the results are stunning. While catheter cameras now in use take only about 100 images per second, too slow not to be distorted by the movement of the heart, the new camera can take 2,500 images in-between two heartbeats. Its one millimeter-thick motor rotates a mirror 5,600 times per second, while a fast-pulsing laser lights up the environment, allowing the camera to take sharp pictures of the artery wall. “Suddenly we get a view on a blood vessel like we just know from the text book. And we can see that in our living patients at the very moment when we have to do the operation," said Reger. Scientists say they are now trying to build an even smaller motor, only half a millimeter thick. The new catheter camera was presented at the Optics in Cardiology symposium in Rotterdam on March 11, but researchers say it will take up to three years before they start with trials on humans. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, April 2, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 65 | |||||||||
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 Servicio Nacional de Guardacostas
photo
Officers stand guard over
three smuggling suspects.Guardacostas
crews fish for cocaine
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Costa Rican coast guard was sweeping the Pacific Wednesday for bundles of cocaine that had been dumped by fleeing smugglers. The Servicio Nacional de Guardacostas said its crew members had recovered between 200 and 300 kilos in national waters near the border with Panamá. The agency also managed to stop a fastboat that still had bundles of cocaine aboard and detain three Colombians. The suspects came to Golfito aboard a Guardacostas patrol boat. These interdictions are almost routine in the Pacific because Costa Rica has beefed up its patrols and has obtained better equipment. The Pacific also is patrolled by U.S. Navy and Coast Guard vessels and aircraft. Maintenance, strikes blamed for gas hikes By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The price regulating agency is blaming international prices for a new increase in gasoline. The Autoridad Reguladora de Servicios Públicos said that maintenance of U.S. refineries and strikes resulted in higher prices. The price increase involves the refined product and not crude petroleum, the agency said, noting that crude was below $50 a barrel. The new price for super will be 501 colons a liter, an increase of 31 colons. Plus gasoline goes to 574 colons, an increase of 29 colons, and diesel goes to 500 colons a liter, an increase of seven colons. The prices will go into effect next week after they are published in the official newspaper. It's time to find another career By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A shoplifting suspect in Buenos Aires de Puntarenas was nabbed this week for the 43rd time, the Fuerza Pública said. The 40-year-old man was caught stealing bottles of mouthwash and shampoo, they said. This time the man was remanded to the flagrancy court. |
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| From Page 7: World lurches toward cashless society By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Cash has not disappeared from everyday life, but the world’s largest information and financial companies are working on ways to replace it with wireless communication payments. Sweden is in the forefront with between 85 and 90 percent of all transactions being made electronically. The task is formidable, and there is some strong opposition to a total change. Cash…clams…dough…scratch. All mean the same thing: Money that one can hold and use for any kind of purchase or purpose. Is it losing favor worldwide? According to John Sheldon of MasterCard’s Innovation Group, the move to a cashless society is picking up steam worldwide, especially in Africa. “They have the opportunity to leap-frog the existing infrastructure that, say, exists in Europe and North America because they can, just like in China they skipped right from the P.C. to the 4G phone," he said. "Societies in Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia have the same opportunity to skip payment technologies right straight to the mobile phone and doing mobile payments instead of going through all the magstripe, the chip and beyond. So they can move much more quickly because those infrastructures don’t have to be put in place." MasterCard has been working with Nigeria and South Africa to reduce fraud by using so-called proof of life technology, which allows for cashless transactions once a user is identified. “I'm going to make a purchase and actually I'm validating that purchase with a picture of my face, use that photo so it’s establishing that it’s me," said Sheldon. "It’s actually validating me, looking for my password, and, therefore, it’s validated that I’m here and I’m alive and then I can make that purchase." Across the continents, money keeps being printed. But a Cornell University professor, Robert Hockett, says cashless transactions are a necessity in many countries. “It’s often hard to find banking services, right, to find institutions that are located in one conveniently reachable place at which one can make one’s deposit or meet with one’s bankers or the like," he said. "So it ends up being quite convenient to be able to sort of carry around your bank with you, as it were, say in the form of a single electronic device like a mobile phone." Scott Shay, chairman and founder of Signature Bank in New York City, cautions against a totally-cashless world. “Once we get to the point where there is no currency, no cash, essentially every single transaction that any individual makes is susceptible to being monitored and even more worrisome, controlled," he said. According to monetary experts, there’s a huge cost for countries using cash, including printing money, securing money, and distributing the cash. But even in nearly-cashless Sweden, two-thirds of Swedes think carrying cash is a human right. |
