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| A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page | |||||||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, April 8, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 68 | |||||||||
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 Ministerio de Gobernación,
Policía
y Seguridad Pública photo This
is the home where agents conducted the raid Sunday.
Sunday morning
raid nets
nine and 901 kilos of cocaine By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Anti-drug agents have taken over what appears to have been a drug distribution center in Quepos. They detained a total of nine individuals, including four Colombians. They confiscated more than 900 kilos of cocaine, close to a ton. The house is in Villas Pájaro Azul, about a kilometer from the Catholic church in Quepos. There agents said they found the bulk of the drugs, much of it under beds in the home. The security ministry attributed the raid and arrests to a citizen's telephone call to the confidential anti-drug line. Agents said they nabbed two persons carrying what appeared to be cocaine hidden in vehicles that had left the home Sunday. A vehicle operated by a 48-year-old man from Panamá with the last names of Estribi Martínez was stopped, and agents found 50 kilos of cocaine, they said. A second vehicle, operated by a man from Nicaragua with Costa Rican residency yielded an additional 50 kilos, agents said. The second man was identified by the last names of Chavarría Norori. Agents speculated that the drugs had come from Colombia by sea and were taken to shore by small boats. Some of the cocaine was for the local market and for distributors in adjacent countries, while some was for transport to the United States, agents said. Agents detained four persons inside the home when they conducted the 7 a.m. raid. They were identified by the last names of Chacón Sánchez, Correa Badof, Rodríguez Narváez and Gómez Muñoz. All but Chacón was identified as a Colombian. In a related action, agents detained a vehicle containing three persons. Detained were men with the last names of Vázquez Solís, a Colombian, Norori Arias, a Nicaraguan and Seas Romero, a Costa Rican. Some 20 members of the Policía de Control de Drogas participated in the raid and arrests. They said the cocaine was 901 kilos. Two quakes rattle towns in southern part of country By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Quakes just six minutes apart in northern Panamá rattled homes and businesses in southern Costa Rica Sunday. The first quake, estimated at 4.3 magnitude, took place at 9:32 a.m., said the Laboratorio de Ingenieria Sismica at the Universidad de Costa Rica. The second, estimated at 4.3 magnitude, took place just short of 9:38 a.m. The quakes were felt in Ciudad Neily, Golfito, Corredores and Puerto Jimenez on the Osa Peninsula, said the Laboratorio. The Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico estimated the 9:37 a.m. quake at 4.5 magnitude. Nosara woman tells police she was a hostage for weeks By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A Nosara woman has escaped from what was a month and a half of imprisonment by her husband. Fuerza Pública officers detained the man after he had barricaded himself in his home. Police said that officers on patrol heard the woman screaming as she fled the home. She is 19, they said. The Fuerza Pública said they captured the man when he tried to flee along the mouth of the Río Nosara. The home is in Barrio San Ramón de Nosara. The 26-year-old man was identified by the last names of Zúñiga Zúñiga. Ad rates to be increased By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A.M. Costa Rica will be instituting a small display advertising rate increase April 15. Classified advertising rates will remain unchanged. The increases are made necessary by increases in costs that the newspaper must pay. This includes higher utility costs, mandatory increases in employee salaries, higher rents and higher costs for editorial and professional services. Existing advertising agreements will not be affected, and the advertising staff will continue to accept business at the old rate until April 15.
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, April 8, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 68 | |
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| A lite look at sex tourism ignores many
important issues |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Once again La Nación, the Spanish-language newspaper, has come out with a thin story on sexual tourism that fails to address some of the important aspects of this Costa Rican phenomenon. A piece in the Sunday magazine attributes the article to Darío Chinchilla. He is a former staffer who now appears to be a free lance writer. Chinchilla in turn bases a lot of his information on a 2009 free e-book written by Jacobo Schifter, who now teaches at the University for Peace in Ciudad Colón. Schifter's book is Viejos verdes en el paraíso, which translates to "Old men in paradise. A news analysis
Although Schifter also has written on male prostitution in Latin America and transvestites, Chinchilla does not address these social issues. The article appears to be the result of some interviews with North Americans who were drinking at the Blue Marlin Bar in the Hotel Del Rey and several working girls. Chinchilla does report on a conversation with a prostitute who bemoaned the influx of tourists at the Daniel Oduber airport in Liberia. She said that brought male tourists to Jacó but not to the Central Valley. Chinchilla's article is similar to a 2006 story in the same newspaper about which A.M. Costa Rica headlined: "Stop the presses! La Nación discovers Hotel Del Rey." The authors were Otto Vargas and Rubén Bonilla. Vargas wrote an exposé on the visit by the so-called Michigan Boys to Flamingo in May 2004 where some also met professional women. |
Chinchilla adopts a mocking tone in
some of his descriptions of the typical sex tourist. They are
pink men in bermudas wearing shirts extolling fishing, like Santa
Clauses on vacation. They also are large consumers of Viagra. Others
are in Costa Rica for more than casual sex. They seek what Schifter called the fantasy girlfriend experience. Chinchilla also cites research by sociologist Eduardo Mora Castellanos of the Universidad Nacional in Heredia, who said last year that there might be 400 sex tourists in San José on any given night. That is about 12 percent of the tourists in the city, he estimated. However, there are other estimates. Chinchilla touches briefly on one of the downsides of la vida loca. The life of a prostitute, particularly a foreign woman, is anything but glamorous. They frequently live eight to a room in cheap apartments so they can accumulate money to send home. Then they are exposed to the drug scene, which sometimes steals their income. Then there are the inevitable children. Although the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo conducts surveys at airports for exiting tourists, there are no data on sex tourism because tourism officials have not addressed that issue. The Spanish language press almost always considers sex tourism as something that happens in a small part of downtown San José. Television stations have at least some stories on the nightlife in Jacó which has grown exponentially. Chinchilla, as others have, notes that adult prostitution is not prosecuted in Costa Rica. He also thinks that the going rate for a sexual encounter is $100. In his brief article, the report has overlooked many issues related with prostitution in Costa Rica and focused on the North Americans. But, then again, so has law enforcement. |
| Guanacaste hotels had the highest
occupancy over Semana Santa |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Beach hotels reported they were nearly full for Semana Santa, said the Cámara Costarricense de Hoteles. The chamber runs periodic surveys. Chamber members in Guanacaste said they were at 95 percent occupancy for Holy Week. Hotels on the Caribbean were close behind with a reported 94 percent. As expected during a vacation period, 14 hotels in the Central |
Valley reported a lower occupancy. This year it was 52 percent, and that lowered the average occupancy rate to 72 percent, said the chamber. In all, 37 of its members responded to the survey, the chamber said. Hotels on the Pacific reported that they had 84 percent of their rooms filled and those in the northern zone reported 87 percent, the chamber said. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, April 8, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 68 | |||||
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| New research says world dengue cases are triple the standard estimates | |
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By
the Wellcome Trust news staff
The global burden of dengue infection is more than triple current estimates from the World Health Organization, according to a multinational study published in the journal 'Nature'. The research has created the first detailed and up-to-date map of dengue distribution worldwide, enabling researchers to estimate the total numbers of people affected by the virus globally, regionally and nationally. The findings will help to guide efforts in vaccine, drug and vector control strategies. The study was led by Simon Hay, a Wellcome Trust senior research fellow at the University of Oxford, as part of the International Research Consortium on Dengue Risk Assessment, Management and Surveillance. Dengue, also known as breakbone fever, is a viral infection that is transmitted between humans by mosquitoes. In some people, it causes life-threatening illness. It is epidemic in Costa Rica. There are currently no licensed vaccines or specific treatments for dengue, and substantial efforts to control the mosquitoes that transmit the disease have not stopped its rapid emergence and global spread. Until now, little was known about the current distribution of the risk of dengue virus infection and its public health burden around the world. Samir Bhatt, who led the modeling for the study, says: "Our aim was to take all of the evidence that is currently available on the distribution of dengue worldwide and combine it with the latest in mapping and mathematical modeling to produce the most refined risk maps and burden estimates. We then hope to use this knowledge to help predict the future burden of the disease." The findings reveal that dengue is ubiquitous throughout the tropics, with local spatial variations in risk influenced strongly by rainfall, temperature and urbanization. The team estimates that there are 390 million dengue |
infections across
the globe each year, of which 96 million reach any level of clinical or
subclinical severity. This is more than triple the World Health's most
recent estimates of 50 to 100 million infections per year. Hay explains: "We found that climate and population spread were important factors for predicting the current risk of dengue around the world. With globalization and the constant march of urbanization, we anticipate that there could be dramatic shifts in the distribution of the disease in the future: the virus may be introduced to areas that previously were not at risk, and those that are currently affected may experience increases in the number of infections. "We hope that the research will initiate a wider discussion about the significant global impact of this disease." Of the 96 million apparent infections, Asia bore 70 per cent of the burden. India alone accounted for around one-third of all infections. The results indicate that with 16 million infections, Africa's burden is almost equivalent to that of the Americas and is significantly larger than previously appreciated. The authors suggest that the hidden African dengue burden could be a result of the disease being masked by symptomatically similar illnesses, under-reporting and highly variable treatment-seeking behavior. With endemic transmission in Asia and the Americas, recent outbreaks in Portugal, the ever-increasing incidence in Africa, and the challenges of making an effective dengue vaccine or controlling the vector, Jeremy Farrar stressed: "This really does represent a crucial period in the global spread of dengue." He is director of the Wellcome Trust Vietnam Research Programme. The International Research Consortium on Dengue Risk Assessment, Management and Surveillance is a multinational team of researchers funded by the European Commission to develop new and innovative tools to be applied to the control of dengue in a global context. |
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| A.M.
Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, April 8, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 68 | |||||||||
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| Many more cells in body can smell food, study says By
the American Chemical Society news staff
In a discovery suggesting that odors may have a far more important role in life than previously believed, scientists have found that heart, blood, lung and other cells in the body have the same receptors for sensing odors that exist in the nose. It opens the door to questions about whether the heart, for instance, smells that fresh-brewed cup of coffee or cinnamon bun, according to the research leader, who spoke Sunday at the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans, Louisiana. The speaker, Peter Schieberle, an international authority on food chemistry and technology, explained that scientists thought that the nose had a monopoly on olfactory receptors. Located on special cells in the mucus-covered olfactory epithelium in the back of the nose, olfactory receptors are docking ports for the airborne chemical compounds responsible for the smell of food and other substances. Those molecules connect with the receptors, triggering a chain of biochemical events that register in the brain as specific odors. But discovery of olfactory receptors on other, non-olfactory cells came as a surprise. “Our team recently discovered that blood cells — not only cells in the nose — have odorant receptors,” said Schieberle. “In the nose, these so-called receptors sense substances called odorants and translate them into an aroma that we interpret as pleasing or not pleasing in the brain. But surprisingly, there is growing evidence that also the heart, the lungs and many other non-olfactory organs have these receptors. And once a food is eaten, its components move from the stomach into the bloodstream. But does this mean that, for instance, the heart smells the steak you just ate? We don’t know the answer to that question.” His team recently found that primary blood cells isolated from human blood samples are attracted to the odorant molecules responsible for producing a certain aroma. Schieberle described one experiment in which scientists put an attractant odorant compound on one side of a partitioned multi-well chamber, and blood cells on the other side. The blood cells moved toward the odor. “Once odor components are inside the body, however, it is unclear whether they are functioning in the same way as they do in the nose,” he stated. “But we would like to find out.” Schieberle’s group and colleagues at the Technical University of Munich work in a field termed sensomics, which focuses on understanding exactly how the mouth and the nose sense key aroma, taste and texture compounds in foods, especially comfort foods like chocolate and roasted coffee. The researchers use sensomics to better understand why foods taste, feel and smell appetizing or unappetizing. They use laboratory instruments to pick apart the chemical components. They then put those components together in different combinations and give these versions to human taste-testers who evaluate the foods. In this way, they discovered that although coffee contains 1,000 potential odor components, only 25 actually interact with an odor receptor in the nose and are smelled. Substance in red meat seen as reason why arteries harden By
the Cleveland Clinic news staff
A compound abundant in red meat and added as a supplement to popular energy drinks has been found to promote atherosclerosis – or the hardening or clogging of the arteries – according to Cleveland Clinic research published online in the journal Nature Medicine. The study shows that bacteria living in the human digestive tract metabolize the compound carnitine, turning it into trimethylamine-N-oxide, a substance the researchers previously linked in a 2011 study to the promotion of atherosclerosis in humans. Further, the research finds that a diet high in carnitine promotes the growth of the bacteria that metabolize carnitine, compounding the problem by producing even more of the artery-clogging substance. The research team was led by Stanley Hazen, vice chairman of translational research for the Lerner Research Institute and section head of preventive cardiology & rehabilitation in the Miller Family Heart and Vascular Institute at Cleveland Clinic, and Robert Koeth, a medical student at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. The study tested the carnitine and trimethylamine-N-oxide levels of omnivores, vegans and vegetarians, and examined the clinical data of 2,595 patients undergoing elective cardiac evaluations. They also examined the cardiac effects of a carnitine-enhanced diet in normal mice compared to mice with suppressed levels of gut microbes, and discovered that trimethylamine-N-oxide alters cholesterol metabolism at multiple levels, explaining how it enhances atherosclerosis. The researchers found that increased carnitine levels in patients predicted increased risks for cardiovascular disease and major cardiac events like heart attack, stroke and death, but only in subjects with concurrently high trimethylamine-N-oxide levels. Remarkably, vegans and vegetarians, even after consuming a large amount of carnitine, did not produce significant levels of the microbe product trimethylamine-N-oxide, whereas omnivores consuming the same amount of carnitine did. Prior research has shown that a diet with frequent red meat consumption is associated with increased cardiovascular disease risk, but that the cholesterol and saturated fat content in red meat does not appear to be enough to explain the increased cardiovascular risks. This discrepancy has been attributed to genetic differences, a high salt diet that is often associated with red meat consumption, and even possibly the cooking process, among other explanations. But Hazen says this new research suggests a new connection between red meat and cardiovascular disease. While carnitine is naturally occurring in red meats, including beef, venison, lamb, mutton, duck, and pork, it's also a dietary supplement available in pill form and a common ingredient in energy drinks. With this new research in mind, Hazen cautions that more research needs to be done to examine the safety of chronic carnitine supplementation. World economy getting better Monetary Fund director says By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde says that a large part of the world economy looks better than it did a year ago, but also warns there are risks remaining from the global recession in some countries. The Fund managing director told a forum Sunday night in China that growth continues to broaden and strengthen throughout emerging and developing economies, and that the U.S. economy is showing signs of improvement. She praised Asia's economic performance, noting that two-thirds of the global growth since the recession started in 2008 has occurred in Asian countries. But Ms. Lagarde said there is a patchy recovery throughout the world, and that the overall improved economic fortunes do not amount to enough of a real recovery. She said worries about low growth are centered in the 17-nation euro currency bloc in Europe, and that lack of agreement on financial policies in Washington could thwart growth in the American economy, the world's largest. Ms. Lagarde said she expects the Asian economy to grow by 6 percent this year, well above the U.S. and European economies. But she said that for future economic success, Asian countries need to increase their spending on the health and training of future workers, increase the employment of women and protect the continent's environment. World Health puts spotlight on high blood pressure By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The World Health Organization estimates that more than one in three adults, or about one billion people, is affected by high blood pressure. To mark World Health Day Sunday, the agency is promoting the many steps people can take to reduce the risk of dying prematurely from what it calls a silent killer. Margaret Chan led a tribute to celebrate the founding of the World Health Organization on April 7, 1948. Every year, World Health Day marks this event by highlighting a public health issue. She is the agency's director general. This year’s theme is hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, one of the most important contributors to heart disease and stroke. Ms. Chan says the effects of the condition create a global health crisis. “Hyper-pressure contributes to nearly 9.4 million deaths due to heart disease and stroke every year and, together, these two diseases are the number one cause of death worldwide. And, hyper-pressure also increases the risk of kidney failure, blindness and several other conditions. It often occurs together with other risk factors like obesity, diabetes and high cholesterol, increasing the health risk even further.” Overall, World Health reports high-income countries have a lower prevalence of hypertension than low-and-middle income countries. It says the prevalence of this disease is highest in Africa, where nearly half of all adults have hypertension. The lowest is found in the Americas. The World Health Organization notes high blood pressure is preventable and treatable once it is detected. It is urging all adults around the world to get their blood pressure measured so they can take steps to control it. Ms. Chan says high blood pressure must be taken seriously. “It is a strong and reliable warning signal that health is at risk and that something needs to be done. But, hyper-pressure, ladies and gentlemen, is always a silent warning signal. What do I mean by that? Usually hyper-pressure does not show any symptoms for years or even decades. So, it is important that we take advantage of the early warning signal by taking our blood pressure regularly.” World Health says people can cut the risks of high blood pressure by consuming less salt, eating a balanced diet, exercising regularly, avoiding tobacco use and overindulgence in alcohol. If these life-style changes do not work, the agency says low-cost medication to treat the illness is available. Two more flu patients reported by Chinese officials By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
China says two more people have contracted bird flu in Shanghai, and authorities in nearby Nanjing have closed live poultry markets and suspended all poultry trade to combat a new flu strain that has killed six people. Shanghai's government said Saturday that the latest cases of the H7N9 virus were found in two male patients, age 66 and 74. It said the two patients developed symptoms late last month and were diagnosed with pneumonia in the past two days. China has confirmed 18 people infected with the virus in densely populated eastern China. All six deaths have been recorded in Shanghai and nearby Zhejiang province. Health officials have speculated that people are contracting the virus through direct contact with infected fowl, and say there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission. China's Food and Drug Administration said Saturday it had approved an intravenous anti-influenza drug called Peramivir, developed by the U.S. biotechnology firm BioCryst. Oil company says it lost helicopter in jungle in Perú By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
French oil company Perenco says a helicopter it chartered has gone down in the northeastern jungle of Perú with 13 people aboard. Perenco said in a statement Sunday that the Peruvian military is searching for survivors, but so far none has been found. The crash took place in the Curaray River area, far northeast of the capital, Lima. The cause has not yet been determined. U.S. lawmakers want facts of celebrities visiting Cuba By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Two Republican lawmakers have asked the U.S. government to examine whether American pop star Beyonce and her rapper husband, Jay-Z, had obtained official permission for a high-profile trip to Cuba to celebrate their wedding anniversary. The celebrity couple celebrated their fifth anniversary this week in Havana, where huge crowds greeted them as they strolled hand in hand through the Cuban capital. The superstars ate at some of the city's best restaurants, danced to Cuban music, visited historical landmarks in the heart of old Havana and posed for pictures with dozens of autograph-seeking fans during their trip. A long-standing trade embargo prohibits Americans from visiting Cuba for tourism without U.S. government permission, but President Barack Obama has eased restrictions on travel to the island nation for academic, religious or cultural exchanges. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida sent a letter Friday to the director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control at the U.S. Treasury Department, requesting information on the type of license Beyonce and Jay-Z received before traveling to Cuba. The two members of Congress represent districts in south Florida with a high Cuban-American population. Thousands of Americans visit Cuba every year without U.S. government permission, but are rarely prosecuted unless they flaunt their defiance of the rules. French lawmaker will work with bustling hives as examples By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The roof of France's National Assembly is ready to buzz with activity after the arrival of three large bee hives this week as part of a project to promote pesticide-free honey. The bees are expected to be moved in once the weather warms up, should produce up to 150 kg of honey a year and help pollinate flowering plants around the capital at a time of worldwide decline in bee numbers. The project is part of a new trend across Europe to put bee colonies on city rooftops, taking advantage of the fact that bees adapt well to urban living and can target the many varieties of long-blooming inner-city greenery. "This is a great symbol for us," said Thierry Duroselle, head of the Society of French Beekeepers, The new hives are perched atop part of the grandiose 18th century palace on the Seine River that houses the lower house of parliament. "We think it's a nice opportunity to educate people, the public and politicians, on the role of bees." Despite their reputation for painful stings, bees are vital for human existence. A global decline in their numbers, the reasons for which are baffling scientists, is alarming everyone from farmers to European Union policy makers. The loss of habitat due to urban expansion, and, in France, an invasion of bee-eating Asian hornets, is adding to a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder. More than two-thirds of the 100 crop species that provide 90 percent of the world's food are pollinated by bees, including fruit, nuts and grains. A 2011 United Nations report estimates the work done by bees and other pollinators to help food crops reproduce is worth 153 billion euros ($196.57 billion) a year. The EU is still battling to agree on a ban of farm pesticides linked to the decline of honeybees, but studies show the insects adapt well to city living as the plants they encounter there have been treated with fewer chemicals. While bee colonies adhere to a firmly royalist system, the hives have been painted in the post-revolutionary French flag colors of red, white and blue in a nod to the swarm of lawmakers below in the Fifth Republic's lower house. Six volunteer beekeepers from among the National Assembly staff will tend the hives, which are nestled together on a raised platform on the roof of a rear palace building. Despite their enviable Parisian vista, the bees will be packed tightly into their windowless homes, with each of the hives housing up to 50,000 bees in the summer months, a population that will drop to 15,000 in the winter. Left-wing lawmaker Laurence Dumont said estimated annual honey production should fill around 800 pots a year which would be given to schoolchildren on educational visits or charities. The farm ministry is working to revive beekeeping and reduce a dependence on imported honey, and Paris already sports bee hives atop other prestigious buildings including the Garnier Opera and the swanky Tour d'Argent left-bank restaurant. Meanwhile another species began doing its civic duty in the city this week as four fluffy black sheep were unleashed in a public garden under a new plan to use grazing animals, rather than machines, to trim city lawns. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| A.M. Costa
Rica's sixth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, April 8, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 68 | |||||||||
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Effect
of pollution on coral shows particles slow growth By
the University of Exeter news service
A new study has found that pollution from fine particles in the air, mainly the result of burning coal or volcanic eruptions, can shade corals from sunlight and cool the surrounding water resulting in reduced growth rates. Although coral reefs grow under the sea, it seems that they have been responding to changes in the concentration of particulate pollution in the atmosphere, according to a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience by a team of climate scientists and coral ecologists from the United Kingdom, Australia and Panamá. Corals are colonies of simple animal cells but most rely on photosynthetic algae for their energy and nutrients. Lead author Lester Kwiatkowski, a doctoral student at the University of Exeter, said: “Coral reefs are the most diverse of all ocean ecosystems with up to 25 percent of ocean species depending on them for food and shelter. They are believed to be vulnerable to climate change and ocean acidification, but ours is the first study to show a clear link between coral growth and the concentration of particulate pollution in the atmosphere.” Paul Halloran of the UK's Met Office Hadley Centre explained: “Particulate pollution or aerosols reflect incoming sunlight and make clouds brighter. This can reduce the light available for coral photosynthesis, as well as the temperature of surrounding waters. Together these factors are shown to slow down coral growth.” The authors used a combination of records retrieved from within the coral skeletons, observations from ships, climate model simulations and statistical modeling. Their analysis shows that coral growth rates in the Caribbean were affected by volcanic aerosol emissions in the early 20th century and by aerosol emissions caused by humans in the later 20th century. The researchers hope that this work will lead to a better understanding of how coral growth may change in the future, taking into account not just future carbon dioxide levels, but also localized sources of aerosols such as industry or farming. Peter Mumby of the University of Queensland put the study in the context of global environmental change: “Our study suggests that coral ecosystems are likely to be sensitive to not only the future global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration but also the regional aerosol emissions associated with industrialization and decarbonization.” . |
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