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A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
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José, Costa Rica, Thursday, April 9, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 69
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Solís
leaves today for two-day summit visit
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
and wire service reports President Luis Guillermo Solís is attending the Summit of the Americas in Panamá, but he will return early for the Saturday Batalla de Rivas celebration in Alajuela. Ana Helena Chacón, the second vice president, and Manuel González, the foreign minster, will represent Costa Rica Saturday in Panamá. Solís arrives in Panamá this afternoon and plans to attend a meeting Friday of the Sistema de Integración Centroamericana where U.S. President Barack Obama also is expected. Later Friday Solís is expected to attend a forum with Tabaré Vázquez, president of Uruguay and organized by Obama. After that he will meet with Rafael Correa, president of Ecuador, and attend the opening ceremonies and a welcoming dinner. A Cuban delegation will attend the summit Friday and Saturday, for the first time in the history of the regional gathering. The U.S.-Cuban effort to restore diplomatic ties is expected to be a focal point as leaders from 35 countries in the Western Hemisphere gather in Panamá to discuss policy and regional issues. Ahead of the summit, the U.S. hinted the U.S. might drop Cuba from its state sponsors of terrorism list. Tuesday, Roberta Jacobson, the State Department’s assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, said officials were near the end of the review process for Cuba. “I can’t tell you exactly when everything is going to roll out. But we are at the end of that process,” she said. The designation has been a major sticking point for Cuba in its efforts to restore diplomatic ties with the U.S., a move that would allow the two countries to open embassies. Leaders of Cuban-American organizations are skeptical of removing Cuba’s terror sponsorship designation, which carries penalties that include sanctions on certain exports and financial restrictions. Francisco Jose Hernandez is president of the Cuban American National Foundation, a group that supports a “nonviolent transition to a free and democratic Cuba.” He said that a U.S. decision to remove Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism would be somewhat extemporaneous. Hernandez asked what Cuba would be giving in return, “What is it that the U.S. is obtaining on the part of Cuba?” Frank Calzon, the executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba, said the White House’s consideration of removing Cuba from the list shows a disconnect between Obama’s appraisal of Cuba and the situation on the ground in the country. “By removing Cuba off of that list, the president is giving up any kind of leverage that he might have to bring justice to a situation like this,” he said. The U.S. has listed Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism since 1982. It shares the list with countries such as Iran and Sudan. U.S. and Cuban officials may have an opportunity to discuss the terror designation on the sidelines of the summit in Panama. Both Secretary of State John Kerry and Obama will be attending. Kerry could meet with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez. And U.S. officials say, Obama will interact with Cuban President Raúl Castro. At a Washington forum, Assistant Secretary of State Jacobson said Obama intends to bring up human rights issues during the summit, including in any discussion with Castro. It would be their first face-to-face talks since the December announcement that the U.S. and Cuba would begin steps to normalize relations, a move that would end the 50-year isolation of Cuba by the U.S.  Ministerio de Seguridad Pública
photo
This taxi
held nine illegal immigrants, eight from Nepal and onefrom Bangladesh, said the Fuerza Pública. The Costa Rican driver unexpectedly ran into a patrol in Guaycará, Golfito, officers said. Our readers comment
Friends remember murdered B&B ownerDear A.M. Costa Rica: Tamarindo has lost a pioneer B&B owner on Playa Langosta with the murder of Barry Lawson, owner of the popular Villa Allegre. Close friends for over 20 years, we share the grief of his widow Suzye, son, Jerred, and his brothers. Always the perfect host, Barry and Suzye had a huge tourist following, as their success over the years revealed. Villa Allegre was also the premier venue for many events involving expats in their town. Generous with his time and talent, Barry also was very active in charitable events, especially the Have A Heart Golf Tournament and anything helping to preserve Langosta green space. Barry will be sorely missed and left this world better for having passed this way. Joan and I were privileged to call him friend. The expat community will be watching with distinct interest as to how the Tico legal system functions. Vaya Con Dios, friend Barry! Joan and Bruce Hankins
former Tamarindo residents Bacteria used to
block dengue transmission
By the University of Melbourne news
staff
Researchers at the University of Melbourne along with international collaborators are using a novel way to block the dengue virus in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes using the insect bacterium Wolbachia and have for the first time provided projections of its public health benefit. Dengue is a viral infection spread between humans by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Dengue causes flu-like symptoms, including intense headaches and joint pains. Published in the Journal of Science Translational Medicine, an article by Cameron Simmons from the University of Melbourne said that the discovery could lead to improved strategies to reduce the incidence of dengue. “We did a real world experiment and allowed mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia and uninfected mosquitoes to feed on the blood of Vietnamese dengue patients. Our team then measured how efficiently Wolbachia blocked dengue virus infection of the mosquito body and saliva, which in turn stops them spreading the virus between humans,” Simmons said. Researchers developed a mathematical model of dengue virus transmission and used the experimental results as a basis to predict how well Wolbachia would reduce the intensity of dengue transmission under a variety of scenarios. “We found that Wolbachia could eliminate dengue transmission in locations where the intensity of transmission is low or moderate. In high transmission settings, Wolbachia would also cause a significant reduction in transmission. “Our findings are important because they provide realistic measures of the ability of Wolbachia to block transmission of the dengue virus and provide precise projections of its impact on dengue infections,” Simmons said. Wolbachia has been recently introduced into nearby communities and the results of this study suggest future dengue outbreaks in these cities should be much less severe than in the past. “Our results will enable policy makers in dengue-affected countries to make informed decisions on Wolbachia when allocating scarce resources to dengue control,” Simmons said. Dengue continues to be a major public health problem in Asia and Latin America. Estimates suggest more than 100 million cases occur globally each year.
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, April 9, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 69 | |
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 Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto
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Think that will do it? Costa Rica constructed a dike to cut off the flow of the Río San Juan to a canal dug by Nicaragua in an effort to create a new mouth for the river to the Caribbean. The case is being litigated in the World Court in the Hague. Those who know the river speak of its great strength when swollen by the rainy season. |
| Half million users expected to be without water this morning |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The national water institute plans to cut service to nearly a half million users this morning at 8 a.m. The outage will be felt in parts of San José, La Unión, Curridabat, Desamparados, Montes de Oca and Guadalupe, the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados said in an announcement. |
The outage is
expected to last until 6 p.m. The reason is that
the company needs to fix a major leak in the Orosi water transmission
line at a Cartago industrial park. A copy of the announcement is HERE with the details of where the outage will be felt. Basically the area is from the center of San José Centro to the cantons to the east. |
| Expat Sheldon Haseltine acquitted of defamation in second
trial |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A three-judge panel Wednesday acquitted expat Sheldon Haseltine of defamation in the latest development in his 17-year battle over property. The private case was brought by three businessmen who felt they had been defamed by a YouTube video Haseltine has posted. The trial, the second on the same allegation, was in the I Circuito Judicial de San José. Those who brought the case, Armando González Fonseca, Fuad Farach Abdalah and Ricardo Jiménez Montealegre, have the option of filing an appeal. Judge Manuel Rojas Salas, who read the verdict, cited a technical reason involving when the video was posted. He said that was not made clear to the tribunal. However, he also spoke at length on the content of the video. Haseltine is involved in a long-running property dispute near Los Sueños in the central Pacific coast. In the video he said: "Can you imagine that the law whose intention was to help the poor campesinos in Costa Rica is being used by rich millionaires to rip off the owners?" |
His accusers
tried to equate the verb rip off
with the Spanish
word for defraud, estafar.
The judges agreed that the word has a
broader meaning in English that does not always imply criminality. The trial was held against the backdrop of a public outpouring of support for free expression in the wake of an unrelated bill proposed by the central government that would have restricted the electronic media. The bill has since been withdrawn. In a recording of the verdict provided by Haseltine, the judge is heard to say that Costa Rica is a country of rights that apply not only to citizens but to foreigners as well. The original trial court awarded the businessmen money damages. An appeals court panel reversed the verdict for some technical reasons and also said that because the case is in the public interest, truth should be defense. That set the stage for a second trial. The original case involves squatters invading the land owned by Ivanhoe Investments for which Haseltine is the legal representative. Costa Rican law protects squatters under certain conditions, and the land invader was able to sell out his interest to businessmen. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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2015 and may
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, April 9, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 69 | |||||
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| Tiny migrating warbler gives a surprise to researchers in
Nicaragua |
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By the Michigan Technological
University news staff
Catching a golden-winged warbler sounds like a mythical quest. The tiny bird is quite real, though, and a number of researchers track the species. The warblers migrate from the north woods of the Midwest to Central America every year, and researchers put bands on the legs of a handful to keep tabs on them. Now, for the first time, the same golden-winged warbler has been caught at both a migration hotspot and in his wintering grounds. Catching a warbler that someone else banded is like a one in a million long shot, says Amber Roth, a Michigan Technological University researcher who netted the bird in Nicaragua. “It’s a needle in the haystack for sure, especially for this species.” Golden-winged warblers are forest birds, and unlike ducks and other migratory fowl that are hunted, they have never had a band return like this. Researcher Roth says the warblers are also unique among forest birds: They have been proposed for listing under the Endangered Species Act. They are territorial both nesting and wintering. They may be more greatly impacted by climate change; and they hybridize with blue-winged warblers. Plus, this particular golden-winged warbler that Ms. Roth caught is unique among his feathered kin. Thanks to Ms. Roth and her colleagues, he is now sporting a miniature geolocator, a device that could illuminate his whole migratory path. While golden-winged warblers are not fairy tale creatures, the fact that different researchers caught the same bird is a dream come true. “This is one of the things that people in our field sit and talk and dream about, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if someone caught one of these birds someday?’” Ms. Roth says, admitting she was excited when she and her fellow researchers caught the warbler in Nicaragua on Jan. 25 at Reserva El Jaguar, a private forest reserve which is the only golden-winged warbler reserve in the world. James Marshall of Rockford University banded the bird on Sept. 2, 2014, at the Severson Dells Forest Preserve in Illinois. The U.S. Geological Survey Bird Banding Lab keeps all U.S. bird band records and tracks new encounters with these banded birds, including the golden-winged warbler caught by Ms. Roth and Marshall. Marshall works with Rockford University undergraduates on a number of research projects involving birds, including how migrant birds help spread invasive bush honeysuckles. All of the projects involved banding birds, but none were explicitly looking for golden-winged warblers. “I saw a lot of golden-wings come through in the spring, but I had never caught one in Illinois,” Marshall says. On the day the banded bird was caught, he was the fifth of six. “I was already excited to catch so many. I didn’t realize just how exciting it would be.” And just one warbler can illustrate the importance of migratory stop-over sites to birds of concern. The Severson Dells, where the golden-winged warbler was banded, is one such site. Green spaces like the Severson Dells are crucial for |
 Michigan Technological
University photo
This is the tiny bird at its Nicaraguan
destination.
 Michigan Technological University
graphic
Map shows the migrating
path.migrating birds. Golden-winged warblers prefer shrubby nesting grounds, a habitat they share with hunted species like ruffed grouse and woodcock, but they forage in the trees. “Those forest islands tend to be magnets for birds on migrations,” says Ms. Roth, who also researches forest bird migration patterns and conservation around the Great Lakes. She says with the golden-winged warbler’s northern story, there is only one piece missing. “Where did this guy breed?” she asks. “It would be great to get the third point, which would be his home territory on the breeding grounds, likely somewhere in the western Great Lakes.” |
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
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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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 |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, April 9, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 69 | |||||||
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| German researchers plan encryption for the people By the Fraunhofer Institute
for Secure Information Technology SIT In the wake of the revelations that intelligence agencies have been engaged in mass surveillance activities, both industry and society at large are looking for practicable encryption solutions that protect businesses and individuals. Previous technologies have failed in practice because they were too expensive or not user friendly enough. The Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology SIT has launched an open initiative called Volksverschlüsselung with the aim of bringing end-to-end encryption to the masses. Encryption is the most effective antidote to unwarranted, mass surveillance of people, companies and authorities. Although there are any number of computer programs designed to, say, make e-mail communication more secure, most people find them to be too much of a hassle. This is why the German government made establishing universal and easy-to-use encryption part of its digital agenda. A research team from Fraunhofer in Darmstadt developed a public encryption concept that factors in user friendliness from the outset. The software automatically installs the cryptographic keys in the right places on a computer. The researchers are also working on an infrastructure that will be available to everyone and is compatible with existing encryption services. “With this initiative and what it’s developing, Fraunhofer is supporting the German government’s efforts to better protect people and companies,” said Michael Waidner, head of Fraunhofer SIT. This is why Volksverschlüsselung is to be made available as open-source software. The software is the centerpiece of the solution. It relieves the user of the previously difficult task of allocating keys by recognizing which applications – different e-mail programs, for example – on a computer, smartphone or tablet can use cryptography and automatically allocates the right key to each one. The software also generates cryptographic keys that can be used to encrypt e-mails or files. If a user wants to send someone an encrypted e-mail, he or she will need the public key. In the Volksverschlüsselung model, the user can obtain this from the central infrastructure. “It works like a phone book,” says project manager Michael Herfert. “Anyone can look up and download public keys. The central infrastructure also ensures that the keys actually belong to the person requesting them and helps prevent identity fraud.” Fraunhofer researchers said people can register using the eID function of the German identity card. Other ways of registering are to be made possible in the future. To make it possible for a vast number of people to use the Volksverschlüsselung infrastructure, it would ideally have to be set up to handle several million keys. This calls for an infrastructure that is as efficient as it is secure. The current plan is to install the infrastructure on a high-security server at the Fraunhofer Institute Center in Birlinghoven near Bonn, and other trusted partners will also be able to participate soon. Companies also stand to benefit from the results of the Volksverschlüsselung project, especially from the software. Solutions developed as part of the project could help small and medium-sized enterprises in particular by making it easier for them to implement encryption and thus better protect trade secrets. Jury issues expected verdict in Boston bombing trial By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
As expected, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted on all counts Wednesday in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. The federal jury that now must decide whether the 21-year-old former college student should be executed. Jurors spent slightly more than 11 hours deciding Tsarnaev's guilt in two days of deliberations after 16 days of testimony. "It's not something that will ever be over," said Karen Brassard, whose ankles and shin were injured by pieces of the bomb. "You'll feel it forever. It's forever a part of our life . . . I don't know what justice is. I'm grateful to have him off the street.'' Two shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs exploded near the marathon finish line April 15, 2013, killing three people, Martin Richard, 8, Chinesestudent Lingzi Lu, 23, and Krystle Campbell, 29, and wounding more than 260 others. Tsarnaev also was convicted in the death of Sean Collier, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology patrol officer shot to death three days later as he and his older brother, Tamerlan, attempted to evade police. The defendant, dressed in a blue sweater and dark blazer, looked pale as he entered the courtroom to hear the verdict. His lawyer, Judy Clarke, gave him a brief pat on the back as he sat down. Tsarnaev folded his arms, fidgeted and looked down at the defense table as he listened to one guilty verdict after another on all 30 counts against him, including conspiracy, murder and use of a weapon of mass destruction. There were some families of victims in the courtroom, and their reaction as the verdict was read was very calm. They seemed satisfied with the verdict judging by discussions she had with them outside the courthouse. Seventeen of the counts are capital offenses, making him eligible for the death penalty. “I hope today’s verdict provides a small amount of closure for the survivors, families, and all impacted by the violent and tragic events surrounding the 2013 Boston Marathon,” Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh said in a statement. “The incidents of those days have forever left a mark on our city.” During the penalty phase, which could begin as early as Monday, Tsarnaev's lawyers will present so-called mitigating evidence they hope will save his life. That could include evidence about his family, his relationship with his brother, and his childhood in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan and later in the volatile Dagestan region of Russia. Tsarnaev's conviction was practically a foregone conclusion. His lawyers admitted he participated in the bombings. But in a bid to save Tsarnaev from a death sentence, defense attorney Clarke argued that Tsarnaev, then 19, fell under the influence of his radicalized older brother. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died when he was shot by police and run over by his brother during a chaotic getaway attempt days after the bombing. "If not for Tamerlan, it would not have happened," Ms. Clarke told the jury during closing arguments. Prosecutors laid out evidence that the defendant, an ethnic Chechen who emigrated from Russia a decade before the attack, had read and listened to jihadist materials, and wrote a note in the boat where he was found hiding suggesting the bombing was an act of retribution for U.S. military campaigns in Muslim-dominated countries. Earlier Wednesday, the jury asked U.S. District Judge George O'Toole to clarify two legal terms. They asked about the term "conspiracy," which appears in several of the charges. O'Toole explained it applied to a plot between Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev that existed from February through April 19 of 2013, when the younger brother was caught. Jurors also asked if "aiding and abetting," which also appears in several charges, were separate ideas. The judge said the terms represent a single concept. Massachusetts has not executed anyone since 1947, and Roman Catholic bishops in the state reiterated their opposition to the death penalty on Monday, when the first phase of the trial wrapped up. White House seeks ban on conversion therapies By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The White House is calling for a ban on so-called conversion therapies, psychiatric practices aimed at changing a person's gender identity or sexual orientation. In a statement posted Wednesday on the White House Web site, senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett said conversion therapy can have "potentially devastating effects on the lives of transgender, as well as gay, lesbian, bisexual" youth. "The overwhelming scientific evidence demonstrates that conversion therapy, especially when it is practiced on young people, is neither medically nor ethically appropriate, and can cause substantial harm," the statement says. It is posted along with a petition calling for congressional legislation to ban conversion therapies. The bill is to be enacted in memory of 17-year-old Leelah Alcorn, a transgender youth who committed suicide by throwing herself in front of a tractor-trailer last December. In an online suicide note, Ms. Alcorn said her parents had pulled her out of school and put her into conversion therapy to change her back into being a boy. The White House statement concludes, "This administration believes that young people should be valued for who they are, no matter what they look like, where they’re from, the gender with which they identify, or who they love." U.S. sweep nets thousand international gang members By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Nearly 1,000 gang members and associates from 239 different gangs were arrested across the United States in an operation headed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the agency said Wednesday. The sweep, named Project Wildfire, was aimed at criminal gangs that work across international borders. The operation, carried out from Feb. 23 to March 31, netted 976 gang members and associates in 282 cities. Most of them were U.S. citizens, but 199 were foreign nationals from 18 countries in South and Central America, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Caribbean, the agency said. Of those arrested, 913 were charged with criminal offenses, 63 were arrested for immigration violations and 650 had violent criminal histories. Agents also seized 82 firearms, several kilos of illegal drugs, nearly $400,000 in U.S. currency, counterfeit merchandise and five vehicles. Since U.S. authorities launched Operation Community Shield in 2005, agents have arrested more than 36,000 gang members and associates linked to 2,600 street gangs, the agency said. New York court is asked to OK end-of-life concept By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Sara Myers was diagnosed four years ago with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a paralyzing, always fatal neurodegenerative disease. “At the time I was told three to five years life expectancy. I am traveling down this road, not at a fast pace, but not at a slow pace either,” Ms. Myers, 60, said recently in her New York apartment, where she is confined to a wheelchair. “I am losing my ability to breathe, and I am opting not to go for a tracheotomy or ventilator." “I’ve been trying to live each day as fully as I can,” she continued. “But when it gets to the point that my bad days outweigh the good, and I know that it’s only going to get worse, then I might decide to end my suffering then.” Ms. Myers wants to be able to end her life with a lethal drug dose, if she chooses, while she is still able to swallow. She is among eight patients and medical professionals who filed suit in New York State Supreme Court recently, challenging a state law that bars physicians from prescribing life-ending drugs to dying patients. “This is really about a patient’s choice to determine how he or she is going to die. It’s not a question of whether a patient is going to die, it’s a question of how they’re going to do it, and who’s going to make that decision” said David Leven, executive director of End of Life Choices New York, another plaintiff in the suit brought by the Disability Rights Legal Center. Like others in the aid in dying movement, as supporters call it, Leven contends that it should not be considered suicide when a mentally competent adult in the end stages of terminal illness takes a lethal drug. But in all but five U.S. states it is illegal for physicians to assist terminal patients in ending their lives. The exceptions are Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, Montana and Vermont. Oregon’s “Death with Dignity” law is the best-known, largely because of the recent YouTube advocacy of Brittany Maynard. A 29-year-old newlywed diagnosed with incurable brain cancer, Ms. Maynard did not want to die semiconscious or suffering in a hospital bed. She chose to move from California to Oregon in time to qualify as a resident and receive a lethal prescription. “I want to be sure my husband and mother are with me when I die. I want to leave this earth in my home, in the arms of my husband and my parents,” she said in one of the videos she made before she ended her life last November. The Oregon law requires two physicians to certify that a patient has a life expectancy of less than six months, is mentally competent, not suffering from depression, and is not being coerced. Patients must make two requests for aid in dying separated by 15 days, as well as a written, witnessed request, and must take the medication themselves. In the 18 years since the law took effect, 1,173 people have received such prescriptions and 752 have ended their lives with them, according to a report by Compassion & Choices, a group that advocates for laws like Oregon’s. The group says that simply having the medicine as an option creates peace of mind for some dying people, who then choose to let the disease take its course. Since Ms. Maynard’s death, lawmakers in at least 20 states, including New York and California, have introduced bills to legalize physician-assisted dying. They are opposed on religious grounds by Roman Catholic leaders, as well as by some disability rights groups who say the laws will be abused and lead to euthanasia. T.K. Small, of the group Not Dead Yet, says patients will be pressured to end their lives, because health care for the dying is very costly, while lethal drugs are cheap. “When you have a $300 prescription, versus a very expensive chemotherapy regime or just having somebody to help you in your home, that’s expensive,” he said in an interview. “A person who is a caregiver, who stands to inherit money, can be a witness when these forms and prescriptions are requested from a doctor. An individual receiving money under a will can literally go pick up the medicine, and there’s no other witnesses involved." Small noted that the terminally ill are able to speed up death by refusing food and fluids, while accepting pain medication. He would choose that palliative care method, he said. “From what I hear there’s more morphine than you can shake a stick at in these palliative-care practices. It wouldn’t take long, a few days,” he said, adding, “I would feel comfortable knowing that I hadn’t compromised the existences of other people.” Aid-in-dying proponents maintain that the palliative option can still entail great suffering, and isn’t ethically different from timing one’s death via a drug. Some people, bedridden and retaining fluid, have lived as long as two weeks. In her final video, Brittany Maynard explained why she had rejected palliative care. “I can’t imagine what that experience would be like. I may be minimally conscious, still suffering and unable to move or speak,” she said, adding, “Death with dignity is a much swifter and peaceful way to pass.” Supporters also contend that legalizing physician-prescribed aid in dying will prevent premature, often violent suicides by people diagnosed with terminal illness. Marcia Angell, a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, has written that her father, who shot himself rather than endure a lingering death from metastatic cancer, might have chosen to live longer had he known he could ingest a drug that would enable him to die quickly and without pain. In an essay for the New York Review of Books, she asked, “Why should anyone, the state, the medical profession, or anyone else, presume to tell someone else how much suffering they must endure as their life is ending?” Recent polls report that a majority of Americans are coming to agree: about three out of four Americans now believe that terminally ill patients in pain should have the right to end their lives. A majority of physicians and several medical associations also now support legalizing physician-assisted deaths. The largest, however, the American Medical Association, continues to oppose legalization, saying it is “fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose societal risks.” Cheap allergy pill found to block spread of hepatitis C By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Researchers have discovered that an inexpensive allergy medicine can treat hepatitis C, a serious liver disease. The medicine is chlorcyclizine HCL, an antihistamine that has been around for a half century. Researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health have found that chlorcyclizine and similar drugs can treat hepatitis C by blocking the virus so it cannot infect liver cells. The discovery was made using a cell-based, high-throughput screening method. The technique is used to analyze thousands of government-approved compounds quickly for their effectiveness against viral and bacterial infections. The research is published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Jake Liang, chief of the Liver Diseases Branch at National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases near Washington, where the discovery was made, said that the hepatitis virus "continues to infect new cells as the infection goes on. So, our thought is, if we can prevent or destruct that reinfection process, the infected cells will die eventually, so you would not have any more infected cells.” Hepatitis C is spread through sexual contact or infected blood products. It can lead to liver failure, cancer, and cirrhosis or hardening of the liver. Millions of people around the world carry the hepatitis C virus or are ill because of it. Liang noted that effective treatments are now available, "but the current drugs are expensive, have side effects and are associated with resistance. Also, these drugs are only active against certain HP strains. So, in light of these issues, I think there’s still ... a need in the treatment of hepatitis.” The price tag for current hepatitis C drugs is approximately $84,000 for a 12-week course. In contrast, chlorcyclizine costs about 50 cents a pill. Researchers’ next step is to determine a therapeutic dose of the antihistamine for treatment of hepatitis C. Officer held in murder case also loses his employment By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A white police officer in South Carolina has been dismissed after a video showed him firing repeated shots at a fleeing, unarmed black man and killing him after a traffic stop. "We do not condone wrong," North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey said Wednesday at a news conference. "It doesn't matter who it is." Officer Michael Slager was fired and accused of murder in the killing last Saturday of 50-year-old Walter Scott after the policeman pulled him over for driving with a broken brake light. The video, taken by a bystander with a cellphone camera, shows Slager firing eight times at Scott. "I have watched the video, and I was sickened by what I saw," North Charleston Police Chief Eddie Driggers said. The South Carolina incident is the latest in a series of fatal encounters in the United States between unarmed black males and white police, including the shootings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio, and the chokehold death of Eric Garner in New York City. The incidents led to large protests across the nation over aggressive police tactics in minority communities. Some protesters chanted "No justice, no peace!" at the North Charleston news conference. Summey and Driggers said they had visited Scott's family to voice their sympathy over the killing, but declined to answer numerous questions about it. They said the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the state’s criminal investigative body, has taken over the investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation has started a separate probe. After Scott fell to the ground after the final shot, Slager walked over to Scott and handcuffed him, then returned to the spot where he opened fire. The officer picked up something from the ground, walked back to Scott's body, and dropped the object next to him. Scott's father, Walter Scott, Sr., told NBC's Today show Wednesday that he believes his son may have tried to flee because "he didn't want to go to jail again" for child support payments he owed. "He just ran away." Slager initially said he opened fire after Scott had taken his electronic stun gun during a scuffle. The unidentified witness who took the video turned it over to Scott's family. A lawyer for the family turned the video over to The New York Times, which posted it on its Web site Tuesday. "What if there was no video?" Chris Stewart, the attorney for Scott's family, told reporters late Tuesday night. "What if there was no witness, or hero as I call him, to come forward? Then this wouldn't have happened, because as you can see the initial reports stated something totally different, the officer said that Mr. Scott attacked him and pulled his taser and tried to use it on him, but somebody was watching." U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, an African American, said on Twitter that he had seen the video of the shooting. Scott said it was senseless and absolutely unnecessary and avoidable. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, April 9, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 69 | |||||||||
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 Ministerio de Seguridad Publica
photo
Police confiscated
these orchids when they detained a man for theftof forest plants and remanded him to the flagrancy court. The man is accused of taking the orchids from private property. Fuel thefts are called inside jobs By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
At least 10 companies complained that for over the past eight months their vehicle fuel bills has risen noticeably. The complaints resulted in the detention of 12 drivers Wednesday on the allegation that they were taking fuel from their firms' vehicles, said the Judicial Investigating Organization. Judicial police in Heredia said that the fuel was sold at a location in San Francisco de Heredia. Agents said that when they raided the San Francisco location Wednesday they found a machine that was used to remove the fuel and eight containers that held diesel. Love pales in face of credit card bills By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The young miss lavished expensive gifts on her 25-year-old sweetheart. There were so many gifts that she could not pay the estimated $2,000 credit card bill. So judicial police said the woman's two brothers contacted the boyfriend and suggested that he pay off the credit card debt. The Judicial Investigating Organization said they punctuated their demands with the display of a firearm. Judicial police characterized this as extortion when the boyfriend filed a complaint. So they detained the two brothers, 32 and 41 years, Wednesday in Parque Central where the boyfriend was supposed to delivery the money. Agents said they confiscated a 9-mm. pistol. |
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| From Page 7: Regulator wants excess power to be sold By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The utility regulator wants the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad to make plans for exporting power during the rainy season. The regulator, the Autoridad Reguladora de Servicios Públicos, said that the country sold $3.6 million in power last year and managed to save $44 million by importing cheaper power during the dry season and saving on oil-fired generation. The countries of the region have formed the Mercado Eléctrico Regional to trade power back and forth. Costa Rica has an advantage because it generates excess power during the rainy season and is expected to have more surplus when the Reventazón hydro plant goes into operation next year, noted the regulator. A response from the power generator is expected, the agency said. |
