Attacker douses women
with highly caustic liquid


A man on a motorcycle stopped and confronted a 32-year-old woman while she was walking with a girlfriend Tuesday night. The man threw some sort of liquid on the woman that caused burns on 80 percent of her body.

The attack happened in Pueblo Cívil de Golfito, and by Wednesday morning the woman, identified by the last name of  Marchena, had been transported to Hospital San Juan de Dios in San José

Her injuries include to her face.

The man appeared to be prepared for the attack because he was dressed in black and threw the liquid without any words.

Judicial investigators from Ciudad Neily are looking into any interpersonal conflicts in the woman's past to try to identify suspects, said the Judicial Investigating Organization.


Licensing agency worker held
in use of fake medical reports


A worker at the Consejo de Seguridad Víal was detained Wednesday morning by agents from the Judicial Investigation Organization on suspicion of information fraud, identity fraud, and the use of false documents. Agents also arrested another man and two women thought to have paid money in exchange for falsified documents.

The worker for the road safety agency was arrested at his house in Desamparados where a raid and subsequent confiscation allowed investigators to come upon critical evidence, they said. The other three suspects were detained at their  homes throughout the Central Valley.

Investigators found that the worker had compiled and put into the agency computers fake medical reports, dictámenes médicos, that are required for getting a license. 

The four suspects were presented to prosecutors on Wednesday.


Thomas Fisher, expat Marine,
will be remembered today


Thomas Fisher, a long-time resident of Costa Rica, died in bed Sunday at his home in Sabana Norte, and his remains were cremated Monday.

Fisher was a former sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps, and served in the Chu Lai, Vietnam, vicinity in the late 1960s.  He was a former member of Costa Rica Post 10 American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the Marine Corps League.

Although originally from Tennessee, Fisher moved to Costa Rica from Dallas, Texas, and was known in expat circles as Dallas Tom.

He leaves a widow, Marietta Fisher, and a teenaged daughter, both Costa Rica born, who live at the family home in Sabana Norte.

An informal wake is planned for today beginning at 4:40 p.m. in  JoeB´s Bar-Restaurant located on Calle 7 between Avenida Central and Avenida 2.


Here's a way to handle
those brazen motorcyclists

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

This is in response to the small story you published on motorcycle deaths in Tuesday's edition;

I am a moto rider and have been for many years. I used to race moto X in Canada when I was younger and now ride a dual sport bike in Costa Rica for leisure. There are way too many moto deaths in the city. This is obvious. The ridiculous part to this is that the transit police feel that checking the rider's equipment and licensing will cut down on the enormous number of accidents and deaths.

In my opinion the reason for the deaths is largely attributed to erratic driving. Why do the police, government, and most motorists turn a blind eye as to the way these idiots ride the city streets. 90 percent of the motos on the streets DO NOT follow safety or traffic laws. They take way too many unnecessary chances. They go through red lights at will, weave around in and around cars, cut people off and then look at them like they're at fault.

I don't know how many times I have just about run one of these guys over trying to change lanes. A person can't be expected to see them splitting traffic doing double any sort of reasonable speed. I have been on the highway and had a rider split between me and another driver on a two-lane highway while doing 100 kms.

The bottom line is that they do not follow any of the traffic laws and put theirs and other drivers' lives in danger.

I don't think checking their equipment and registration is the answer. Education and enforcement is desperately needed or the deaths will continue to accelerate. You need to get some of these guys off the streets. Maybe the police should enforce the same traffic laws as for automobiles. Sure, most of these riders don't have much money, so traffic tickets may not be the answer. Why don't we start seizing bikes from the crazy riders. Keep the bikes for 30 days then make them read a bike etiquette and safety manual, then pass a small test. Give them back their bikes after they pass with 80 percent or better. Slowly they might figure it out.

But most important of all, ENFORCE some traffic laws on these guys. There are traffic laws for motorbikes here, right?


Security glitch brings call
for changing passwords


A glitch in software meant to encrypt and protect online transactions has potentially exposed millions of passwords, credit card numbers and other sensitive bits of information to potential theft by computer hackers.
 
Security researchers at Google and Internet security firm Codenomicon revealed the breakdown, known as Heartbleed, on Tuesday. The glitch was in a vulnerable version of software known as OpenSSL. 
 
OpenSSL software is meant to protect online accounts for emails, instant messaging and a wide range of electronic commerce.
 
Heartbleed is of particular concern because it went undetected for more than two years, making it difficult for people to know if they’ve been compromised. Security researchers are advising people to consider changing their online passwords.
 
“The Heartbleed bug allows anyone on the Internet to read the memory of the systems protected by the vulnerable versions of the OpenSSL software,” according to the Web site Heartbleed.com, which was set up by Codenomicon. “This compromises the secret keys used to identify the service providers and to encrypt the traffic, the names and passwords of the users and the actual content.”
 
Codenomicon said it had tested its own services from an attacker’s perspective and successfully stolen usernames and passwords, instant messages, emails and business critical documents all without leaving a trace.
 
The discovery of the bug prompted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to issue a warning computer users and systems administrators to see whether they’re using OpenSSL.
 
Codenomicon is advising service providers and users to “install the fix as it becomes available for the operating systems, networked appliances and software they use.”

Experts say Heartbleed is serious and of concern to all Internet users, but that before changing passwords, check to see that the bug has been patched.