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José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, April 14, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 72
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 28 at the Centro de Investigación y Conservación del Patrimonio Cultural on the pedestrian walkway in downtown San José. Special fund
will fight disease outbreaks
Special to A.M. Costa Rica
The Pan-American Health Organization and CAF-Development Bank of Latin America announced joint actions to strengthen the capacity of countries in the Americas to respond to disease outbreaks and epidemics, including ebola, during the 7th Summit of the Americas, which was held in Panama City. CAF is making available up to $300 million to support efforts to prepare for ebola and other potential disease outbreaks. The announcement was made by Carissa F. Etienne and CAF Executive President Enrique Garcia, who noted that the impact of diseases such as ebola can go far beyond the health sector. Ms. Etienne is director of the regional health agency, a World Health Organization entity. “In our interconnected world, disease outbreaks can have serious economic and social repercussions,” said Ms. Etienne. “Countries need to be ready to protect themselves.” Garcia said the $300 million “demonstrates CAF’s willingness to keep offering financial alternatives and technical assistance to its member countries to help their governments handle risks, start prevention plans and respond with agility and speed when confronting emergencies." CAF´s funding, approved by its board of directors in late 2014, will be available to support efforts including strengthening epidemic surveillance systems and health services to ensure rapid and effective response to potential disease outbreaks. PAHO/WHO will provide technical support for CAF and for member countries in disease outbreak preparedness efforts, in collaboration with national governments in Latin America and the Caribbean. Pan-American Health has undertaken a series of actions to help its member countries in Latin America and the Caribbean increase their preparedness to CAF is a development bank created in 1970, made up by 19 countries—17 of Latin America and the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal—as well as 14 private banks in the region.  Red Sismológica Nacional
photo
This is one of the lava
bombs recovered near the volcanoExistence
of lava confirmed at Turrialba
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Volcano experts have recovered blocks of lava that were expelled as flaming chunks from the Volcán Turrialba. This is confirmation that lava exists just a few hundred feet below the crater. The Red Sismológica Nacional said its experts made a field trip to the volcano crater Friday and recovered samples. The material is basaltic andesite, a typical product of Costa Rican volcanoes. The experts have been studying the ash to see if there was lava in it, but with the recovery of the basaltic pieces, there is no doubt, the Universidad de Costa Rica agency said on its Facebook page. This is the same sort of glowing material that was expelled for years from the Arenal volcano and drew tourists from all over the world. Agents seek chalice stolen in October By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Judicial Investigating Organization issued a request for help Monday to locate a religious chalice and other items that were stolen in Moravia in October. The judicial agency did not say why there was such a delay. The items were taken from a chapel in San Jerónimo de Moravia by a daylight thief who came in through a window, the agency said. The gold-plated chalice has encrusted precious stones and is worth about $2,500, the agency said. Truck was a rolling time bomb By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A truck on the highway may harbor surprises. When police pulled over a truck Sunday in El Cocal, Puntarenas, they found 1,800 liters of gasoline in 30 60-liter containers. That's about 475 gallons. The man now faces an allegation of illegally transporting explosive material. Small power firm seeks rate hike By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The electrical firm Coopealfaro is seeking a 30.22 percent rate hike, according to the Autoridad Reguladora de Servicios Públicos. The firm serves about 7,000 customers in the canton of Alfaro Ruiz in Alajuela. World financial officials meet in D.C. By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Top central bank and financial officials from nearly 200 nations are in Washington for World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings that will focus on speeding up economic growth, creating jobs, and avoiding political bickering. New studies show the pace of global growth is frustratingly slow. Even with falling oil prices and strong U.S. growth, the head of the International Monetary Fund said the global economy only expanded around 3.4 percent last year. While that is near the average growth over the last couple of decades, the fund's managing director, Christine Lagarde, said growth was uneven and too slow. "Given the lingering impact of the great recession on people, it is actually generating hardship for many people around the world, including those countries where more than 50 percent of the youth population goes unemployed. So growth is not good enough," she said. Ms. Lagarde urged nations to take advantage of lower oil prices to cut energy subsidies and use the saved money on education to boost long-term economic growth. The International Monetary Fund chief said progress on trade agreements could also help growth and employment, while better access to credit could help small businesses hire more people. And she called for more investment in infrastructure to provide jobs in the short term and bolster growth in the long term by facilitating commerce. Improved infrastructure is also the focus of the new Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Some analysts see it as a rival to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which critics say are unfairly dominated by Western nations. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim is urging the new bank to adhere to high standards for dealing with environmental and labor issues. He also said nearly one billion people around the world struggle to survive on less than $1.25 a day. Kim pledged to work closely with the new bank because the enemy was poverty not other institutions. World Bank critics said the global lender would fight poverty more effectively if it speeded up efforts to reform its large bureaucracy and improved safeguards for people and environments affected by bank projects.
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and may
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, April 14, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 72 | |
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| Industrial chamber challenges tax agency on shareholder names |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The nation's industrial chamber has appealed the tax agency's plan to get the names of company shareholders. The chamber, the Cámara de Industrias de Costa Rica, said it filed the contencioso administrativo appeal because the Dirección General de Tributación is seeking this information without legal authority. The chamber said that this defeats the purpose of an anonymous corporation and also violates the Costa Rican Constitution. |
The tax
agency issued a resolution that included a request for the names of
shareholders of large firms. The chamber also is seeking a legal prohibition against the tax agency seeking the information while the case progresses. Some Costa Rican investors want to keep their names private for safety reasons. The tax agency promises confidentiality, but the files will be open to many employees. Some companies have to report their shareholders. Any firm that does business with the government has to list shareholders so that officials know that there is no conflict of interest. |
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Rampage
Police greeted with rioters, rocks By the A.M. Costa Rica staff A gang attacked a man and then went on to wreak havoc in Vista Hermosa de San Rafael, Oreamuno, Cartago, Sunday night. The first police on the scene were greeted with rocks, so the Unidad de Intervención Policial, the riot squad, was called in. In the midst of the melee police said someone fired a shotgun several times. The marauders sacked several homes in the area and stole possessions. At least one vehicle had a window shattered. At one home the rioters stole a marijuana plant. Eventually police detained seven persons, and two turned out to be juveniles. The origin of the gang activity still is being investigated. Police said they retrieved some of the stolen items and also confiscated the shotgun. |
 Ministerio de
Seguridad Pública photo
The rampage probably was not about marijuana. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, April 14, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 72 | |||||
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| Internet hacking is expected to get much worse, experts agree |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
First came reports that Lenovo’s “Superfish” software was designed to intentionally break secure connections and steal users’ private data. Then, Gemalto, the world’s largest SIM card manufacturer, announced it had reasonable grounds to conclude British and American intelligence services stole the firm’s encryption keys for billions of mobile phones. Next, the cyber security firm Kaspersky Labs revealed that cyber-criminals, using a new bit of malware dubbed Carbanak. quietly stole upward of $1 billion from dozens of European banks before anyone caught on. And then came Fanny, a newly discovered package of crypto-worms and viruses with close similarities to Stuxnet that began turning up on thousands of computers, permanently destroying their hard drives. These reports came out in the span of just one week recently. And the news may get progressively worse. A recent poll of Internet security professionals at a major cyber security conference found that 93 percent of respondents said hacking will only get worse in the coming year, with 44 percent believing the U.S. is losing the battle against hack attacks. There’s an emerging consensus among analysts about what needs to be done about it and how individuals can defend themselves. “Twenty five years ago, I could never have imagined all this,” said cyber security expert Bhavani Thuraisingham. “It’s almost like we’re being attacked from every direction and everyone is attacking everyone else.” Now a professor at the University of Texas – Dallas, and director of the school’s Cyber Security Research Center, Ms. Thuraisingham spent many years working in the field of cyber-security before anyone knew what to call it. She said that hack attacks have been on an upswing lately, and is quick to caution that the situation is likely to get much worse before it starts getting better. “The bad actors, they only have to get one thing right once, whereas we have to be correct 100 percent of the time.” Ms. Thuraisingham said. “It’s almost like terrorism. We need to focus much more on the prevention methods because that’s really what we need if we want to stop this.” Top on her list of prevention methods are hacking prediction models. Ms. Thuraisingham said the models, still under development, would allow security professionals not just to plug security holes once they’ve developed but also to predict attacks before they happen. “We’re always dealing with the immediate problems right in front of us, much like cleaning up the broken china once it’s hit the floor,” she said. “If we’re going to really defend ourselves, we have to get out in front of the problem.” The explosion of hacking attacks is something that’s not likely to go away any time soon, analysts say. “We’re kind of living in what amounts to a digital wild west. This is something that folks are going to have to adapt to,” said Patrick Eddington, a policy analyst at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute. |
Eddington
said these attacks come from a wide array of sources
including organized crime, crypto-anarchist groups, corporate spies and
state-sponsored groups, such as “Unit 61398,” a hacking operation
allegedly run by China’s People’s Liberation Army. “If you look at the polling, you do find a tremendous amount of concern over what’s going on,” Eddington said. “But it hasn’t as yet translated into a sustained level of pressure on lawmakers. That may stem from the fact that, in people’s daily lives, they’re much more concerned about keeping a roof over their head, keeping their job, getting their kids through school.” One tool both Eddington and Ms. Thuraisingham say can help stop, or at least slow many hacks, is encryption. “If you’re not encrypting, it’s like not locking your door when you go to sleep,” Ms. Thuraisingham said. “It’s a protection but it’s not fool-proof. A lock-pick could still get in. But a lock, like encryption, deters most people.” That may be, but elements in the U.S. government, most notably the FBI, have issued a series of warnings about the spreading use of encryption, and the potential for misuse by criminals or terrorists. Last fall, FBI Director James Comey compared encrypted devices to safes that could never be opened, putting a wealth of potential helpful information for law enforcement permanently out of reach. “If the challenges of real-time interception threaten to leave us in the dark, encryption threatens to lead all of us to a very dark place,” he said. More recently, Rep. John Carter, a Texas Republican, chairman of the House Homeland Security Appropriates Subcommittee, echoed Comey’s concerns. “I don’t know anything about this stuff,” he admitted at a recent hearing, adding that “invaders from around the world trying to get in here. If that gets to be the wall, and even the law can’t penetrate it, then aren’t we creating an instrument that’s the perfect tool for lawlessness?” he said. But analysts say U.S. officials are sending mixed messages. “The FBI was for encryption before they were against it,” cyber security expert Eddington said. “If you go back to fall 2012 when different malware attacks – like Finfisher – were going on, the FBI was encouraging people to use encryption to help protect themselves. These hacking attacks are helping to bring this fundamental conflict to the surface.” The encryption debate is unlikely to be settled anytime soon, and it will likely be years before hacking prediction models will be robust enough to defend against potential attacks. So what can be done? Analysts Eddington and Ms. Thuraisingham – as well as many other cyber security analysts – say it’s critical for everyone online to practice good Internet hygiene. “Change your passwords,” Ms. Thuraisingham said. “Update your software. Don’t click on links or attachments that people you don’t know send you. Stop putting too much stuff on Facebook. That’s clean hygiene. And use encryption as much as possible, so at least if you’re hacked,” he said. “It’s still encrypted.” |
Here's reasonable medical care
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2015 and may
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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| Rubio joins presidential race to become third Republican By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida officially joined the 2016 presidential race Monday. He’s the third Republican to announce a White House bid, and his announcement came one day after Democrat Hillary Clinton launched her second presidential campaign. Rubio vowed to move the country beyond the politics of the past to what he called a new American century. He also took a swipe at Mrs. Clinton’s entrance into the presidential race on Sunday. "Just yesterday, a leader from yesterday began a campaign for president by promising to take us back to yesterday," he said to boos from the crowd. "Yesterday is over. There is no going back." The candidate announced his campaign in downtown Miami in front of the Freedom Tower, a processing center for tens of thousands of Cuban exiles who fled the island nation in the 1960s and 1970s. "Grounded by the lessons of our history but inspired by the promise of our future, I announce my candidacy for the presidency of the United States!" he said. At 43, Rubio is the youngest candidate in the field so far, and offers Republicans the potential of winning over some younger voters as well as Hispanic Americans. He’s the son of Cuban immigrants who came to the U.S. shortly before Fidel Castro took power in 1959. Rubio’s unique biography will be a major focus of his campaign, said Republican strategist Ford O’Connell. "He has the most compelling narrative of the entire Republican field," O’Connell said. "The question is, how does he package it going forward so that voters know who he is and what it is he stands for? In a lot of ways, he does represent the American dream." Rubio is the third first-term Senate Republican to join the presidential field, following in the footsteps of Ted Cruz of Texas (who also has Cuban roots) and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Rubio won his Senate seat in 2010 thanks in part to strong support from Tea Party activists. But his subsequent backing of a bipartisan immigration reform bill that included a path to citizenship for millions of people living in the U.S. illegally angered Tea Party groups. He may have his work cut out for him to win back their support. Public opinion polls show Rubio running in the middle of the Republican pack for the moment, trailing his political mentor, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, and current Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. In his announcement, Rubio made it clear he will continue as an unwavering critic of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy. He vowed that, with his election, America would once again accept the mantle of global leadership by abandoning the administration’s dangerous concessions to Iran and hostility to Israel. Rubio has used his seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to become a stalwart critic of Obama’s foreign policy. He was one of 47 Senate Republicans who signed a letter to Iran’s leaders warning that any nuclear deal they reach with the Obama White House might not survive once Obama leaves the presidency in early 2017. Rubio has become a leading Senate hawk on dealing with the threat from Islamic State and in confronting Russia over its ambitions in Ukraine. Rubio is expected to be front and center during Foreign Relations Committee hearings in the weeks ahead, strategist O’Connell predicted. "He will do it on the back of national security and military policies because that is essentially what he has been selling himself as, particularly with his Senate experience." The Senate could become even more lively than usual with Rubio, Cruz and Paul all vying for the White House at the same time. A fourth senator, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, also is mulling a presidential bid. Graham often teams with Sen. John McCain as one of the leading Republican hawks and a harsh critic of the Obama foreign policy. The Rubio announcement came just one day after former secretary of State Clinton launched her second presidential campaign with a highly produced Web video that put the focus more on voters and less on Mrs. Clinton. "Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion," Mrs. Clinton said in the video kicking off her campaign. Mrs. Clinton is now moving on to early contest states such as Iowa and New Hampshire, where she will meet with small groups of voters. It’s a far different rollout from her 2008 campaign, when she ultimately lost a bruising primary campaign to Obama. Recent polls show if the election were held today, Clinton would beat all Republican candidates by a landslide. But Republican National Committee head Reince Priebus said he believes voters do not trust her. "Over decades as a Washington insider, Clinton has left a trail of secrecy, scandal and failed policies that cannot be erased from voters' minds," he said. They include the deadly terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and using an unofficial email account for official business as secretary of State. Republicans also are likely to bring up scandals involving her husband, former President Bill Clinton. "I believe our very identity as an exceptional nation is at stake, and I can make a difference as president," Rubio said. Referencing his Cuban-born parents, a bartender and maid, the lawmaker said, "America doesn’t owe me anything, but I have a debt to America that I must try to repay.… America is literally the place that changed my family’s history." His comments prompted periodic, enthusiastic outbursts from a crowd of supporters, who clapped, whistled and shouted "Marco! Marco!" Rubio, who rode the Tea Party wave of 2010 to national prominence, is making muscular foreign policy a focal point of his campaign, portraying himself as the Republican most ready to handle threats to America in a chaotic world. A video promoting the announcement casts Rubio's campaign as a new direction for America. It features clips of speeches in which he promotes the need for strong U.S. leadership in the world and criticizes President Barack Obama's policies. In his video and campaign announcement, Rubio said the American dream is slipping from too many families' grip, and young people face unequal opportunities to succeed. It was a message honed to pitch the GOP as a party that cares about all voters, not just those in upper tax brackets. Rubio will no doubt hear his rivals tell voters he's not ready for the White House. To counter that, Rubio has outlined specific policy proposals that boost him as a policy expert, both on foreign and domestic issues. Tuesday, his first day as an official candidate, he is set to return to Washington to join a Senate hearing on a proposed deal with Iran on its nuclear ambitions. Right now, Rubio's support registers in single digits in opinion polls of the likely contenders in what is expected to be a crowded Republican presidential field. But aides believe Rubio, who was on 2012 nominee Mitt Romney's short list for vice president, will rise in the polls when voters take a closer look at him. If elected, Rubio would become the nation's first Hispanic leader. Mrs. Clinton kicked off her campaign by hitting the road on a multi-state trip starting in Iowa, home of the country's first presidential caucus. Relationship-building seen as key to Cuban normalization By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The effort by the United States and Cuba to bridge gaps caused by more than 50 years of mutual hostility will require a heavy emphasis on relationship-building, says a former high-ranking State Department official. Retired ambassador Thomas Pickering, who served as under secretary of State for political affairs during the Clinton administration, said one of the biggest challenges for U.S. and Cuban diplomats will be to establish ties that allow them to speak frankly to each other. He said diplomats laid the groundwork in the lead-up to the December announcement that the two countries will start an effort to normalize relations. "They involve very important questions like dealing with prisoners and dealing with the atmosphere that would be set, and setting up the conversations that needed to take place," said Pickering. President Barack Obama and Cuban leader Raúl Castro met on the sidelines of last week’s Summit of the Americas in Panama. Also, Secretary of State John Kerry and his Cuban counterpart, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, had their first face-to-face meeting since the normalization process began. Kerry told ABC’s This Week program that Washington has embarked on a policy of transformation with Havana. “It will begin slowly,” said Kerry. “The first thing is diplomatic relations," he said. Perhaps Kerry’s best-known relationship building effort involves Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif. State Department officials said the two diplomats held more than 10 hours of one-on-one talks during just the most recent round of nuclear negotiations. Pickering said he expects Kerry also will try to develop a strong relationship with Rodríguez. "Personal relationship does not mean you give away the store. It means, in effect, that you can speak very frankly to each other and have that opportunity to build understanding," said Pickering. Some Cuban human rights activists have expressed concern that the U.S. could lose its leverage with Cuba in its bid to normalize relations, which includes lifting a half-century trade embargo and easing banking restrictions. However, Pickering said stronger ties actually could give U.S. officials an opportunity to voice human rights concerns to a higher level of the Cuban government. There could be other benefits, said Ted Piccone, a senior fellow with the Latin American Initiative at the Brookings Institution. In an April report published by Brookings, Piccone said the shift toward critical engagement with Cuba offered the U.S. a chance to advance its strategic interests in a variety of areas, including counter-narcotics and counterterrorism cooperation, aviation and maritime security, disaster relief, human trafficking and migration.  Lincoln is found on many stamps and
currency.
Lincoln
assassination marked
around the United States By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln 150 years ago changed the course of U.S. history. Museums and historic institutions across the country are featuring special exhibits, plays and musical performances to commemorate that seminal event on April 14, 1865. At Ford's Theatre in the nation's capital, where Lincoln was shot, objects from that tragic evening are being presented together for the first time. The theater also is hosting more than 150 Civil War historians to recreate the all-night vigil for Abraham Lincoln. On April 14, 1865, as Lincoln and his wife Mary sat in the presidential box watching a play at the Washington theater, a shot rang out and the president slumped in his chair, mortally wounded. Shouting Sic semper tyrannis, a Latin phrase meaning "thus always to tyrants," actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth dropped his pistol and fled. Lincoln was carried to a house across the street, where he died the following morning. He was the first American president to be assassinated. Many still regard Lincoln as one of this country's greatest and most beloved presidents. His passing came just as he was leading the nation out of a bloody, four-year civil war that had led to the deaths of approximately 620,000 Union and Confederate soldiers. Saving the Union was one of the most remarkable achievements of his presidency, says Michelle Krowl, a historian at the Library of Congress in Washington. "In the hands of a lesser man, hands of a less resolute person, one who is less politically astute, it could’ve easily gone the other way," she said. "There were times when Lincoln was not sure that the war would necessarily be won. But he saw the United States as an experiment in democracy,” Ms. Krowl said, adding the 16th president “was upholding what the Founding Fathers had started. And in an era where republics that were governed by the people were very few and far between, he didn’t want that experiment in democracy to fail.” The Emancipation Proclamation that he issued on Jan. 1, 1863, declared that "all persons held as slaves within any state ... in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free." It set African-Americans on the path to freedom and helped set the stage for passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution two years later that outlawed slavery in every state. On Nov. 19, 1863, four months after the Union Army defeated the Confederate Army at the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, Lincoln gave his historic Gettysburg Address. "When you read the Gettysburg Address and he says 'this is a Government of the people, by the people, for the people,’ he meant that," noted Ms. Krowl. "Lincoln was someone who wanted to extend rights for people. He wanted the United States to really fulfill its democratic potential to be a place that fulfilled the Declaration of Independence, 'all men created equal.'" Historian Martin Johnson says Lincoln's Gettysburg Address became popular and important very quickly because it "condensed the lesson of the War in a very brief manner." After the war, Johnson said, the speech was recited "over and over again, hundreds of times across the Union and elsewhere.... It became rooted very quickly in American memory about what the Civil War meant." The Gettysburg Address also demonstrated Lincoln's mastery of the language and his worldwide appeal, Johnson added. “Schoolchildren around the world learn the speech as part of their lessons in English because it is recognized as one of the finest speeches by any American.” Lincoln's gift of language came from his love of storytelling, Ms. Krowl said. "He told stories all the time," she said, "usually with a purpose." He was also a patient man, with a great sense of humor, and was a devoted father, she added. "You really see the more tender side of Lincoln when you hear or read about him interacting, particularly with his sons Willie and Todd during their White House years." Tracey Avant, curator of exhibitions at Ford's Theatre, said that's also revealed by his signature top hat, one of the objects on display in the exhibit "Silent Witnesses: Artifacts of the Lincoln Assassination." "It’s a beautiful, iconic piece; everyone thinks of Abraham Lincoln with a top hat," she said. "But what I love about it is it’s got this beautiful band that he put on it to remember his son Willie, who had died in 1862 of typhoid fever. It still remained on the hat in 1865, and to me – I’m a parent – it speaks to how deeply he felt that loss." The exhibit also includes the small, single-shot pistol that assassin Booth used to shoot the president. Avant describes it as the weapon that changed the course of American history: "In one small moment, one of our greatest presidents was brought down." Lincoln’s eyeglasses also are popular with visitors, Avant said. An arm "had broken off at some point ... so he used a little piece of twine to tie it back together," she added. "And to me, that just humanizes him so much and makes you realize how humble he still remained even though he was the president of the United States." While his life was cut short, Lincoln’s legacy lives on. More books have been written about him than any other American president. His face appears on U.S. currency. And millions visit his memorial on the National Mall in Washington. Many credit Lincoln’s efforts during his presidency for helping to set the foundation for the civil rights movement of the 1960s. And Ms. Krowl believes Lincoln would have been pleased to see an African-American as president 150 years after the Civil War. But she noted that, despite much progress, Lincoln’s vision of equality has yet to be fully realized. Colombians who killed drug agent are sentenced By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The last two defendants in the 2013 kidnapping and murder of a U.S. drug agent in Colombia were given long prison terms in a U.S. federal court Monday. Edgar Javier Bello Murillo was sentenced to more than 36 years in prison. Co-defendant Omar Fabian Valdes Gualtero was given a 29-year term. Both had pleaded guilty to charges of picking up special agent James "Terry" Watson in a taxi in Bogota and stabbing him. Watson managed to escape but later collapsed and died from his wounds. Five other co-defendants were also extradited from Colombia to the U.S. are already serving long prison terms. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called Watson a courageous and patriotic law enforcement agent. "Although our prosecution of his heinous attackers has come to its rightful close, the Department of Justice will never rest in our efforts to honor Special Agent Watson's life of service and sacrifice by upholding and values that he served to protect," Holder said. Blackwater guard ordered to spend life in prison By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A U.S. federal judge sentenced former Blackwater security guard Nicholas Slatten to life in prison Monday for the 2007 shooting deaths of 14 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad. Three other former guards, Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty and Paul Slough, were given 30-year prison terms. Judge Royce Lamberth ignored defense attorneys' pleas for leniency, saying the crimes are serious and the punishment not excessive. The four were convicted in October of opening fire on Iraqi civilians in Baghdad's Nisour Square while guarding a U.S. diplomatic convoy. Defense attorneys argued the guards came under gunfire and shot back in self-defense. They said the guards were working in a tense, violent and war-torn atmosphere. Prosecutors say there was no gunfire and that the shootings were unprovoked. They also said none of the guards has shown any regret for the deaths of the civilians, including at least one child. The shootings outraged Iraqis and many Americans who wondered why the State Department was hiring a private security contractor in a war zone. North Carolina-based Blackwater was sold and renamed several times. It is now called Academi, based in northern Virginia. Russian fighter jet action called sloppy airmanship By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The Pentagon is protesting the Russian intercept of one of its reconnaissance planes flying in international airspace over the Baltic Sea, calling it unsafe and "an example of sloppy airmanship." Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said Monday the incident occurred last Tuesday, when a U.S. RC-135U plane was flying north of Poland and was approached from the rear by a Russian SU-27 fighter flying at a high rate of speed. He said the Russian plane crossed in front of the American jet and tilted to show off its weapons. Warren said it was "not certain why this (Russian) pilot was such a sloppy aviator" and that it "could be that he wasn't very well trained." He said it was unacceptable for the Russian aviator to "flagrantly disregard international standards of safety and professionalism." Moscow has denied that its pilot did anything wrong. |
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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 sixth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, April 14, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 72 | |||||||||
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Food |
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 Organic Seed Alliance/ Micaela
Colley
How about purple broccoli
bred to be more hardy.Plant breeders
try to amplify veggie taste
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The rise of multi-national grocery chains, large-scale food production, and year-round availability of many fruits and vegetables has some clear consumer benefits: Convenience and lower costs to name just two. It also has drawbacks that you can touch and taste, such as hard tomatoes and bland strawberries. Now at selected greenhouses, small farms and research plots across the United States, there's a flavor renaissance afoot, as breeders, farmers, chefs and seed growers collaborate to create more flavorful vegetable varieties, some with more vitamins too. Oregon State University plant breeder Jim Myers explained this wasn't some miracle of genetic engineering. "What I do is conventional breeding or traditional breeding, if you will. There is plenty of genetic variation out there for us to work with," he said. Myers' lab in Corvallis cross-pollinates related plants with desired traits. In the warm, humid greenhouses, graduate research assistants wield fine tweezers to insert specific pollen into the blooms of broccoli plants on one bench and pole beans in another. On some plants, the researchers tape the blossoms closed afterwards to make sure no other genetic material intrudes. Hanging tags which describe what varieties were crossed make the broccoli row look like miniature Christmas trees. The plan is to select the best of the results for commercialization. The university has already released trademarked tomato varieties with names such as Indigo Rose and Indigo Cherry Drops. The deep purple fruits contain higher levels of nutrition. Myers says his next release may be a mild habanero pepper. He gathers his team together in the greenhouse for a taste test of multi-colored pickled peppers. The consensus? "A little bit of kick. But it's not overwhelming," said one team member. "My mouth is not burning... It has a little bit of smokiness." "A little bit of sweetness too I think," observed Lyle Wallace, one of Myers' students. On Marrowstone Island in Puget Sound, Organic Seed Alliance executive director Micaela Colley recently checked on a trial evaluation of purple broccoli and other new crop varieties. The project at the Washington State University Extension research farm is one of several breeding partnerships her organization is involved in. "We've been selecting for cold hardiness," Ms. Colley said, describing another direction vegetable breeding is going. This goal is an extended growing season in the Pacific Northwest. "We've been trying to support year-round availability of crops," she added. Storage onions, chicory and cabbage are also part of those trials. Ms. Colley said large vegetable producers "didn't breed flavor out intentionally" over recent decades. As she sees it, it’s a matter of what components of plants received priority. "There's more of an emphasis on shipping, handling and uniformity." |
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| From
Page 7: University plans contest for entrepreneurs By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Tecnológico de Costa Rica, one of the country's major public universities is seeking business ideas. The university has set up a contest in several categories where students can make a presentation May 9 and 10 at the Centro Comercial Paseo Metrópoli in Cartago. Signups are accepted through Friday. The event is the Feria de Ideas de Negocios 2015. The Web site is www.feriaideasdenegociostec.com The university has a plan to select the best business ideas with a series of presentations or pitches. The event is expected to generate ideas that can be commercialized. |
