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| A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page | |
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José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, April 16, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 75
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 A.M. Costa Rica/Abigail
Reese
Two bicycle police officers
survey passers-by at the front of the tourism center. Downtown tourism
center
gets 1,000 visitors monthly By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Though it's tucked away in an unlabeled building on Avenida Central’s downtown walkway, the tourism center is still drawing quite the crowd. Andrés Indurrino, a representative from the tourist center, said Monday that the office receives more than 1,000 tourists each month. The center that is part of the Insituto Costarricense de Turismo gets an influx of mostly citizens from the United States, Germany, and Spain. According to Indurrino, some travelers may stop in to pick up an informational pamphlet from the office’s library of travel brochures, but others can stay for hours to chat with representatives. The travel assistants are not allowed to receive payments from hotels or businesses to sponsor specific destinations, he said. Two years ago the office moved from its spot at the front of the Museos del Banco Central at the Plaza de la Cultura. The old location down the walkway received more traffic he said, but Instituto Costarricense de Turismo moved at the request of museum directors who wanted more space for exhibits. The building is located on Avenida Central between Calle 1 and Calle 3 and houses an art gallery just past the office. Though it's closed for Semana Santa, the gallery will open again Monday. The tourism center operates through the institute’s Web site at www.visitcostarica.com.  Servicios Periodisticos
photo
New lights illuminate the soccer
field in Los Angeles, Nicoya, where municipal officials have invested 100 million colons, nearly $190,000, to light up seven soccer fields. Iraq reported to lead world in unsolved journalist killings By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A press freedom group says Iraq continues to lead the world in unsolved murders of journalists. In its annual Impunity Index released Tuesday, the New York-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists ranked Iraq first for the seventh consecutive year, saying 100 journalists have been killed there in the last decade without any convictions. The report cites four new murders last year in second-ranked Somalia, where the committee said journalists are being targeted at chilling levels. It said only one person has been convicted in 27 total killings. The list includes 13 nations where at least five journalist murders have gone unsolved since 2004. Syria appears for the first time this year, with seven journalists killed in deliberate attacks and no convictions. The committee issued a separate report in February naming Syria the most dangerous place on Earth for reporters. Tuesday's report comes months after the United Nations adopted a resolution on the safety of journalists. It condemns all attacks, intimidation and harassment directed at journalists, and calls on governments to investigate those crimes and bring perpetrators to justice. The index ranks the Philippines third, with 51 unsolved murders, followed by Sri Lanka, where the Committee for the Protection of Journalists says impunity plays a major role in journalists going into exile. The other countries listed are Afghanistan, Mexico, Colombia, Pakistan, Russia, Brazil, Nigeria and India. The Committee for the Protection of Journalists says 96 percent of the journalists killed are local reporters, and that at least 40 percent of them reported receiving threats before their deaths. The report says those behind the killings are caught and prosecuted in fewer than 5 percent of the murders. Undersea robot resuming its search for missing jet By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A robotic submarine is continuing its search for wreckage from the missing Malaysian jetliner, a day after its initial mission was cut short because the waters were too deep. The "Bluefin-21" submarine is using sonar to help create a three-dimensional image of the floor of the southern Indian Ocean, where the Boeing 777 is believed to have crashed. The vehicle's initial mission Monday night was aborted after just six hours when it reached an area that exceeded its operating depth of 4,500 meters. The Australian agency coordinating the search said Wednesday the submarine was redeployed after authorities found nothing of interest in the data from the first mission. U.S. Navy officials have warned it could take up to two months for the submarine to search the 600-square kilometer area, which has never been mapped. On the surface, a team of 14 aircraft and 11 ships continued Wednesday looking for debris and listening for black box signals, although authorities have warned that this effort will soon be ended. It has now been a week since authorities last detected a signal they believe came from a locator beacon on the plane's flight data recorder, which is now presumed to have run out of batteries. The Malaysia Airlines jet, carrying 239 people, vanished five weeks ago while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Malaysian officials think the plane was intentionally diverted, but have still refused to rule out other possibilities, including a massive mechanical malfunction.
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, April 16, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 75 | |
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| Tourism industry says its 22,000 jobs are at risk without
moratorium |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
When the new administration takes over, President Luis Guillermo Solís is going to have to look past job losses caused by the exit of Intel Corp. and Bank of America. The tourist industry says that 22,000 jobs are at risk there. The Asociacion Para La Proteccion Del Turismo is coming forward now with statistics, in an effort to attract the attention of the new administration, including the new minister of Turismo, Wilhelm Von Breymann Barquero. And the statistics are grim. Some 782 hotels are behind in payments to the Caja Costarricense de Seguridad Social. Some 100 other hotels have simply closed, and 100 more are facing auctions by various banking institutions, said the tourism association. There has been a string of closures since the economic downturn hit in 2008, but no one has given a count until recently. The hotels and other places of accommodation in trouble are generally the small to medium operations. The Asociacion Para La Proteccion Del Turismo renewed its call for some sort of freeze on the debts owned by tourism operations. Tourism operators are upset by soaring utility cost and, until recently, the low value of the U.S. dollar. A minority of the association members also think that the general government is not telling the truth when it says the country has received 2.4 million annual tourists That is a number that probably can be found in the business plan of every new tourism enterprise. The tourism association said that 5,000 new hotel rooms that can accommodate 10,000 persons have |
been constructed
in the last three years. The country needs nearly 400,000 more tourists
who stay for more than 10 days to fill those rooms, it said. What many in the industry do not know is that the figures released by the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo include as tourists nearly everyone entering the country. The figures include more than 400,000 persons each year who come from Nicaragua. When Nicaraguans return to their homes here and jobs after Semana Santa, they will be counted as tourists for purposes of the statistics. In addition to hotel operators, rental car agency executives also are reporting low expectations for Semana Santa and the coming low season. The tourism institute has made some unusual marketing decisions. For example, the institute invested $500,000 in NBC for advertising during the winter Olympics. The institute also put money into advertising on various social networks, Google and Yahoo/Bing, it said Feb. 9. One goal was to raise the Internet ranking of the institute's Web site with the online ads. Alexa, the Amazon subsidiary, tracks Web site visits, and said that the Institute's Web site, visitcostarica.com, was in 155,605th place worldwide when the campaign started. Tuesday that ranking was 183,018. Some of those in the tourism industry also are urging the government to open the door wider for tourists. The Asociacion Para La Proteccion Del Turismo Facebook site recounts the story of a 40-year-old female company executive from Perú who was denied entry for a trip to Manuel Antonio last week because her passport was only valid for four months instead of the required six. She was put on a return flight, the site said. |
| Injured raccoon demonstrates conflict between travel and
nature |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A Costa Rica raccoon, the likely victim of a hit-and-run driver, stands a good chance of full recovery. Neighbors found the injured creature Tuesday afternoon on the side of the InterAmericana Sur highway in Pinturas Sur, Daniel Flores, Pérez Zeledón. Since raccoons are nocturnal animals, the chances are that the animal was injured by the side of the road since before sunup. Fuerza Pública officers and workers for the Ministerio del Ambiente y Energía joined forced to get the injured animal into a patrol car and to take it to a veterinarian. Officials said that the animal will be returned to the wilds as soon as it recovers. The raccoon is lucky because all sorts of creatures are victims of vehicle mishaps, and most do not survive. A Clarkson University professor has noted that many of Costa Rica's parks are bisected by major highways. He said that this causes excessive mortality among animals who are traveling the natural corridors the parks provide. The professor, Tom Langen, said that he identified road kill hotspots in Costa Rica and passed this information on to transportation and park officials so they could find ways of reducing the animal deaths. That was in 2008, the university said. |
 Ministerio de Gobernación,
Policía y Seguridad Pública photo
Injured raccoon on the way to
the vet. |
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| 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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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, April 16, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 75 | |||||
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| Trans-Pacific Partnership will be a big boost for Vietnam's
exporters |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
As China and its workers get wealthier, global manufacturers are looking south for less expensive places to do business. But Cambodia faces labor strikes. The Thai government suffers endless protests. Burma, also known as Myanmar, needs infrastructure updates. As a result, many companies are setting their sights on Vietnam. Hundreds of them, in fact, descended on Ho Chi Minh City this weekend for Saigon Tex, a garment and textile expo. Sharing a border with China, Vietnam boasts geographic convenience, as well as political stability and low costs. Those attract companies like Spain-based Jeanologia, which showed off its laser-on-denim technology at the expo. “It is becoming such an important hub for American and European brands,” Jeanologia area manager Borja Trenor Casanova said of Vietnam. The Trans-Pacific Partnership helps, too. As one of 12 countries negotiating the trade pact, Vietnam stands to benefit most from a clause that would cut tariffs on textiles and apparel, which are among the nation’s top exports. To take advantage of the tax reduction, foreign companies are shifting their factories to Vietnam. Nguyen Thi Cam Tu is general manager at Thach Anh Vang, which represents manufacturers from Germany, Turkey, the United States, and others. She said the partnership is part of the reason her company saw a 50 percent increase in annual turnover in 2013. “I see a lot of investment going on, because we see quite a lot of inquiries recently,” Ms. Cam Tu said, as a giant yarn spinner roared at the vendor slot next to hers at the expo. |
The growth is
reflected across the country. Textile exports increased 20 percent in
the first quarter of 2014, compared with the same period last year,
according to the General Statistics Office. While production and revenues have risen steadily, Vietnamese companies and officials recognize a gaping weakness in the garment industry: It buys most of its materials from other countries. The vice minister of industry and trade, Ho Thi Kim Thoa, told an audience at the expo that Vietnam must set targets to produce more fabrics on its own. “These targets demonstrate an urgent need for technological innovation, improvement of quality control, labor management, environmental management, as well as improvement in the textile and garment supply chain in accordance with international standards,” Kim Thoa said. If it doesn’t develop more local suppliers, Vietnam won’t be able to tap the full potential of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The agreement is likely to include a yarn-forward rule, which requires Vietnam to make clothes with materials from partnership member countries in order to receive tax-free import benefits. But people are looking to improve the garment sector in other ways, too. Casanova said Jeanologia’s laser-printing is one of the technologies that could help Vietnam become a value-adding step in the production chain. The country, which achieved lower middle income status in 2010, is still very dependent on cheap labor. But to avoid the middle-income trap, it needs to find ways to add value to its exports. Casanova said it seems to want technology for that purpose, as well as to promote environmental sustainability in business. “Vietnam is showing interest in a change in the industry,” he said. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, April 16, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 75 | |||||
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| New York police stop spying on Muslims from undercover By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The New York Police Department announced Tuesday that it has disbanded a clandestine unit of plainclothes detectives who ran detailed, invasive spying operations targeting the city’s Muslim communities. The surveillance program by the department's Intelligence Division had come under fire by community activists who accused the police of abusing civil rights. The program relied on plainclothes officers to eavesdrop on people in bookstores, restaurants and mosques. The Demographics Unit, as the surveillance squad was known, operated in various neighborhoods both inside and outside the city, analyzing and mapping religious institutions, social clubs, recreational facilities and events and all-around everyday life. A series of articles by the Associated Press news agency, in 2011, revealed the systematic spying by the New York police as part of a broad effort to watch communities where terror cells might operate. Individuals and groups were monitored even when there was no evidence they were linked to terrorism or crime. Since then, the Muslim community and various civil rights groups have demanded the program be stopped. Ex-Italian prime minister gets community service By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
An Italian court has ordered former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to spend the next year helping the elderly in a church-run nursing home as part of his conviction for tax fraud. Berlusconi will spend four hours a week at the home outside Milan, keeping the residents company and taking them to religious services. The former prime minister is still barred from parliament and running for political office, but he is allowed to take part in political campaigns and make restricted trips to Rome. A court sentenced Berlusconi to four years in prison last year for tax fraud. It later cut the sentence to a year of community service. It was the first time the ex-prime minister was sentenced after numerous trials on charges ranging from fraud to having sex with an teenage prostitute. Berlusconi is one of Italy's richest men and still a major political force. He says all the charges against him were engineered by liberal political enemies. Ricardo Martinelli, the president of Panamá, was swept up in the investigation with allegations that he partied with Berlusconi and used drugs. He denied the allegation. Arctic moth study suggests hidden variable protects them By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A 32-year study of subarctic forest moths in Finnish Lapland suggests that scientists may be underestimating the impacts of climate change on animals and plants because much of the harm is hidden from view. The study analyzed populations of 80 moth species and found that 90 percent of them were either stable or increasing throughout the study period, from 1978 to 2009. During that time, average annual temperatures at the study site rose 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit, and winter precipitation increased as well. "You see it getting warmer, you see it getting wetter and you see that the moth populations are either staying the same or going up. So you might think, 'Great. The moths like this warmer, wetter climate.' But that's not what's happening,'' said ecologist Mark Hunter of the University of Michigan. Hunter used advanced statistical techniques to examine the roles of different ecological forces affecting the moth populations and found that warmer temperatures and increased precipitation reduced the rates of population growth. "Every time the weather was particularly warm or particularly wet, it had a negative impact on the rates at which the populations grew," said Hunter, of the university's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. "Yet, overall, most of these moth populations are either stable or increasing, so the only possibility is that something else other than climate change — some other factor that we did not measure — is buffering the moths from substantial population reductions and masking the negative effects of climate change." The findings have implications that reach beyond moths in Lapland. If unknown ecological forces are helping to counteract the harmful effects of climate change on these moths, it's conceivable that a similar masking of impacts is happening elsewhere. If that's the case, then scientists are likely underestimating the harmful effects of climate change on animals and plants, Hunter said. "We could be underestimating the number of species for which climate change has negative impacts because those effects are masked by other forces," he said. Hunter and six Finnish colleagues report their findings in a paper scheduled for online publication in the journal Global Change Biology. The study was conducted at the Värriö Strict Nature Reserve, 155 miles north of the Arctic Circle and less than four miles from the Finnish-Russian border. The nearest major road is more than 60 miles away. Between 1978 and 2009, Finnish scientists used light traps at night to catch 388,779 moths from 456 species. Eighty of the most abundant species were then analyzed. Hunter used a statistical technique called time series analysis to examine how various ecological forces, including climate, affected per capita population growth. Scientists want to know how climate change will impact insects because the six-legged creatures play key roles as agricultural pests, pollinators, food sources for vertebrates, vectors of human disease, and drivers of various ecosystem processes. Researchers believe that butterflies and moths may be particularly susceptible to population fluctuations in response to climate change — especially at high latitudes and high elevations. Most recent studies of moth abundance have shown population declines. So Hunter and his colleagues were surprised to find that 90 percent of the moth species in the Lapland study were either stable or increasing. On one level, the results can be viewed as a good news climate story: In the face of a rapid environmental change, these moths appear to be thriving, suggesting that they are more resilient than scientists had expected, Hunter said. But the other side of that coin is that unknown ecological forces appear to be buffering the harmful effects of climate change and hiding those impacts from view. The results also demonstrate that "simple temporal changes in population abundance cannot always be used to estimate effects of climate change on the dynamics of organisms," the authors conclude. "The big unknown is how long this buffering effect will last," Hunter said. "Will it keep going indefinitely, or will the negative effects of climate change eventually just override these buffers, causing the moth populations to collapse?" Another big unknown: What ecological forces are currently buffering the Lapland moths from the negative effects of a warming climate? Finnish team members who've been collecting moths at the Värriö reserve for decades say they have noticed a gradual increase in tree and shrub density, increased rates of tree growth, and a rise in the altitude of the tree line. Trees provide food and shelter for moths, and leaf litter offers overwintering sites and resting areas away from predators. Perhaps the observed vegetation changes are helping to offset the negative effects of warmer temperatures and increased precipitation. That possibility was not analyzed in the current study. U.S. work visa quota filled in week and draws criticism By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. government has held its annual lottery for H-1B visas and the lucky 85,000 winners and their employers will be notified soon. The winners, from among more than 172,000 foreign citizen applicants, will be granted three-year visas to work for companies who have already agreed to sponsor them. Most of these potential workers are already here. More often than not, they are recent graduates from U.S. universities with a bachelor’s degree or higher in technical fields requiring a highly-specialized knowledge. Typically, these specialty fields include IT, engineering, and science. The program has been in existence since Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1990. The law currently limits the number of visas to 85,000 each year. “This year we met the congressionally-mandated cap within the first week. Last year we met it within the first week,” said spokesman Bill Wright of the U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. He notes it has become more competitive every year. Still, Wright said potential foreign employees should not be discouraged. “I would prepare well in advance – and employers should be prepared as well,” he said. The next deadline is April 1, 2015, and Wright advises a good place to start is the immigration web site. U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch thinks the program falls short. He contends even more foreign workers should be given visas. “Here we are four months into the year, yet we are closing the door on highly-skilled foreign workers, many of whom are American-trained. And then we push them out of our country because of stupid laws,” Hatch said in an interview. “These are people that we educated here, who want to stay here and work in their fields of expertise. They want to help American companies grow the American economy,” he added. Hatch said U.S.-based companies tell him there is a huge need for graduates in science, technology, engineering and math. “What you see and hear from the tech community is that there are not enough Americans trained and ready to fill these jobs," he said. "We can’t continue to hope that American companies won’t move these jobs overseas.” Hatch has introduced the Senate's bipartisan Immigration Innovation Act of 2013, a law that would increase the cap in the H-1B program to as many as 300,000 foreign workers. “Our proposal will allow them to stay here, and down the line – if I had my way – give them the opportunity to apply for citizenship,” he said. “If I had my way, we’d be much more open to immigration. There’s a lot of reason for us to do this.” Because employers may petition for permanent residence for their H-1B employees, the visa is sometimes described as a bridge to immigration that will keep the smartest foreign workers in the U.S. permanently and thus, the argument goes, improve the nation’s competitiveness. A number of studies dispute the claims from industry that Hatch cites about the shortage of American graduates. David North, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, offers figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Department of Education to show that America has more high-tech college graduates than needed to fill high-tech jobs. So who’s right? The arguments suggest it all depends on how you crunch the numbers. The business-friendly Wall Street Journal provides some believable insight, noting high-tech businesses want to continue to staff their operations “with Indian expatriates who earn significantly less than their American counterparts.” More than a dozen studies charge the visa program serves as a subsidy for corporations, paying their H-1B employees less than the prevailing wage required by law. Ron Hira, a professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, is blunt in his criticism of the H-1B visa program. He calls it a program to hire foreign workers rather than Americans. “Rather than keeping jobs from leaving our shores, the H-1B does the opposite, by facilitating offshoring and providing employers with cheap, temporary labor – while reducing job opportunities for American high-tech workers in the process,” said Hira in a 2013 blog he wrote for the Economic Policy Institute. Whether the H-1B visa program is good for the United States is a matter of opinion. But the large number of foreign workers wishing to obtain an H-1B visa does argue for the huge desire to work in the United States. Boston remembers, celebrates Marathon bombing tragedy By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
It has been one year since twin bombs exploded near the finish line of the annual Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 260 others. Tuesday, the large city in the northeastern part of the United States paused to honor the victims and salute the emergency workers who came to their assistance in the frantic moments after the blasts. The horrific events of April 15, 2013, are clear in the minds of thousands of marathon runners, Boston residents and Americans throughout the country. The shocking blasts were sudden - two home-made pressure cooker bombs filled with nails and other shrapnel tore through the runners finishing the race and the crowd of spectators cheering them on from the sidelines. But now, a year later, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said at a memorial in Boston that the city's resilience is a symbol of Americans' will to gain new strength in the face of adversity, much like when the U.S. was hit by terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. "You have become the face of America's resolve, not unlike what happened on 9/11. You've become the face of America's resolve, for the whole world to see," he said. One of the bombing victims who lost a leg in the explosions, dancer Adrianne Haslet-Davis, said survivors have provided support for each other as they recovered from their injuries. "We find peace in providing a shoulder to cry on, a warm embrace and a hand to hold in the crowd," she said. Authorities are planning a massive display of security next Monday to protect 36,000 runners and hundreds of thousands of spectators at the 2014 Boston Marathon. Biden said the 118th running of the race will show the world and would-be terrorists that the U.S. does not back down when it is attacked. "America will never, ever, ever stand down. We are Boston. We are America. We respond. We endure. We overcome and we own the finish line," Biden said. Police say that two ethnic Chechen brothers who had lived in the United States for a decade, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, carried the bombs in backpacks to the Boston street near the finish line before detonating them. Days later, Tamerlan was killed in a gun battle with police and Dzhokhar was found hiding in a boat parked in the backyard of a suburban Boston home. Authorities say he left a hand-scrawled confession inside the boat that said the bombings were retaliation for the U.S. killing of Muslims in American-led wars overseas. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, now 20, is in a U.S. prison. He is awaiting trial on multiple charges, including use of a weapon of mass destruction, that carry the death penalty if he is convicted. Board games more popular among young adults in U.S. By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A big new trend in the U.S. toy industry has more consumers switching off their high-tech gadgets to play with classic toys, like board games. This is especially true among the so-called millenial generation, those born in the 1980s and 90s. Unlike many cafés, the food and drinks here are an afterthought. There is also no wifi at GameHäus Café. Many of the customers like it that way. Roxanne Lee and her husband Agassi Lai are spending a mentally stimulating evening here without the interference of any phones or computers. “I think it’s very interesting for spending quality time together so that’s why I like it," said Lee. Opened November of 2013 in Los Angeles, GameHäus Café is dedicated to board games, and business is booming says co-owner Robert Cron. “We are in the black since month one," said Cron. Out of more than 750 game titles here, Agassi Lai chooses one called “Escape The Curse Of The Temple.” “You keep rolling the dice and try to move to different places and try to escape the temple," said Lai. Lai used to be a big video gamer. But everything changed after he discovered board games a few years ago. “I would choose board games over video games any day," he said. Lai and almost all of the customers playing board games at the cafe belong to the so-called millennial generation, which includes people between eighteen and 32 years old. Market research firm Euromonitor International says this demographic is increasingly embracing board games and driving up U.S. sales. Twenty-three-year-old Weland Bourne is one of them. “I think more with my generation, they’re wanting to take time. They’re wanting to take it slowly and I think too video games have kind of lost their glamour," said Bourne. However, these millenials are not playing the classic American games they grew up with, choosing instead new games from Europe. GameHäus Café co-owner Terry Chiu says many of these strategy-based “Euro games” have become popular around the world because they are not language based. They use symbols and have simple rules. “Because of the rise of European games, or Euro games or German games as they might also be known, in the last 15 to 20 years, it’s sort of become universal. There are certain titles that have crossed a lot of cultures to really capture the imaginations of a lot of different people," said Chiu. In the next year, Euromonitor International expects global sales of board games and puzzles to grow by more than 1 percent. Still no match video game sales, which are expected to grow 6 percent. While many board games also have popular corresponding mobile apps, many millennials, including Kristie Nehme, say there is one thing a board game can offer that a video game cannot. “The more personal aspect of just being with friends and see each other in person that’s probably the main difference, the main appeal," said Ms. Nehme. Toy Industry Association’s Adrienne Appell says one of the biggest toy trends reported this year is that people are preferring more traditional toys. The reason for this, she says, is that the new generation just wants to put down the phone, put down the tablet and connect face-to-face with other people. Everest Trek gives a clue on preventing diabetes II By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Using the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest, as an outdoor laboratory, a group of British researchers has identified a mechanism involved in the development of adult onset diabetes. Experts say the findings could lead to development of treatments to prevent the disease. At more than 8,800 meters above sea level, Mount Everest in Nepal is the world’s highest peak. Climbers require supplemental oxygen because the air is so thin. Hypoxia, or lack of blood oxygen, is a risk factor for the onset of Type 2 diabetes. So, researchers with the Mount Everest project sought to identify the mechanisms by which low oxygen levels contribute to disease in patients who are critically ill with diabetes. Mike Grocott, a professor of anesthesia and critical care medicine at Southampton University, led the study, which began at an Everest base camp 5,300 meters above sea level. The expedition included about 200 climbers. But Grocott says researchers focused on 24 individuals who underwent assessments of glucose control, body weight changes and inflammation biomarkers. The measurements were taken at six weeks and again at two months. Eight climbers then continued their trek to the peak. In the low oxygen environment, Grocott says the participants' insulin levels began to rise, indicating their bodies were becoming insulin resistant. There also was an increase in biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress, or cellular damage, similar to what’s seen in people with Type 2 diabetes. On the ground, Grocott says the findings suggest treatments might be developed to prevent the disease. “Helping to control the tendency towards diabetes may be interventions that are focusing on either the development of this oxidative stress or this inflammation,” says Grocott. In an article published in the journal PLoS ONE, investigators report the abnormal biomarkers, caused by the extreme altitude, were reversed once the participants came off the mountain. Many people who develop diabetes suffer from sleep apnea, in which their airways become obstructed, sometimes hundreds of times per night. “That is likely to predispose them to certainly intermittent hypoxia during sleep. And that may be something that is contributing toward this tendency to develop Type 2 diabetes,” says Grocott. Grocott says investigators are now comparing the climbers, most of whom were Caucasian, to the Sherpa to see whether genetic differences protect the indigenous Nepalese population from diabetes. Even casual marijuana use alters brain, MIR study says By
the Society for Neuroscience news staff
The size and shape of two brain regions involved in emotion and motivation may differ in young adults who smoke marijuana at least once a week, according to a study published April 16 in The Journal of Neuroscience. The findings suggest that recreational marijuana use may lead to previously unidentified brain changes, and highlight the importance of research aimed at understanding the long-term effects of low to moderate marijuana use on the brain. Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States, with an estimated 18.9 million people reporting recent use, according to the most current analysis of the National Survey on Drug Use and Mental Health. Marijuana use is often associated with motivation, attention, learning, and memory impairments. Previous studies exposing animals to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) — the main psychoactive component of marijuana — show that repeated exposure to the drug causes structural changes in brain regions involved with these functions. However, less is known about how low to moderate marijuana use affects brain structure in people, particularly in teens and young adults. In the current study, Jodi Gilman, Anne Blood and Hans Breiter of Northwestern University and Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to compare the brains of 18- to 25-year olds who reported smoking marijuana at least once per week with those with little to no history of marijuana use. Although psychiatric evaluations ruled out the possibility that the marijuana users were dependent on the drug, imaging data revealed they had significant brain differences. The nucleus accumbens — a brain region known to be involved in reward processing — was larger and altered in its shape and structure in the marijuana users compared to non-users. “This study suggests that even light to moderate recreational marijuana use can cause changes in brain anatomy,” said Carl Lupica, who studies drug addiction at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and was not involved with this study. “These observations are particularly interesting because previous studies have focused primarily on the brains of heavy marijuana smokers and have largely ignored the brains of casual users.” The team of scientists compared the size, shape, and density of the nucleus accumbens and the amygdala — a brain region that plays a central role in emotion — in 20 marijuana users and 20 non-users. Each marijuana user was asked to estimate their drug consumption over a three-month period, including the number of days they smoked and the amount of the drug consumed each day. The scientists found that the more the marijuana users reported consuming, the greater the abnormalities in the nucleus accumbens and amygdala. The shape and density of both of these regions also differed between marijuana users and non-users. “This study raises a strong challenge to the idea that casual marijuana use isn’t associated with bad consequences,” Breiter said. This research was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center, and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, April 16, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 75 | |||||||||
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Gunmen fired 25
times in Limón attempted murder By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Three men with heavy weapons spotted a rival outside his home in Limoncito Tuesday morning and fired at him 25 times, judicial agents said. The victim, identified by the last name of Salas, not only survived but was reported in satisfactory condition at the Hospital Tony Facio in Limón Centro. Investigators had enough information on the make and model of the car in which the gunmen fled that they were able to locate it not long after the 9 a.m. shooting. Agents reported that they detained three men, all in their 20s, and confiscated two AK-47 firearms and cartridges. The men are facing attempted murder allegations.  Ministerio de Gobernación,
Policía
These are the items confiscated
at Buenos Aires.y Seguirdad Pública photo targeted by Fuerza Pública By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Fuerza Pública officers in the southern part of the country are paying special attention to vehicles coming from Panamá. Police have confiscated three loads of alcohol and cigarettes in Coto Brus and Buenos Aires over the last four days. One motorist was carrying 120 cans of beer. A second stopped in Sabanillas had 55 bottles of alcohol and 98 packs of cigarettes. A third confiscation took place in the InterAmericana Sur at El Brujo, Buenos Aires. The motorist had 1,210 bottles of alcohol, police said. Officers were accompanied by tax police. |
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| From Page 7: China's economy grows slower than expected By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
China's economy grew 7.4 percent in the first quarter of this year, the slowest rate in 18 months for the world's second biggest economy. The growth rate exceeded what economists were expecting, but was still down from the 7.7 percent growth rate in the last three months of 2013. Beijing set a modest target of 7.5 percent growth for 2014, as it transitions toward a more sustainable economy based on domestic consumption. Chinese leaders appear for the moment to be tolerating the current pace of weaker growth, and have ruled out any major stimulus. Earlier this month, though, China unveiled a modest stimulus package, ramping up spending on a railway project and low-cost housing. China's economy is attempting to rebound from a prolonged slowdown, which follows three decades of staggering growth. |
