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A.M.
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Published
Tuesday,
April 26, 2016, in Vol. 17, No. 81
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San José,
Costa Rica, Tuesday, April 26,
2016, Vol. 17, No. 81
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Sunday blaze blamed on faulty
wiring
By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
As expected the spectacular Sunday night blaze in Barrio Pitahaya has been attributed to faulty wiring. The Cuerpos de Bomberos said that the blaze originated in a kitchen in one of the wood frame houses. The wiring there had been done by non-professionals and the lines had been stapled to a wooden wall. Slowly the wire became hot as the electricity was used, said a report. No one was injured in the blaze that was in one of the city’s older neighborhoods with homes dating back to the 1940s. Fire fighters managed to contain the blaze to the two homes despite flames shooting more than 100 feet into the air. Wiring inside a home is not subject to inspection in the Central Valley, and the electrical companies only pay attention to the location of the meter and the wires coming to it. Even then bird nests of wire can be seen at many buildings where years of making do result in an electrical puzzle. Dengue vaccine gets OK from experts By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A French pharmaceutical firm reports that a panel of experts has recommended use of its dengue vaccine to the World Health Organization. The firm is Sanofi Pasteur, which has been one of several firms trying to make a safe dengue vaccine. The firm said that the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization has issued its recommendations on the use of Dengvaxia® dengue vaccine. The expert panel advised that countries with high dengue transmission consider introduction of the dengue vaccine as part of an integrated disease prevention strategy including vector control to effectively lower their dengue cases, said the firm. Successful introduction of dengue immunization alongside other prevention efforts should help vulnerable countries to achieve the World Health objectives to reduce dengue morbidity by 25 percent and mortality by 50 percent by 2020, said the firm. The vaccine’s anticipated impact on dengue fever disease burden is expected to stem from its proven ability to prevent eight out of 10 dengue hospitalizations and up to 93 percent of severe dengue cases, including dengue hemorrhagic fever, in study participants 9 years and older, as demonstrated during 25 months of follow-up studies, said the company. The recommendations from the expert panel are based on the technical review of clinical data from 25 clinical studies conducted in 15 different endemic and non-endemic countries around the world, including more than 40,000 study participants, said the French firm. As of March 2016, the vaccine was licensed in Mexico, The Philippines, Brazil and El Salvador, said the firm Sanofi Pasteur’s vaccine is the culmination of over two decades of scientific innovation and collaboration, as well as 25 clinical studies in 15 countries around the world. Over 40,000 volunteers participated in the Sanofi Pasteur dengue vaccine development program, it added. Friday is a holiday for some By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Día del Trabajo falls on a Sunday this year, so the U.S. Embassy will be taking off Friday, as will some other institutions. Other workers have a holiday if they normally work Sundays or they are eligible for double time. The traditional worker parade will be Sunday, as will the reorganization of the legislature. The political parties are negotiating to have some of their members in leadership positions.
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| A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Tuesday,
April 26, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 81
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| Minister
sees convention center as a tourism business generator |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Although the contract for the long-awaiting government convention center in Heredia is expected to be awarded within days, the tourism minister admits that the project is not in itself sustainable. The minister is Mauricio Ventura, who inherited the project when he took office. He compared the convention center to a bridge. “Convention Centers are not money-making machines,” he said. “I compare them to a bridge. The building of a bridge does not  A.M. Costa
Rica/Rommel Téllez
Mauricio Ventura discusses the convention
center. |
provide
profit by itself but helps connect one side to the
other. In the same way, the convention center will
connect business visitors to other tourism offers.” The Instituto Costarricense de Turismo is investing $23 million of money raised from tourists for the project. The Banco de Costa Rica and Banco National are putting up $12 million. And the total price is estimated to be about $35 million. Three bids for the job have come in around that figure. The project has been in the works since at least 2011. Honduras, Panamá and Guatemala also are building convention centers, according to press reports there. The tourism industry is counting on the center to generate more hospitality business. Unlike bridges, convention centers require marketing and management, qualities that are not well represented in Costa Rica. Ventura said that the tourism institute is seeking to hire an international firm with experience in sales, marketing and operating this kind of business. Ventura declined to provide the name of the firm, but he said that it is Latin American. The consulting group will start working along the institute in about four weeks. The group will be in charge of positioning the Costa Rica brand in international market. The institute also is looking for the convention center to beef up the industry with business visitors in the low season. The site is in Barreal de Heredia along the General Cañas autopista. Plans call for a facility that will hold 4,500 persons. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | ||
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San
José, Costa Rica, Tuesday,
April 26, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 81
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| Amount
of plastic floating in oceans said to be grossly
underestimated |
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By the University of Delaware
news staff
New research provides evidence that the amount of plastic in the marine environment may be greater than previously thought. A 2015 paper published in Science estimates that anywhere from 4.8 million to 12.7 million metric tons of plastic were dumped into the ocean in 2010 alone. One metric ton equals approximately 2,200 pounds. But University of Delaware physical oceanographer Tobias Kukulka suggests that this estimate might be low. Plastic in the ocean becomes brittle over time and breaks into tiny fragments. Slightly buoyant, these microplastics often drift at the surface where they can be mistaken for food by birds, fish or other marine wildlife. Microplastics have turned up in the deep ocean and in Arctic ice, too. “You have stuff that’s potentially poisonous in the ocean and there is some indication that it’s harmful to the environment, but scientists don’t really understand the scope of this problem yet,” explains Kukulka, an expert on ocean waves and currents. One technique scientists use to try and quantify how much plastic is in the marine environment is to drag a tow net over the surface for a few miles in one of the world’s five ocean gyres, then count the number of plastic fragments. This number is then used to calculate a concentration considered representative of the amount of plastic in the area. But Kukulka isn’t so sure this method provides an accurate picture of what’s happening. “My research has shown that ocean turbulence actually mixes plastics and other pollutants down into the water column despite their buoyancy,” Kukulka said. “This means that surface measurements could be wildly off and the concentration of plastic in the marine environment may be significantly higher than we thought.” Working with collaborators at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and University of Washington, Kukulka used computer modeling to look at the effect that waves, and heating or cooling the ocean surface, had on where in the water plastic was found. The study findings provided evidence that turbulence from waves and currents plays a critical role in whether plastics stay at the surface or get mixed deeper into the ocean. Surface heating from the atmosphere, due to seasonality, latitude or night/day cycles, also has a significant effect. In the summer, for example, strong surface heating by the sun warms up the ocean’s top layer, decreasing the water’s density and trapping the plastic at the surface. When the surface |
 University
of Delaware photo
A decaying plastic bag looks like a jellyfish and
frequently is mistaken by sea turtles that feed on those
free-swimming marine creatures.cooled, the water density increased and caused the plastic to sink into the water column. “If we really want to go after this problem and quantify the amount of plastics in the ocean and think about distribution and impact, then we need to keep in mind that turbulence is influenced by heating and, therefore, the distribution of plastics is too,” Kukulka said. Comparing model results to actual field observations by his colleagues from the subtropical Atlantic gyre, Kukulka corrected the surface measurements taking into account turbulence models and mixing processes, revealing new measurements that are significantly higher. While the research team’s findings shed new light on the growing plastics problem, Kukulka said the research also can be applied to oil and other pollutants, even to the distribution of nutrients in the water and phytoplankton, ocean drifters that form the base of the marine food web. “Broadly, these plastic pieces can be used as a physical tracer to help answer bigger questions about ocean processes and their implications for other ocean pollutants,” he said. The team reported its findings in the March issue of the Journal of Physical Oceanography, a publication of the American Meteorological Society. |
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medical care
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río
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A.M. Costa Rica's
Fifth news page |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Tuesday,
April 26, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 81
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over survivor compensation By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Iran has threatened legal action against the United States if $2 billion in frozen funds are diverted to compensate American families of people killed by Tehran-sponsored terrorism. "We hold the U.S. government responsible for protecting our funds," said Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. "If our funds are illegally accessed, we will surely claim damages from the American government at an appropriate time." Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a 2012 law concerning the distribution of the funds. The court's ruling directly affects more than 1,300 relatives of victims, some who have been seeking compensation for more than 30 years. Patrick Clawson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said that the court's ruling is consistent with international norms and conventions. "The U.S. law is indeed at the edge of international practice," he said. "Courts have increasingly gotten involved in what were thought to be politically off-bounds areas. This is not universally practiced, but the U.S. law is not unique." The ruling awards damages to the relatives of 241 Marines killed in a 1983 terrorist attack in Beirut, 19 U.S. military troops killed in the 1996 Khobar Towers truck bombing in Saudi Arabia and other attacks. Iran, which is linked to the militant group Hezbollah, denies any involvement in the attacks and has said it had no role in the deadly events in the Lebanese capital. Millennials lack confidence in U.S. systems, poll shows By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Millennials lack confidence in the U.S. justice system and distrust the mainstream media, according to a recent Harvard Institute of Politics poll published Monday. Nearly 47 percent of the 3,183 interviewed indicated they have no or not much confidence in the justice system’s ability to judge people without bias for race and ethnicity. Young Americans ages 18 to 29 were surveyed between March 18 and April 3. Broken down by race, a majority of African Americans (59 percent) and Hispanics (52 percent) said they are not confident the U.S. judicial system judges without bias. Among whites the figure is 42 percent. These results come after the White House announced on Friday that 53 police departments across the United States have committed to an initiative designed to make local policing more transparent. The White House had said the commitments represent concrete steps toward building trust in local communities between citizens and police, and are indicative of a larger shift in the culture of community policing. Harvard polling director John Della Volpe said millennials are deeply concerned about the “very nature of the way we are organized as a country, and they want to be treated fairly.” Sonya Jacobs, student chairwoman of the Harvard Public Opinion Project, said poll organizers decided to add questions about the U.S. justice system after the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, a national movement of street protests that began after the 2012 fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida during a street altercation with a mixed race Hispanic man. Young Americans also distrust the mainstream media. Only 2 percent of those polled trust the media all of the time and 7 percent most of the time. When compared to other areas of government, the U.S. military got the highest level of trust among millennials with 51 percent agreeing the military often does the right thing. Less than half of millennials have a high level of trust for President Barack Obama and the U.S. Supreme Court, with Obama at 40 percent and the high court at 39 percent. Only 18 percent of millennials trust Congress all or most of the time. The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 2.4 percentage points. Feds plan to create path for re-entering inmates By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
The U.S. Justice Department says it will start providing an individualized life skills and job training program for the more than 40,000 convicts being released each year from federal prisons in hope of smoothing their re-entry into society. The convicts are being called judicially involved persons. Attorney General Loretta Lynch is announcing the plan as part of the U.S. effort to overhaul a two-decade-old sentencing law that led to mass incarceration of many offenders and now is widely viewed as discriminatory against blacks and other minorities. Numerous government officials and lawmakers are calling for more lenient sentences and treatment of non-violent offenders at halfway houses and in other government programs, rather than putting them behind bars. The personalized plan for exiting prisoners would include an educational road map and job training, along with substance abuse and mental health treatment. Ms. Lynch urged the country's governors to make it easier for convicted felons leaving prison to get state-issued identification cards to ease their transition into life outside prison walls, saying it would help them obtain a driver's license. "The long-term impact of a criminal record prevents many people from obtaining employment, housing, higher education and credit," Ms. Lynch said, "and these barriers affect returning individuals, even if they have turned their lives around and are unlikely to reoffend." At the White House, experts analyzed the effects of mass incarceration in the United States. Todd Cox of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, claimed that a third of Americans have some sort of criminal record and that half of U.S. children have at least one parent who has been convicted. Other officials called for revision of the 1994 law that led to the mass incarceration in the United States. Democratic and Republican lawmakers have called for revisions, but disagreements remain in Congress on how to shape the changes. Court upholds suspension in case of Patriot’s Tom Brady By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Star National Football League quarterback Tom Brady of the New England Patriots has had his four-game suspension reinstated by a U.S. Court of Appeals. A three-judge panel voted 2-1 Monday. A case that has stretched out over 15 months could continue because the NFL Players Association can appeal to the full appeals court, which includes 13 active judges. Brady, one of the league's marquee players, was first handed the four-game suspension by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for an incident popularly known as Deflategate. Brady was accused of being generally aware of a plot to have underinflated footballs for use in a key playoff game in January 2015, allegedly so the ball would be easier to grip and throw. Brady has consistently denied the charges, and his legal team was able to keep him on the field for the entire 2015-16 season after fighting the commissioner's ruling. Monday, however, the appeals court ruled Goodell properly exercised his power to levy the suspension under the NFL's collective bargaining agreement. The Patriots said they are disappointed, but not surprised, by the ruling. Brady does not appear ready to accept the court's decision, preferring to fight for his legacy. He is a four-time Super Bowl champion and a two-time NFL Most Valuable Player. It was the chief judge of the appeals court who gave the dissenting opinion on the case. Robert Katzman wrote, in part, "This breach of the limits on the commissioner's authority is exacerbated by the unprecedented and virtually unexplained nature of the penalty imposed." Critics of the assessed penalty don't believe Goodell had enough evidence. In fact, last September, when a U.S. District Court judge overturned the four-game suspension that permitted Brady to start the season on the field, he wrote, "Commissioner Goodell may be said to have dispensed his own brand of industrial justice.'" The NFL said it was pleased with Monday's court ruling, saying in a statement that the commissioner's authority has been recognized by many courts and has been expressly incorporated into every collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and NFL Players Association for the past 40 years. Climate deal moving quickly with more countries aboard By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
White House officials say at least 34 countries have either signed or committed to join the recent climate change deal, putting the agreement on a much faster trajectory. "We are within striking distance of the deal coming into force," said Brian Deese, senior advisor to U.S. President Barack Obama. He said the countries that have committed to the climate change deal reached in Paris in December now represent 40 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The agreement will go into force when 55 countries ratify the deal, and when those countries that have joined also account for at least 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. "It now looks like we are on a much faster trajectory," said Jonathan Pershing, U.S. special envoy for climate change. He told reporters during a conference call Monday that there is a political momentum driving things forward. Deese said the earlier the climate agreement becomes effective, the greater the momentum will be for countries to implement the deal and for other nations to sign on. The climate deal was unveiled Friday at the United Nations, where top officials from more than 130 countries gathered. The target date for the deal is 2020. But if enough countries ratify, officials say the agreement could enter into force much sooner — this year or early 2017. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry hailed the agreement as powerful, in his remarks at the United Nations before the United States signed the deal on Friday. U.S. lawmakers still need to ratify the deal before the United States can officially be a signatory. The agreement works to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees C. It also lays out a road map for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating the effects of a warming planet. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed the Paris accord as a turning point in the world's response to climate change. Many of the countries that have already signed the deal are small island states, which are most threatened by warming oceans and rising sea levels. The climate change deal calls for developed countries to reach national targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions every five years, while developing nations are encouraged to do so. There is no penalty for countries that miss their emissions targets, but the agreement has transparency rules to encourage countries to follow through. The deal also calls for wealthy countries to continue to offer financial support to help poor countries reduce their emissions. Terrorists in The Philippines behead Canadian hostage By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has confirmed the beheading of a Canadian taken hostage in the southern Philippines last year and held for a $21 million ransom by al Qaida-linked militants. Trudeau, speaking Monday, voiced outrage at the killing of retiree John Ridsdel, calling it an "unnecessary death . . . an act of cold-blooded murder." Ridsdel was one of two Canadian nationals seized along with a Norwegian resort manager in September at a marina on the southern island of Mindanao. Weeks later, Abu Sayyaf gunmen released a video of their hostages, demanding $21 million each for their release. The captives were seen on camera begging for their lives. The most recent video showed Ridsdel saying he would be killed April 25 if the ransom were not paid. Trudeau's comments came hours after police on Jolo island, an Abu Sayyaf stronghold, said two unidentified people on a motorbike dropped a severed head wrapped in plastic near a government facility. There was no word on the fate of the remaining hostages. On April 8, government forces seeking to free hostages engaged Abu Sayyaf militants in an hours-long firefight in nearby Basilan province. A military statement said 18 soldiers were killed and more than 50 others wounded in the battle, along with at least five militants. There was no word at that time about the hostages, and it was not clear whether Ridsdel was among them. Abu Sayyaf, a splinter group of the now-disbanded Moro Islamic Front, was founded in 1991 with funding from al-Qaida. It has been designated a terrorist group by the United Nations, Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. The United Arab Emirates, Britain and the United States also have classified Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organization. Its current leader, Isnilon Totoni Hapilon, swore allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2014. Kerry deplores the murder of gay embassy employee By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has condemned the murder of Bangladeshi gay rights activist Xulhaz Mannan, who was an employee of the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka. Kerry said in a statement late Monday: "We are profoundly saddened by the loss of one of our own in such a senseless act of violence." He also said Xulhaz "embodied the spirit of the people of Bangladesh and the pride with which they guard their traditions of tolerance, peace, and diversity." USAID official Mannan, who also worked as a protocol officer in the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka, was at his home with his friend, Tanay Mojumdar, when five attackers arrived, disguised as couriers and pounced on them with machetes. Mannan, 35, who was the editor of the country’s only gay and transgender magazine Roopban, and fellow gay rights activist and theater worker Mojumdar, 26, died on the spot. Although police have not identified the attackers, Asaduzzaman Mia, commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said it was a case of target killing. “We have collected important evidence from the spot. We shall be able to identify the killers soon before they are arrested. …Some militants might have been behind today’s killings,” Mia said Monday. In Bangladesh, where more than 90 percent of the country’s 160 million population is Muslim, several Islamist groups have long resorted to protests and agitation over issues they say threaten Islam. They have called for the execution of atheist bloggers, and since 2013, five bloggers and one publisher have been hacked to death in Bangladesh. Police blame Ansarullah Bangla Team, a local hardline Islamist group, for the killings. Trump ridicules rivals’ plan for lessening his victories By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
U.S. billionaire Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, ridiculed his two rivals' joint effort to derail his campaign Monday, calling it a horrible act of desperation. Trump's challengers, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, announced a plan late Sunday to try to deny the brash Trump, who has never held elective office, from winning the nomination on the first ballot at the party's July national convention, in hopes convention delegates will pick them on a subsequent ballot. Kasich said he would stop campaigning in the midwestern state of Indiana, where Republicans vote in a nominating contest May 3, to give Cruz a better shot of winning there against Trump. Meanwhile, Cruz agreed to halt his efforts in two western states, Oregon, which votes May 17, and New Mexico, with voting on June 7, to give Kasich more room to fight Trump for convention delegates in those states. Both Cruz and Kasich said they would continue to campaign against each other and Trump in other states. Trump derided the Cruz-Kasich effort, saying, "It is sad that two grown politicians have to collude against one person who has only been a politician for 10 months in order to try and stop that person from getting the Republican nomination." He said the two candidates' coordination to block him would often be illegal in corporate transactions."This horrible act of desperation from two campaigns who have totally failed, makes me even more determined, for the good of the Republican Party and our country, to prevail," he said. Cruz said going head-to-head against Trump in Indiana, a conservative state with both rural expanses and industrial centers, will help voters there decide and also is "good for the country to have a clear and direct choice." Kasich gave a mixed message about the coordination with Cruz, saying he would not spend resources in Indiana, but still called for people there to vote for him. The Cruz-Kasich strategy signals a marked shift for Cruz, who has previously rejected overtures to join with Kasich to try to block Trump. The New York developer holds a commanding lead in convention delegates over both of his challengers, but is not yet assured of winning a majority of convention delegates before the quadrennial gathering starts. Cruz has repeatedly called for Kasich to drop out, saying he was a spoiler in the race, winning votes and a handful of delegates that were denying Cruz a chance for a head-to-head faceoff with Trump. Cruz, a conservative agitator against both Democratic and Republican leaders in Washington, has acknowledged that he cannot win the nomination on the first ballot, but says Trump, a one-time television reality show host, also won't reach the majority of 1,237 convention delegates needed to claim the nomination on the first round of voting. As its stands now, Trump has 845 pledged delegates on the first ballot, Cruz 559, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who dropped out of the race a month ago, 171, and Kasich 148. Trump, if he does well in the 15 remaining state nominating contests, could reach the 1,237 figure. He swept to victory in his home state of New York last week and is a heavy favorite over Cruz and Kasich in all five primaries scheduled Tuesday in five northeastern states, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island. U.S. political analysts view the vote in Indiana, a conservative state with both rural expanses and industrial centers, as another crucial step in deciding the outcome of the Republican nomination race. Pre-election surveys show Trump with a single-digit percentage lead over Cruz, but the outcome could tip with Kasich's withdrawal from the state, assuming his supporters don't stay home and actually switch their votes to Cruz rather than Trump. Trump scoffed at both the Cruz and Kasich campaigns, saying that about 80 percent of the Republican voters have rejected Cruz and noting that Kasich has only won in Ohio, the Midwestern state he governs, while losing dozens of other contests. The eventual Republican nominee is likely to face the Democratic front-runner, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in the November national election to pick a successor to President Barack Obama, who leaves office in January. Mrs. Clinton, seeking to become the first female U.S. president, holds a significant lead in Democratic convention delegates over her sole challenger, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, but has yet to seize a majority to claim the party's nomination. Mrs. Clinton, the wife of former President Bill Clinton, is favored in the Tuesday voting in all five states. |
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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. 2016 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 sixth news page |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Tuesday,
April 26, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 81
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Government cites economic recovery By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Casa Presidencial, perhaps as a prelude to the president’s state of the state speech next Monday, said that economic growth has allowed Costa Ricans to recover their confidence. The government announcement Monday stopped short of taking credit for the economic growth, which is said was 1.7 percent of gross domestic product in 2013, 3.7 percent in 2014 and 3.7 percent in 2015. It said that the Banco Central estimated that 2016 would end with 4.3 percent growth. The announcement based its statistics on the monthly index of economic activity. Casa Presidencial also said that the government has instituted a new system to stabilize the exchange rate with the U.S. dollar. The exchange has been about 530 colons to the dollar for more than a year. The announcement also said that the economy added 13,000 new jobs. The consumer confidence index done monthly by the Escuela de Estadística of the Universidad de Costa Rica had reached 39.7 points compared to the previous six months where the index was 31.6. President Luis Guillermo Solis will make his annual speech to lawmakers and diplomats Monday. Such speeches usually are optimistic. Trafficking continues at southern border By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Human trafficking appears to be big business at the country’s southern border. Fuerza Public officers said they detained one man in Paso Canoas after four Africans identified him as a trafficker. Police said the man made a deal for $500 to bring the Africans to Honduras after getting them into Costa Rica illegally in his taxi. But when the man spotted police, he told his passengers to scatter. When they sought to have their money returned, he declined, so they filed a complaint, said police. In another case, the Fuerza Pública said a man offered 600,000 colons, more than $1,000, to officers at the control post in Sabanilla de Coto Brus in exchange for allowing him to bring through a group of foreigners. Police declined to accept the money and detained the man, said the Ministerio de Seguridad Pública. |
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| From Page 7: U.S. new home sales weaker in Midwest By the A.M. Costa Rica
wire services
Sales of new homes in the United States fell unexpectedly in March, but the decline was limited to the Midwest, suggesting the housing market recovery remains intact and in contrast to a broadly weak economy. The U.S. Department of Commerce reports new home sales fell 1.5 percent last month, the third consecutive month they have declined. New home sales fell to a seasonally-adjusted 511,000 units, short of the 520,000 predicted by economists. The report comes on the heels of last week's National Association of Realtors report that existing home sales in March rebounded by a greater-than-expected 5.1 percent, with increases seen in all four major regions of the United States. Despite lagging sales of new homes, analysts remain optimistic about the housing market. Monthly sales figures can be volatile, but economists say new home sales are trending higher over longer periods. The U.S. financial markets did not appear to react to the new home sales data, as investors remain on the sidelines in anticipation of the Federal Reserve Board's policy meeting today and Wednesday. Concerned about the strength of the overall U.S. economy, the Fed is expected to leave interest rates unchanged after raising them from record lows in December, its first interest rate hike in nearly a decade. |
