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San
José, Costa Rica, Friday, May 2, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 86
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Rainy season in
full swing
and weekend likely to be wet By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The weather forecast for the weekend is wet. In fact, there is a good bet that most afternoons until late November will have rain. The Instituto Meteorológico Nacional says that today the typical pattern will prevail. Warm mornings will boost the uptake of moisture that then will fall as thunderstorms in the early afternoon. The weather service said there was rain Thursday night between Dominical and Uvita. Caution was urged. The weather service in San José also warns of stiff winds created by the thunderstorms. For expats, the major concern should be protection of computers and electronic gear. There is no system that can protect from a direct lighting strike, so the best bet is to unplug devices when thunder is near. Golfers have their own worries, which is why the 19th hole was created. Head found at Tárcoles believed to be croc victim By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A head found in Río Tárcoles is believed to be that of Omar de Jesús Jirón, who was a victim of crocodiles in the river earlier this week. Police officers from Jacó made the discovery early Thursday morning. Locals notified officers they found other body parts that had ended up on the banks of the river. Agents have since taken the remains to check if the DNA matches that of Jirón, a young Nicaraguan man who was working construction in Costa Rica at Clínica de Parrita. Investigators said Jirón was heavily intoxicated after drinking liquor and entered the river near the Río Tárcoles bridge, though his friend repeatedly advised him not to. According to a press representative from the Judicial Investigating Organization, agents believe that Jirón walked down under the bridge, removed his clothes, and then dove into the river to swim. Birthday celebration ends in the death of four persons By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A birthday party at a bar in San Pedro ended in the death of four persons at the Río Tárcoles near Jacó. The dead individuals are three men and a young woman. The men lived in Goicoechea and the woman lived in Calle Blancos. Both are north of San Jacó Centro. A young woman with the last name of Álvarez survived. She told investigators that she was sleeping at the time of the crash. She suffered a broken arm but was able to leave the car and seek help. The help was slow in coming, she said because motorists would not stop. Finally a trucker did, said the Judicial Investigating Organization.. The woman said the driver, identified by the last name of Arguedas, had not been drinking. The young people were celebrating the birthday of a companion who had the last name of Vega. He was 24, agents said. The third dead man was identified by the last name of Cerdas. He was 18. The dead woman, 20. had the last name of Montero, agent said., The party began at 11 p.m. and finished at 2 a.m. Thursday when the participants decides to go to Jacó. Thursday was a legal holiday. Investigators said they attributed the accident to excessive speed and the driver's lack of knowledge about the roadway. The car went off the highway and down a steep bank to the river. Two more messengers tricked into facilitating robberies By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
There were two more cases this week of messengers being used as robbery dupes The real robber is on a telephone far away. The messengers are contracted by newspaper ads. Then the messenger is instructed to go to a business for a pickup. When the messenger arrives, he reports in to his supposed employer who asks that the cell phone be handed to the employee of the store. By telephone the robber announces that the messenger has a firearm and that the employee should deliver to him all the available cash. The messenger leaves with the money not knowing that he has just participated in a robbery, said the Judicial Investigating Organization. Later the messenger delivers the money to his supposed employer. Chinese president vows decisive action on terrorism By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Chinese President Xi Jinping is promising decisive action following a deadly bomb and knife attack at a train station in the western province of Xinjiang. Officials say three people were killed and 79 injured late Wednesday when attackers set off explosives and slashed passengers at the South Station in the regional capital, Urumqi. The official People's Daily newspaper said Thursday the three dead include a bystander and two of the attackers, although it was not clear from the report if it was a suicide attack. China's state-run Xinhua said the two suspects have long been involved in religious extremism. The rail station reopened Thursday amid tight security. The attack took place on the same day Xi visited Xinjiang, where he promised to go on the offensive against what the government considers separatists. Xinhua quoted Xi Thursday as saying "decisive actions must be taken to resolutely suppress the terrorists' rampant momentum." The government blames extremists from the predominantly Muslim Uighur ethnic group for a series of increasingly complex attacks in recent months. Government critics say the violence is driven by the government's restrictions on Muslim religious life and its policies that favor members of the Han ethnic group. Dilxat Raxit with the World Uyghur Congress said the attack "again proves that forceful repression is not a solution to the problem." In March, 29 people were killed when what the government says were Uighurs attacked passengers with knives at a train station in southwest China's Yunnan province. Last October, the government said three Uighurs killed themselves and two tourists when they rammed their car into a group of people in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
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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, Friday, May 2, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 86 | |
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| Caja union workers see a plot for privatization of their
institution |
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By
Michael Krumholtz
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff A union leader of the Caja Costarricense de Seguridad Social claims the nation's government is purposely trying to weaken the Caja to rally the population behind privatizing medical care. Martha Rodríguez González, associate secretary general of the Unión Nacional de Empleados de la Caja, joined a large contingent of the nation's working class to protest along Avenida Central on Costa Rica's labor day Thursday. In a letter handed out to the protesters and bystanders, Ms. Rodríguez writes that the Caja's services have deteriorated in quality and quantity over the past few years. Additionally, she says the administration in charge of human resources has made workers despondent and taken from their basic rights as workers. She claims that Costa Rican officials want to deteriorate the influence of public healthcare because they are feeling pressure from large pharmacies and private enterprise. “Their strategy is clear in trying to bring the Caja into a crisis so that the disarmed population will accept privatization,” she writes. “On this end we expect urgent response from the new government.” During the march, González said the protest gave Caja workers an opportunity to voice their grievances against the public organization's mismanagement and neglecting oversights. “Today is worker's day and it interests us to know today the working class all over this country is demanding a change,” Ms. Rodríguez said. “We in the Caja are fighting against the fact that they pay us low wages combined with the institution's poor state.” Employees from the Caja complained of wages, workers rights, and infrastructural problems during Thursday's protest. Olivier Esquivel Hernández works at Hospital México and said he and his colleagues are worried that they will be victims of the Caja's serious finance problems. “They are putting us in a dangerous position because of the Caja's deficit,” he said. “If they don't default, then many of the state employees in the Caja will be the ones paying for it during this crisis.” María Méndez, another Caja worker, agreed that there are numerous underlying issues with the organization's structure and the way it treats its employees. “The salaries are not fair considering the amount of appointments they give us over the long-term,” she said. Many of the workers marching shared optimistic stances towards the |
 A.M. Costa Rica/Michael Krumholtz
Younger members of the
Unión Nacional de Empleados de la Caja y la Seguridad Social
carry their demand for higher salaries.new government. Esquivel said he hopes the government can face the Caja's problems headon once the change of office takes effect next Thursday. “We expect a positive change and with the arrival of an authority that will strengthen the services and provide better attention to the workers,” Esquivel said. Earlier this week Luis Guillermo Solís appointed María del Rocío Sáenz Madrigal, a former minister of Salud, to head the Caja under his administration. Ms. Sáenz said she wants her office to provide better attention for patients with improved human resources and management, and ultimately advance the Caja's overall perception. Ms. Rodríguez said the new leaders in government will have full support from the union if they keep good on their promises to bring power back to those in public healthcare. “We are giving the benefit of the doubt to this government.” she said. “We are going to wait to see how they act but we hope that their promises made during the campaign are effectively carried out and lead to the country's further development.” |
| President cites the many external forces that prevented her
successes |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
President Laura Chinchilla delivered her swan song Thursday night., The president blamed nature, the world economic situation, climate change, the hostile administration in Nicaragua, lawmakers and even the news media for her failures. And she took credit for favorable developments even if they had been in the planning stages for years. She told the assembled new legislature and guests that she had done her best, according to the official text of her 9.500-plus word talk. As she had done early in her term, she linked damaging bad weather to climate change. Specifically she cited Tropical Storm Thomas, later a hurricane, that affected 300,000 Costa Rican in 2010. She also attributed major road collapses to nature. These included the Interamericana Norte, the autopista General Cañas and the Circunvalación that has inconvenienced greatly the population, she said. The president said that the effects of climate change continue handing the country an expensive bill. Scientists generally are reluctant to attribute any natural event to climate change, which is considered a trend. Since the early 20th century the average earth and sea surface temperature has increased less than a degree Celsius. The president also blamed the Sala IV constitutional court for preventing fiscal reform. And she blamed the legislature for sidetracking what she called institutional reform. The president said these were two battles her administration lost. She had proposed a  Partido Liberación Nacional photo
Presdient Chinchilla in her last
state of the nation speech. |
massive
restructuring and increases in taxes, but the court questioned the
procedures in the Asamblea Legislativa She warned the 57 new lawmakers that the fiscal situation is an urgent job for them. She also noted that some 95 percent of the national budget is fixed by constitutional and legislative mandates. The president also said that if the next administration does not follow through with key projects, the country would lose opportunity and credibility, She cited the proposed container handling facility a Dutch firm plans to build in Moín, the widening of Ruta 32 from Río Frio to Limón and the San José-San Ramón highway. All are controversial. She also took credit for saving the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social from bankruptcy. Among other action, the executive branch paid by a note the social charges it has owed for years on its employees. Her major legacy, according to the speech, is what she said was the improvements in citizen security. Murder rates have dropped from 11 per 100,000 to 8 per every 100,000 from 2010 to 2011, she said. The president noted that 2,000 more prison cells has been constructed. She also defended her decision to construct a roadway along the Rió San Juan at the northern border of the country. The project was spurred by Nicaragua's invasion of a part of Costa Rica to open up a new mouth for the river. She called some media reports yellow journalism when they mentioned the loss of large sums of money, environmental damage and other woes. Some 70 percent of the gravel road is in good condition, the president said. She also said that the roadway was visionary and vital to the nation's sovereignty. The president said that she, herself, has made complaints to prosecutors and that she was frustrated by the lack of advances in the investigation. The roadway was constructed as an emergency by local contractors without bidding. Continuing her criticism of the news media, the president said some outlets created a climate of opinion contrary to the approval of laws or the advance of contracts for the general welfare. She also said that she was concerned by government officials opposing measures that are contrary to the interests of the communications media. That was seen as a slap against La Nación, which is in a tax battle with the government. The president said that the communications media, the leaders of public opinion, are essential sources to generate social dynamics. By dong so ethically the impact on society would be positive, she said. But if they promote ignorance, deliberate distortions and unbalanced reports they hurt everyone, including themselves. The president went so far late in her administration to set up her own newspaper online that published good news about the government. She called upon the media to put in practice a professional creativity, based on facts, promoted by reason and guided by integrity and centered on the welfare of the country. She also said that history would judge the cost of opening the way for the first woman in the presidency. "Those who would condemn the female leadership for the errors I have committed underestimate the force and determination of woman," she added. Ms. Chinchilla leaves office in six days. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, May 2, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 86 | |||||
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| Some coral shows the ability to adapt to warmer water
conditions |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A new study on heat-tolerant corals that may lead to new ways of conserving reefs in a warmer world. Coral reefs are home to about one-third of everything that lives in the ocean. Reefs help protect coasts from storm damage and provide food and jobs for some one billion people. But rising ocean temperatures and increasing acidity are killing them at a rapid pace. As much as 80 percent of the corals in the Caribbean are dead, as are nearly 75 percent of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the largest reef on the planet. A research team led by marine biologist Stephen Palumbi of Stanford University, compared a single coral species living in two adjacent ponds in a remote Pacific Island lagoon in Samoa. One pool reached 35 degrees Celsius, a higher temperature than most corals can withstand. The other was a few degrees cooler. Palumbi's team transplanted corals from the cooler pool to warmer waters to see how they would respond. “The simple question was, can an individual acquire the ability to live in warmer water?" Palumbi said. "Can it acquire heat tolerance? Or is the ability to live in that water just due to the genes, just innate to the corals that are living there.” After about a year, the cool pond transplants were tested in a laboratory heat stress tank. The findings, reported in Science, show |
that although the
corals were only about half as heat-tolerant as
corals that had been living in the warmer pool all along, they adjusted
quickly compared to how the creatures would naturally evolve over time. “We estimate that it would take about 50 to 100 years for evolution to generate this kind of change, mostly because corals are very long-lived animals and the generation time is quite long," he said. "So evolution works fairly slowly in those cases, whereas the physiology seems to react very quickly to changes in the local environment and then buffer these individual corals against heat stress.” The coral species native to the warmer part of the reef had a double advantage. “They had the genes to be able to live there," Palumbi said. "And they also had the physiology to be able to adjust to it. The corals from the cool pool had the physiology too, but they didn’t have the warm water genes." The study suggests that as the ocean warms, some corals can adapt but not, he fears, at the same pace that the planet is heating up. “But this ability to respond physiologically and evolutionarily might give them a few extra decades, might give them a little extra time to adjust to climate change," he said. "It gives us a little extra time to fix the problem.” The study results, Palumbi says, could encourage decision-makers to set conservation priorities to protect reefs with heat-tolerant corals. He adds that as ocean temperatures rise, these more resilient corals could help restore damaged reefs. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, May 2, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 86 | |||||
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| Obama administration again faces Benghazi criticism By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The Obama administration is facing challenges from the opposition and the news media on its handling of the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi which killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, were killed. At issue is a newly released email from 2012 that critics say bolsters their claim the administration tried to deflect blame for the incident by falsely saying the attack was triggered by a video that insulted Islam. In that email, the administration lays out talking points that then-United Nations ambassador Susan Rice was to follow when she appeared on television news shows to explain the incident. The email was written by White House Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes and said the administration's goal was to underscore that the protests taking place at various diplomatic posts at the time were rooted in the video. Later, U.S. officials confirmed the attack at the consulate in Benghazi was the result of an organized terrorist plot. In a heated exchange with reporters that extended from Wednesday to Thursday, White House spokesman Jay Carney accused the opposition of politicizing the Benghazi attack. “This administration's focus since that event has been on pursuing those who did harm on Americans, who killed Americans and bringing them to justice and taking action to ensure that the failures in security that helped cause this or lead to this event were addressed and changed. What we have seen since hours after the attack beginning with a statement by the Republican nominee for president, is an attempt by Republicans to politicize a tragedy and that continues today, and yesterday," said Carney. Administration officials say the email was discussing the wider incidents in which demonstrators held violent protests outside several U.S. diplomatic facilities in the region. The administration released the email only after a lawsuit demanding the handover of all emails related to the Benghazi incident, fueling further criticism among those who accuse the administration of covering up or downplaying the attack. Facebook comes to rescue of tot with kidney problem By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Most people use Facebook to stay in touch with friends. Increasingly, however, social media are proving to be useful in fulfilling other more urgent needs. The desperate parents of a 2-year-old girl with a crippling kidney disease have found a donor by posting an appeal on Facebook. Arianna lives in the northern U.S. state of Minnesota. When she was about seven weeks old, she was diagnosed with a rare genetic kidney disorder. Her father, Jeremy Booth, said that since then, dialysis has kept her alive. "She is on dialysis treatment every night. They last about 10 to 12 hours. She gets on as soon as she goes to bed and she gets taken off when she wakes up in the morning," said Booth. Tired of seeing her daughter suffer, Ashley Booth posted a plea for help on Facebook. Some 2,400 kilometers south, in Florida, Christy Harding, also a mother of a young girl, saw the appeal. Harding decided to offer her own kidney if it would match. "I can't imagine waiting for that phone call to say - yes, somebody has made the decision to save your daughter's life," said ms. Harding. When the Booths received a call confirming that Harding was a match and willing to donate her kidney, Arianna's mother was overwhelmed with emotion. "I wanted to cry. I wanted to smile. My son was standing there and tears were coming down my eyes and he said, 'Mom, who is it? What's wrong?' And I said, 'Nothing. These are happy tears. Arianna is finally going to get a kidney,’" said Booth. Military sexual assaults getting greater focus in U.S. By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says sexual assaults are a threat to women and men in uniform and the Pentagon must do more to fight a culture that discourages victims from reporting assaults. Hagel said Thursday he is ordering a greater focus on prevention programs, including plans to review alcohol sales and policies. Reports of sexual assaults by members of the military rose 50 percent after the Pentagon began a vigorous campaign to get more victims to come forward, according to its annual report on sexual assaults. Sexual assault has been a top issue for the military, Congress and the Obama administration during the past year, triggering congressional hearings and persistent questions about how effectively the military is preventing and prosecuting assaults and how well it treats victims. While the number of reported assaults shot up sharply in 2013, defense officials said that based on survey data and other information, they believe the increase was largely due to victims feeling more comfortable coming forward. During the past two years, the military has increased awareness of the problem and treatment programs to instill more confidence in the system and get victims to come forward. Phone numbers and contact information for sexual assault prevention officers are placed across military bases, including inside the doors of bathroom stalls. Top military officers have traveled to bases around the world speaking out on the issue. The Pentagon report released Thursday says 5,061 reports of sexual abuse were filed in the year ended Sept. 30, compared with 3,374 in 2012, a 50 percent gain. About 10 percent of the 2013 reports involved incidents that occurred before the victim got into the military, up from just 4 percent in 2012. Under the military's definition, a sexual assault can be anything from unwanted sexual contact, such as inappropriate touching or grabbing, to sodomy and rape. Service dog flight school helps reduce the jitters By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Traveling by air can be very stressful: the crowds, the noise, the sometimes intrusive security procedures, the airplanes’ closed environment. People can take a course to get over their fear of flying. Service dogs can too. Service dogs almost never leave their owners, even on public transportation, including airplanes. But a busy airport environment can be disorienting and distressing for dogs, even well-trained ones. People with disabilities, who rely on their dogs, want to make sure their companions will be able to safely lead them through security checkpoints and stay calm even during occasional turbulence in flight. They can turn to the Air Hollywood K9 Flight School, where owners and their dogs go through the entire procedure including spending time in a flight simulator, built for filming movie flight scenes. Dogs experience all the sights, sounds and vibrations of a real flight. Sandy Alexander, from Newport Beach, California, has a disability that requires his two-year-old Labrador, Doc, to be by his side at all times. Alexander says Doc didn’t like the turbulence. “When that started he was pretty agitated and looked up at me and wasn't sure what was going on, and I think we are going to be prepared the next time it happens,” he said. Successful training is based on a simple rule: repetition, says trainer Mary Segall, with Canine Companions for Independence, which provides dogs for people with disabilities. “Dogs need to be exposed gradually and repetitively to stimulation, to the environment, to loud noises, to sounds and other dogs so that when this experience happens to them on a daily basis, they are able to act in a way that they are used to acting and they don't get excitable,” she said. Stacey Huckeba's 9-month-old Labrador, Striker, is still in training to be a guide dog. “I don't fly a lot, so I don't know a lot, so I don't know a lot of the routine myself," she said. "So with a dog I would have been lost.” Dog owners who attended the course say they now feel much more comfortable thinking about their flight. Dogs too, look like they have benefited from the training to take to the air. As Chinese menu expands there is change in demand By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The traditional Chinese dinner plate is getting a makeover as tastes in the country begin to change. Exotic seafood and different meats are now being purchased at increasing rates. In fact, China is the largest overall consumer of seafood in the world with an increase of more than 10 percent in fish consumption over the past decade, according to the World Bank. During that same time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports, the amount of pork people eat in China rose nearly 40 percent. Michael Fabinyi, a research fellow at the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, notes substantial socioeconomic trends are influencing what people eat in the Middle Kingdom. “This is part of a broader change in food consumption patterns in China that include a shift to a greater consumption of meat,” said Fabinyi. “Some of the broader, larger factors contributing to this shift are urbanization and increased incomes.” Pork has always been a staple in China, but as the middle class in the country grows and has more money to spend, its consumption of this traditional meat, as well as others, is increasing rapidly. In addition to the evolving Chinese economy, social factors are driving people to buy more of these products than ever before. Fabinyi claims the luxurious banquet culture among the country’s elite is a large reason why the high-end market for seafood like live reef fish, sea cucumbers and shark fins is thriving. ”It’s a way of cementing social ties with important business and government partners,” said Fabinyi. “Often, people who are in high level positions in government or the private sector attend several banquets a week as part of their work obligations. During these banquets, hosts are expected to impress their guests by serving very high status foods like these types of seafood.” Analysts note Chinese regulations, recently put in place to eradicate government corruption, are diminishing the effects of banquet culture but high-end seafood and pork consumption are continuing to grow overall. In spite of this, some government policies are actually encouraging Chinese people to eat meat and seafood and have done so throughout history. Agricultural economist Fred Gale said Deng Xiaoping, one of China’s first post-Mao leaders who focused on directing the country toward a market economy, made it a point to support the changing diet to keep the Chinese people competitive in the global marketplace. Deng Xiaoping stated, "we must fundamentally change the racist food structure increasing the meat and dairy intake in our diet to improve the physique of the Chinese people,” said Gale. “So, they will rank among the excellent members of humanity. At this point, meat and dairy became a nationalistic thing and promoting production became a major national policy goal.” Regardless of the Chinese Communist Party’s intentions, negative effects associated with the increase of pork and seafood consumption are leaving a bad taste in some peoples’ mouths. Environmentalists argue there are ecological problems occurring on land and at sea within these animal populations. Fabinyi explained the environmental problem of over-fishing spans beyond China affecting countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia which are seafood suppliers-especially when ultra-effective methods are used to catch fish. “A tablet of cyanide is dissolved in a water bottle which is then squirted by a diver into the coral that stuns the fish,” said Fabinyi. “Then, the fish are scooped up and revived when taken back up to the surface. Because this is a much more efficient method than hook and line, it obviously is a large contributor to fishing pressure, apart from the effects that the cyanide has on the coral reefs.” Problems associated with sourcing food are also an issue on land. Disease is affecting the increasing number of pigs imported from the United States. Most western breeds are not meant to be raised in outdoor areas. But in China, these animals are being exposed to the elements as well as insects, mice and other carriers of dangerous illnesses. Gale said the effects of these conditions on the environment have many Chinese worried about food safety. “As the marketing chain distance between the consumer and the pigs increases, the consumers don’t really know where their pork came from or what’s in it,” said Gale. “There are a lot of things like this on the Chinese internet where a local person, in some village, is complaining about the big farms near his house and how they dump all this manure in the water making it undrinkable.” But not every aspect of getting these increasingly popular foods to the dinner table is unpalatable. Fabinyi argues fishing opportunities for people living on islands with poor agricultural potential provide a livelihood for a population that has few other natural resources to draw from. “The trade in live-fish has been a massively important economic stimulus to local communities,” said Fabinyi. “Relative to where they were previously, many households have been able to improve their standards of living from assistance-level only to being able to invest in basic-level education for their children, some level of healthcare and material goods that have resulted in the improved standard of living.” Chinese eaters are becoming more adventurous than ever before. In turn, as the flavors they seek grow in complexity, so do the effects of the country’s massive consumption. Food experts claim both the positive and negative consequences of China’s changing diet are already beginning to cross borders, become international issues and will continue to do so as consumption grows. Addition of eight countries sought to religious rights list By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A U.S. panel on religious freedom is asking the State Department to add eight more countries to the list where severe violations of religious freedom are tolerated by their governments. In its annual report, the Commission on International Religious Freedom named Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam as new "countries of particular concern." The commission also calls on the State Department to renew this status for eight other countries, where there has been no improvement: Burma, also known as Myanmar, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan. The report lists 33 countries across the globe where violations were reported last year, but not considered "countries of particular concern. They range from democracies such as India to dictatorships including Belarus and violence-wracked places such as the Central African Republic. The commission recommends the president, secretary of state, and members of Congress stress the importance of religious freedom at every opportunity, including meetings with foreign officials. It also calls on the State Department to impose travel restrictions on those responsible for violating religious rights. Global press freedoms reported at lowest level Special
to A.M. Costa Rica
Global press freedom has fallen to its lowest level in over a decade, according to a Freedom House report released today. The decline was driven in part by major regression in several Middle Eastern states, including Egypt, Libya, and Jordan; marked setbacks in Turkey, Ukraine, and a number of countries in East Africa, and deterioration in the relatively open media environment of the United States. Freedom of the Press 2014 found that despite positive developments in a number of countries, most notably in sub-Saharan Africa, setbacks were the dominant trend in every other region. The share of the world’s population with media rated free remains at just 14 percent, or only one in seven people. Far larger shares live in not Free (44 percent) or partly free (42 percent) media environments. “We see declines in media freedom on a global level, driven by governments’ efforts to control the message and punish the messenger,” said Karin Karlekar, project director of the report. “In every region of the world last year, we found both governments and private actors attacking reporters, blocking their physical access to newsworthy events, censoring content, and ordering politically motivated firings of journalists.” “In 2013 we saw more cases of states targeting foreign reporters and media outlets,” Ms. Karlekar added. “Russian and Chinese authorities declined to renew or threatened to withhold visas for prominent foreign correspondents, but the new Egyptian government went a step further by detaining a number of Al-Jazeera staff on charges of supporting terrorism.” Key Global Findings: * Of the 197 countries and territories assessed during 2013, a total of 63 (32 percent) were rated free, 68 (35 percent) were rated partly free, and 66 (33 percent) were rated not free. * All regions except sub-Saharan Africa, whose average score leveled off, showed declines, with the Middle East and North Africa suffering the worst deterioration. * Triggers for country declines included governments’ overt attempts to control the news — whether through the physical harassment of journalists covering protest movements or other sensitive stories, restrictions on foreign reporters, or tightened constraints on online news outlets and social media — as well as the role of owners in shaping media content through directives on coverage or dismissals of outspoken journalists. * Country improvements were largely driven by three factors: a growing ability of private firms to operate television and radio outlets; greater access to a variety of views via online media, social media, and international outlets; and improved respect for legal protections for the press. * China and Russia maintained a tight grip on local media while also attempting to control the more independent views provided either in the blogosphere or by foreign news sources. * The world’s eight worst-rated countries remain Belarus, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. In the Americas the regional average score worsened to its lowest level in five years, and just 2 percent of the population in Latin America lived in free media environments. Scores dropped in Honduras, Panama, Suriname, and Venezuela. Conditions in the United States deteriorated due primarily to attempts by the government to inhibit reporting on national security issues. Researchers extrapolate warming effect on tropics By
the University of Copenhagen news service
Shrinking ice sheets and melting ice caps are well known consequences of climate change. But a new study said that impacts on biodiversity will be just as severe in other regions of the world. When multiple dimensions of climate change are analyzed, different regions emerge as threatened by different aspects of climate change. The tropics, for example, will be highly affected by local changes in temperature and precipitation, leading to novel climates with no current analogues in the planet. These results, recently published in Science, expose the complexities of climate change effects on biodiversity and the challenges in predicting and preserving natural ecosystems in a changing Earth. "Polar regions have gained substantial attention because they are experiencing a very high temperature increase. Polar climates will shrink in area, providing reduced habitat for arctic and subarctic species, but climate change is more than melting ice. Warming in the tropics will create entirely novel climatic conditions, currently not experienced by species anywhere else on Earth. Whether species will be able to adapt to these novel climates is an open question. There is a risk of neglecting such vital information because the temperature increase in the polar regions is easier to grasp in comparison," says senior author Miguel Araújo of the Imperial College London and the University of Copenhagen. Some species face extreme events, others a long move The study, which is the outcome of an international collaboration led by the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid and the University of Copenhagen in collaboration with the Universities of Évora, Helsinki and the Imperial College London, is the first to provide a detailed global overview of the threats and opportunities for biodiversity arising from different measurements of climate change. Using 15 climate change models used by the International Panel for Climate Change, the authors examined how different aspects of change in temperature and precipitation could affect species persistence around the world. They reviewed most climate change metrics available, applied them into the 21st century, and related the emerging climate change patterns to expected threats and opportunities for biodiversity. Raquel Garcia is a researcher from the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid and Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate at University of Copenhagen, "Climate change can be measured in many more ways than is traditionally done in studies of climate change impacts on biodiversity" she said. "For example, we can measure whether extreme events will become more or less extreme, whether given climatic conditions will become more or less available, and how far climatic conditions will move from their current locations. "When we compare this variety of measurements into the future, it becomes apparent that biodiversity will experience different climatic challenges in different regions. Extreme warming and drying events, for example, are projected to mainly affect the tropics, causing a severe threat for sensitive species. When we consider how far the current climatic conditions will move, the distance is greatest in some regions of cold and polar climates. Species in such regions will thus face greater difficulties in tracking the types of climates they have adapted to." Carsten Rahbek is co-author of the paper and also of the University of Copenhagen and Imperial College London: "These results provide us with a much more nuanced picture of the implications of climate change for biodiversity. Although climate change is a global phenomenon, it is expressed in many different ways, varying from region to region and thus there is no single cure to apply to all areas. We need to consider the consequences according to the main regional effects. The good news is that the better we understand the implications of climate change, the better we can design management actions to preserve biodiversity and ecosystems." |
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Cuba rejects its
inclusion in U.S. terrorist aid list By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire ervices
Cuba is objecting to its continued inclusion on the U.S. State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism. The Cuban Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling the designation absurd. It accused Washington of trying to justify its 54-year-old economic embargo against the island. The 2013 U.S. global terrorism report notes Havana is hosting peace talks between Colombia's government and rebels. The report also says there is no information Cuba provided weapons or paramilitary training to terrorist groups. Cuba has been on the U.S. terror list since 1982. The list also names Iran, Syria and Sudan as countries that have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism. The report also mentions the presence of U.S. fugitives in Cuba. The Cuban Foreign Ministry statement countered that none are terrorists, and those who committed crimes were punished on the island. The designation of being a terror sponsor carries economic sanctions beyond those already imposed in the U.S. trade embargo of Cuba. The trade embargo was imposed in 1960 in response to Cuba's revolutionary communist government's seizure of U.S. properties on the island. It has been strengthened over the years and includes almost all U.S. exports to Cuba, except for food and medicine. |
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