Staghorn coral phtographed by George Stoyle and brain coral photographed by Bob Steneck

By the Cell Press  news staff

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

This prototype of glowing plant is displayed to seek funds.



Could bioluminescent plants one day replace light bulbs?

That is the goal of a group of California scientists who are looking to genetically engineer bioluminescent plants that could eventually be used as streetlights or bedside reading lamps.

“We are using synthetic biology techniques and genome compiler’s software to insert bioluminescence genes into Arabidopsis, a small flowering plant and member of the mustard family, to make a plant that visibly glows in the dark,” the scientists write on their Kickstarter page, where they are raising money for the effort.

The process is done using the so-called Agrobacterium method, meaning that specially designed DNA derived from the luminescent compounds in fireflies will be inserted into a special type of bacteria that can inject its DNA into the plant.

“Flowers of the plant are then dipped into a solution containing the transformed bacteria. The bacteria injects our DNA into the cell nucleus of the flowers which pass it onto their seeds which we can grow until they glow!” write the scientists.

The group touts glowing plants as a potentially environmentally friendly source of light that is relatively cheap, easy to dispose of and doesn’t require an external power source such as polluting batteries.

The idea of glowing plants is not new. Back in the 1980s, scientists developed a glowing plant, but it required the injection of luciferin, a compound found in many bioluminescent organisms.

The scientists say that strongly luminescent plants are still a way off.

“We hope to have a plant which you can visibly see in the dark (like glow in the dark paint) but don't expect to replace your light bulbs with version 1.0.,” they write. “The more money we raise, the more we can refine our designs and the stronger the effect we will get.”

The project is not without controversy.

According to the New York Times, two environmental organizations have asked Kickstarter and the Agriculture Department to shut down the project.

In their letter, the groups said the project “will likely result in widespread, random and uncontrolled release of bioengineered seeds and plants produced through the controversial and risky techniques of synthetic biology,” according to The New York Times.

The controversy doesn’t seem to be turning away donors. Latest figures show the project has raised more than $285,000 from over 5,000 people. The original goal was to raise $65,000.


Kidnap suspect in Ohio
may face murder charges

An Ohio prosecutor said on Thursday he will seek aggravated murder charges, which could carry the death penalty, against a former Cleveland school bus driver accused of kidnapping and raping three women during a decade of captivity in his house.
 
The charges would stem from the forced miscarriages that police say were suffered by one of the women at the hands of Ariel Castro, who is accused of holding them captive at his house in a low-income neighborhood of Cleveland.
 
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty told a news  conference that his office intends to pursue charges of kidnapping and sexual assault as well as aggravated murder.
 
Prosecutors also planned to file charges relating to the many abuses endured by Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight as well as Berry's 6-year-old daughter who was born in captivity, he said.
 
“I fully intend to seek charges for each and every act of sexual violence, rape, each day of kidnapping, every felonious assault, and each act of aggravated murder for terminating pregnancies that the offender perpetrated,'' he said.
 
The prosecutor's office will launch the official process to determine if the death penalty is appropriate, he said.
 
“Capital punishment must be reserved for those crimes that are truly the worst examples of human conduct,'' McGinty said.
 
Knight suffered at least five miscarriages that she told police were intentionally caused by Castro starving her and beating her in the abdomen, according to an initial police report.
 
The three women and child escaped on Monday from the house, where police said Castro used ropes and chains to hold them captive for around a decade, inflicting starvation, beatings and sexual abuse. Ms. Berry, now 27, disappeared in 2003, the day before her 17th birthday. Ms. DeJesus, 23, vanished in 2004, and Ms. Knight, 32, went missing in 2002.
 
The city of Cleveland has already filed kidnapping and rape charges against Castro, who appeared briefly in a municipal court on Thursday. Felony charges stemming from crimes that occurred in the city are first handled in municipal court and then transferred to the county court.
 
Castro's court appearance was the first time he has been seen in public since his arrest on Monday. Municipal Court Judge Lauren Moore set bond for Castro at $8 million.
 
Castro's home “was a prison to these three women and the child,'' Cuyahoga County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Brian Murphy told the judge. “Today the situation is turned on him,'' Murphy said. “Mr. Castro stands before you a captive, in captivity, a prisoner.''
 
The judge also ordered Castro to have no contact with the victims or their families. Their imprisonment came to an end Monday when Ms. Berry, helped by neighbors who heard her screams, broke through a locked door.
 
During the municipal court proceedings that lasted less than five minutes, Castro neither spoke nor entered a plea. He kept his face turned away from the gallery that was crowded with media and spectators.
 
Castro's court appointed lawyer, Kathleen DeMetz, said he  would be placed on suicide watch in jail and is expected to be held in isolation, the lawyer said.
 
He would need $800,000 cash, 10 percent of the bond amount, to get out of jail.
 
“The man doesn't have any money,'' Metz said. “He clearly doesn't have that,'' noting that Castro had been unemployed since being fired from his job driving school busses last November.
 
Berry told police that her escape on Monday had been her first chance to break free in the 10 years that she was held, seizing the opportunity during Castro's momentary absence.
 
Her baby was born in a plastic inflatable children's swimming pool on Christmas Day, 2006, authorities said. A paternity test will be conducted to determine the girl's father.
 
The women told police their abductions occurred when Castro offered them rides and they accepted, authorities said.
 
McGinty, the county prosecutor, said assembling a multitude of charges against Castro could take time, considering the ordeals the victims experienced.
 
“They need a chance to heal before we can seek further in-depth evidence from them,'' he said, describing them as having “found the internal strength and courage to outlast their tormentor and survive a decade of torture and depravity.''
 
Ms. Berry and Ms. DeJesus went home with family members on Wednesday, while Ms. Knight remained hospitalized in good condition. 


Massive hacking scheme takes
$45 million from ATMs


The U.S. government charged eight individuals with using data obtained by hacking into two credit card processors in a worldwide scheme that netted some $45 million within hours, a crime prosecutors described as one of the biggest bank heists in history.
 
The individuals formed the New York-based cell of a global cyber criminal organization that stole Mastercard, Inc.,  debit card data from two Middle Eastern banks, the Justice Department said. The information was used to make more than 40,500 withdrawals at automated teller machines in 27 countries, prosecutors said.
 
The cards were issued by National Bank of Ras Al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates and Bank of Muscat in Oman, prosecutors said.
 
Bank representatives could not be reached for comment outside of regular business hours.
 
The case demonstrates the major threat that cyber crime still poses to banks around the world. Security experts frequently identify electronic fraud as one of the key challenges facing banks today.
 
“Hackers only need to find one vulnerability to cause millions of dollars of damage,'' said Mark Rasch, a former federal cyber crimes prosecutor, based in Bethesda, Maryland.
 
Authorities said they arrested seven of the eight defendants, all U.S. citizens and residents of Yonkers, New York. They are Jael Mejia Collado, Joan Luis Minier Lara, Evan Jose PeIna, Jose Familia Reyes, Elvis Rafael Rodriguez, Emir Yasser Yeje and Chung Yu-Holguin.
 
The eighth defendant charged in the indictment, Alberto Yusi Lajud-PeIna, also known as “Prime'' and “Albertico,'' was murdered on April 27 in the Dominican Republic, according to prosecutors. U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch in Brooklyn, New York, who filed the charges, said at a press conference it was unclear whether the murder was related to the cybercrime case.
 
Prosecutors said the attacks, known as unlimited operations,' occurred in two separate incidents in December 2012 and February 2013.
 
The hackers gained access to companies that process debit card transactions, eliminated the maximum withdrawal limits on the cards and then employed casher' crews to take money out of ATMs around the world using the stolen data, prosecutors said.
 
After the cards were shut down, cashers laundered the proceeds, often by purchasing luxury goods, and sent a portion of the money back to the organization's leaders, prosecutors said.
 
In the New York City area, the ring withdrew nearly $400,000 in less than three hours at more than 140 ATM locations, prosecutors said. On another occasion, approximately $2.4 million was collected in nearly 3,000 ATM withdrawals over a 10-hour stretch, according to prosecutors.
 
That makes the case the second biggest bank robbery in New York City history, Lynch said, after the so-called Lufthansa heist  in which robbers stole millions in cash and jewelry from John F. Kennedy International Airport.
 
Lynch said it was likely that the headquarters of the global scheme is located outside the United States and that the current charges focused only on the New York-based cell. Investigators are examining whether other cells are operating elsewhere in the United States, she said.
 
In a statement, Mastercard said it had cooperated with law enforcement in the investigation and stressed that its systems were not involved or compromised in the attacks.


Demotion disputed in case
of Benghazi diplomatic figure


A senior State Department official says he has been demoted following his criticism of the Obama administration's handling of last September's attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.  Four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed.  State Department officials say there has been no retaliation against Benghazi whistleblowers.

Since his return to Washington following the Benghazi attacks, Gregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission in Libya, has told Congress he was punished professionally.

"The job now is a significant . . .  it's a demotion," said Hicks. "Foreign affairs officer is a designation that is given to our civil service colleagues who are desk officers.  So I've been effectively demoted from deputy chief of mission to desk officer."

Acting deputy State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell says that is not true.

"The department has not and will not retaliate against Mr. Hicks," said Ventrell. "As he testified yesterday, he decided to shorten his assignment in Libya following the attacks, in part due to understandable family reasons, and he has followed standard employment processes."

Ventrell says Hicks has had neither a reduction in pay nor in grade and is free to compete with other foreign service officers for his next posting.

A 22-year veteran of the State Department, Hicks is a fluent Arabic speaker who before Libya served in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Yemen, and Syria.

Hicks told the congressional hearing that superiors questioned his management skills after he told Republican lawmakers that U.S. soldiers in Tripoli should have been sent to Benghazi.

Hicks has criticized Washington's initial assessment of the violence as stemming from a demonstration instead of being a terrorist attack, and says he was stunned when the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, made that assertion.

The Obama administration corrected its account to say this was a terrorist attack.  The U.S. Defense Department says soldiers in Tripoli could not have reached Benghazi in time to rescue those who were killed and injured.


U.S. black lists companies
for helping Iran sell oil


The United States has blacklisted two companies it says helped Iran evade sanctions on oil sales and slapped penalties on four Tehran-based firms it says helped the Islamic Republic enrich uranium, the latest efforts to pressure Iran's nuclear program.
 
“As long as Iran tries to evade our sanctions, we will continue to expose their deceptive maneuvers,'' David Cohen, the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the Treasury Department said in a news release.
 
The Treasury Department said on Thursday it blacklisted Sambouk Shipping FZC, a United Arab Emirates based company it says is tied to Dimitris Cambis, a Greek businessman the department recently sanctioned.
 
The Treasury imposed sanctions on Cambis in March, saying he secretly operated a shipping network on behalf of Tehran to evade sanctions on Iran's oil sales.
 
Thursday the department said Cambis used the recently formed Sambouk Shipping to manage eight vessels he operates on behalf of the National Iranian Tanker Co. The ships have been used to execute ship-to-ship transfers of Iranian oil in the Persian Gulf intended to obscure the origin of the oil, it said.
 
Under the sanctions, U.S. citizens are prohibited from doing business with Cambis and the shipping companies and any assets they have under U.S. jurisdiction may be frozen.
 
Cambis has previously denied trading for Iran or the involvement of his tankers in loading Iranian oil. He could not be immediately reached on Thursday.
 
Sanctions introduced by the West last year aim to choke funding of Iran's nuclear program by targeting its oil exports. The sanctions halved Iran's oil exports last year, by more than 1 million barrels per day.
 
The United States and the European Union say Iran is developing the ability to make nuclear weapons. Tehran denies the charge, saying its nuclear program is strictly for power generation and medical purposes.
 
The Treasury Department also imposed sanctions on the Iranian Venezuelan Bi-National Bank, saying it provided financial services to a branch of Iran's military and helped obscure oil deals. The department said the institution was originally established as a joint venture between Iran and Venezuela, but there is no evidence that Venezuela is still tied to the Tehran-based bank.
 
In addition, the U.S. State Department sanctioned four Tehran-based companies and one Iranian citizen it says helped procure equipment for the nuclear program. The companies are called Aluminat, Pars Amayesh Sanaat Kish and Pishro Systems Research Company.
 
Parviz Khaki, the individual cited, has procured goods for Iran's nuclear program that can be used to build, operate and maintain gas centrifuges to enrich uranium, the State Department said.
 
“We urge financial institutions to act in a manner that preserves their access to the U.S. financial system by cutting financial ties to these companies and individual,'' said Patrick Ventrell, acting deputy spokesman at the State Department.
 
The Tehran-based companies and Khaki could not immediately be reached for comment.
 
U.S. lawmakers aim to broaden sanctions ahead of elections in Iran next month. A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation on Wednesday that would block Iran's access to its foreign currency reserves held around the world, estimated to be worth $60 billion to $100 billion.
 
Critics of the tightening of Western sanctions say the penalties will not slow the nuclear program, as the damage they wreak to Iran's economy pushes its leaders to continue funding the program in defiance of the West.

By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services

By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services