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San
José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, May 26, 2015, Vol.
15, No.
102
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Ministerio de Obras Públicas y
Transportes
photo
Some pedestrians avoid bridges like this
one in Pococí
Police
fault some pedestrian errors
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Of the 23 highway deaths of pedestrians this year, 17 of the victims did something rash, said the Policía de Tránsito. The police agency issued a warning Monday after a weekend that saw three such deaths. Part of the problem is the reluctance of some pedestrians to use the expensive bridges have have been constructed so they can cross busy multi-lane highways. A favorite pastime of television camera operators is to video pedestrians tempting fate by crossing a busy highway in the shadow of a pedestrian bridge. The traffic police issued typical suggestions such as wearing bright or reflective clothing and to walk facing the traffic. Particularly in rural areas, the highway is the preferred path and there are few sidewalks or even shoulders for pedestrians. Police also noted that nine of the dead pedestrians had ingested alcohol. U.S. citizens urged to file IRS bank report By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
U.S. citizens who have had an aggregate amount of $10,000 in foreign bank accounts last year are supposed to file with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service by June 30. That word comes from U.S. Tax and Accounting, which specialized in handling tax reports for U.S. citizens. The document is the Report of Foreign Bank Accounts, known as FBAR. "Unlike a tax return deadline, there is no extension for the FBAR deadline," said the firm in a release. "While the treasury department does not always assess the maximum fines, a late filed FBAR can legally be subject to a $10,000 fine." The company noted that the rules also apply to resident aliens in the United States. The $10,000 figure is the threshold for the year even if that amount was only in the accounts for a day. Chinese food safety inspection team visits By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A Chinese team is in the country to study the inspection system of the Servicio Nacional de Salud Animal. Costa Rica already exports milk products and beef to China. Officials hope for approval to export other products. The team will be in the country until June 3, said the animal health service. Among other locations, the team will inspect the service's labs. Also due for inspection are fish farms, processing plants and slaughter houses, said the service. Officials hope that the team will issue a certification to the country. Post reporter's trial begins in Iran By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The espionage trial of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian began today in Iran with the proceedings closed to the public. The state-run IRNA news agency said the trial was being held in a Revolutionary Court, which typically hears cases involving national security. Rezaian was arrested last July and held for months in Iran's notorious Evin prison without being charged or allowed to visit with a lawyer. He has since been allowed one brief meeting with a lawyer and charged with spying and propaganda. Rezaian's brother, Ali, says authorities are holding the trial behind closed doors not for security reasons, but because they know they have no evidence. "Trying to make a case that there is some kind of security reason that the trial should be closed is absolutely ridiculous," he said. "It's absolutely unfounded. I think the only reason you could possibly imagine that the trial would be closed would be to prevent people from seeing the lack of evidence." The Washington Post and the U.S. State Department have repeatedly called for Rezaian's release, saying he did nothing wrong in his work as a reporter. Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron called Iran's treatment of Rezaian shameful acts of injustice. "There is no justice in this system, not an ounce of it," Baron wrote Monday. "And yet the fate of a good innocent man hangs in the balance. Iran is making a statement about its values in its disgraceful treatment of our colleague, and it can only horrify the world community." Then there is good mobile hygiene By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A great deal has been written over the years about the necessity of computer users to be proactive if they want to guard their privacy and keep their machines clean of viruses. Habits such as changing passwords, updating software, running anti-virus and using encryption when possible are often referred to as good web hygiene. But as the use of mobile phones and other devices has skyrocketed, users often have failed to transfer these precautions to the mobile digital environment, leaving millions vulnerable. This was put on display in the fall of 2014 during the Occupy Central protests in Hong Kong, as Chinese hackers flooded protestors' phones with a variety of malware. Some phone manufacturers have stepped in to fill the security gap. For example, Apple now automatically offers end-to-end encryption for iMessage and FaceTime, as well as offering a range of other encryption services and applications. But most security analysts say these steps aren’t enough, and that mobile phone and tablet users around the world need to step up and take more responsibility for keeping themselves safe and secure in the wireless world. The first step is with the device itself. The latest versions of the world’s three most common mobile operating systems, Google’s Android, Apple’s iOS and Microsoft’s Windows Phone, already offer complete encryption as an option. It’s activated in different ways, but common to all is that users create a passcode they must enter every time they power up or unlock their phones. Once encryption is enabled and tied to the passcode, all data on the device will be encrypted and unreadable without the passcode. This means it’s important for users to choose a code that will be sufficiently challenging to crack. A simple four-digit code is practically meaningless. A 15-character code that uses digits, upper- and lower-case letters and symbols would be magnitudes harder to break. Users should also be careful when and where they download apps or document attachments. Applications downloaded from Apple’s iTunes or Google’s Play Store are generally fairly secure, but downloading from other services can be an iffy proposition. As always, it’s not a good idea to download any email attachments that have not been sought specifically. Anti-virus packages are available for mobile phones, but security analysts are roughly split on whether they would be required for the majority of phones. What is recommended, however, is for users to install some sort of remote-wipe application, which would allow a user to remotely erase all the phone’s data in case it’s stolen. Mobile phones traditionally connect to the world by two means: wireless phone service for actual phone use and a wireless local area network, or WLAN, for Internet and data. Tablets mostly just use a WLAN. Both the phone service and WLAN use provide potential security holes, but many of those can be mitigated. First, when connecting to a WLAN using WiFi, users should choose their service carefully. In crowded urban environments, it’s not uncommon for phones to sniff out 20 or more WiFi services with decent signal strength. If possible, users should only connect to secure WiFi services. These are denoted by a locked padlock icon and require some type of password to access. Free, open WiFi services, those available to anyone without any passcode, should be avoided if at all possible. It’s simply too easy for a bad guy on open WiFi to break into others also online and create havoc. Text messages (SMS), which are transmitted via the phone service, are relatively (but not completely) secure from infections. But as with actual phone calls, they can be intercepted by third parties. There are numerous apps available designed to keep text messages private and secure. WhatsApp is one of the most popular around the world, logging around 700 million users worldwide, with more users in India than in any other country. The app by-passes the mobile phone service, using the Internet to send and receive secure text, photos and video in what it calls chats. Other selling points are its ease of use and low price, costing just $1 a year. Its parent company, Facebook, says WhatsApp chat sessions are completely secure. However a handful of high-profile security breaches beginning in 2010 have raised concerns among privacy advocates. For the more security minded, some users have moved to TextSecure, an open-source text encryption app produced by Whisper Systems, a data security company endorsed by no less than former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. It offers end-to-end encryption for users running TextSecure for text, audio, video, and images. Whisper Systems engineers say that in addition to robust encryption, the app offers a user verification system to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks. Whisper Systems also has an app for securing mobile phone calls. Called RedPhone, the app was aimed at first specifically for people who live under repressive governments that routinely tap and monitor phone calls. RedPhone uses the Internet for end-to-end encryption of real-time two-way voice conversations between two RedPhone users. Additionally, two matching words appear on both phones during the call, allowing the users themselves to verify a secure, encrypted connection. RedPhone has proven to be very popular in a number of nations, including Venezuela and Egypt. Another popular application, Ostel, is an outgrowth of the Guardian Project, a cooperative venture to develop applications that secure users’ privacy. Like RedPhone, Ostel uses Voice over Internet Protocol for end-to-end encryption between Ostel users. An additional benefit is that there are no costs for long-distance or international calls. Finally, for users who want proven Internet security for their mobile Android device and don’t mind giving away a little speed of access, there’s Orbot. Essentially Tor for mobile, it’s just like its online counterpart, routing all text, Internet and email data through a randomized series of computers. Like Tor, Orbot offers users some of the strongest privacy protection to be found – but it comes at a cost. Because the user’s data is being routed through a shifting set of nodes on the Tor network, Orbot can significantly slow down uploads and downloads. It’s not for everyone, but for those who want to remain as anonymous as possible, it’s just about the best bet available.
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San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, May 26, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 102 |
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Already wet Caribbean and northern zone expected to get more
rain |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The national weather service said that rains would intensify overnight on the Caribbean coast and the northern zone. The Caribbean in particular has been hit hard by heavy rains with some families flooded out. Some shelters have been opened by the national emergency commission and its local representatives. The Instituto Meteorológico Nacional said that there were early evening electrical storms on the Pacific coast and in the western part of the northern zone. The weather agency |
estimated
rainfall at from 11 to 24 millimeters within 12 hours. That's a bit
less
than half an inch to an inch. On the Caribbean coast and the northern zone, rainfall of from 30 to 60 millimeters, 1.2 to 2.4 inches, was predicted early today with rain continuing for the rest of the day. The weather agency said that rivers have been rising along the Caribbean coast and at Barra del Colorado in the northeaster part of the country. The Central Valley probably will see rain but in modest proportion today. The rain is the result of a low pressure system. |
Flurry of thefts prompts campaign By the A.M. Costa Rica staff The Fuerza Pública said that sports events are easy picking for crooks. Law enforcement began a campaign with the final of the national soccer championship because there have been a flurry of thefts of cell telephones at a prior sports event. The agency said that the excitement of the game causes fans to take their eyes off their possessions. After one semi-final game, police received 30 complaints of stolen cell telephones, they said. Reports are not in yet about the thefts at the weekend final game at the Estadio Rosabal Cordero in Heredia, but police had 250 officers on duty. They have created a cartoon graphic for the campaign. |
Ministerio de Seguridad Pública
graphic
This is the cell telephone guy.
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Ministry reports that 67 percent of festival activities took
place |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The culture ministry reported Monday that 67 percent of the activities planned for the Festival International de las Artes took place. The ministry said that 341 events were planned and that 227 took place. However, some of the events were put on in scaled-down versions. The ministry is now under the control of Sylvie Durán, who was named in the wake of firings of key staffers after the collapse of the festival, which had been planned for Aserrí, Acosta, AlajuelitaAlajuelita, Desamparados and the Centro Nacional de la Cultura downtown. There were many problems relating to the festival, which is |
why
Elizabeth Fonseca, the former minister, no longer is a government
employee. A big problem was the inability to execute a contract for
sound and lights due to administrative errors. But a report outlined
communication problems, too. The Ministerio de Cultura y Juventud also said Monday that an office is being set up for those who have issues with the festival. However, the report said that about 339 million colons, some $645,000, already had been paid for artists who were contracted for the festival. That appears to be about three quarters on the amount owned. The ministry said that the arts festival cost 646 million colons, about $1.23 million. Some 91 percent of the money was budgeted for artist and presenters, said the ministry. |
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San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, May 26, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 102 |
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Obesity campaigns run into the vested interest of food
marketers |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
For the last 15 years, Plymouth, England has held a symposium on obesity. It’s estimated that more than half the city’s adults are overweight or obese. The rest of Britain is not fairing much better. But what’s happening in the U.K. can also be seen the U.S. and many Western countries and a growing number of developing nations. One obesity expert said it’s a long term problem that is very difficult to solve “No one health issue has the most impact on human health, or engenders more debate about how to tackle it, than obesity,” said Jonathan Pinkney, a professor of endocrinology and diabetes. He took part in the annual Plymouth symposium Thursday. He said obesity is a complex issue that involves more than calorie intake. “I personally feel that this is such a wide field. There are so many issues. There’s politics. There’s biology. There’s everything you can imagine. There’s the food industry. And I think that sometimes we’re all a bit guilty of just maybe concentrating on one of those areas. And you can go to a conference anywhere in the world where they spend days just talking about bariatric surgery or fizzy drinks. So, I think it’s right to talk about everything under one umbrella.” Bariatric surgery restricts how much food a person can eat, sharply reducing caloric intake. The professor gave his definition of obesity as “when body size becomes so huge that it impairs people’s day-to-day function and quality of life and well-being and personal relationships. Yeah, that’s kind of devastating. That tends to occur at a higher level of body weight.” However, Pinkney said those not considered technically obese are also at high risk for poor health. “That’s the more important point for the health of the population. You know, all the diabetes and heart attacks and cancers and things. I mean that’s really caused by lower levels of weight gain. As you can see, it’s just the average weight of the population drifting up because we’re just sort of eating the wrong things and not really sufficiently active,” he said. The Plymouth symposium showed that much is known about the biology of the brain and appetite control. But Pinkney said, as one speaker pointed out, knowledge is not enough. “That is completely overridden by things going on around us in the environment: food advertising – food Industry -- the way that it’s all marketed to everybody, including children. And I think the simple fact of the matter is, you know, our bodies are very smart and beautifully built. But it’s just that the biological systems that would keep us slim are just completely swept away by the pressure from the things going on around us,” he said. And he said it’s difficult to do anything about it whether in Britain, the U.S. or developing countries |
“There’s a
multinational food industry and there’s huge vested
interest in selling a lot of the stuff. I can’t give you a magic word
as to how you crack this, but we’ve got exactly the same problem here.
And I think you can prescribe all the drugs you want. You can do all
the bariatric surgery you could manage to fund, but it’s not going to
crack the problem unless you stop the development of the epidemic at
source,” said Pinkney. Going to the source means how eating habits are formed. Poor eating habits can be a learned behavior passed down by parents to their children. “I think a lot of things start very early in life. You know, it’s difficult to break the habits of a lifetime, isn’t it? I think we all find that. But I think our health and our prospects for the future are kind of laid down fairly early. And I think that’s not surprising. Big kids often have big parents. I think they learn this at an early stage,” he said. Solving the problem, he said, is a lot harder than simply trying to encourage prevention. “There isn’t a kind of medical way to prevent the problem. It really does look as if it’s down to politics, policy, marketing, food industry and preventing children from being exposed to all of this. And I think that’s the toughest thing that we face in the world. It’s very, very difficult.” Pinkney said too many unrefined carbohydrates – sugars – are to blame for much of the obesity epidemic. He said that they don’t satisfy a person’s hunger for long and people eat their next meal sooner. “Commercially produced processed food with large amounts of carbohydrate – sweeteners, short acting carbohydrate – and it just sets us up to fail. And I think there are big problems with carbohydrate in the Western diet,” he said. While it may be difficult to foster better eating habits, Pinkney said there is precedent for large scale behavior change. “Other things have changed. I mean one really interesting thing, I think, was what’s happened over cigarette smoking. And how people complained about not being able to smoke in pubs and restaurants and have to go outside. But it didn’t take very long for that to translate into clear health benefit. So, you know, maybe you can get these things through in time, little by little,” he said. Some lessons, he said, can be learned from our hunter-gatherer ancestors. “The hunter-gatherers going right back to last Ice Age and before that would have had a diet that was rich in complex, sort of, fiber kind of carbohydrate. There would be protein in it now and again. But it didn’t have all the sugar. So, the diet that is, of course, followed by traditional peoples is radically different.” He said studies of indigenous peoples, who returned to their traditional diets, “took a step back from modern health problems.” Pinkney says a combination of prevention methods, medical interventions and political will be needed to stop the obesity epidemic. In the U.S. the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported over 35 percent of adults – or nearly 79 million people – are obese. More 17 million children were obese. The annual medical cost of obesity in the U.S. is nearly $200 million. |
Here's reasonable medical care
Costa Rica's world class medical specialists are at your command. Get the top care for much less than U.S. prices. It is really a great way to spend a vacation. See our list of recommended professionals HERE!amcr-prom
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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Tornado rips through town on U.S.-Mexican border By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A tornado raged for six seconds through a Mexican city along the U.S. border Monday and killed at least 13 persons and flattening hundreds of homes. The 250-kilometer-an-hour twister hit Ciudad Acuña at dawn, flinging cars and big-rig trucks into the air and smashing them into houses and buildings in a seven-block area. Rescue workers were searching for survivors in 750 damaged properties. To the north, in the U.S. state of Texas, searchers continued to look for 12 people believed to have been swept away in flash flooding. The flooding was spawned by a line of storms that stretched from the Gulf of Mexico far northward to the Great Lakes as they moved across the United States. Already, the flooding has left three persons dead and destroyed at least 400 homes in Texas and the neighboring state to the north, Oklahoma. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared an emergency in 24 of the state's counties in addition to 13 others he had named previously. More than 2,000 people in Texas were forced to evacuate their homes Sunday and Monday. The storm spawned a tornado in Texas. Cars and trucks were submerged in the Texas city of San Marcos with the Blanco River reaching levels not seen in nearly a century. Some San Marcos residents escaped their homes by floating down flooded streets in inflatable lounge chairs. The city opened emergency shelters to house the flood victims. Researchers try to learn why storms grow at night By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Most thunderstorms get their incredible energy from the sun’s heat, but some of the storms gain their strength at night, This fact baffles scientists. To learn how these storms intensify, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration plans to keep 20 of its scientists up late at night for a large intensive field operation in the western Great Plains called the Plains Elevated Convection at Night over the summer months. According to the agency, soon after sunset Earth and its lower atmosphere tends to lose heat and becomes more stable. These conditions create a less than an ideal environment for supporting thunderstorms. However, many summer thunderstorms, in the U.S. Great Plains, take shape soon after the sun goes down and sometimes do so without an obvious trigger. Researchers will gather data with a variety of instruments including weather balloons to learn what triggers large nighttime thunderstorms. Conrad Ziegler, the project's principal scientist and a research meteorologist for the agency's National Severe Storms Laboratory said that while large nighttime thunderstorms provide an important source of rain for crops, they can also produce widespread and potentially dangerous severe weather, excessive rainfall, flash flooding and unusually frequent cloud-to-ground lightning. “Weather forecast models often struggle to accurately account for these, said Ziegler in a press release. “The PECAN field campaign will provide us with valuable insights-and improve our ability to save lives and property through more accurate forecasts.” The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says that its scientists along with other investigators, students and support staff from eight research laboratories and 14 universities will gather data with appropriately equipped aircraft, a variety of ground-based instruments, mobile radars and weather balloons before and during nighttime thunderstorms. Researchers will conduct their field investigation from June 1 to July 15 so that they will be able to better understand just what triggers thunderstorms, what role the atmosphere plays in supporting the storm’s life cycle as well as the impact they have on the lives, property, agriculture and water budget in the Great Plains region. Meteorologists said they believe that the specially targeted observations will eventually lead to improved forecasts of these potentially damaging storms. Jets escort passenger flight that was target of threats By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Two U.S. fighter jets escorted an Air France passenger plane to a safe landing in New York Monday morning following one of several threats that were made against commercial aircraft. An anonymous threat came in a telephone call to a Maryland State police barracks Monday, prompting the military to scramble F-15 jets as Air France Flight 22 from Paris arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. The threat was later deemed not credible and the plane cleared. Air France said passengers disembarked normally. News reports also say a threat was made against American Airlines Flight 131, which arrived at the JFK airport from Birmingham, England, but that threat was also considered not credible. In addition, reports say a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight was checked at JFK due to an unspecified threat, and that threats were also made against at least two flights at Newark Liberty International Airport. It is not clear if all the threats were made by the same individual. Voice of America
photo
Marchers carry photos of
slain loved ones.Washington
parade honors
living and dead veterans By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Every year, on the last Monday in the month of May, millions of Americans honor the memories of those killed while serving in the armed forces. Memorial Day is a tradition that dates back to the 19th Century. While many people celebrate the federal holiday with a barbecue and a day off from work, for those who’ve served in the military, it’s a special day to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Memorial Day in Washington produced a parade honoring the more than 1 million American men and women who’ve given their lives serving in the military. “It’s awesome. It’s really exciting. It’s really lively," said Sofia Aman, of Saskatchewan, Canada. "It’s nice to see everybody’s national pride and to remember the veterans.” “It’s a great day to just show respect for all the soldiers that risk their lives for us on a daily basis,” said Brittany Porter of Washington, D.C. The crowd of thousands watched as the patriotic display marched along Constitution Avenue. “I appreciate the freedom that we have in America, and I think that we owe it all to our veterans that have gone before,” said Caroline Kiggins of Alexandria, Virginia. Rachel Steiner of Fairfax, Virginia, said, "I come from a military family, so it means so much to be here just to honor my parents; honor my grandfathers, uncles and aunts who all served in the military. It’s very meaningful for me.” “It’s quite an honor here, because as Korean veteran, a lot of people come up and shake hands. It’s great,” said Norb Zahler, a Korean War veteran from Minneapolis. Others, who had lost friends or family in combat, came to honor the memories of those killed in the line of duty. “It means a lot to me. I lost a father in Afghanistan back in 2006, so Memorial Day means a lot to me, and it means a lot to others who have lost loved ones overseas, as well,” said Benjamin Supalee, from York, Pennsylvania. “It means a lot. I remember a lot of my friends that weren’t able . . . did not come home," said Bob Ryan a Vietnam war veteran from Illinois. "It’s a special day to remember. Remember those that serve and remember those that were unable to serve.” “I love it. It makes me cry. It really does. It’s very emotional,” said Bob Hornbaker, a Navy veteran from Virginia. Islamic State is disrupting Muslim world with terror By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
For more than a decade, pink and brown buses meandered through Karachi’s chaotic traffic, shuttling passengers between downtown and a neighborhood dominated by Shi'ite Ismailis for a largely uneventful commute. Then on May 13 gunmen boarded one of those buses and killed 43 people — an attack that bodes ill not just for Pakistan, but the broader Muslim world. Given the rise of the Sunni Muslim militant group Islamic State in the Middle East, Daniel Serwer of the Washington-based Middle East Institute said the attack was not meant for Pakistan alone. He said the militants seeks to stoke sectarian violence in the Islamic world. A shadowy Sunni Muslim militant group suspected of links with Pakistan’s Taliban militants and Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack. Government and military officials deny the presence of the Islamic State in Pakistan. But a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, led by Shahidullah Shahid, who once acted as spokesman for the main group, recently announced allegiance to the Islamic State. Graffiti and leaflets promoting the Islamic State have appeared in several Pakistani cities. A band of veiled women, students of a radical Islamic school in the capital, Islamabad, have issued a video in support of the Islamic State. May 20, the police chief of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Nasir Khan Durrani, confirmed to reporters that two men had been arrested for allegedly distributing Islamic State pamphlets in a residential neighborhood of Peshawar, the province’s capital. And in neighboring Afghanistan, an alleged Islamic State recruiter was killed in a drone strike in southern Helmand province. In February, black-clad, mask-wearing assailants kidnapped dozens of Shi'ite ethnic Hazaras in Zabul province. Last week, more than a dozen abductees were freed in what some reports said was a prisoner swap, but there was no confirmation by Afghan officials. Islamic militant groups, arching from Nigeria to central and southeast Asia, have forged links with the Islamic State, according to Abdul Basit, a researcher at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Singapore’s Nanyang Technology University. In an audio message purportedly from Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State leader, called on Muslims to join the caliphate he proclaimed in areas of Iraq and Syria. “There is no excuse for any Muslim” not to join, al-Baghdadi said in the message released May 14. In its pursuit of setting up an Islamic caliphate, the Islamic State was driven by its purely Sunni ideology, said Serwer. “There is no sign that the current IS intends to imitate the cosmopolitan, tolerant attitudes of some of the prior caliphs and caliphates,” he said. Serwer said the group's radical Sunni ideology makes the group disdainful of democracy and Shi'ites. “The Islamic State is a highly sectarian organization, a Sunni-based organization, and it is intentionally trying to provoke sectarian conflict in many countries, including in Pakistan,” Serwer said. “Beginning in the late 1980s and continuing through the 1990s, Pakistan became the theater for a proxy Saudi-Iran war,” Hassan Abbas, a Pakistani security analyst, said in an article for the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland said Saudi Arabia and Iran have both jostled for influence in Yemen. “Iran is clearly interfering in Yemen, there is no question about that in our mind and that is why we see the reaction from the Saudis and Yemen and others,” he said in a recent interview. Serwer said the Islamic State’s actions against Shi'ites can provoke a military reaction by the sect, like in Syria and Iraq. Recently, sectarian violence in Pakistan, and attacks on Shi'ites in particular, has become deadlier and more brutal. Shi'ite pilgrims were attacked in Baluchistan, and the passengers on the bus in Karachi were shot dead execution-style. A bomb attack on a Shi'ite bus in Baluchistan in January 2014 killed at least 22 people. University of Queensland/ Peter J
Mumby
Coral bleaching such as this
example is predicted
to become a growing issue. Injecting
gas into the sky
considered to save coral By the University of Exeter news service
Geoengineering of the climate may be the only way to save coral reefs from mass bleaching, according to new research. Coral reefs are considered one of the most vulnerable ecosystems to future climate change due to rising sea surface temperatures and ocean acidification, which is caused by higher atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide. Mass coral bleaching, which can lead to coral mortality, is predicted to occur far more frequently over the coming decades, due to the stress exerted by higher seawater temperatures. Scientists believe that, even under the most ambitious future carbon dioxide reduction scenarios, widespread and severe coral bleaching and degradation will occur by the middle of this century. The collaborative new research, which includes authors from the Carnegie Institution for Science, the University of Exeter, the Met Office Hadley Centre and the University of Queensland, suggest that a geoengineering technique called Solar Radiation Management reduces the risk of global severe bleaching. The method involves injecting gas into the stratosphere, forming microscopic particles which reflect some of the sun’s energy and so help limit rising sea surface temperatures. The study compared a hypothetical solar management geoengineering scenario to the most aggressive future carbon dioxide reduction strategy considered by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and found that coral reefs fared much better under geoengineering despite increasing ocean acidification. The pioneering international study is published in leading scientific journal, Nature Climate Change. Lead author Dr Lester Kwiatkowski of the Carnegie Institution for Science said “Our work highlights the sort of climate scenarios that now need to be considered if the protection of coral reefs is a priority.” Peter Cox, co-author of the research and from the University of Exeter said: “Coral reefs face a dire situation regardless of how intensively society decarbonizes the economy. In reality there is no direct choice between conventional mitigation and climate engineering, but this study shows that we need to either accept that the loss of a large percentage of the world’s reefs is inevitable or start thinking beyond conventional mitigation of CO2 emissions.” |
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A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, May 26, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 102 | |||||||||
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Banco Nacional
photo
These volunteers
under the banner of the Banco Nacional and thecanton of Garabito collected 700 kilos of old tires and other trash at Playa Azul in Tárcoles over the weekend. The beach catches much of the Central Valley trash. Anti-tobacco
crusaders honored
Special to A.M. Costa Rica
The Pan American Health Organization is honoring six individuals and organizations as winners of the regional 2015 World No Tobacco Day awards, in recognition of their contributions to advancing tobacco control in the Americas. The World No Tobacco Day awards honor individuals and organizations who have made outstanding contributions to advancing policies and measures on tobacco control. The regional winners from the Americas of the 2015 World No Tobacco Day awards are: Nicaragua, represented by President Daniel Ortega. Nicaragua was the first country in the world to ratify the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade of Tobacco Products. The country's leadership and example are expected to encourage other countries of the Americas to follow suit and help to secure the number of ratifications needed for the protocol to enter into force internationally. Uruguay, represented by President Tabaré Vásquez. Uruguay was the second country of the Americas to ratify the protocol. Vázquez, a medical doctor and oncologist by training, played the lead role in advancing his country's comprehensive and effective tobacco control policies. Despite legal challenges by the tobacco industry, he has continued to support tobacco control during his second presidential term and is also encouraging public policies to reduce harmful consumption of alcohol. Marcelo Fisch, head of the Fiscal Special Control Division of the Federal Revenue Secretariat in Brazil's Ministry of Finance. Fisch has been a key partner in advancing tobacco control both in Brazil and internationally. Under his leadership, Brazil began a process that eventually culminated in a track and tracing system for tobacco products known as Skorpios. Patricia Sosa, director of Latin America programs for the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, a leading force in the fight to reduce tobacco use and its deadly toll in the United States and around the world. Ms. Sosa has provided key support and coordination that has helped advance tobacco control in countries including Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Perú. Stella Aguinaga Bialous. A nurse by training, MS. Bialous has become an internationally recognized expert on monitoring the tobacco industry and developing policies to address industry interference with public health. Mirta Molinari, who serves as regional tobacco control coordinator for Latin America of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease and director of the Union's country office in Mexico. |
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What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
The
contents of this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río
Colorado
S.A. 2015 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
From Page 7: Tourism expert here to help hotel operators By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Peter Tarlow, an expert on tourism safety, is a guest of the Municipalidad de Escazú, to conduct a seminar for hotel operators on tourism safety. Tarlow, who has a doctorate in sociology, has worked for years with U.S. government agencies. He published a book, "Tourism Security," on the topic in 2014. He is CEO of Tourism & More, a College Station, Texas, firm. Among other agencies, Tarlow was hired by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to consult on security for its recreation areas, and he was involved with security for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, according to his online biography. |