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A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
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José, Costa Rica, Friday, May 29, 2015, Vol.
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Dangerous drug was sold by
the drop
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Officers of the Fuerza Pública's regional drug program have identified three students they say are selling a dangerous prescription drug. The drug is clonazepam, which, among other side effects, may encourage thoughts of suicide, according to medical information on the Web. The drug also can harm unborn babies. Police said that the drug was being sold by a 15 year old as drops in liquid form for 500 colons. They did not identified the school where the drug was found but said it was in San José. Police make routine inspections of schools, and this is how they located the drug, they said. The drug is used to treat seizures or panic disorder, and it is considered a psychotropic. Even in Costa Rica it only is available by prescription. Police said the drug can produce a range of reactions including trembling, hallucinations, convulsions and respiratory depression. Lawmaker wants to bar illegal cash By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Franklin Corella Vargas, a lawmaker, said Thursday that the system of election financing oversight needs to be reinforced. The Partido Acción Ciudadana lawmaker made the comments in the wake of revelations that Eduardo Li Sánchez had donated 55 million colons in cash and bonds to the presidential campaign of Johnny Araya. In a statement, Corella noted that Li, the suspended head of the Costa Rican soccer federation, now faces allegation of accepting bribes and money laundering. The lawmaker said the country must close the doors to prevent illegal money entering election campaigns. He called upon the government to make this a priority and to create a special prosecutor for election crimes. Also Thursday the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto said that the Costa Rican ambassador in Switzerland, Isabel Montero, talked with Li and said that he is in good condition. He is being held in Zurich where he was detained. Blatter rejects demands that he quit By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Soccer federation President Sepp Blatter said corruption scandals that rocked the world soccer organization have brought shame and humiliation on the sport. "The next few months will not be easy for FIFA. I am sure more bad news will follow but it is necessary to begin to restore trust," Blatter said, speaking publicly for the first time since U.S. and Swiss officials unveiled major corruption investigations of the organization and seven high-ranking current and former Fédération Internationale de Football Association officials were arrested Wednesday. Blatter, 79, who spoke at the opening of the federation congress in Zurich, said, "Actions of individuals, if proven, bring shame and humiliation and demand action and change from us all. We cannot allow the reputation of football and FIFA to be dragged through the mud any longer. It has to stop here and now." "I know many people hold me ultimately responsible for the actions and reputation for the global football community," Blatter said, adding, "I cannot monitor everyone all of the time. If people want to do wrong, they will also try to hide it. "But it must fall to me to be responsible for the reputation and well-being of our organization and to find a way forward to fix things," he said. Meanwhile, two major European football associations called on Blatter to resign, ahead of presidential elections planned for today. The president of the Union of European Football Associations, French football legend Michel Platini, spoke openly about the scandal and took issue with Blatter's refusal to resign. "We went to his office, and I renewed my advice to him to go and that he should resign," Platini said. "That he should realize the moment was not a good one and to have the courage, honesty and grandeur to realize that it wasn't good.” According to Platini, Blatter refused, arguing that it was too late, since the electing congress was about to start. The German Football Association has also demanded Blatter's resignation, citing the credibility issue with him. “It is time for a change, definitely, and that it is not a question of whether Blatter is guilty or not guilty,” associationnn president Wolfgang Niersbach said. “It is time for change because we need FIFA as an institution with credibility and that is difficult, maybe impossible without a change at the top,” he added. Also, sponsors are calling for football's governing body to make changes while its regional federations debate the future of its often-criticized leader. Credit card company Visa made the strongest statement after the U.S. Justice Department unveiled an indictment Wednesday charging 14 people with offenses that include racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering. Visa expressed profound disappointment and said that without reforms, the company would reassess its sponsorship of the federation. "As a sponsor, we expect FIFA to take swift and immediate steps to address these issues within its organization," the credit card company said in a statement. "This starts with rebuilding a culture with strong ethical practices in order to restore the reputation of the games for fans everywhere." Coca-Cola Co. also said it has repeatedly expressed concern about the allegations and expects the federation to thoroughly address the issues, while Adidas called on it to "follow transparent compliance standards in everything they do." The United Nations is also reviewing its partnerships with the federation, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Thursday, a day after the scandal erupted. The U.N. and the federation have partnerships, for example, to promote health, gender equality and for child protection. The Asian Football Confederation said Thursday that Friday's scheduled vote for president should go ahead as planned and that it supports Blatter. Blatter is expected to win a fifth term in Friday's election against Jordan's Prince Ali. But The Football Federation of Australia, which has supported Blatter since he first assumed the presidency in 1998, said it would support the prince this year. "FFA believes that profound change within FIFA is needed as soon as possible to address issues of governance and transparency," a statement said. "This belief will be reflected when Australia casts its vote in the presidential election, should it proceed on Friday in Zurich." Human Rights Watch said Thursday that whoever serves as the federation's next president should take steps to ensure future World Cup host cities focus on basic human rights. "The arrests have spotlighted FIFA's unaccountable system, but there should also be a new scrutiny of the conditions for a vast army of migrant laborers who are building massive new infrastructure to host the World Cup," said Minky Worden, Rights Watch director of global initiatives. Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, said the federation needs to learn from the Olympic movement's experience and become more transparent if it is to regain its credibility. In 1998, the Oympic committee was caught in its own bribes-for-votes scandal involving the 2002 winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. That was the catalyst that led to wholesale reforms within the organization. Bach, who spoke Thursday after Blatter addressed delegates, said, "These are sad and difficult days for FIFA. ... I am confident that following a way of transparency with determination, you, the guardians of football, will overcome these challenges and you will make your sport shine once again." The U.S. investigation stretches back to 1991 with allegations that include sports media executives paying or agreeing to pay $150 million in bribes in exchange for marketing rights to tournaments, as well as corruption related to the 2011 federation presidential election and the sponsorship of Brazil's soccer federation by a U.S. sportswear company. Authorities in Zurich, Switzerland, arrested seven people early Wednesday, while the FBI raided the Miami offices of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, the regional body governing North and Central America. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch called the allegations "rampant, systemic and deep-rooted" corruption that "profoundly harmed a multitude of victims." "They did this over and over, year after year, tournament after tournament," Ms. Lynch said. "They corrupted the business of worldwide soccer to serve their interests and to enrich themselves." Swiss authorities also unveiled a separate investigation into allegations of mismanagement and money laundering connected to the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. FIFA's ethics committee investigated similar allegations, and concluded in November that there were only limited ethics breaches and not sufficient evidence of bribery in awarding the tournaments. The federation said it is fully cooperating with both U.S. and Swiss authorities, and that it is in the highest interest of the organization that all questions are answered. Our reader's opinion
Go after the rich and powerfulDear A.M. Costa Rica: Unfortunately again Costa Rica is suffering a black eye internationally. Corruption, corruption. The new president has an opportunity to fulfill his promise for change and transparency. Draft and present a new bill that would change the law so that powerful people and corrupted officials would go to court and be sentenced in two years. The new law might be called the Eduardo Li law. The rich and powerful people like to sit in the court for 10 and 15 years. No justice and no jail. I am sure everyone can identify someone who fits in this category. The honest and hard-working people deserve better than an old broken system that happily employes judges and lawyers for 10 years. Time for some changes to go after the rich and powerful crooks for a better Costa Rica. Bert Mellon
San José Bikers to draw Muhammad at mosque By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A group bikers plan to hold a Prophet Muhammad cartoon-drawing contest today outside an Islamic community center in Arizona. Organizers say the rally is in response to an incident earlier this month in which two gunmen opened fire on a similar contest in Texas where cartoonists were drawing pictures of Islam's prophet. Both gunmen were killed following a brief exchange of fire. One police officer was wounded. One of the gunmen frequently worshiped at the north Phoenix mosque were today's rally is being held. "ROUND 2!!!!!!!," declared organizer Jon Ritzheimer on the event's Facebook page. The ex-Marine says the rally will be peaceful, but urged protesters to bring weapons in case of an attack. "People are also encouraged to utilize there second amendment right at this event just incase our first amendment comes under the much anticipated attack," it said. Ritzheimer has invited thousands of bikers to attend the rally. As of early Friday, over 600 people had RSVP'd on the event's Facebook page. Local police have promised a heavy presence in case of violence.
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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 Ro Colorado S.A 2015 and may not be
reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, May 29, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 105 | |
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| State phone company says it was defrauded out of about
$200,000 |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Judicial agents said Thursday that a subcontractor of the state telephone company defrauded the firm by initiating excessive telephone calls. Agents detained five women and two men in a series of raids in Atenas and in El Coyol de Alajuela. Agents said that the firm was contracted to provide 900 line service for the telephone provider, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad. The subcontractor was supposed to receive a commission on |
each
900
line call it handled. But judicial agents said that between March 2014
and last April there were 85,000 calls that the telephone company said
were irregular. The Judicial Investigating Organization said that the persons associated with the company called the 900 line to generate commissions. The agency said that the loss to the state phone company was 105 million colons or nearly $200,000. The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad said the fraudulent calls were detected by its own systems. The 900 line service is a marketing device for various professionals and companies. |
| Man, 36, from Guanacaste faces allegation of having child
porn |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Judicial agents said they got a tip from Europe that allowed them to detain a child porn suspect. The arrest of a 36-year-old man came Thursday in Guanacaste. The Judicial Investigating Organization said it was contacted by the International Police Agency on behalf of law enforcement in German and Russia. Police in those two |
countries had
discovered child porn online and provided Internet computer
addresses that led to the suspect, the agency said. In addition to searching the man's home in Guanacaste, agents also searched homes in Mercedes Norte de Heredia, Tres Ríos, Pavas and Escazú. and confiscated six computers, they said. The man so far is accused of having child pornography but not making the photos and videos |
| Five persons detained in a string of thefts from bus
passengers |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Judicial agents are attributing at least 40 thefts from bus passengers to the man and four women who were detained Thursday. Agents said that 40 of the 152 thefts that have been reported in the Central Valley since the first of the year involved the same methods. |
Agents said
that a woman would drop eyeglasses or some other
object to block the exit of bus passengers. While the individuals
crowded together, wallets, cell phones and other items were lifted from
persons who had been spotted previously, agents said. Crimes have been reported in Cartago, Alajuela and Heredia. Agents said they expected that there are many more than have not been reported. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, May 29, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 105 | |||||
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| Researcher says dinosaurs like modern birds were really
warm-blooded |
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By the Stony Brook University news staff
Dinosaurs grew as fast as your average living mammal, according to a research paper published by Stony Brook University paleontologist Michael D’Emic. The paper, to published in Science today, is a re-analysis of a widely publicized 2014 Science paper on dinosaur metabolism and growth that concluded dinosaurs were neither ectothermic nor endothermic, terms popularly simplified as cold-blooded and warm-blooded, but instead occupied an intermediate category. “The study that I re-analyzed was remarkable for its breadth. The authors compiled an unprecedented data set on growth and metabolism from studies of hundreds of living animals,” said D’Emic, a research instructor. “Upon re-analysis, it was apparent that dinosaurs weren’t just somewhat like living mammals in their physiology. They fit right within our understanding of what it means to be a ‘warm-blooded’ mammal,” he said. D’Emic specializes in bone microanatomy or the study of the structure of bone on scales that are just a fraction of the width of a human hair. Based on his knowledge of how dinosaurs grew, D’Emic re-analyzed that study, which led him to the strikingly different conclusion that dinosaurs were more like mammals than reptiles in their growth and metabolism. D’Emic re-analyzed the study from two aspects. First, the original study had scaled yearly growth rates to daily ones in order to standardize comparisons. “This is problematic,” D’Emic explained, “because many animals do not grow continuously throughout the year, generally slowing or pausing growth during colder, drier, or otherwise more stressful seasons. “Therefore, the previous study underestimated dinosaur growth rates by failing to account for their uneven growth. Like most animals, dinosaurs slowed or paused their growth annually, as shown by rings in their bones analogous to tree rings,” he said. He added that the growth rates were especially underestimated for larger animals and animals that live in very stressful or seasonal environments, both of which characterize dinosaurs. The second aspect of the re-analysis with the original study takes into account that dinosaurs should be statistically analyzed within the same group as living birds, which are also warm-blooded, because birds are descendants of Mesozoic dinosaurs. “Separating what we commonly think of as dinosaurs from |
 Stony Brook University photo
D’Emic holding one of the
many dinosaur bones he examined under the microscope in his Stony Brook
University lab.birds in a statistical analysis is generally inappropriate, because birds are dinosaurs. They’re just the dinosaurs that haven’t gone extinct.” He explained that re-analyzing the data with birds as dinosaurs lends more support that dinosaurs were warm-blooded, not occupants of a special, intermediate metabolic category. According to Holly Woodward, assistant professor in the Center for Health Sciences at Oklahoma State University, D’Emic’s re-analysis is crucial to building research on the metabolism and development of dinosaurs. “D’Emic’s study reveals how important access to the data behind published results is for hypothesis testing and advancing our understanding of dinosaur growth dynamics,” said Professor Woodward. D’Emic hopes that his study will also spur new research into when, why, and how pauses or slowdowns in growth are recorded in bones, which may have implications in the development of other species and in the study of bone diseases such as osteoporosis. |
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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| Obama says climate change requires more preparedness By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
With parts of Texas battling deadly, record-breaking flooding, President Barack Obama said Thursday that the country has to be better prepared to deal with the impact of climate change. The president visited the National Hurricane Center in Miami for an update on preparations for this year's Atlantic hurricane season, which officially begins June 1. He said global warming is having significant effects on the pace and intensity of storms. "The best climate scientists in the world are telling us that extreme weather events like hurricanes are likely to become more powerful," Obama said. "When you combine stronger storms with rising seas, that's a recipe for more devastating floods." The president said that while climate change did not cause Hurricane Sandy, the last major hurricane to hit the U.S. Atlantic coast in 2012, it may have made it a stronger storm. Meanwhile, more rain and flash floods are predicted to wash across parts of Texas over the next few days. The region is already experiencing its heaviest rainfall in May since record keeping began in 1895. Meteorologists say they do not expect rivers to return to normal levels until July. The city of Houston and surrounding counties have been some of the hardest-hit areas. Wednesday, the Houston area got a respite from the rain, but by Thursday, runoff from earlier in the week had lifted the San Jacinto River above flood stage, and it kept climbing. About 60 miles southwest of Houston, the mayor of Wharton asked residents to voluntarily evacuate about 300 homes because of the predicted rise of the Colorado River. It's expected to crest at 45.5 feet, nearly 7 feet above flood stage, by either late Friday or early Saturday. In the rural Parker County community of Horseshoe Bend, 40 miles southwest of Fort Worth, officials asked people in 250 homes to flee from the Brazos River. Parker County Emergency Management spokesman Joel Kertok said the Brazos, which has a flood level of 21 feet, was at nearly 24 feet. Heavy rain, floods and tornadoes have killed at least 23 people in Texas and Oklahoma and have left at least 14 others missing. In central Texas, crews continued looking for the eight people feared dead after the swollen Blanco River smashed through Wimberley, a small tourist town between San Antonio and Austin, over the Memorial Day weekend. Authorities there are concerned that more rain forecast for the region could hamper the search. U.N. to consider the threat of foreign fighters in Mideast By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.N. Security Council will meet today to discuss the threat of foreign terrorist fighters both to the conflict zones where they fight and to their home countries when they return. Several interior ministers will attend the high-level session, including the U.S. chief of Homeland Security. The United Nations estimates that there are between 15,000 and 20,000 foreign terrorist fighters, maybe even 30,000. The fighters are as young as 14-years-old and include women. They come from virtually every corner of the world. Foreign fighters are not just menacing the Middle East where Islamic State, al-Qaida and al-Nusrah have become synonymous with beheadings, kidnappings and suicide bombings, but also Africa where al-Shabab and Boko Haram, as well as other armed groups, are terrorizing and displacing large populations. The Security Council will assess progress since September, when President Barack Obama presided over the adoption of a resolution intended to halt the flow of foreign fighters. The resolution called for the implementation of several measures, including the screening of airline passenger lists, disrupting funding to armed groups, and improving the sharing of relevant information among states to stop terrorists from recruiting, planning or participating in attacks. The resolution also directed the Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee, and its executive directorate to report on the capacities of countries to respond to the challenges posed by foreign terrorist fighters. The committee will present its initial report covering 21 countries identified as most affected by that threat at today’s meeting. “This phenomenon, which is a serious threat to international peace and security, is obviously not new. However, the magnitude of this threat is unmatched," said Jean-Paul Laborde, the head of the counter-terrorism committee. The report warns that foreign fighters are an acute and growing threat. They intensify conflicts and may pose a significant threat to their home countries, the countries they pass through, and states that neighbor conflict zones. The study found several gaps. Only five of the 21 surveyed states require airlines to submit advance passenger information. Only one conducts immigration controls of transiting passengers in its airports, and only four are able to immediately freeze terrorist funds. Laborde said much work needs to be done to ensure the full implementation of the council’s resolution. “The lack of implementation of these measures allows foreign terrorist fighters to operate with impunity," he said. Nearly all of the 21 states surveyed have taken steps to make it a crime to incite people to terrorism, including through the Internet, and most have developed some mechanisms to disrupt and prevent the flow of money to terrorists. Britain moves to restrict expressing extremist views By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Britain is moving to tighten controls on extremist rhetoric, even when it does not incite violence or hatred, a move that some are concerned might unduly restrict basic freedoms. It is an issue many countries are grappling with as extremist groups gain power in the Middle East, fueled in part by donations and fighters from the West. Britain’s home secretary announced plans for the legislation, which had been promised if the Conservative Party won the recent election. The new government included it in the annual Queen’s Speech, laying out its official program. “Measures will also be brought forward to promote social cohesion and protect people by tackling extremism,” said Queen Elizabeth II. The government wants stronger regulatory powers over charities and religious institutions to ensure they are not involved in promoting extremism. It also wants the ability to ban individuals from expressing extremist views. Up to a point, radicalism expert Hannah Stuart of the Henry Jackson Society welcomes the effort to be tougher on extremist groups, even when they are not directly connected to violence. “Where extremism is allowed to flourish, we see the diminishing of individual rights, but also of group rights, and it’s usually, sadly, minority rights," she said. "So it’s usually Muslims, themselves, who are the first victims.” But Ms. Stuart said she is concerned about the potential limits on individual speech. “We have to accept that there will be certain extremist ideas and dissent on our street corners, and we have to trust that as a society, and civil society particularly, we’re strong enough to rebut that openly, rather than hide it away,” she said. Speaking from the Muslim Association of Britain, Omer al-Hamdoon agreed with that, and expressed a more pointed concern. “Muslims, specifically within Britain, are going to be muted, and denied their freedom of speech, even though they have not committed any criminal act,” he said. Hamdoon said current laws against incitement are adequate, and he disputed the idea that extremist rhetoric fuels violence. “The home secretary has mentioned this thread between non-violent extremism and violent extremism. I don’t think there’s any evidence to support this kind of theory,” he said. Hamdoon said the government is ill equipped to differentiate between ideas that are outside the mainstream and those that might be dangerous. He said the new law would make some legitimate Muslim preaching illegal. But Ms. Stuart said so far, the problem has been the opposite. “We have failed to identify extremism rather than intend in any way to criminalize Islamic practice,” she said. She said there is a consensus among many democracies that they need to find new ways to deal with the rise of extremism, without violating the rights of the people they are trying to protect. World Health promoting treaty on illegal tobacco By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The World Health Organization is calling for an end to the illicit trade in tobacco products, which reportedly rakes in yearly profits of $31 billion. In advance of World No Tobacco Day this Sunday, the U.N. agency is urging member states to sign an international treaty to eliminate this nefarious trade. While the peddlers of contraband cigarettes and other tobacco products are getting richer, everyone else is getting poorer. The price of a single cigarette sold on a city street corner may be cheap, but the health costs resulting from this trade are not, World Health notes. The World Health Organization estimates one person dies from tobacco-linked disease every six seconds. That comes to almost six million premature deaths a year. The agency predicts this figure will rise to more than eight million a year by 2030 if nothing is done to stop the global tobacco epidemic. More than 80 percent of these preventable deaths will occur in low-and-middle income countries. Douglas Bettcher, director of World Health's Department for the Prevention of Non-communicable Diseases, calls the illicit tobacco trade a multi-headed monster. “It has dreadful health consequences, especially for children because it presents brand named cigarettes at a much cheaper price. Children and adolescents are much more vulnerable, therefore they get hooked for life and they get addicted and they eventually die," he said. "It feeds the proliferation of transnational organized crime, another head of this multi-headed monster and it drains resources, taxes, revenue from the purses of ministries of finance, governmental coffers." With taxes, the retail price of a pack of cigarettes in New York City is now $13 The World Health Organization says low-income countries depend heavily on consumption taxes and illicit tobacco trade robs their treasuries of money that could be spent on providing public services, including health care. The agency says internal industry documents released as a result of court cases show the tobacco industry has actively fostered the illicit trade globally. Vera da Costa e Silva says the tobacco industry and health sector are irreconcilable. She is head of the World Health Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Secretariat, “There are cases where the industry takes advantage of the manufacture of illicit trade in neighbor countries to just enter in the market of a third country and to just increase their market share especially competing with other companies," said Silva. Eight countries have ratified the Protocol to Eliminate the Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products. Forty ratifications are needed for it to become international law. Once that happens, a wide range of measures will kick in to track and trace the illicit tobacco supply chain. Under the treaty, governments could impose penal sanctions on those trafficking in this illegal product. Other provisions would criminalize illicit production and cross-border smuggling. Monetary funds says yuan no longer is undervalued By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
China’s currency is no longer undervalued given its recent appreciation, but the government should pick up the pace in loosening controls on the exchange rate, the International Monetary Fund said. Economists critical of the fund's assessment said it did not reflect the real value of the Chinese yuan, and that it was being pressured by Beijing to help clear the way for the yuan to be added to the special drawing rights basket. The monetary fund said in a statement in Beijing Tuesday that “our assessment now is that the real effective appreciation over the past year has brought the exchange rate to a level that is no longer undervalued.” A fund mission is visiting China this week, including its first deputy managing director, David Lipton. Speaking at the conclusion of an annual review of the Chinese economy, Lipton said the yuan had appreciated against most other currencies in recent months, helping China to reduce its very large current account surplus and slow its accumulation of foreign reserves. He said all these indicated that the yuan was no longer undervalued. According to statistics cited by Bloomberg, the yuan rose against all 31 major currencies over the past 12 months, while the Russian ruble and Brazilian real depreciated the most. While dropping its long-held view that the yuan was undervalued, the monetary fund continued to urge China to make rapid progress toward greater exchange rate flexibility. Lipton said China should strive to realize a floating exchange rate within two to three years, because such a move would be helpful for the government to weather continued upward pressure on the yuan as productivity increases. Yuan appreciation against the currencies of China’s major trading partners, especially the U.S., has been a subject of hot debate for years. The U.S. accuses China of keeping the yuan low to encourage exports, an accusation China denies. The U.S. Treasury Department suggested in its semiannual report to Congress last month that the yuan was still significantly undervalued. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew reiterated last week that China should make more progress on exchange rate reforms. Economists in Washington reacted differently to the monetary fund assessment of the yuan. William Cline, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, gave the same conclusion recently in his independent research. His colleague, Gary Hufbauer, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute, agreed. “I think we can conclude right now the Chinese yuan is appropriately valued,” he said. “I know it’s a big issue in recent years, but right now it’s not been an issue.” Robert Scott, director of trade and manufacturing policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, disagreed. He called the fund’s assessment “out of date and mistaken.” “The fact is that China is still intervening heavily in the foreign currency market,” he said. “It simply stopped engaging in traditional purchases of foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank.” What China has done instead, he said, "is switch over to a great increase of its holdings of sovereign wealth funds — government-controlled investment in private stocks, bonds, commodities, lands and real estate abroad.” Scott said China’s holding in early 2015 in the sovereign wealth fund reached nearly $1.5 trillion. “There’s a very strong correlation between foreign investment and accumulation of the large, growing current account surpluses,” he said. “So China is intervening, and China has large and growing current account surpluses.” Although Beijing reduced its financial control and is concerned about the subsequent economic damage of having greater flexibility in the yuan’s foreign exchange rates, it is very active in seeking the yuan’s greater influence in the international financial system, including adding the yuan to the special drawing rights basket. The fund’s Lipton said in Beijing that the fund welcomed Chinese efforts. Markus Rodlauer, fund deputy director of the Asia and Pacific Department, said the agency would work closely with China to include the yuan in the special drawing rights basket basket. He added that it was not a matter of if but when. Every five years, the fund reviews the special drawing rights basket, which currently includes the U.S. dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen and the British pound. The fund will review the basket composition later this year. |
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Playa Tamarindo to
get second tower
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Tamarindo chamber of commerce officials plan to install a second tower at its beach to complement the one that was erected two weeks ago. The chamber, the Cámara de Comercio y Turismo de Tamarindo, held a meeting this week to address the actions that can be taken to protect tourists from water tragedies. The second tower will be for rescue workers instead of life guards so that aid can be delivered immediately. Hernán Imhoff, chamber president, said in a statement that tourism is a fundamental pillar of the area and the chamber wants to present solutions to the local problems. Three smuggling suspects come ashore By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Three more Costa Rican drug smuggling suspects arrived in Caldera Thursday. They had been captured along with 1,772 kilos of cocaine in international waters. The trio had been aboard a boat named Capitán Luismi out of Golfito when they were spotted by a U.S. Coast Guard patrol plane. A patrol boat of the Servicio Nacional de Guardacostas picked up the trio off a U.S. boat at sea. Under an agreement between the two countries, Costa Ricans captured on the high seas are turned over to Costa Rican authorities. Bridge won't collapse, road agency says By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Ruta 32 bridge over the Río Chirripó is not in bad shape no matter what Japanese experts say, according to the national road agency. A release deplored alarmist suggestions that the bridge might collapse. The highway is a key link between San José and Limón. The Japanese Agency for International Cooperation included the bridge in a list of structures that needed immediate repair. But the Consejo Nacional de Vialidad disputes that assessment. The road agency said that the Río Chirripó is monitored continually. The highway carries most of the heavy truck traffic headed for and from the Central Valley and points south. A report last week from the Contraloría General de la República said that the country was way behind in maintaining all bridges. Japanese experts surveyed anumber of the nation's bridges but the report basically was shelved. |
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| From Page 7: U.S. and Costa Rica sign customs pact By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Servicio Nacional de Aduanas Thursday signed a mutual assistance agreement. Officials said that the pact will mark a milestone in safety and will facilitate legitimate trade between the two countries. The agreement was signed by Gil Kerlikowske, U.S. commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, and Rafael Bonilla, director general of the Aduanas here. The agreement allows the United States to share its best practices and improve professional skills and facilitate and build bilateral trade cooperation, said Kerlikowske, a former Seattle, Washington, police chief. To date, the U.S. has signed customs mutual assistance agreements with 74 countries worldwide. In Latin America Washington has agreements with Ecuador, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Panamá, Paraguay, Perú, Uruguay, Dominican Republic and Venezuela. |
