|
|
A.M.
Costa Rica
Your daily English-language news source Monday through Friday |
 |
| (506) 2223-1327 |
Published Wednesday, June 1, 2016, in Vol. 17, No. 107
|
Email us |
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
|
Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for more details |
|
|||
|
San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, June 1, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 107
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
|
By the A.M. Costa
Rica staff
Much of the country got a first real dose of the rainy season Tuesday. The metro area saw a series of storms that dumped up to 50 millimeters (about two inches) in places. There was flooding, and the rain is being blamed for a two-vehicle accident in El Coyol on the Bernardo Soto highway west of Juan Santamaría airport. Two persons were injured critically. There were other accidents that were attributed to the weather. The storms passed over the capital since midday, but the skies really opened up at 4:30 p.m. and sent rain punctuated by thunder and lightning onto the evening rush hour. More is expected for today. The Instituto Meteorológico Nacional said that a tropical wave passed over the country and that the approach of the intertropical zone of convergence has caused atmospheric instability. The weather institute also said that the Pacific coast, the northern zone and parts of the Caribbean also experienced storms.
Session today will consider the future By the A.M. Costa
Rica staff
The Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Comercio with the support of a German development organization and the International Labour Organization, is inviting the public to participate in open discussions about the future of Costa Rica in the year 2050. The meeting will be at 4:30 p.m. today in the Colegio de Profesionales en Ciencias Económicas en San Pedro. The ministry announcement said that it was seeking citizen participation to design a policy that would begin a new era of production in Costa Rica. It is a continuation of a similar meeting in March, it added. A new policy is sought to enhance production and also social progress, it said. The German development organization is the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit. Man faces his 35th criminal case By the A.M. Costa
Rica staff
A 31-year-old resident of Matina, Limón, has been placed in preventative detention on the allegation that he was selling crack cocaine. His arrival should be old home week at the prison. The Fuerza Pública said that this is the man’s 35th criminal case. They said the first arrest was on a drug charge in 2011. He also had been detained for armed aggression this year. Nearly all the cases involve drugs. Police said he was detained Sunday with 74 crack rocks near a church in Batan. 'Midsummer Night's Dream’ to be presented By the A.M. Costa
Rica staff
The Teatro Nacional and the Ministerio de Cultura y Juventud is presenting “A Midsummer Night's Dream” Friday, Saturday and the following Tuesday, all at 8 p.m. This is the comedy by William Shakespeare. This production will be in Spanish as “Sueño de una noche de verano.” The production also is part of a program of the Ministerio de Educación Pública.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| 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 2065 and may not be reproduced anywhere
without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
|
San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, June 1, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 107
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| Turrialba
area still wants to attract tourists despite the volcano |
|
|
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Talk about mixed signals. The nation’s animal health service said Tuesday that it had allowed the evacuation of 100 cows from the neighborhood of the Turrialba volcano at the request of the animals’ owners. Meanwhile, the national emergency commission issued a statement that the canton of Turrialba was a secure location for tourism. The commission noted that restrictions only apply to a five-kilometer radius around the mountain. Mauricio Ventura, the tourism minister, joined with the commission to say that visitors can continue to come to the area. The volcano has entered an active phase, and there are some suspicions about the nearby Irazú volcano, too. The two volcanoes are linked underground. The transportation of cows, mostly milk animals, presents a health risk that could cause the spread of disease. The Servicio Nacional de Salud Animal said it had inspected and issued health permissions for the transport of the animals from Central and La Picada on the skirts of the volcano. The ash has damaged the pasture heavily, and the emergency commission has been trucking in hay. There still are other animals in the vicinity. The government promotion of Turrialba for tourism comes at a dark time for the country’s industry. Photos of the volcano spewing tall columns of ash have been featured prominently in foreign news reports. On the other hand, when Irazú erupted violently in 1963 it became a tourism attraction. Then there is the outbreak of zika in the central Pacific coast. Residents there say that the latest toll cited by the |
 Servicio
Nacional de Salud Animal photo
'Get us out of here! Moo!'A committee is trying to salvage the World Surfing Games that are scheduled for Jacó in August. Not helping the situation is the arrival of the rainy season that will create many more locations where the mosquito vectors can breed. There are no official statistics yet, but individual tourism operators are reporting cancellations of reservations because of zika fears. But arrivals at the country’s airports do not seem to be affected as the country moves into the second high season based on vacations in the north. |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| 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. 2016 and may not be reproduced
anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page |
|
San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, June 1, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 107
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| State
company retires another petroleum-burning generating plant |
|
|
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The state power company says it retired a 39-year-old generating plant in Moín Tuesday. The plant, operated by the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, was used to back up the hydro generating facilities operated by the company. The state firm known as ICE said that with the Reventazón hydro project having gone on line, the backup was not needed. The plant in the Sandoval section of the canton of Limón, went into service in the 1970s when the country experienced an electrical shortage. It has four generators that ran on bunker oil. The country produces the bulk of its power from hydro sources. The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad also has retired the generating plant in Colima, Tibás, after 57 years of cooperation. |
 Instituto
Costarricense de Electricidad
This is the now-retired generating plant. |
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
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| 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. 2016 and may not be reproduced anywhere
without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
|
A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
 |
|
|
San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, June 1, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 107
|
|||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
|
|
|
public as part of fraud lawsuit By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
A federal judge has released nearly 400 pages of documents that detail how Trump University employees used aggressive practices to get customers to sign up for more expensive seminars about succeeding in real estate. The playbooks' for the now defunct business owned by the presumptive Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump, include information about how its sales people were told to deliberately mislead potential customers, manipulate their emotions and ignore their concerns. The release is part of a lawsuit by customers who claim they were defrauded. At a Tuesday news conference at Trump Tower in New York, Trump continued his recent streak of bashing Gonzalo Curiel, the federal judge who unsealed the documents. "He's been a very bad judge . . . very, very unfair," Trump said. He has maintained that customers were overwhelmingly satisfied with the offerings, a point his attorneys repeated after the documents were unsealed. The documents do include testimony from a number of satisfied customers. Trump University's core customers are identified in the documents as male heads of households between 40 and 54 years old, with annual household incomes of at least $90,000, a college education and a net worth of more than $200,000. The documents show meticulous attention to details such as seating at seminars. Room temperature should be set no higher than 68 degrees and music should be the O'Jays' "For the Love of Money." New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who is leading one of several lawsuits against Trump University, applauded the release of documents. Schneiderman said Trump is absolutely shameless about lying to people to induce them to his seminars, which cost upward of $20,000. He said the playbook was a guideline to dupe people into paying for more courses. Trump University faced a handful of legal challenges, as well as scrutiny from the New York Department of Education, before it shut down in 2011. But Trump has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence, releasing reviews from students lauding the courses. He says he won't settle the case because he'll be vindicated in court. Egyptian authorities arrest journalism union leaders By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Egyptian prosecutors have ordered the head of the country's journalists union and two other senior union officials to stand trial for allegedly spreading false news and harboring fugitive colleagues. The order, issued Monday, targets union chief Yehia Qalash, Khaled al-Balshy and Gamal Abdel Rahim. It calls them to trial June 4 in Cairo. The controversial case stems from a May 1 police raid on the Cairo offices of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, where police aimed to arrest two opposition journalists who had sought refuge inside. Qalash and the union condemned those arrests, at the time accusing police of storming their offices for the first time in the union's 75-year history. The Interior Ministry later denied using force to enter the building, while acknowledging police had arrested the opposition reporters. Days later, the union demanded a presidential apology and the release of all detained journalists, while threatening to strike if its demands were not met. Protesters spurred by the arrests also called for the removal of Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar. Monday's order charging the union trio comes as authorities face rising public dissent against President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, whom rights activists and diplomats inside and outside the country describe as increasingly authoritarian. The rights group Amnesty International denounced the union leaders' arrests, calling them "the most brazen attack on the media the country has witnessed in decades." Amnesty's Magdalena Mughrabi also said the arrests signal "a dangerous escalation of Egyptian authorities' Draconian clampdown on freedom of expression." A lawyer for the union trio, Sayed Abu Zeid, said his clients were questioned for hours Sunday evening and that they initially refused to post bail because "publishing news . . . should not involve imprisonment or bail." Prosecutors later said bail was posted. The two suspects arrested May 1 were detained after publishing content in mid-April criticizing Egypt's decision to transfer two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia. Advice about beating wives raises ruckus in Muslim lands By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Saudi Arabian national television has aired a video showing a family therapist teaching men how to beat their wives correctly. In the tutorial, Khaled Al-Shaqby says he is "aware that this issue is a thorny one, which contains many hazards." But he adds: "Allah willing, we will cross this bridge safely." The video aired in Saudi Arabia earlier this year, then was translated and released in the U.S. by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute. Al-Shaqby points out that men should not resort to violence as a first option, but should discipline their wives first before using violence. While admitting that some men use rods, sticks or sharp objects to beat their wives in order to discipline them, he advises against it. He suggests using a twig or a handkerchief to hit the wife, merely as a symbol to express their anger at the disobedience. Human rights groups and women's organizations are outraged by the video, which comes after a draft proposal by Pakistan's Council of Islamic Ideology that husbands be allowed to beat their wives, as long as they do it lightly. Council chairman Muhammad Kahn Sherani said, "If you want her to mend her ways, you should first advise her. . . . If she refuses, stop talking to her . . . stop sharing a bed with her, and if things do not change, get a bit strict." A bit strict, he clarified, would include hitting her with light things like a handkerchief, a hat or a turban, but not hitting her on the face or private parts. The council's draft proposal has met with a furious response in Pakistan, including calls for it to be disbanded. A Pakistani photographer has launched #TryBeatingMeLightly, a photo series showcasing Pakistani women's reactions to the proposal. Some of those include: #TryBeatingMeLightly, I'll become the destruction you will never foresee. #TryBeatingMeLightly, I'm the sun. Touch me and I will burn you like hell fire. I am light, you will try, but you can never stop me. You can never contain me. I am the kind of woman they name hurricanes after. I dare you, #TryBeatingMeLightly #TryBeatingMeLightly, and you'll regret it for the rest of your miserable life. The Council of Islamic Ideology advises Pakistan’s government and lawmakers on Islamic issues. Its proposals are recommendations, and not legally enforced. Asian Americans in media seek bigger share of jobs By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Recent controversies surrounding Hollywood’s casting of white actors to play Asian characters have some people wondering why popular media continue to ignore minorities. Despite calls by advocacy groups to increase hiring, some Asians fear they are becoming invisible, token characters, especially in the entertainment media. Analysts say the problem extends to television news, where they say minorities are often underrepresented and their viewpoints largely ignored. Clicking through the channels, it is obvious that there are not many Asians reporting on the evening news, even though they're the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population. Juju Chang is one of only a handful of Asian-American news anchors, and she said it’s due to a lack of diversity in top management. “When I went on air at the network here, I was the only Asian-American and among the few women, and I'm sad to say that many all these many years later, I think that we've gone a long way in terms of diversity in front of the camera, but I think we still have a ways to go behind the scenes, especially in upper management,” said Ms. Chang. Ms. Chang said it's important for minorities to be involved when story ideas are approved. “Until Asian-Americans get real traction in that sense, you know, we're going to keep pressing our noses against the invisible window,” she said. Asians make up only 3 percent of the broadcast workforce. Journalism Professor Angie Chuang said a cultural bias may be to blame. “The truth is that all kinds of psychological studies and employment studies have shown that we tend to favor or be more comfortable with people who are like us,” said Ms. Chuang. Gender bias is another issue. Television journalist Alan Wang spoke via Skype. “I think the image for Asian women for other people is that they’re soft, they're beautiful, they're not threatening, whereas the image of the Asian male, what you’re looking at, really has been the face of the enemy of this country during the last three major conflicts,” said Ms. Wang. Analysts say Asians lack the political clout of other groups such as African-Americans and Hispanics. Another group fighting for greater representation is the Asian American Journalists Association. The group's vice-president for broadcast, Niala Boodhoo, responded on Skype. “I feel like even having those conversations is something that would not have happened years ago, and I think the fact that we're even having those conversations is a sign of progress. But there is more to be done,” said Boodhoo. A leading broadcast industry group says 2011 was the best year for Asian American broadcasters. That’s when Asians made up just 3.5 percent of the industry. But that percentage has declined since then. And, without greater representation, many Asians fear issues important to their communities will continue to be misinterpreted or ignored. Mount Everest expedition was more than climbing By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Climbing Mount Everest, at 8,848 meters the tallest mountain in the world, has long been the ultimate challenge for people with something to prove. Two of the most recent teams making a bid for the summit learned how the lonely task of climbing a mountain can bring other people closer. On May 24, retired U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Chad Jukes, 32, became the second combat wounded veteran to get to the summit of Mount Everest, climbing with an artificial leg to replace the limb he lost to an improvised explosive device in Iraq in 2006. Jukes, an accomplished climber, was accompanied by two active duty Army officers, 2nd Lt. Harold Earls and Capt. Elyse Ping Medvigy. The trio made their climb in order to bring awareness to post-traumatic stress disorder and the high suicide rate among returning U.S. veterans. For many veterans, including Jukes, the suicide problem hits close to home. One of the organizers, retired Command Sgt. Maj. Todd Burnett, said Tuesday that one of Jukes' Army buddies committed suicide while Jukes was away on the climb. "There's 22 veterans taking their lives a day," Burnett said. "So we wanted to show the resilience of the climb, and the camaraderie." Burnett said the team -- known as USX, for the nonprofit U.S. Expeditions and Explorations, completed their descent of the mountain on May 29. "Chad had some frostbite on his hands, Harold had some on his feet, but overall they're in good physical condition," he said. Burnett said the point of the climb was not to echo the experience of combat, because nothing could do that, but to give the climbers "a life changing experience, just the way combat is. It gives you . . . people you will have a lifelong bond with. So in the middle of the night, if you're having a problem and you can't cope, you reach out to that person and that person will help you." Burnett said war veterans give more of themselves in combat than anyone could understand, and he wants to help keep them alive once they come home. He said, "That's what we're trying to do: just raise awareness, show that you can overcome things, and that there's people you can lean on." The USX team is sharing its expedition the old-fashioned way, through telling the stories now that the trip is at an end. Adventure guides Cory Richards and Adrian Ballinger carried an extra seven kilograms of equipment up the world's highest peak to share their adventure in progress through the mobile app Snapchat. On Snapchat, Richards said Tuesday, "You can't alter anything, and you've got a limited amount of time to say something and you just say it, you show it, and you move forward." He said the mobile app gives a much more raw, unfiltered look at the climb than traditional media can do. The app allows the user to post short sound-and-image snaps that are accessible for a limited time and then disappear. Because there is no regular cellular service on the world's highest peak, transmissions took 10 to 15 minutes, so they were accomplished mainly during the climbers' down time. Richards tried to snap an image from the summit itself when he reached it on May 24, but his phone died in the low oxygen at the peak. Because the altitude is as dangerous for humans as it is for cellphones, Richards spent only three minutes at the summit. But the view from the peak wasn't the most important part of the climbers' message to their followers, Ballinger said. The view they wanted their followers to see was the weeks of work, including the boring, frustrating and mundane moments, that lead to one big moment of glory.  Voice of
America graphic
Study reports 45
million
are in slavery in world By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
An Australian group tracking modern-day slavery says countries doing the least to fight the practice affecting some 45 million people worldwide often have slavery-complicit governments, as well as high levels of conflict and political instability. Among the countries it singles out in the Global Slavery Index as taking the least action to combat slavery are North Korea, Iran, Eritrea, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. Slavery conditions can include forced labor, including forced labor in prisons, commercial sexual exploitation and forced marriage for women. The Walk Free Foundation behind the study says North Korea has the highest percentage of its population enslaved. Nearly one in 20 people, or 4.37 percent of its population, are in servitude. India has the highest number of people living in slavery conditions at 18.35 million, followed by China with 3.39 million and Pakistan with 2.13 million. Those numbers are up 10 million since the group's first survey in 2014. Many of those enslaved are working under forced labor conditions to make clothing that is exported globally, says Walk Free's executive director, Fiona David, adding that consumers who buy those products may be contributing to the problem. "The surveys in Bangladesh showed an estimated 1.5 million people being held in some form of forced labor,” she said. “And, of course, Bangladesh is our largest source of ready-made clothing for consumers around the world. So this really has implications for everyday people in terms of what clothing they buy and sell. The same can be said for Cambodia." Even the making of cheap fabric can contribute to global slavery numbers. Uzbekistan, for instance, subjects its citizens to forced labor in its annual cotton harvest. That fact has particular resonance in the United States, where African slaves two centuries ago were forced to labor in cotton fields in the American South before such slavery was outlawed. Human Rights Watch spokesman Wolfgang Buetner spoke on the issue Tuesday. "The textile industry presents a big problem with regard to forced labor, because very often the textile workers have to suffer very long working hours, are paid badly and often can barely leave the factories," he said. "This is a problem in Bangladesh, where a lot of textile workers are working, but also in India and other countries in Southeast Asia. What is important is that the companies also live up to their responsibilities and that they check on the subcontractors comply with labor law standards." Walk Free has collected surveys in several wealthy countries where consumers can buy imported clothing made under forced-labor conditions. In 2016, 66 percent of U.S. consumers said they would stop buying a product if they were aware that its manufacture involved use of slave labor. Fifty percent said they would pay more for clothing, electronics, food, tea or coffee that was made under slavery-free conditions. In 2015, Walk Free reported that 78 percent of Brazilians and 54 percent of Indians would switch brands if they found that the products they were using involved slave labor. Also in 2015, Britain's parliament passed a law known as the Modern Slavery Bill, updating its anti-slavery law to include provisions that defend slavery victims against prosecution for crimes committed while they were enslaved. It also ensures that child victims have an advocate to support and care for them. Walk Free estimates that there are as many as 13,000 victims of modern slavery in the United Kingdom, which includes England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Wealthier countries generally had lower slavery rates. The top 12 countries with the lowest rates of slavery are Western European, the U.S. and Canada, and Australia and New Zealand. The study said Qatar, Singapore, Kuwait, Brunei, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Japan and South Korea are among the nations whose governments have taken relatively little action against modern slavery despite adequate wealth and stability. One hundred and sixty-seven countries were included in the study. Ratings for Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen were not included due to ongoing conflicts. The study assessed factors such as "protection and respect for rights, physical safety and security, access to the necessities of life such as food, water and health care, and patterns of migration, displacement and conflict" to reach their conclusions. Alibaba faces U.S. problems over money and fake products By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, which has posted stellar financial performances year after year, is suddenly going through stormy times, with two different investigations launched against its operations in the United States. Alibaba, known as the closest rival to Amazon and listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is under the microscope of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition. After Alibaba disclosed the SEC investigation of its accounting practices and sales data last week, nervous investors sent share prices tumbling. The Washington-based IACC, an industry-driven group, recently expelled Alibaba just one month after the Chinese firm had been admitted as a member and described by coalition as "one of our strongest partners." The company, named after the famous Arabian tale, "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves," now will have to convince the coalition it did not deliberately allow or condone sales of counterfeit goods to boost its revenues and profits. Alibaba's online platforms Taobao and Tmall are widely seen as sources of fake or falsely branded goods, but analysts say it is unclear whether this was the company's deliberate policy. "Alibaba’s Taobao site is notoriously well known for selling counterfeit goods," said Jeongwen Chiang, professor of marketing at the China Europe International Business School. "They claim they have been trying to clean up those merchants but the problem continues." After the coalition action, Alibaba said it closed down 5,000 stores and removed 180,000 sales listings for counterfeit goods from Taobao, its online shopping platform, in cooperation with product makers and the industry group, which strives to combat counterfeiting and piracy through self-regulation. "We are 100 percent committed to fighting this battle," Michael Evans, president of Alibaba Group Holdings, said at a recent coalition event in Florida. Counterfeiting is a massive and pervasive industry issue, he said. "It happens on our platforms and on every other e-commerce platform globally. It is happening everywhere around the world, not just in China." There are some who think that Jack Ma, head of Alibaba, has done what he can to stop counterfeiting. The 17-year-old company's shopping platforms attracted 423 million shoppers looking at over a billion listings last year. Supporters of the $15.7-billion company say it is nearly impossible to police hundreds of millions of daily transactions. "Jack Ma is not so stupid as to condone fakes," said Ernie Diaz, consultant and publisher of China Digital Review. "Selling fakes is not in the interest of Alibaba or the Chinese e-commerce industry in general, and Ma knows it," Diaz said. "It would take upwards of a million people to check hundreds of millions of transactions that take place each day, and this is not viable." Alibaba's various online platforms account for about one-third of all e-commerce transactions in China. They were worth about $1.4 trillion in 2015. Amazon and other e-commerce giants have not been accused of selling counterfeit goods, for the most part, because they filter the process of product listings, displays and authentication more efficiently, analysts say. The Chinese government, which is keen to encourage online sales, may have been lenient in dealing with Alibaba and other local companies, some analysts add. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| 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. 2016 and may not be reproduced anywhere
without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
| A.M. Costa Rica sixth news page |
|
San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, June 1, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 107
|
|||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
|||
|
Thousands march against Keiko
Fujimori By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Thousands marched in Peru's capital, Lima, to oppose presidential frontrunner Keiko Fujimori, just four days before the election. Protesters chanting slogans such as "Keiko No!" and "No to a state run by drug traffickers!" likened Fujimori to her father, controversial former president Alberto Fujimori, who ruled from 1990 to 2000 and is currently serving a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses and corruption during his term. Keiko Fujimori, 41, has tried to distance herself from her father by promising not to revive his hardline methods or authoritarian rule, and proposing generous spending on infrastructure, including building more prisons in an effort to combat crime. The march, organized by the group "Keiko No Va" (It is not going to be Keiko), was led by Veronika Mendoza, a leftist former presidential candidate who came in third in the general election in April. Mendoza has since endorsed former World Bank economist Pedro Kuczynski, despite vast ideological differences between the two. Ms. Fujimori faces 77-year-old Kuczynski in a runoff election Sunday. She beat him by a large margin in the first round of voting. The center-right politician would be Peru's first female president. Despite a recent fall in commodity prices and a slowdown under outgoing president Ollanta Humala, Peru is one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America. U.S. consumer spending takes a jump By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
The consumer spending that powers most U.S. economic activity jumped a strong 1 percent in April, the biggest gain in about six years. Tuesday's report from the Commerce Department says the gains were due to increases in purchases of cars and other expensive, long-lasting goods. PNC Bank Chief Economists Stuart Hoffman calls the report good news for economic growth in April, May, and June. He also predicts that inflation will rise a bit this year. New data also show inflation rose a bit, but remains below the 2 percent rate that experts at the U.S. central bank say would help economic growth. Top Federal Reserve officials are scheduled to meet in two weeks and will consider this and other reports as they decide how soon and how much to raise interest rates. Those rates were pushed down to record lows to boost growth during the financial crisis. Experts worry that once the economy recovers, keeping interest rates too low for too long could over stimulate the economy and spark sharply higher inflation that could hurt growth. Experts at Wells Fargo Securities predict the Fed will not raise rates at their June meeting. A separate report on housing from Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller shows home prices rose more than 5 percent in March from the same time a year ago. Low mortgage rates and improving wages are encouraging home buying, but a limited supply of homes for sale is pushing up prices. Friday, experts will publish the newest U.S. unemployment rate. The Bloomberg financial news service surveyed economists and the consensus is that the jobless rate will drop slightly to hit 4.9 percent. The survey also shows experts expect the economy to have a net gain of 158,000 jobs nationwide. |
| Costa
Rican
News |
AMCostaRicaArchives.com |
Retire NOW
in Costa Rica |
CostaRicaReport.com |
| Fine
Dining
in
Costa Rica |
The
CAFTA Report |
Fish
fabulous Costa Rica |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| 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. 2016 and may not be reproduced anywhere
without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
| From Page 7: U.S. issues warning for travelers to Europe By the A.M. Costa Rica
wire services
The U.S. State Department has issued a travel warning alerting U.S. citizens to the risk of potential terrorist attacks throughout Europe, targeting major events, tourist sites, restaurants, commercial centers and transportation. The travel alert that expires on Aug. 31 states that "the large number of tourists visiting Europe in the summer months presents greater targets for terrorists planning attacks in public locations, especially at large events." In particular, the warning draws attention to the European Soccer Championship from June 10 to July 10 and the Tour de France cycling race which will be held from July 2 to 24 in France, as well as the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day event in Krakow, Poland, between July 26 and July 31, which is expected to attract up to 2.5 million visitors. Although European authorities continue to take steps to assure public safety and disrupt terrorist plots, the State Department urged U.S. citizens to exercise vigilance when in public places or using mass transportation. Brussels was targeted by Islamic State terrorists in March with 32 people killed in bombings that hit the city's airport and metro. The Islamic State also attacked Paris in November of last year and killed 130 people. |
