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José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, June 24, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 123
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Ex-president will face another trial By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Former president Miguel Ángel Rodríguez is going on trial again along with seven other former public employees. The Poder Judicial said Tuesday that the Juzgado Penal de Hacienda has ordered the opening of a new trial. The case involves the reinsurance premiums paid by the Instituto Nacional de Seguros to a large London firm to cover the activities of the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad. Insurance firms typically use reinsurance to spread out their risks. Other defendant include the former head of the state insurance company and employees of both state agencies. Prosecutors charge that some of the money was diverted and ended up in the hands of officials here. No date has been set for the trial, which will be open to the public. A judicial panel at one point threw out the case, but prosecutors appealed successfully to have it reinstated, They said they were informed of the judicial ruling Tuesday afternoon. Flood victims may face more rain By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The rain-soaked cantons in northeastern Costa Rica got a break Tuesday as the rain tapered off. Engineers got as chance to check damage from the heavy rains and flooding that hit the area. Still, the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional was predicting Tuesday night that more rain will fall in the mountains. That causes the rivers to rise. There also was intermittent rain predicted for the morning. Both the ríos Sixaloa and Chirripó were reported rising. President Luis Gillermo Soís and his wife were expected to visit the stricken area today. They were to inspect a bridge at Río Blanco, Sarapiquí, and then meet with local officials. The national emergency commission said that so far 114 communities have been located with some problems in the roadways, bridges and dwellings and 25 roadways were blocked partly or completely. Six bridges, including the one for Ruta 32 at Río Blanco, were damaged, said the commission. Ruta 32 has been closed for two days due to some landslides as well as the bridge problem. Tuesday afternoon there were 576 persons in shelters in Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí, Horquetas, Jiménez de Pococí and in Goshen de Matina. Explosion causes fire in Naranjo By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
An early morning gas explosion in the Mercado Central of Naranjo injured one man and destroyed two storefronts Tuesday. Two other locations were damaged. The man suffered first- and second-degree burns to a shoulder and forearm, said the Cuerpo de Bomberos. Fire fighters said that the source of the blaze was in a small eating place in the sprawling, 6,500-square meter market. A pocket of liquid petroleum gas ignited, they said. The blaze reached the roof of the structure. The man may have been changing gas cylinders when the pocket of gas reached an ignition source. Fire fighters got the call at 5:35 a.m. Ton of cocaine confiscated in Pacific By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Two boats carrying a total of more than a ton of cocaine have been boarded in the Pacific. The first case involved a Costa Rican-flagged craft with the name Embarcación Huko II. A U.S. patrol crew took over the craft and detained four Costa Ricans near the Isla de Coiba in Panamá. Under an agreement with Costa Rica, the U.S. crew turned the suspects over to Costa Rican officials. A second fishing craft named Kinia Andrea was intercepted some 117 miles from Punta Burica, said the Ministerio de Seguridad Pública. Three persons were aboard along with nearly 400 kilos of cocaine.  Carol Meeds
photo
The restaurant sports a
ceramic floor.Reader
endorses Caribbean restaurant
By Carol Meeds
Special to A.M. Costa Rica Athagy is a happy find. After a hot day of shopping at the open air market in Limon, lunch with a cold beer sounds good and so does getting out of Limón and on the road back to Puerto Viejo. About 20 kilometers out of town (I am guessing) this new restaurant appears on the left. Well, actually, what appears is a giant Pilsen beer sign. It is like a beacon to the hot and weary heavily-laden shoppers. At first we drove past it and entered an older restaurant on the west side, but they had no lunch and we made a U-turn back to the place on the left (Caribbean-side). It offered a large parking lot some of it with an awning cover and an open dining area and very clean appearance. The waitress won my approval when she informed us that the ceviche would take 45 minutes and did we want to wait? Prices were reasonable. Most lunch plates were in the $7 or $8 range, and beer was $2. My friend found the ceviche very fresh and well worth the wait. I enjoyed my plank steak with french fries and a salad, and I believe the others all enjoyed their meals as well. Fresh food, well prepared at a good price. I hope they do well and put in a few fans to move the air a little bit. The large parking lot on the highway make this an easy rest stop, but not a very romantic one. GPS 9:54:42.39600 83:1:0.852000 Editor's note: Readers are encouraged to endorse their favorite restaurant.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, June 24, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 123 | |
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| Mercado Central merchants to mix religion and Costa Rican
traditions |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Thursday will see a mix of the religious and traditional at the Mercado Central in downtown San José. The merchants who have their shops in the market will be honoring their patron, Jesus Christ, in the persona of the Sagrado Corazón de Jesús. Some shoppers may have noticed the life-size statue of Jesus permanently inside the market. The annual festivities Thursday start off with a Mass on the sidewalk outside the market. Celebrating the Mass will be Archbishop José Rafael Quirós, said an announcement from the merchants who are members of the Unión de Comerciantes del Mercado Central. Following the 10 a.m. Mass is a mix of Costa Rican culture ranging from marimbas to tamales. |
The merchants
said they not only promise an event filed with devotion but also filled
with Costa Rican tradition. There will be a cimarrona, the brass street band, and the traditional mascaradas, those towering papier-mâché figures. The market was founded in 1880, and just walking through the corridors is to take a trip back into the 19th century where the market was the center of the daily routine. Some tourists are reluctant to have a meal at one of the many sodas inside the market, but some are associated with national chains, and the sanitation standards are equal to restaurants elsewhere. However, the menus are skewed toward the traditional, including the tamales. The market also is a place to find foods and spices in bulk. The event also is being sponsored by the municipality. |
| Deteriorating primary school gets historic restoration in Tucurrique | |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Escuela Eduardo Peralta Jiménez is one historic building that will not stand empty while officials try to figure out what to do with it. The school is exactly that, and now some 300 primary students have a modern facility within a building that is a national heritage site. The work was done with a 147 million-colon investment by the Centro de Investigación y Conservación del Patrimonio Cultural. Four new classrooms were added as well as modern bathrooms. A leaky roof and the entire electrical system were replaced. The centro said the building was in an advanced stage of deterioration. The school is in Tucurrique, Jiménez de Cartago. The |
 Ministerio de Cultura y Juventud photo
Escuela Eduardo Peralta
Jiménezweather there is great for vegetable farming, but the moisture and the cold challenge wooden structures. The school is believed to have been built in the World War II era. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, June 24, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 123 | |||||
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| Analysis of 80 studies shows some value to the use of
medical marijuana |
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By the Journal of the American Medical
Association
news staff In an analysis of the findings of nearly 80 randomized trials that included about 6,500 participants, there was moderate evidence to support the use of cannabinoids, chemical compounds that are the active principles in cannabis or marijuana, for the treatment of chronic pain. There was less evidence suggesting that cannabinoids were associated with improvements in nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy, sleep disorders, and Tourette syndrome, according to a study in the most recent issue of Journal of the American Medical Association Medical cannabis refers to the use of cannabis or cannabinoids as medical therapy to treat disease or alleviate symptoms. In the United States, 23 states and Washington, D.C., have introduced laws to permit the medical use of cannabis; many other countries have similar laws. Despite the wide us of cannabis and cannabinoid drugs for medical purposes, their efficacy for specific indications is not clear, according to background information in the article. Penny F. Whiting of the University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom, and colleagues evaluated the evidence for the benefits and adverse events of medical cannabinoids by searching various databases for randomized clinical trials of cannabinoids for a variety of indications. The researchers identified 79 trials with 6,462 participants that met criteria for inclusion in the review and meta-analysis. The researchers found that most studies suggested that cannabinoids were associated with improvements in |
symptoms, but
these associations
did not reach statistical significance in all studies. There was moderate evidence to suggest that cannabinoids may be beneficial for the treatment of chronic neuropathic or cancer pain and spasticity due to multiple sclerosis involving sustained muscle contractions or sudden involuntary movements. There was less evidence suggesting that cannabinoids were associated with improvements in nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy, weight gain in HIV, sleep disorders, and Tourette syndrome and very low-quality evidence for an improvement in anxiety. There was low-quality evidence for no effect on psychosis and very low-level evidence for no effect on depression, said the study. There was an increased risk of short-term adverse effects with cannabinoids, including serious ones. Common effects included dizziness, dry mouth, nausea, fatigue, somnolence, euphoria, vomiting, disorientation, drowsiness, confusion, loss of balance, and hallucination. There was no clear evidence for a difference in association, either beneficial or harmful, based on type of cannabinoids or mode of administration. Further large, robust, randomized clinical trials are needed to confirm the effects of cannabinoids, particularly on weight gain in patients with HIV/AIDS, depression, sleep disorders, anxiety disorders, psychosis, glaucoma, and Tourette syndrome are required, said the authors. Further studies evaluating cannabis itself are also required because there is very little evidence on the effects and adverse effects of cannabis, the authors added. |
Here's reasonable medical care
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, June 24, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 123 | |||||||
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| Obama expected to back off on threats to hostage families By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. government will no longer threaten to prosecute families who try to negotiate with the captors of Americans being held hostage overseas or pay ransom to win their release, media reports say. President Barack Obama is expected to soften a U.S. policy when he releases a broad review of U.S. hostage guidelines Wednesday at the White House alongside several hostage families. The six-month review was prompted by sharp criticism of the Obama administration by some victims' relatives, who said they had been threatened with prosecution if they tried to raise money to pay a ransom. U.S. officials said new administrative measures would improve coordination and communication with hostage families and help facilitate communications with kidnappers on behalf of families seeking the safe return of hostages. But White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Tuesday that the president would not change the prohibition against making concessions to hostage-takers. Several U.S. hostages have been killed in the past year in the Middle East, including some who were beheaded in videos released by Islamic State militants. Unlike some European allies, the United States insists it will not make concessions to hostage-takers and has a strict no-payments strategy, saying ransoms only encourage further kidnappings and put funds in the hands of the militants. But last year it exchanged five Taliban detainees held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to secure the release of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held five years by Taliban forces in Afghanistan. White House denies targeting French President Hollande By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The White House says it is not targeting French President Francois Hollande's communications and will not do so, after transparency Web site WikiLeaks released documents that it says shows the U.S. National Security Agency spied on him and his two predecessors. There was no immediate confirmation of the accuracy of the documents, which were released by WikiLeaks in collaboration with French daily newspaper Liberation and investigative Web site Mediapart. NSA spokesman Ned Price said the Obama administration does not conduct any foreign intelligence surveillance unless there is a specific and validated national security purpose, a standard he said applied to both world leaders and ordinary citizens. "We work closely with France on all matters of international concern and the French are indispensable partners," Price said. The spokesman did not address whether French presidential communications had been wiretapped in the past. A French presidential aide said Hollande is expected to meet Wednesday with his defense council to evaluate the information published by Wikileaks. In 2013, WikiLeaks reported that the NSA had wiretapped German Chancellor Angela Merkel's private phone. The report sparked a political scandal in Germany and prompted an official inquiry. The U.S. reply to Germany on the matter, in September 2013, was similar to the one it provided France on Tuesday: that the U.S. was not monitoring Ms. Merkel's calls at that time and would not monitor them in the future. Tuesday's revelations come just weeks after President Obama signed a law ending the U.S. government's power to investigate the private phone and internet communications of U.S. citizens. Senate votes to advance trade promotion authority By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. Senate voted Tuesday to once again advance legislation facilitating the approval of two blockbuster trade pacts spanning the Atlantic and the Pacific. The procedural 60-37 vote revives President Barack Obama’s trade agenda, which had been dealt a severe blow when trade promotion authority, which is often called fast track, stalled on Capitol Hill earlier this month. “This is a very big vote. It’s an important moment for the country,” Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said. “It’s demonstrating that both parties can work together to strengthen America’s national security at home, and America’s leadership abroad – instead of simply ceding the future in one of the world’s fastest-growing regions to Chinese aggression.” Thirteen pro-trade Democrats joined with Republicans to support the bill, including Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, a western U.S. state where many of his business constituents support trade with Asia. “Let’s pry open foreign markets and send more of our exports abroad,” Wyden said. "Let’s fight for the American brand against the trade cheats and the bad actors that are blocking our way." Ahead of the vote, scores of trade opponents protested outside Senate office buildings and pressed lawmakers to vote no. One demonstrator, Margaret Flowers, said Tuesday’s vote was disappointing but not a surprise. “It is really important in our minds that they not just pass this vote quietly,” Ms. Flowers said. "That they know and see that there are people that are opposed to what they are doing. We can’t be silent.” Inside the chamber, Democrat Sherrod Brown called the legislation immoral and shameful. “People are going to lose their jobs,” Brown said. "What a betrayal we are inflicting on those workers if we make this decision today.” The push on trade puts the White House in conflict with labor unions, environmentalists, and other elements of the progressive coalition that helped elect President Obama and numerous Democratic lawmakers. Trade promotion authority mandates up-or-down congressional votes with no amendments allowed on two of the biggest trade deals in U.S. history: one with the European Union and another with Pacific Rim nations that, together, account for 40 percent of global economic output. South Carolina lawmakers will debate status of flag By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The South Carolina Legislature has agreed to debate whether to remove the Civil War-era Confederate flag from the Capitol grounds after an appeal from Gov. Nikki Haley to remove it. Hundreds chanted "Bring it down" as they stood outside the State House in Charleston Tuesday, urging lawmakers to scrap the official public display of what the protesters call a symbol of racism and slavery. Haley said Monday that she would call the legislature back into special session if it did not agree to open debate. She said that while many in South Carolina respect and revere the flag, others see it as a reminder of a brutally oppressive past. The young white gunman who has admitted killing nine African-Americans inside a Charleston church last week is a self-confessed racist who has been pictured holding the Confederate flag. Many in the state were stunned to see the Confederate flag still flying at the top of a pole on the State House grounds while the U.S. and state flags flew at half-staff in tribute to the shooting victims. The Confederate flag flew from the top of the South Carolina State House from 1962 until it was moved to a Civil War memorial in 2000. Flag opponents say it was originally put up over the Capitol to defy racial integration. The church massacre has led others around the country to take a second look at the flag and other Civil War-era signs. Sears, Kmart and Wal-Mart, the country's largest retailer, said they would no longer sell Confederate flag goods in their stores. The online auction site eBay will also stop selling such merchandise. The speaker of the House in Mississippi has called for the removal of the Confederate symbol from the state flag. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has ordered car license plates with the flag on them to be replaced. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Tennessee want a bust of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest removed from the state Senate. Forrest was also the first leader of the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group founded after the Civil War and still in existence. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell joined the growing chorus of opposition to the Confederate flag on Monday. The Kentucky-born lawmaker called the flag a painful reminder of racial oppression and said "that the time for a state to fly it has long since passed." Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton Tuesday urged all businesses to stop selling products with Confederate flag images, and praised Wal-Mart Stores and other retailers for pulling flag-related items. "You know and I know that's just the beginning of what we have to do," Ms. Clinton said in Florissant, a St. Louis suburb near Ferguson, the site of violent protests last year after a young black man was killed by a white policeman. "Equality, opportunity, civil rights in America are still far from where they need to be." The flag is "a symbol of our nation's racist past that has no place in our present or our future. It shouldn't fly there. It shouldn't fly anywhere," she said. The Missouri speech was the third time Ms. Clinton has made public remarks on last week's shooting in Charleston. Last week, former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney urged that South Carolina remove the Confederate flag from state Capitol grounds, calling it a symbol of racial hatred. Romney's statement was widely seen as intensifying pressure on current Republican candidates to face an issue of race and symbolism that has long vexed the party. The Confederate flag was the symbol of the Confederate States of America, Southern states that broke away from the United States in 1861. They fought a Civil War for independence from the federal government and for the right to preserve slavery. The rebel states surrendered in 1865 after slavery had been outlawed in the U.S. People in South Carolina and other states who want to keep flying the flag say the banner is about history, pride and family heritage, not slavery. They condemn racists who they say have corrupted the flag, turning it into a sign of hate. Those who want to get rid of the flag say no one can escape the fact that it once stood for a fight to keep slavery legal and is a constant reminder of white supremacy. U.S. blames China for spying and maybe personnel hacking By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The United States has criticized China for carrying out state-sponsored cyberattacks, a blunt accusation that comes as authorities in Washington continue to investigate a massive hack into federal employee data. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew made the comment Wednesday during the second day of high-level security and economic talks with Chinese officials. "We remain deeply concerned about Chinese government-sponsored cyber-enabled theft," he said. In his public comments, Lew did not specifically mention the series of attacks revealed earlier this month during which hackers accessed or stole the sensitive personnel info of millions of current and former U.S. government employees. The Obama administration has not openly accused the Chinese government of being behind the digital attack on the Office of Personnel Management, but various officials have said they are increasingly convinced this is the case. Ahead of this week's annual talks with Beijing officials in Washington, a senior State Department official promised the hacking incident would be discussed "in very direct terms." No details of those conversations have been released. Details continue to emerge about the scale of the hack into Office of Personnel Management computers. FBI Director James Comey now believes as many as 18 million current, former, and prospective federal employees were affected, according to U.S. lawmakers briefed on the matter who spoke to CNN. That figure is much higher than the 4.2 million employees that the Office of Personnel Management has said were affected by the breach. Reports have also suggested the hackers gained access to extremely sensitive information found in federal employee background checks. The Chinese government has strongly denied it is behind the cyber intrusion, and has blasted U.S. officials and media for speculating about the identity of the hackers. State Councilor Yang Jiechi said China is prepared to work closer with the U.S. on the issue of cybercrime and said Beijing supports an international code of conduct for cyber information sharing. The U.S. last year charged five Chinese military officers with hacking into and stealing trade secrets from the computers of several large American nuclear, metal and solar companies. China angrily denounced the indictment and suspended a series of discussions with the U.S. to combat cybercrimes. That dialogue has not yet resumed. Haitian controversy reaches New York immigrant groups By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The fight against the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in the Dominican Republic has moved to the United States, where 600,000 Haitian immigrants and more than one million Dominicans live. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose constituents include over 135,000 Haitians and 500,000 Dominicans, described the threat of deportation of Haitians by the Dominican government as illegal, immoral and racist. “It is clearly an illegal act. It is an immoral act. It is a racist act by the Dominican government,” the mayor said. “And it’s happening because these people are black. And it cannot be accepted.” His comments were supported by some but rejected by a number of other Dominicans who oppose the presence of Haitians in the Dominican Republic, especially after hundreds of thousands poured into the country after the 2010 earthquake on the island. Both Haitians and Dominicans inhabit the island of Hispaniola, divided into two separate countries and often alienated by the issue of illegal immigration. A 2013 Dominican citizenship law aims to cut off more than 200,000 Haitians who were born in the country to undocumented Haitians. The decision leaves them without legal documentation and stateless since they have neither Haitian nor Dominican citizenship. They are now subject to deportation. Although at first it was feared that the deportations would begin on Thursday, after the law went into effect, the Dominican government has now clarified that repatriations would be a slow and gradual process with no sudden surprises. Monday in Washington, the Association of Haitian Professionals called for a meeting followed by a march to the Embassy of the Dominican Republic to demand an end to the deportations and expulsions. The association claimed there is increasing anti-Haitian sentiment in the Dominican Republic resulting from violence against anyone with Haitian facial features, citing the example of the lynching of Henry "Tulile" Jean Claude in February. "Tulile", a shoe-shiner, was found hanging in a Santiago public square on Feb. 10, his hands and feet bound. The lynching, which was widely condemned, was blamed on a group of Dominican nationalists who had called for the deportation of Haitians living in their country and burned a Haitian flag Feb. 9. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, June 24, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 123 | |||||||||
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 Trinity College Dublin
photo
A magma crystal before being lasered and
analyzed.
Crystals in
magma can tell its history
By the Trinity College Dublin news
staff
Every volcano has a story, but, until now, most of these stories were shrouded in mystery. However, scientists from Trinity College Dublin have just discovered how to pry volcanic secrets from magma crystals, which means they are better able to piece together the history of global geography and to predict future eruptions of active volcanoes. Their method will help to understand the reasons for past eruptions, and thus allow more accurate predictions for eruptions yet to occur, the researchers said. Teresa Ubide was among those who worked out how to persuade volcanoes to tell their stories. She is a research fellow in geology in the School of Natural Sciences at Trinity, She said: “Volcanoes are fascinating, but also dangerous. We need to understand how they work to be better prepared for volcanic eruptions, such as the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption in Iceland, which collapsed air traffic across Europe and caused huge economic, political and cultural problems for huge numbers of people.” The volcanic cones and lava flows on the surface of the Earth are fed by magma from great depth. It is thought that the injection of fresh magma into deep reservoirs is the key trigger in volcanic eruptions. But how is it possible to reconstruct what is going on many kilometers below the surface, at temperatures greater than 1000 degrees C? Dr. Ubide added: “Just as investigators reconstruct events to learn the truth, we prise magma injections from the crystals that are transported to the surface by erupted magmas to do the same thing. This method helps us form a detailed picture of the magma history.” Magmatic crystals typically grow from the center outwards, like tree rings. The microscopic growth rings or zones of crystals record the history of magmatic processes occurring during crystallization, which can be read by expert eyes. The chemical composition of successive growth zones is a particularly valuable source of information about magma history. The Trinity scientists worked to improve the method by which a laser beam, similar to that used for eye surgery, removes a thin film from the surface of the crystals. This produces a group of particles than are analyzed to visualize the precise pattern of growth zones of the crystal. Importantly, the method works even for chemical elements present at very low concentrations, some of which are particularly useful for unveiling magma history with unprecedented detail. The article presenting the methodology and its optimization for magmatic crystals has just been published in the journal Chemical Geology. The paper includes results for crystals from magmas related to the opening of the North Atlantic Ocean, where the separation of tectonic plates made the crust thinner and weaker, allowing the ascent of magmas. That particular magmatic system developed 79 million years ago in northeast Spain, where the Costa Brava is located today, and where tourists enjoy its warm weather and selected cuisine unaware of the many secrets hidden in the rocks and crystals just next to their beach umbrellas. |
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| From Page 7: Biogas is good bet for pineapple waste, ICE says By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The state power company says a small pineapple producer can save $450,000 a year by converting crop waste to biogas. And the company said that this also solves other environmental problems. The gas would be used to generate electricity, said the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad. The state firm said it had experimented on a small pineapple operation of some three hectares to make the calculations. The country produces 8 million tons of pineapple waste a year, said the firm. The agricultural waste represents a big problem. It attracts flies, and processors spend money on chemicals to dry out the waste. Biogas would solve those problems, said the firm known as ICE. In addition, it said, the digested material that produces biogas would be returned to the soil as fertilizer as would liquid generated by the process. The calculations showed the the small operation would produce 300 kilowatts a day over 18 hours, which translates to an annual value of $450,000, the firm said. By generating composed material the farmer also would save the cost of chemical fertilizers, it said. Agrochemical infiltration of ground water and water sources is a big problem. The pineapple monoculture ha increased 42 percent in the last four years, said ICE. |
