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José, Costa Rica, Thursday, June 25, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 124
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 Ministerio de Seguridad Pública
photo
Police officer
checks over some planks of cedar and laurel in Guatusowhere they were confiscated from a trucker who did not have transportation permits. Residents experience a flurry of quakes By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Residents on both coasts and in southern Costa Rica experienced felt earthquakes Wednesday night. The Laboratorio de Ingenieria Sismica at the Universidad de Costa Rica gave this summary: The first was of 5.3 magnitude at 8:53 p.m. with an epicenter estimated at 31 kilometers, about 19 miles, south southeast of Laurel de Corredores. The estimated epicenter was in the ocean off Panamá. At 10:42 p.m. a 3.4-magnitude quake was reported about 19 kilometers, about 12 miles, east northeast of Limón Centro in the Caribbean.. At 11:34 p.m. a 4.0-magnitude quake took place some 24 kilometers, about 15 miles, west of Jacó off the central Pacific coast. That would put the estimated epicenter at the mouth of the Gulf of Nicoya. Then at 43 minutes after midnight today, a 3.9 quake took place with an epicenter estimated at 9 kilometers, 5.6 miles, north northeast of Damas de Quepos de Aguirre, also on the central Pacific coast. That estimate put the epicenter in the mountains. Electrical rates to be reduced next month By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Lower electrical rates have been established by the utility regulator. The cut will be 13.6 percent in power generated by the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad. The impact will be 2,018 colons, about $3.82, a month less for the average family serviced by the state power company and 1,543 colons, about $2.92, a month less by a family served by the Compañía Nacional de Fuerza y Luz. Other retail distributors will show similar reductions when the rates go into effect between July and September. The cut is due to the lower price of petroleum and the fact that the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad used less expensive petroleum during the last months of 2014, said the Autoridad Reguladora de Servicios Publicos. Chemical mixes eyed as cancer causes By the Brunel University London news
staff
A global task force of 174 scientists from leading research centers across 28 countries studied the link between mixtures of commonly encountered chemicals and the development of cancer. The study selected 85 chemicals not considered carcinogenic to humans and found 50 supported key cancer-related mechanisms at exposures found in the environment today. Longstanding concerns about the combined and additive effects of everyday chemicals prompted the organization Getting To Know Cancer led by Lowe Leroy from Halifax Nova Scotia. Cancer biologist Hemad Yasaei from Brunel University London contributed his knowledge regarding genes and molecular changes during cancer development. He said: “This research backs up the idea that chemicals not considered harmful by themselves are combining and accumulating in our bodies to trigger cancer and might lie behind the global cancer epidemic we are witnessing. We urgently need to focus more resources to research the effect of low dose exposure to mixtures of chemicals in the food we eat, air we breathe and water we drink.” Andrew Ward from the Department of Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Bath, who contributed in the area of cancer epigenetics and the environment, said: “A review on this scale, looking at environmental chemicals from the perspective of all the major hallmarks of cancer, is unprecedented”. Francis Martin from Lancaster University, who contributed to an examination of how such typical environmental exposures influence dysfunctional metabolism in cancer, endorsed this view. He said: “Despite a rising incidence of many cancers, far too little research has been invested into examining the pivotal role of environmental causative agents. This worldwide team of researchers refocuses our attention on this under-researched area.” In light of the compelling evidence the task force is calling for an increased emphasis on and support for research into low dose exposures to mixtures of environmental chemicals. Current research estimates chemicals could be responsible for as many as one in five cancers. With the human population routinely exposed to thousands of chemicals, the effects need to be better understood to reduce the incidence of cancer globally. The research has been published in a special series of Oxford University Publishing’s “Carcinogenesis” journal. William Goodson III, a senior scientist at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco and lead author of the synthesis said: “Since so many chemicals that are unavoidable in the environment can produce low dose effects that are directly related to carcinogenesis, the way we've been testing chemicals (one at a time) is really quite out of date. Every day we are exposed to an environmental chemical soup, so we need testing that evaluates the effects of our ongoing exposure to these chemical mixtures.”
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, June 25, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 124 | |
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| Court officials seek special system for handling organized
crime cases |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The judiciary is presenting a proposed law to give special treatment to organized crime cases. Among other changes, four judges will hear each case instead of the normal three. The extra judge will provide continuity in case one cannot continue, court officials said. The president of the Corte Suprema de Justicia, Zarela Villanueva Monge, also said that judicial employees soon would be evaluated and graded. The categories are much like a report card. The court president outlined the proposals in a session Wednesday. She was accompanied by President Luis Guillermo Solís. Also there were Rafael Ortiz Fábrega, president of the Asamblea Legislative, and Luis Antonio Sobrado González, president of the Tribunal Supremo de Elección. The first proposal creates special rules for cases related to organized crime and drug trafficking. Investigators will have more time and have more legal tools, said the court without amplifying the concept. There also will be wiretap and special rules for reviewing personal bank accounts, the court summary said. There also was a reference to protecting judicial employees. The second legislative proposal sets up an evaluation system ranging from a grade of less than 70 percent to more than 95 percent for judicial employees. Not immediately clear was why the courts would need new laws to make these changes which would seem to be related to internal policies. Procedures for wiretapping and access to bank information already exist for criminal investigations. The court president had ordered an investigation of the infiltration of drug cartels into the Poder Judicial. A report on the findings have not been released. |
 A.M. Costa Rica/Sylvia Quesada Hidalgo
Luis Guillermo Solís
and Zarela Villanueva Monge |
| Infinito gets loan to continue its arbitration battle over
Las Cruicitas |
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Special to A.M. Costa Rica
Infinito Gold Ltd. has announced that it has accepted an offer of a demand loan facility for up to $500,000 from Exploram Enterprises, Ltd., its major shareholder, and that $115,000 has been advanced to the company under the loan to date. The money is to bankroll Infinito's legal battle against Costa Rica. The loan closing occurred promptly upon acceptance of the offer by Infinito, said an announcement. The indebtedness under the loan is to be secured under the existing general security agreement, as amended, between the company and Exploram delivered in connection with the sale of convertible notes of the company on Feb. 10, 2009, said the firm in a release. The loan is in addition to $19.5 million of principal in other demand loans that are also payable to Exploram, and is in addition to $50.5 million in principal owed under prior notes. All indebtedness under the loan is repayable on demand at |
any time and
may be prepaid in whole or in part without penalty, said the company. The funds advanced under the loan are expected to satisfy the company's immediate working capital requirements as it continues to pursue its arbitration claim against Costa Rica, said the announcement. The company said it will continue to work with its major shareholder, Exploram, to secure funding on a short-term basis, as required, to be used to finance the company's short-term working capital requirements. Any such further funding is at the sole discretion of Exploram. A key figure in the transaction is Ronald Mannix, operator of Exploram and a wealthy Canadian. Associates say he is committed to pressing Infinito's case against Costa Rica for closing the Las Crucitas open pit gold mine in northern Costa Rica. A reader estimated in a letter last week that an arbitration panel might award Infinito as much as $300 million due to lost investment and lost profit on the gold. The case has had a serious impact on Costa Rica's efforts to attract foreign investment. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, June 25, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 124 | |||||
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| New discovery of tiny reptile suggest how the turtle got its
shell |
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By the National Museum of Natural
History news staff
An international team of researchers from the United States and Germany have discovered a key missing link in the evolutionary history of turtles. The new extinct species of reptile, Pappochelys, was unearthed in an area that was an ancient lake in southern Germany about 240 million years ago during the Middle Triassic Period. Its physical traits make it a clear intermediate between two of the earliest known turtles, Eunotosaurus and Odontochelys. Features in the skull of Pappochelys also provide critical evidence that turtles are most closely related to other modern reptiles, such as lizards and snakes. Previously, scientists believed that turtles may have descended from the earliest known reptiles. Hans-Dieter Sues, curator of vertebrate paleontology in the Department of Paleobiology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and Rainer Schoch, curator of fossil amphibians and reptiles at the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart, Germany, studied more than a dozen specimens from Germany that were collected beginning in 2006. Their research focused on the morphological features that set Pappochelys apart from its closest turtle relatives. “The mystery of how the turtle got its shell has been a long-standing question in evolutionary biology,” said Sues. “In the case of Pappochelys, we see that its belly was protected by an array of rod-like bones, some of which are already fused to each other. Such a stage in the evolution of the turtle shell had long been predicted by embryological research on present-day turtles but had never been observed in fossils until now.” The discovery of Pappochelys confirms that the belly portion of the turtle shell, called the plastron, formed through the fusion of rib-like structures and parts of the shoulder girdle. The new turtle is also noteworthy for the presence of two openings behind the eye socket on each side of the skull and shows that turtles did not evolve from early stem-reptiles, as traditionally thought, but are most closely related to lizards among present-day reptiles. Present-day turtles have lost these openings, but lizards and crocodilians have them. Pappochelys could fit in the palm of a human hand and grow up to 8 inches in length. It lived in a tropical environment along the shores of a lake in what is now southern Germany. Pappochelys used its tiny, peg-like teeth to feed on small insects and worms and had a long tail, possibly to help with swimming. The origin and relationships of turtle species have |
 Stuttgart
Natural History Museum/Rainer Schoch
Pappochelys
could grow up to 8 inches in length, had a long tail and used its tiny,
peg-like teeth to feed on small insects and worms in what is now
southern Germany.historically been some of the most contentious issues in the study of vertebrate evolution. Modern turtles are strikingly different than their prehistoric precursors, and, for decades, researchers had few representatives of the early phases of turtle evolution from the fossil record. The new discovery and DNA sequencing for the major groups of present-day reptiles now establish where turtles fit on the reptile tree of life. Eunotosaurus, considered the oldest precursor of turtles, dates back to 260 million years ago and lived in present-day South Africa. It features many characteristics only found in turtles, including broad ribs and a lack of intercostal muscles, which attach between the rib bones. Eunotosaurus also has a long slender tail. By comparison, Odontochelys lived in present-day China 220 million years ago and has a fully developed plastron, a long tail and jaws with small teeth. Pappochelys fits neatly between these two turtle precursors at 240 million years, sharing some characteristics with Eunotosaurus but having only a partially fused plastron. Scientists hypothesize that the development of the shell observed in early turtles supports the idea that the turtle shell evolved in aquatic environments rather than on land. Underwater predators often ambush their prey from below. Early turtles may have relied on having a partially or fully fused plastron as a defense mechanism against these kinds of attacks. The back portion of the shell, called a carapace, appears later in the fossil record in another early turtle found in Germany called Proganochely. Proganochely dates to 214 million years and has a complete shell that protects its trunk. It closely resembles modern species of turtles. |
Here's reasonable medical care
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, June 25, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 124 | |||||||
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| Senate approves trade deal despite some strong opposition By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. Congress has granted President Barack Obama and his successor a powerful tool to get trade deals approved: so-called fast-track authority that shields proposed pacts from legislative meddling. By a 60-38 vote, the Senate passed trade promotion authority late Wednesday, a measure that boosts prospects for two of the biggest trade deals in U.S. history. Under bill, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the Trans-Pacific Partnership would be approved with simple majority congressional votes. Lawmakers could not amend either accord. “The key victory for American workers and products stamped ‘Made in the USA’ comes today,” said a jubilant Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell before the vote. “For American workers to have a fair shot in the 21st Century economy, it just makes sense to remove the unfair barriers that discriminate against them and the products that they make.” Having been approved by both houses of Congress, trade promotion authority goes to the White House for President Obama’s signature less than two weeks after backers fretted it would die on Capitol Hill. The House of Representatives initially blocked trade legislation by voting down a retraining bill for workers displaced by foreign competition. The Senate was poised to advance the worker retraining legislation, and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi announced Wednesday she would vote for the measure after having led her caucus in opposition to it earlier this month. The sudden boost in momentum for free trade sorely disappointed opponents like Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who is running for president as a Democrat. “It’s a great day for the big-money interests, not a great day for working families,” said Sanders. “This trade agreement will continue the policies that have cost us millions of decent-paying jobs.” Equally blunt were environmental groups and labor unions. “History shows it makes no sense to give a quick up-or-down vote to bad trade deals like the TPP that will only ship jobs overseas and lower wages in the U.S.,” said Jim Hoffa, head of the Teamsters Union that represents American truckers. “Yet again, workers have been tossed aside by some lawmakers who are more interested in pleasing their corporate cronies than doing what’s best for their constituents.” By contrast, Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican, said free trade with Pacific Rim nations will bring enormous benefits and cast the debate as a test of American leadership in Asia. “Do we want the United States – or do we want China – writing the rules?” Gardner asked. “It’s clear that while our partners and allies in the region may welcome additional Chinese investment, they want more American leadership, not less.” The trade battle produced rare, if fleeting, political alliances in Washington. On this matter, the White House has had strong backing from Republican congressional leaders who, on almost every other issue, work arduously to thwart President Obama’s agenda. Trade promotion authority sharply divided Democratic lawmakers who have been the targets of ferocious lobbying from advocates on both sides. Boston bomber apologizes at his death sentence hearing By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Moments before a federal judge sentenced him to death, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev rose to his feet Wednesday and apologized to the victims and their loved ones for the first time. "I pray for your relief, for your healing,'' he said. Amid deep silence in the courtroom, the 21-year-old ethnic Chechen said, "I am sorry for the lives that I've taken, for the suffering that I've caused you, for the damage that I've done — irreparable damage.'' It was the first time Tsarnaev, who did not speak in his own defense at trial, had addressed the court. After Tsarnaev finished, U.S. District Judge George O'Toole Jr. began to speak, with his voice breaking several times. He officially imposed the death sentence on Tsarnaev that jurors had recommended unanimously. In May, after a 12-week trial, Tsarnaev was found guilty of killing three people and injuring 264 in the April 15, 2013, bombing at the world-renowned race, where he and his brother, Tamerlan, 26, set off two pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line. Tsarnaev was also found guilty in the fatal shooting of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer three days later as he and his brother fled. Tamerlan was killed during the getaway. Tsarnaev was found guilty of all 30 terrorism and other charges against him. Of those, 17 carried the possibility of a death sentence. During the penalty phase of the judicial proceedings, prosecutors brushed off defense arguments that Tsarnaev was under the strong influence of his older, radicalized brother. Before the sentencing, a somber-looking Tsarnaev, wearing a dark sport jacket with a collared shirt and no tie, sat between his lawyers and listened as 24 people — some victims, some survivors — gave impact statements. They lashed out at him for his cowardly and disgusting acts, and several called upon him to apologize, trying to convince him that this would be his last chance to ask for forgiveness. Tsarnaev, his chair turned toward the lectern from which the victims spoke, picked at his beard and gazed downward most of the time, only occasionally looking at the speakers. Patricia Campbell, the mother of Krystle Campbell, 29, who was killed in the attack, was the first person to address the court. She looked across the room at Tsarnaev, seated about 20 feet away, and spoke directly to him. “What you did to my daughter is disgusting,” she said. “I don't know what to say to you. I think the jury did the right thing.” Obama tells French president that U.S. has ended its spying By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. President Barack Obama reaffirmed to his French counterpart the United States' commitment to end spying tactics considered unacceptable by its allies. The conversation between Obama and President Francois Hollande occurred Wednesday, a day after whistleblower Web site WikiLeaks released documents that purported to show the U.S. National Security Agency had spied on former French Presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy as well as Hollande, from 2006 to 2012. "President Obama reiterated unequivocally his firm commitment . . . to end the practices that may have happened in the past and that are considered unacceptable among allies," the French president's office said in announcing the conversation. The White House said later Wednesday Obama told Hollande that the U.S. was abiding by a commitment Obama made in 2013 not to spy on the French leader after Edward Snowden disclosed the extent of NSA surveillance powers. Earlier Wednesday, the French Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador Jane Hartley to meet with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius to explain the spying allegations. The U.S. Embassy declined to comment. Hollande also held an emergency meeting of his ministers and army commanders after the release of the documents, which were published by WikiLeaks in partnership with French newspaper Liberation and the Mediapart Web site. France is also sending a top intelligence official to Washington to confirm the spying is over, government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said. "We have to verify this spying has finished," Le Foll told reporters Wednesday. "Between allies this is unacceptable and incomprehensible. France does not spy on its allies." The latest revelations of espionage among Western allies come after it emerged in late 2013 the NSA had spied on Germany and that Germany's own BND intelligence agency had cooperated with the NSA to spy on officials and companies elsewhere in Europe. Addressing parliament later in the day, Prime Minister Manuel Valls called the allegations very serious. Valls said the United States must recognize the danger they posed to freedom and also do everything in its power to quickly repair the damage in U.S.-French relations. Ironically, the leak came a day before Wednesday's vote in the French parliament on a controversial new law granting the state sweeping powers to spy on its citizens. The White House said it was not targeting Hollande's communications and will not do so in the future, but it did not comment on past activities. France's ambassador to the U.S., Gerard Araud, appeared to downplay the revelations, saying on Twitter: "Every diplomat lives with the certainty that their communications are listened to, and not by just one country. Real world." South Carolina shooting brings race into campaign By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Last week’s mass shooting at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, has propelled the issue of race into the early stage of the 2016 presidential campaign. At a campaign event in Florissant, Missouri, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton described last week’s tragedy in Charleston as “an act of racist terrorism perpetrated in a house of God.” Mrs. Clinton said that in the wake of Charleston, it has become clear that “equality, opportunity and civil rights in America are still far from where they need to be.” She added, “I know it is tempting to dismiss a tragedy like this as an isolated incident, to believe that in today’s America bigotry is largely behind us and that institutionalized racism no longer exists. But despite our best efforts and our highest hopes, America’s long struggle with race is far from finished.” Mrs. Clinton said the Confederate flag is a symbol of the nation’s racist past and should not fly anywhere. The alleged gunman, Dylann Roof, had posed with the flag in photos, and the South Carolina legislature is now considering removing it from the state capitol grounds. Fellow Democratic contenders Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley have also called for the Confederate flag to be pulled down from flagpoles around the country and relegated to museums. African-American voters were a key part of the Democratic coalition that helped elect Barack Obama president twice. Some of the Republican presidential contenders were quick to condemn the Charleston shootings, including former Florida governor Jeb Bush. “It just breaks my heart and I know it breaks your heart as well, and we need to find ways to bring love back into our society,” he said. Bush and several other Republican contenders applauded South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s call for the Confederate flag to come down, but they were criticized for waiting to speak out about the flag until after the Republican governor made her appeal. Ben Carson, the only African-American in the Republican field, said the Confederate flag should come down, even though he said he understood both sides in what has become a divisive debate. Carson said keeping the flag in place offends such a large portion of the country. But he added that taking it down also offends a large portion. "I want to stop that. I want the American people to realize that we are not each other’s enemies,” he said. Other Republican contenders said the Confederate flag is an issue for the people of South Carolina to decide, including former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. “But for those of us running for president, everyone is being baited with this question as if somehow that has anything to do whatsoever with running for president, and my position is it most certainly does not,” Huckabee said on NBC’s "Meet the Press." The massive national and international attention on the Charleston tragedy and the renewed focus on race, violence and guns in the U.S. suggest those issues will resonate in next year’s presidential campaign. Democrats are likely to keep the focus on issues like gun control and race relations, while many of the Republican contenders will be looking to support constructive steps without alienating conservative voters in the early primary states. South Carolina traditionally holds the third contest in the presidential nominating schedule, behind Iowa and New Hampshire. Accepting Syrian refugees weighed against security risk By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A House of Representatives Homeland Security subcommittee held a hearing Wednesday on the possible security risks involved with resettling some of the estimated 4 million refugees from the brutal civil war in Syria in the United States. Most lawmakers at the hearing agreed there is a need to balance very real humanitarian and diplomatic concerns about Syrians who have had to flee to neighboring countries with legitimate security concerns in the West. The subcommittee chairman, Republican Peter King of New York, said the United States has a long and proud history of providing a haven for refugees, including the late Tom Lantos, who was a congressman and champion of human rights, and iconic scientist Albert Einstein. King also pointed out that four years of conflict in Syria have made this one of the biggest refugee crises in history, with no end in sight. But King and other lawmakers from both parties said they had heard government officials and security experts express concern that the self-proclaimed Islamic State and other militant groups might try to use Syrian refugee programs as a gateway to carry out terrorist attacks in the United States and Europe. Seth Jones of the Rand Corp. said there were two main reasons why refugees from the conflict in Syria could pose a greater risk than refugees from past wars. “First, more foreign fighters than we have seen in any modern battlefield, and second, our intelligence picture is clearly much worse,” he said. All of the witnesses at Wednesday's hearing agreed that the U.S. has a void of human intelligence sources in Syria and no partner in the Syrian government to help vet Syrian refugees. Most of Syria’s refugees have fled to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. King asked if it would make sense for the U.S. to focus on vetting refugees who have settled in Jordan. The witnesses agreed that Jordan most likely has the best vetting system to make sure refugees do not have terrorist ties, but said the U.S. would still need to conduct its own time-consuming, multilayered process, which would include personal interviews with would-be asylum seekers. The United States has taken in only about 1,000 Syrian refugees so far, while Germany has taken in an estimated 30,000. The experts at the hearing pointed out that Syrian refugees are arriving in Germany by taking the North Africa-Mediterranean route, and Germany decided to carry out a special program for Syrians. Daryl Grisgraber of the relief organization Refugees International, based in Washington, said that while the resettlement process is slow, the U.S. is the world's No. 1 provider of humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees. Supreme Court decision due soon on Obamacare By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. lawmakers are engaged in heated partisan debate ahead of a Supreme Court ruling that could save or derail President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement: The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. A high court decision is expected by Monday on whether the 2010 health care law, as written, allows government subsidies for millions of insurance subscribers who signed up on a federally-run exchange. A ruling against the administration would instantly provoke a firestorm on Capitol Hill, pitting Republicans who have vigorously opposed Obamacare from the start against Democrats determined to salvage America’s most far-reaching health care reform in decades. Already, lawmakers are positioning themselves for the decision and bracing for the chaos and anger that would erupt in large swaths of the country if subsidies ended. For Republicans, such an outcome would be a final damning indictment of what they see as a disastrous and misguided program. “Obamacare has utterly failed to live up to the many promises the president and congressional Democrats made to the American people,” said Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican. “The president’s trail of broken promises has led us to a damaged health care system and a limping economy.” Democrats point out that the percentage of insured Americans has surged since the law went into effect. They note that congressional Republicans have repeatedly tried to repeal it, and that Republican-led state governments have challenged the law in court, bringing Obamacare to the legal precipice upon which it teeters. “I struggle to understand those who hate the Affordable Care Act like the Devil hates holy water,” said Richard Durbin, a Democrat. “It works. It works. More people are being insured. Folks cannot be denied insurance because of a pre-existing condition. The overall cost of health care is starting to dip down. It brings down the deficit. What part of that isn’t good news?” Recent polls show Americans are just about evenly split on Obamacare, but one poll says a much smaller proportion, 31 percent, favor repealing the law, and 70 percent want federal subsidies of health care insurance to continue. |
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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's sixth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, June 25, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 124 | |||||||||
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A new report by the cloud-services firm Akamai says the global World Wide Web is getting significantly faster but also warns that the explosive growth in the number of connected devices may exhaust the limited remaining space currently available on the Internet. The report, “State of the Internet,” is a quarterly snapshot of the Internet’s performance and spread around the world. It tracks access to the Web, Internet and mobile data speeds, and the overall stability of the Web. “The changes this quarter were overwhelmingly positive,” said David Belson, senior director of industry and data intelligence at Akamai and editor of the report. “I always say that the year-to-year changes are more illustrative, but given that this report tracks the same trends we’ve been seeing for a while, I think that’s a very positive sign.” The report concludes that Internet connectivity continues to grow in every part of the world, with total users approaching 3.2 billion. Presently there are approximately two connected devices for every person on the planet; the report predicts that number will grow to three devices per capita by 2019. The United States still leads the world in the number of unique Internet addresses, followed by China and Brazil, two countries that are seeing rapid growth. According to the report, average global connection speeds rose by 10 percent over last year, rising to approximately 5 megabits per second. However, less than 5 percent of the world’s population has access to Internet speeds of 25 megabits or higher. “This continues to reinforce the trends we’ve been seeing,” Belson said. “There’s more and more Internet usage, and connectivity speeds are getting faster.” South Korea topped the list of average connection speeds at 23.6 megabits with one in five residents having access to broadband speed — a new global high. Ireland, Hong Kong, Sweden and the Netherlands rounded out the top five nations. Singapore charted the most dramatic increase in peak connection speeds, while connection speeds increased most dramatically in Kuwait and Mongolia, at 126 and 72 percent respectively. The report also charted access speeds for mobile devices and found that mobile data traffic grew by 12 percent over the last quarter. Britain had the fastest average connection speed at 20.4 megabits, a 28 percent increase from the previous quarter, with Denmark coming in second place at 10 megabits. Vietnam had the lowest average mobile connection speed at 1.3 megabits. Mobile voice traffic hasn’t shown any significant increase globally since 2008. The report says the unbridled growth is contributing to a looming problem: The Internet is running out of the addresses needed to connect devices to the web. Much of the web uses Internet Protocol version 4, or IPv4, to govern data traffic. IPv4 has a total of 4.29 billion unique addresses for computers, tablets and other digital devices to connect and route traffic. But with billions of addresses already used up, and the potential of the so-called Internet of Things to rapidly claim what addresses remain, IPv4 will run out of room in the near future, analysts say. A new version of the web, known as IPv6, has been available for more than a decade and would vastly increase the number of potential addresses for devices connecting to the web. The problem, Belson said, is that without a definitive threat looming, service providers have been lax in updating their systems. “The IPv4 exhaustion issue has been around for many years,” Belson said. “Now it’s really becoming more and more imminent, to the point where regional Internet registries are going to turn the cup over, and one day soon, nothing’s going to drip out.” The report doesn’t specifically track security issues, but Belson said as the Internet continues to grow in reach, so do the number of hackers launching cyber attacks. “It’s not that the Internet itself is becoming less secure, it’s that attacks are becoming much more prevalent,” he said. “Hacking has become easier and cheaper, and the attackers are becoming smarter and more wily. What that means, frankly, is that the folks responsible for their network security really need to take all the necessary steps to push back against that.” Belson said the hacking threats aren’t just an issue for large corporations or enterprises. Small businesses, shared sites and even blogs are increasingly coming under attack. “We hear ‘Well, I haven’t been attacked yet so I don’t need to worry about that’ a lot,” he said. “That’s like saying nobody’s ever broken into your house, so you don’t need to put a lock on your door.” |
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| From Page 7: Export-Import Bank on shaky ground By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Efforts to save a controversial U.S. government agency that supports U.S. exports were set back Wednesday when backers could not get Congress to vote on the issue. The Export-Import Bank's charter expires at the end of June, and Congress is only planning to be in session for one more day before that date. The bank helps U.S. companies export goods and services by providing financing or selling insurance that protects the American company if a foreign customer cannot pay. Without congressional action, the Export-Import Bank of the United States, as it is formally known, must stop making new deals and may start laying off employees next week. Wednesday, supporters spoke on the floor of the House of Representatives, pleading with colleagues to support the bank and the jobs they say it creates through U.S. export companies. Rep. Maxine Waters, the ranking Democrat on the committee that oversees the bank, said she is shocked that majority Republicans are not allowing the issue to come to a vote. Other supporters say the many small and medium size businesses that the bank helps will lose business and jobs. Some of the most conservative Republicans call the bank corporate welfare and crony capitalism that supports large, politically-connected companies that they say don't need and shouldn't get help from the government. Rep. Jeb Hensarling says he is leading the charge to kill the bank, saying it is government intrusion into the free market. He says most of the money the bank disburses goes to large firms like Caterpillar or Boeing. The Standard and Poor's rating agency says it is a real possibility that Export-Import Bank could suspend or end operations next week. In a report published Wednesday, analysts say Boeing is the largest U.S. exporter, the biggest recipient of help, and would face long-term risk without the bank. |
