 |
|
||||
 |
 |
 |
||
|
|
 |
|
|
||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
|
Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for more details |
| A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page | |
|
San
José, Costa Rica, Thursday, July 3, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 130
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
|
Vegas
firm says it invested in Jacó
EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that the purchase involved part of Croc's Casino Resort in Jacó. That was incorrect and a result of reporter error. What follows is a corrected version. By Michael Krumholtz
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff A Las Vegas hotel brand and management company is finalizing its acquisition of a share of a Jacó property, according to a statement released Wednesday by its president. Oriens Travel & Hotel Management President Ken Chua said his firm has agreed to terms with real estate developer Denny Jonker of BW Point to buy his interest in half of a building at the north end of Jacó. The statement adds that Oriens has been pre-approved for $1.2 million of financing and expects to raise additional amounts through asset-backed financing. Chua said Oriens' introduction in Jacó has been slowed due to extenuating circumstances related to a stalled proposal with Hundley Association. As he detailed in a June letter, area real estate owner Patrick Hundley has been in Perez Zeledon prison since Feb. 17 when he went to a deposition to respond to a money laundering claim and was detained on the spot and ordered into preventative detention. Oriens has worked with Hundley's Daystar Properties by doing online marketing and Internet reservations for its Jacó condominiums like The Palms and Diamante del Sol, according to the Oriens Web site. Chua added that this initial acquisition should give the company a strong platform from where it can grow into the larger real estate scene in Costa Rica and Latin America. He said he hopes to have a deal finalized within a week, but said it may take up to 20 business days. “It has often been a very frustrating but necessary journey we have had to take in order for us to realize this major milestone before us,” Chua said in the prepared statement. “Within weeks, if not days, Oriens will have the ability to brand and manage a beachfront property in Costa Rica.” Oriens functions by offering tools and software to hotels that promise to boost reservation numbers. The company's Web site says that hotels branded with its Hotel Pure signature can receive up to 42 percent more occupancy than before. According to Business Week, Chua founded online gaming software Web site 724Bingo.com. Calypso festival in Cahuita this weekend By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The second annual Festival Internacional de Calypso begins in Cahuita, Limón, this Friday with live musical performances from local and international artists. Calypso is
“The festival's objective is to give a space that allows for the demonstration of the cultural and artistic aspects of calypso and to preserve its cultural heritage,” the statement read. “Also it provides an option to attract tourism to the area.” Nearly 20 musical acts are scheduled to perform throughout the weekend, including the Rumberitos de Puerto Viejo, Cahuita Youth, and Calipso Caliente. It will take place in Parque Alfredo González Flores and begins Friday at 5 p.m. The festival then continues from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, which includes an 8-kilometer run on the day's packed schedule. Body in San Carlos was medical worker By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A body turned up Wednesday morning in San Carlos covered with severe burns and stab wounds on the chest and arms. Judicial agents have identified the victim as a 38-year-old with the last name of Flores. Agents from the Judicial Investigating Organization found the body at around 6 a.m. next to a totally burnt car in the town of Florencia, San Carlos, said an organization report. Investigators said the man worked at a local medical center and was last seen leaving his workplace at 10 p.m. Tuesday night on his way home. An estimated 45 percent of the man's body was burned. His body was taken to the Morgue Judicial and the car was given to judicial investigators in San Carlos for forensic tests. In Limón a man who was shot three times showed up at the Hospital Tony Facio and died less than two hours later. He was identified by the last name of Chavarría. He was 29, the Judicial Investigating Organization said. Agents said the man came from Penshurt de Limón. In a non-fatal case, a woman walking through Desamparados Tuesday night was shot after two robbers tried to steal a gold chain that she was wearing. The 37-year-old woman identified by the last name of Cárdenas resisted and was shot multiple times in the chest, back, chin, and arm after she would not surrender the jewelry. She was taken to Hospital San Juan de Dios and was reported to be in stable condition, according to a report from the Judicial Investigating Organization. The incident happened around 8 p.m. Tuesday. No surprise: Gasoline is going up By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The price of gasoline is going up even if the U.S. dollar is lower. The Autoridad Reguladora de Servicios Públicos used an exchange rate of 556.29 colons to the U.S. dollar is setting the new price. The rate is 545.83 today. The exchange rate is a dominant factor in the calculations. Imported gasoline has to be paid for with dollars. Super gasoline is going up 29 colons, and plus is going up 27 colons per liter. Diesel is going down 13 colons. The new liter prices are: Super, 816 colons; plus 788; diesel, 676, and liquid petroleum gas, 334. Airport security being enhanced, U.S. says By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Department of Homeland Security said that it is implementing enhanced security measures at certain oversea airports with direct flights to the United States. The statement from Jeh Johnson, Homeland Security secretary, did not give specifics or name the airports. But news services say that the Barack Obama administration is concerned about a new bomb that might be able to pass undetected through airport screening. Johnson promises as few disruptions to travelers as possible. In a statement posted on the department Web site, Johnson added: "We are sharing recent and relevant information with our foreign allies and are consulting the aviation industry. These communications are an important part of our commitment to providing our security partners with situational awareness about the current environment and protecting the traveling public. Aviation security includes a number of measures, both seen and unseen, informed by an evolving environment. As always, we will continue to adjust security measures to promote aviation security without unnecessary disruptions to the traveling public." Both of Costa Rica's major international airports handle direct flights to the United States. They are Juan Santamaría in Alajuela and Daniel Oduber in Liberia. Loans for geothermal projects get first OK By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
In an unusual showing of cooperation lawmakers have approved unanimously two loans that will finance geothermal projects at the Rincón de la Vieja volcano in northern Costa Rica. The vote was 49-0 on first reading. The money comes from the Japanese Agency for International Cooperation and the European Investment Bank. The projects are Pailas II, Borinquen I y Borinquen II. The Japanese are lending $644 million, and the European source is providing $70 million. The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad is installing the thermal generators. The Japanese loan is for 40 years with a 10-year grace period when the country does not have to make payments. The European loan is for 30 years with a five-year grace period. Such periods of non-payment are typical in government loans. Both have favorable interest rates, lawmakers said. The thermal projects will reduce the need for Costa Rica to burn expensive petroleum during the dry season, lawmakers noted.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by A.M. Costa Rica.com Ltda. 2014 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, Thursday, July 3, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 130 | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| Four-day festival starts today for the lowly and ubiquitous
chayote |
|
|
By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A chayote is like good scotch. Someone either likes it or they do not. Unlike scotch, which should only be drunk one way, straight, by adults, the chayote, a member of the gourd family, has many manifestations in Costa Rican cooking. Expats do not have to like the mild-flavored chayote to enjoy the Feria Nacional del Chayote 2014 that begins today at the Ruinas de Ujarrás in the Province of Cartago. The event, which is sponsored in part by the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo, runs through Sunday with activities for adults and children. The chayote (Sechium edule) will be made known with contests such as the fastest packer and the heaviest example. There even is a contest today at 2 p.m. for the creating of floral arrangements with the use, in part of chayote vegetation. The softball-sized chayote originated in México and has now found its way into many Latin and non-Latin menus. The chayote is rather bland, and provides good filler in a number of dishes in which the flavor is dominated by something else. Chayote also can be blended skin, pit and all to become a soup with the addition of some corn starch, milk and chicken broth. It sometimes is confused with the ayote squash, which also makes a popular soup. |
 |
| Caja says it is moving to close many firms that owe it money |
|
|
By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The nation's health care system said Wednesday that 2,070 hotel and restaurant firms owe 5.1 billion colons in back payments. That's about $9.4 million. Ten firms, including La Condesa Hotel S.A., Bagelmens de Costa Rica Ltda. and Hotel Montaña de Fuego S.A. owe 22 percent of that total, said the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social. The amount is mainly mandatory payments to the Caja based on |
employee salaries.
The money goes to support health care, feed pensions and a number of
other uses. The Caja said that it has begun 806 processes to close businesses, filed 892 complaints for illegal retention of funds and began 3,058 civil cases. Against the 10 biggest debtors, the Caja said it has filed 40 procedures for closing the businesses, 52 complaints for retaining money and 68 civil cases. About 9 percent of the money that employers collect and are supposed to remit to the Caja each month are deductions from employee salaries. |
| Chief prosecutor says that he wants to be a candidate for
the job again |
|
|
By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The fiscal general or chief prosecutor said that a groundswell of support from employees in the judiciary has caused him to reconsider his resignation. The fiscal general, Jorge Chavarría Guzmán, sent a letter to the magistrates of the Corte Suprema de Justicia. The Poder Judicial released the text in which Chavarría said he again was submitting his name for re-election. |
The fiscal general
noted that he is continuing in the job until Oct. 15 regardless. He did not give specific reasons about why he would not seek the post when he sent a letter saying that, and he did not give specific reasons about why he reconsidered. The Poder Judicial said that the number of employees who back Chavarría and submitted their signatures to that effect were 436 by Wednesday afternoon. |
 |
| 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 page and this Web site are copyrighted by A.M. Costa Rica.com Ltda. 2014 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, Thursday, July 3, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 130 | |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| Report notes decline of coral but gives hopeful message, too |
|
|
By
the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network
With only about one-sixth of the original coral cover left, most Caribbean coral reefs may disappear in the next 20 years, primarily due to the loss of grazers in the region, according to anew report The report, "Status and Trends of Caribbean Coral Reefs: 1970-2012," is the most detailed and comprehensive study of its kind published to date – the result of the work of 90 experts over the course of three years. It contains the analysis of more than 35,000 surveys conducted at 90 Caribbean locations since 1970, including studies of corals, seaweeds, grazing sea urchins and fish. Among the reefs studied is the one offshore in Cauhita, Limón province. The report was by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the United Nations Environment Programme. The results show that the Caribbean corals have declined by more than 50 percent since the 1970s. But according to the authors, restoring parrotfish populations and improving other management strategies, such as protection from overfishing and excessive coastal pollution, could help the reefs recover and make them more resilient to future climate change impacts. “The rate at which the Caribbean corals have been declining is truly alarming,” says Carl Gustaf Lundin, Director of Union for Conservation’s Global Marine and Polar Programme. “But this study brings some very encouraging news: the fate of Caribbean corals is not beyond our control and there are some very concrete steps that we can take to help them recover.” Climate change has long been thought to be the main culprit in coral degradation. While it does pose a serious threat by making oceans more acidic and causing coral bleaching, the report shows that the loss of parrotfish and sea urchin – the area’s two main grazers – has, in fact, been the key driver of coral decline in the region. An unidentified disease led to a mass mortality of the sea urchin in 1983, and extreme fishing throughout the 20th century has brought the parrotfish population to the brink of extinction in some regions. The loss of these species breaks the delicate balance of coral ecosystems and allows algae, on which they feed, to smother the reefs. Reefs protected from overfishing, as well as other threats such as excessive coastal pollution, tourism and coastal development, are more resilient to pressures from climate change, according to the authors. “Even if we could somehow make climate change disappear tomorrow, these reefs would continue their decline," says Jeremy Jackson, lead author of the report and the Union for Conservation's senior advisor on coral reefs. "We must immediately address the grazing problem for the reefs to stand any chance of surviving future climate shifts.” |
 Parrotfish
in a gill net is on the cover of the report.
The report also shows that some of the healthiest Caribbean coral reefs are those that harbor vigorous populations of grazing parrotfish. These include the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in the northern Gulf of Mexico, Bermuda and Bonaire, all of which have restricted or banned fishing practices that harm parrotfish, such as fish traps and spearfishing. Other countries are following suit. “Barbuda is about to ban all catches of parrotfish and grazing sea urchins, and set aside one-third of its coastal waters as marine reserves,” says Ayana Johnson of the Waitt Institute’s Blue Halo Initiative which is collaborating with Barbuda in the development of its new management plan. “This is the kind of aggressive management that needs to be replicated regionally if we are going to increase the resilience of Caribbean reefs.” Reefs where parrotfish are not protected have suffered tragic declines, including Jamaica, the entire Florida Reef Tract from Miami to Key West, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Caribbean is home to 9 percent of the world’s coral reefs, which are one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. Caribbean reefs, spanning a total of 38 countries, are vital to the region’s economy. They generate more than $ 3 billion annually from tourism and fisheries and over a hundred times more in other goods and services, on which more than 43 million people depend. |
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 page and this Web site are copyrighted by A.M. Costa Rica.com Ltda. 2014 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, Thursday, July 3, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 130 | |||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
 |
|
| Annual cost for lower carbon estimated to be $800 billion By the International Institute for Applied
Systems Analysis news staff
Addressing climate change will require substantial new investment in low-carbon energy and energy efficiency – but no more than what is currently spent on today’s fossil-dominated energy system, according to new research from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and partners. To limit climate change to 2 degrees Celsius, low-carbon energy options will need additional investments of about $800 billion a year globally from now to mid-century, according to a new study published in the journal Climate Change Economics. But much of that capital could come from shifting subsidies and investments away from fossil fuels and associated technologies. Worldwide, fossil subsidies currently amount to around $500 billion per year. “We know that if we want to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, we need to drastically transform our energy system,” says researcher David McCollum, who led the study. “This is a comprehensive analysis to show how much investment capital is needed to successfully make that transition.” The study, part of a larger European Union research project examining the implications and implementation needs of climate policies consistent with the internationally agreed 2-degree C target, compared the results from six separate global energy-economic models, each with regional- and country-level detail. The authors examined future scenarios for energy investment based on a variety of factors, including technology progress, efficiency potential, economics, regional socio-economic development and climate policy. Investments in clean energy currently total around $200 to 250 billion per year, and reference scenarios show that with climate policies currently on the books, this is likely to grow to around $400 billion. However, the amount needed to limit climate change to the 2-degree target amounts to around $1,200 billion, the study shows. The energy investments needed to address climate change continue to be an area of large uncertainty. By comparing the results from multiple models, the scientists were able to better define the costs of addressing climate change. “Many countries say that they’re on board with the a target of 2-degree Celsius global mean temperature stabilization by 2100; some have even made commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. But until now, it hasn’t been very clear how to get to that point, at least from an investment point of view. It’s high time we think about how much capital is needed for new power plants, biofuel refineries, efficient vehicles, and other technologies—and where those dollars need to flow—so that we get the emissions reductions we want,” says McCollum. Institute Energy Program Director Keywan Riahi, another study co-author and project leader, says, “Given that energy-supply technologies and infrastructure are characterized by long lifetimes of 30 to 60 years or more, there’s a considerable amount of technological inertia in the system that could impede a rapid transformation. That’s why the energy investment decisions of the next several years are so important: because they will shape the direction of the energy transition path for many years to come.” The study shows that the greatest investments will be needed in rapidly developing countries, namely in Asia, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa. “Energy investment in these countries is poised to increase substantially anyway. But if we’re serious about addressing climate change, we must find ways to direct more investment to these key regions. Clever policy designs, including carbon pricing mechanisms, can help.” says Massimo Tavoni, researcher at the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, a climate research center in Italy, and overall coordinator of the LIMITS project, of which the new study is a part. The researchers note that their analysis of future investment costs does not attempt to quantify the potentially major fuel savings from switching from fossil fuels to renewable sources, such as wind and solar energy. As shown in the Global Energy Assessment, such savings could offset a considerable share of increased investment on a global scale Survey ranks Barack Obama as worst president since 1945 By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A new U.S. poll shows Americans think President Barack Obama is the country's worst president since World War II. The independent Quinnipiac University poll said Wednesday that its survey taken late last month of more than 1,400 U.S. voters showed that 33 percent put Obama at the bottom of the list of 12 presidents who have served since 1945, with 28 percent naming his immediate predecessor, George W. Bush. Ronald Reagan, the U.S. president through most of the 1980s, was picked by 35 percent as the best president since World War II. He was followed by Bill Clinton, who served in the 1990s, who was preferred by 18 percent. "Over the span of 69 years of American history and 12 presidencies, President Barack Obama finds himself with President George W. Bush at the bottom of the popularity barrel," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of Quinnipiac University's polling unit. A wide variety of recent surveys have shown weak approval for Obama, who was easily re-elected to a second term in 2012 over Republican Mitt Romney, but since then has faced several domestic and foreign policy setbacks. The Quinnipiac survey showed voters now think, by a 45 to 38 percent margin, the country would have been better off if Romney had won the election. In the survey, Obama got negative grades for his handling of the economy, foreign policy, health care and terrorism, with those polled only giving him a favorable rating on environmental issues. “He has taken a pretty big hit as far as foreign policy goes," Malloy noted. "He has lost 10 percentage points as far as competence and the way he is handling that. So that could play pretty heavily into it because that was one of his stronger cards, foreign policy, and now it is not so strong.” Obama continues to try to rally supporters in the wake of weak poll numbers and some recent political setbacks. The president says he will press ahead with executive action to deal with immigration reform amid strong indications Congress is unlikely to deal with the issue this year. The Speaker of the House, Republican Congressman John Boehner, said recently he intends to initiate a federal lawsuit aimed at blocking the president’s use of executive orders. “You know the Constitution makes it clear that the president’s job is to faithfully execute the laws, and in my view the president has not faithfully executed the laws," Boehner said. President Obama has been dismissive of the Republican lawsuit threat and has vowed to take unilateral action where he can. “Middle-class families cannot wait for Republicans in Congress to do stuff," Obama said. "So sue me. As long as they are doing nothing, I am not going to apologize for trying to do something.” Foreign policy has long been one of the president’s political strengths. But the recent turmoil in Iraq seems to be undercutting public confidence in Obama’s leadership, said analyst John Fortier with the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington. “I think the problem for the president is that conditions on the ground are not good and he will get some of the blame for that," he said. "So I do not think there are any good alternatives for him even though the American people are not united in what they want to do.” Pollster Tim Malloy added that the president’s decision to act unilaterally has the potential for both political risk and reward. “It is not easy for a second term president, ever. And is the president going rogue? Is he doing things arbitrarily and on his own? Some would say he is. But this has been historic gridlock in Washington, and I am sure supporters of the president say he has got no other choice, and people who do not support him say he has gone off the reservation," Malloy said. Democrats remain concerned the president’s weak poll numbers will hurt them in congressional midterm elections in November. Experts say Republicans are likely to hold their majority in the House of Representatives and have an excellent chance of gaining enough Democratic seats to reclaim a majority in the Senate. That would give them control of both chambers of Congress for the final two years of Obama’s presidency. Most Hong Kong detainees are released without charges By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Hong Kong police say they have released the majority of about 500 protesters arrested overnight following a massive pro-democracy rally in the city that drew a crowd of half a million people. A police spokeswoman said that by late Wednesday, approximately 100 people remained in custody and 18 were released on bail, while the remainder were freed without being charged. The protesters were charged with illegal assembly and obstructing police after vowing to stay in the city's financial district until 8 a.m. Most protesters did not put up a struggle. Others had to be dragged away from the Chater Road protest site kicking and screaming. The arrests capped off a day of protests objecting to Beijing's control over political candidates in the territory. Hong Kong's security minister Lai Tung-kwok told reporters police detained ralliers "to quickly restore transportation and order." One activist, who was detained and released without charge, warned that civil disobedience in Hong Kong was not going away. Mabel Au with Amnesty International called the mass arrests disturbing, saying the protesters were not doing anything illegal. "We didn't see any violence or any kind of riots or anything," she said. "It was a very peaceful assembly. We do not agree with police that this was an illegal assembly." Au also said it is unacceptable that many of those detained have not been allowed to see their lawyers. Organizers say 510,000 people attended the protest on the 17th anniversary of the former British colony's return to Chinese governance. Police put the figure at just under 100,000. The annual protest took on added significance this year amid a campaign to pressure Beijing to allow Hong Kong residents to elect their leader. Many of the protesters chanted anti-China slogans and carried signs demanding real democracy as they marched from Victoria Park to the financial district. The protest follows an unofficial referendum in which nearly 800,000 Hong Kong residents voted to be allowed more control over the nomination of candidates in a 2017 election. Beijing says it will fulfill its promise to allow the semi-autonomous territory to elect its leader in 2017, but insists only mainland-approved candidates can run. Chinese state media on Wednesday quoted mainland officials as saying Tuesday's protest shows the civil and political rights of Hong Kong residents are respected. But Zhang Xiaoming, Beijing's top official in Hong Kong, said any decision concerning the 2017 election would not be affected by the size of the protest or the referendum. Mass protests have, in the past, convinced Beijing to alter its policies toward Hong Kong. In 2003, half a million people showed up for a pro-democracy protest, prompting China to scrap proposed anti-subversion laws. But this time Communist Party leaders appear to be standing firm. Hong Kong residents enjoy more civil and political rights than their counterparts on the mainland due to Beijing's 1997 agreement with Britain. But discontent with perceived Chinese interference in Hong Kong is rising and a heavy-handed response by the mainland could trigger more protests. Occupy Central, a coalition of protest groups, has threatened to shut down the city's financial district later this year if its demands for electoral reforms are not met.  Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, newly named caliph of the Islamic State, is shown in a U.S. State Department wanted poster handout Self-proclaimed
caliph has
price on his head from U.S. By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
To the United States, 43-year-old Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is the leader of the jihadist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and a specially designated global terrorist with a $10 million bounty on his head. To his followers, he is Caliph Ibrahim, the new leader of a global Muslim empire, the Islamic State. In an unannounced statement released to the media July 1, Baghdadi widely condemned the West and summoned all Muslims, especially those with military, medical, administrative and public service experience, to emigrate to the caliphate to “take up arms … and fight, fight!” Baghdadi leaves no doubt that he has big plans beyond Iraq and Syria: “For your brothers all over the world are waiting for your rescue, and are anticipating your brigades,” the statement reads. He is said to be so protective of his identity that when he consults with his commanders, he wears a mask, though it’s not clear whether this is fact or folklore. Very little is known about Baghdadi, outside of what jihadists post on the Internet, and few of their claims can be verified. In announcing the new caliphate in an audio message Sunday, spokesman Abu Mohamed Al-Adnani revealed what he claimed is Baghdadi’s real name: Ibrahim bin Awad bin Ibrahim al-Badri Al-Radawi Al-Husseini Al-Samarra. “But names and titles can be made up or added on,” said Iraqi political analyst and commentator Omar Al-Nidawi. “People can have tribal names, nicknames or other aliases that are even related to the town they live in, the town they come from or a former profession. So one person can have more than one name.” Baghdadi may or may not have been arrested and jailed by the U.S. in 2005. “There have been at least two accounts,” said Nidawi. One suggests he was “in U.S. military custody and then transferred to Iraq authorities and released in 2009. But there is also another account that says there is no record that he was ever captured.” The former commanding officer at Camp Bucca, the former U.S. detention facility near Umm Qasr, Iraq, recently told The Daily Beast that he recognized Baghdadi as the man in a photo released earlier this week by the Iraq government. In April 2010, the U.S. military killed the leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. The group named Abu Bakr as its new leader. In an online speech two years later, Baghdadi launched what he called a breaking the walls campaign in Iraq, according to the Institute for the Study of War, aimed at freeing al-Qaida members imprisoned by U.S. forces and expanding his territory in Iraq. True to his word, over the next year, he orchestrated a series of well-coordinated military operations, including the deadly attack on Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison in July 2013 that freed hundreds of prisoners. After the conflict in Syria broke out, Al Jazeera reports, Baghdadi sent a lieutenant over the border to form the extremist Jabhat al-Nusra Front to help topple President Bashar Al-Assad. Last year, Baghdadi created ISIL, which al-Qaida has since disavowed. To his followers, Baghdadi is perfect for the office of caliphate. Sunni tradition holds that a caliph must be an adult male Muslim, knowledgeable in military strategy and brave in conflict. Ideally, he should also be educated in Islamic theology and Shariah, or Islamic law. Baghdadi’s Internet biography says he was born into a religious family in the city of Samarra and holds a Ph.D. from the Islamic University in Baghdad. A former religious teacher, he is well-versed in Islamic theology, history, culture, science, genealogy, law and jurisprudence. Biographers say he is a prominent Salafist looking to cleanse Islam of Shiites and convert all Muslims to the Sunni interpretation of Islam. They credit him with military acumen, “eloquent speech and strong language, according to his biographers, as well as the calm, cleverness and courage of his predecessors, Abu Omar and Abu Ayyub. Perhaps most significantly, Baghdadi claims to be descended from the Arabian desert tribe of Quraysh, says Tawfik Hamid, senior fellow and chair for the Study of Islamic Radicalism at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. “Quraysh is the tribe of the Prophet Mohamed,” Hamid said, “and there is a custom that says that the caliph must be a Qurayshi. This gives him not just political but religious legitimacy.” The language Baghdadi uses draws on classical Islamic literary memes, invoking what Nidawi calls “an internal cleansing and an external fight.” It’s a style that will resonate, especially to devout or disenfranchised youths, says Hamid, and he should know: As a student in Egypt, he was attracted to jihad and briefly joined the radical group Jamaat al-Islamiyya. “Even if you have one percent – or one in a thousand Muslims in the world -- who is willing to see the return of the Islamic caliphate, then you are saying that a million people could join him,” Hamid said. “The most vulnerable are the young Muslims who have no access to modern communication or the Internet. They see the world only through the eyes of religion.” Hamid says he believes the Islamic State in Iraq poses a significant strategic threat to neighboring countries because of its military capabilities, an ideological following that’s attracting fighters from Europe and elsewhere, and cash looted during the campaign through Iraq. In short, Hamid says the Islamic State in Iraq could cause big trouble for Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and other neighbors. The threat is real, but not necessarily immediate, says Michael Eisenstadt, senior fellow and director of the military security studies program at Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Eisenstadt said he suspects the militants “made faster progress than they expected, and as a result, it’s quite possible that they are overstretched. And keep in mind as well that they have a base of operations that spans two countries, eastern Syria and northern and western Iraq.” He believes that the ultimate goal includes expanding into Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and the first target may be Lebanon. “The name of ISIL refers to ‘the Levant,’ and that is traditionally Greater Syria, which includes Lebanon, which was part of the caliphate of old,” he said. The Islamic State in Iraq regards Hezbollah as a major enemy because it actively supports the Assad regime in Syria and is backed by Iran. “It makes sense for ISIL to try to attack Hezbollah in Lebanon, in order to lead to a security deterioration there and make it much more difficult for Hezbollah, if they were so inclined, to send fighters into Syria to backfill for the Iraqi Shiite militia who’ve been sent back to Iraq — or to Iraq,” Eisenstadt said. His comments coincided with reports that the Islamic State had appointed Al-Monther al-Hassan to head operations in Lebanon. All of this places Washington in a bind: If it intervenes militarily against the Islamic State in Iraq, the U.S. risks being viewed by Sunnis as siding with Iran against a Sunni caliphate. Eisenstadt supports what he calls Washington’s current detachment. “If we provide air cover for the regime while they are engaged in killing Sunnis on the ground, we are complicit in that,” he said, “and it will make it impossible for us to achieve our desired end-state, a unified Iraq in which moderate Sunnis feel they have a role to play and assist with the war against the extremist Sunnis. Hamid agrees on a wait-and-see approach. And he sees some reason for hope. There’s always the chance that Sunnis in Iraq are merely using the Islamic State in Iraq to rid them of their prime minister, Hamid says. Maybe they will ultimately discover – as did Egyptians under deposed leader Mohamed Morsi – that the fundamentalist Islamic lifestyle isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by A.M. Costa Rica.com Ltda. 2014 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
|
||||||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, July 3, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 130 | |||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
||
|
Biodiversity
support reported growing
By the Duke University Office of News &
Communications
While inadequate funding has hampered international efforts to conserve biodiversity in tropical forests, a new Duke University-led study finds that people in a growing number of tropical countries may be willing to shoulder more of the costs on their own. That includes Costa Rica. “In wealthier developing countries, there has been a significant increase in public demand for conservation, which has not yet been matched by an equivalent increase in protective actions by the governments of those countries,” said Jeffrey R. Vincent, a Duke environmental economist who led the study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Nearly half of the world’s threatened endemic tropical mammal, bird and plant species are found in 27 developing countries that the World Bank now classifies as having reached upper middle income status. These include Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico, Gabon, Malaysia, Peru and Thailand. They also contain nearly 80 percent of the world’s primary tropical forests, which play a major role in carbon storage. “Our research suggests that as incomes rise in these countries, it creates a new opportunity for domestic funding to play a larger role in supporting efforts to protect forests and forest species from logging, poaching and other threats,” Vincent said. “This could make a big difference in protecting tropical biodiversity and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.” To measure how these countries’ rising household incomes have affected public demand for biodiversity conservation and their governments’ expenditures on it, Vincent and a team of international scientists analyzed economic indicators from high income, upper- and lower-middle-income, and low-income tropical countries. Among other indicators, they tracked per capita donations to nongovernmental conservation groups; percentage of land set aside in protected areas; percentage of conservation projects receiving international funding; and results from public opinion surveys about the priority governments should place on environmental protection in relation to potentially opposing concerns such as job creation. “We found strong evidence that as countries reach upper-middle-income status, support for conservation and willingness to pay for it grows across every indicator we examined, while protective government policies and expenditures lag behind,” Vincent said. To test these findings, the researchers conducted a case study on forest conservation in the remote Belum-Temengor forest of Malaysia’s northernmost state, Perak. As early as 1968, the Malaysian federal government recommended establishing a wildlife reserve in Belum-Temengor to protect its populations of Asian elephants, Malaysian tigers, Sumatran rhinoceroses and other large mammals against poaching and logging. But the Perak state government, which has jurisdiction over the forest, has protected only a third of it. The rest of the forest remains open to logging and, under state law, even the area currently protected could be re-opened for logging, a major revenue source in Perak. To gauge public demand for expanded protection, Vincent and his team surveyed households in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital, and the neighboring state of Selangar, and asked how much they would be willing to pay to create a new reserve that would protect all of Belum-Temengor against logging and poaching. The survey defined the benefits of the reserve as reduced extinctions and reduced local flooding, neither of which would directly benefit people living outside Perak. It also detailed the costs associated with creating the reserve, including management costs and the loss of logging jobs. “Despite receiving no direct benefits, people were willing to pay $6 per month to provide full protection to Belum-Temengor,” Vincent said. That works out, cumulatively, to about $437 a year per hectare of land -- a much larger sum than the estimated costs of protecting Belum-Temengor.” |
| 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 page and this Web site are copyrighted by A.M. Costa Rica.com Ltda. 2014 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
| From Page 7: Lowest paid categories get 4 percent hikes By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The national salary council has approved increases that took effect Tuesday with special consideration for lower-income workers. The bulk of the work force gets 2.35 percent more in the minimum wage. Those in the category of no calificados get 4.22 percent. Those who are considered semi-qualified will get 4.09 percent, and those considered trabajadores calificados will get 4 percent, the Consejo said. Union representatives made three proposals ranging from 4.12 to 6 percent. Representatives of employers suggested 1.22 percent. This is not the first time that the Consejo Nacional de Salarios gave an additional increase to the lowest salary levels. The idea is to help out the lowest paid. The wages take effect as of July 1, so employers will have to work the new numbers into the salaries that will be paid July 15. Many Costa Ricans work at the minimum wage for their job category. The Ministry de Trabajo is expected to issue a list of the new salaries before the next payday. |
