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José, Costa Rica, Friday, July 3, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 130
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Picnic and calypso good weekend bets By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The weather looks good for weekend activities, including the American Colony Committee picnic Saturday. The Instituto Meteorológico Nacional warned of high winds for today that might cause some rain in the northern zone and the Caribbean overnight. The Weather Underground, A.M. Costa Rica's weather service, says there is a slight chance of thunder showers Saturday afternoon, The service estimates just 2 millimeters of rain in the Central Valley. Picnic organizers have wisely concluded the event at 1 p.m. each year to avoid possible afternoon showers. Also this weekend is the calypso festival in Cahuita on the southern Caribbean. There may be some rain, but nothing to the extent that ravaged the coast from June 20. The event starts today and runs through Sunday. Those headed into San José from the picnic at the Cervercería Costa Rica grounds near Juan Santamaría airport have a chance to visit an animal adoption fair at the Wal-Mart in Escazú. Cats and kittens, dogs and puppies will be available from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.  Ministerio de Seguridad
Pública
That will teach him not to
wear a shirt like that!Stop-and-frisk
policy nets 2,949 this year
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Fuerza Pública stop-and-frisk policy has resulted in 2,949 arrests in San José over the last five months, the agency said Thursday. Police routinely stop individuals and make them turn out their pockets. Those who are encountered by police usually are younger males. That's why the biggest infraction found in the streets are persons who are behind on their child support payments, said the Fuerza Pública. Failing to pay what is known as pensión alimentaria can bring police with an arrest warrant. Or individuals may be flagged when police check their identity on the street. Being behind on child support results in a ride in the perrera, the paddy wagon, just as if the person was accused of a higher crime. They usually go free after a relative posts the appropriate amount of money. The second most common reason for being detained on the street are due to arrest warrants involving crimes, said police. Fuerza Pública officers stop individuals without any sort of probable cause and then search them. Frequently they find small amounts of drugs. The same policy is enforced on the highway when police pull over motorists randomly and then search the vehicle. Solar plane due to reach Hawaii today By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A solar-powered Swiss airplane is scheduled to touch down in Hawaii today after a record-breaking flight across the Pacific Ocean, the riskiest leg of its 35,000-kilometer trip around the world without a drop of fuel. Solar Impulse 2 pilot Andre Borschberg has now beaten the previous longest solo piloting record that was held by American adventurer Steve Fossett. Borchberg has taken 20-minute naps during the journey in the unpressurized cockpit while the aircraft was on autopilot. Si2 flew out of Nagoya, Japan, early Monday after an unscheduled month-long stop. The aircraft was diverted to Nagoya because of bad weather at the beginning of June on its trip from Nanjing in eastern China to Hawaii. Its final destination is Abu Dhabi. Si2 is the brainchild of two Swiss scientists, Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard. It took them 12 years to build the aircraft. The carbon fiber single-seat Si2 has a 72-meter wingspan, which is longer than the wingspan of a Boeing 747, and weighs about as much as a car. The 17,000 solar cells built into the wings harness the sun's energy. Piccard and Borschberg say they are not out to revolutionize the aviation industry, but are instead aiming to demonstrate that actual alternative energy sources and new technologies can achieve what some consider impossible. The aircraft's route included stops in Oman, India, Myanmar and China. After its Pacific voyage, the plane will make up to three stops in the U.S., touching down in Phoenix, Arizona and New York City, and possibly another location depending on weather conditions. The final legs after crossing the Atlantic include a stopover in southern Europe or North Africa before arriving back in Abu Dhabi, where the journey started, in late July or early August. Another complaint against ex-legislator By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Prosecutors confirmed Thursday that another woman has filed a complaint against Justo Orozco Álvarez, the former legislator who was detained on a sexual abuse charge Tuesday. Orozco is head of the Renovación Costarricense political party. Prosecutors said that the second complaint originated on the same day as the first.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, July 3, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 130 | |
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| Investigators detain a Villalobos wannabe who offered 8
percent a month |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Saturday is the 13th anniversary of the police raids that began the downfall of the Villalobos high interest scheme. That was the operation based at Mall San Pedro that offered 3 percent a month to a mostly U.S. clientele. Although many creditors expected Luis Enrique Villalobos to return from hiding and pay them off, that never happened. The creditors slowly are dying off. The lesson of Villalobos appears to have been lost on many Ticos. The Judicial Investigating Organization said Thursday that a 34-year-old man has been detained in Barrio El Recreo, Turrialba, because he was running what appears to be a ponzi scheme that paid 8 percent interest a month. Judicial investigators said there were 29 complaints and the total amount involved was 360 million colons, about $682,000. The man faces allegations of illegal financial intermediation and fraud. The suspect claimed to be a lawyer, agents said, but he was not. A parent is a lawyers, they said. The man operated in the classic ponzi way by paying early |
investors
interest with money obtained from later investors, according to the
allegations. Agents detained the man in an early morning raid, and then they also searched the family legal offices, they said. News reports from the United States show that there are many such schemes, although probably not many with more than 6,000 creditors like the Villalobos operation. They may have lost as much as $1 billion. Some Villalobos defenders still are hanging on and continue to blame the government and local banks for the demise of the high-interest operation. However, some have begun to find out if Luis Enrique Villalobos still is alive. The Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto says it has no record of any overseas deaths by a man with that name. Oswaldo Villalobos, best know as the operator of a money exchange business related to the borrowing of his brother, was convicted of aggravated fraud. He was acquitted of money laundering. Editors and reporters were never convinced of the correctness of that legal decision. They thought that the Villalobos operation was designed to exchange dollars for Colombian currency mostly for the benefit of customers in South America. As such, it probably was legal, although prosecutors found instructions on how the brothers would handle a financial collapse. |
| Paquera
protesters are targeting tires of police patrol vehicles By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Protests by Paquera residents have turned into a type of guerrilla operation. Fuerza Pública officers said that residents are throwing small pieces of metal into the roadway and that they are designed to puncture the tires of patrol cars. The devices seem to be fabricated from two fasteners. Police also said that they handled an additional blockade late Wednesday near Jicaral. That was the fourth of the day when protestors threw tree trunks and dumped dirt and gravel onto the highways. The residents are protesting the slow progress of the country's road building agency that is supposed to improve the current gravel road between Paquera and Playa Naranjo. The location is on the Nicoya peninsula. The Fuerza Pública said it already has expended 81 million colons in countering the protest and keeping the roads open. That includes salaries of some 60 officers, lodging, food and other expenses, including gasoline for police vehicles. That is a bit more than $150,000. The security ministry even has an aircraft involved in the operation. The protesters are not uniformly condemned. Lawmaker Karla Prendas Matarrita of the opposition Partido Liberación Nacional, said Thursday that the residents were exercising their rights. She is seeking intervention by President Luis |
 Ministerio de Seguridad Pública photo
This is one of the tiny
tire killng devicesGuillermo Solís and the Defensoría de los Habitantes. The Fuerza Pública said that 12 persons have been detains and that patrol cars were damaged by rock. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, July 3, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 130 | |||||
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| New study urges more training of public in how to handle cardiac arrest | |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
When someone's heart stops beating, every second counts. Only 6 percent of people who go into cardiac arrest survive. In the U.S., that means 600,000 deaths a year. The Institute of Medicine, an independent advisory group, found survival rates unacceptably low and has issued recommendations to improve those numbers. Lance Becker, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, was part of the study group. He said most people confuse cardiac arrest with a heart attack. People can survive heart attacks, but without immediate help, they do not survive cardiac arrest. "A cardiac arrest is where the very mechanical beating of the heart stops suddenly and that is an emergency that will be death producing if it’s not corrected in minutes," he said. A heart attack is caused by a blocked artery that cuts off the blood supply to the heart muscle. It's not necessarily deadly, but it can lead to cardiac arrest. To improve the odds of survival, the study group issued guidelines that involve hospitals, emergency responders and the public. The recommendations include more training so ordinary citizens can deliver cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, to get the heart started again. They also could learn to use an automated external defibrillator, a machine that delivers an electrical shock to the heart in an effort to return it to normal rhythm. Only about 3 percent of Americans get annual CPR training and even fewer know how to use a defibrillator. This lack of knowledge, the study group concluded, contributes to dismal survival rates. "The most important thing for America is to have a full system that can start right out on the street," Becker said. He added, "The early applications of chest compressions and calling 911 is proven to save lives. And you don’t have to do it perfectly. The important thing is to just start doing it." Other recommendations include: • Establishing a national registry of cardiac arrest to monitor performance, identify problems, and track progress, both in hospitals and with emergency medical teams who respond to crises. • Helping state and local education departments to include |
 CPR and use of an automated external defibrillator training as middle- and high-school graduation requirements. • Developing strategies to improve systems of care in hospitals. • Encouraging training and setting up performance comparisons within hospitals and health care systems. • Expanding research in cardiac arrest resuscitation and promoting innovative technologies and treatments. In an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, study co-authors wrote, "Despite its large public health footprint, cardiac arrest does not resonate with the public and policy makers the same way as other conditions, such as stroke or cancer. Many complex social, political, and practical considerations have contributed to an environment in which death from cardiac arrest appears to have become an accepted norm." Becker said individuals and medical teams in developing countries could benefit from research and practices in the U.S. These countries are experiencing an increase in the numbers of people who go into cardiac arrest as their lifestyles change with increased urbanization and unhealthy changes in diet. Although cardiac arrest predominantly affects older people, it can strike anyone, including children. The study was sponsored by the American Heart Association, the American Red Cross, the American College of Cardiology, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, July 3, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 130 | |||||||
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| Obama cites job growth and an improving economy By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
President Barack Obama said the latest jobs report for the U.S. is "good," but there is still more work to do "get folks' wages and incomes to keep going up." The president said Thursday in remarks at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse that while the country has had a record "64 straight months of private sector job growth . . . there are a lot of folks who still feel like the playing field is tilted in ways that make it hard for them to get ahead." Thursday's report from the Labor Department showed the U.S. had a net gain of 223,000 jobs in June, and the unemployment rate was down two-tenths of a percentage point to 5.3 percent. That is the lowest jobless rate since 2008; however, officials say the rate fell partly because more than 400,000 people gave up their job search and are therefore no longer counted as unemployed. The report says job gains were seen in business services, health care and the retail trade. Job losses continued in the mining sector, including the petroleum industry, which has been hit hard by falling oil prices. The number of Americans out of work declined by 375,000, the Labor Department said, to 8.3 million. Another 6.5 million people want full-time jobs but can find only part-time work. White House officials say the U.S. economy has had a net gain of 2.9 million jobs over the past year, and 12.8 million over the past five years. Obama also noted Thursday that affordable health care has not crippled the American economy as predicted by Republicans. He said that "what business owners pay out in wages and salaries is now growing faster than what they spend on health care." He said that is "the first time that's happened since the 1990s." Obama said "I have these vague recollections of when Republicans were saying Obamacare would kill jobs and crush freedom and bring about death panels." He said the only difference now is that another 16 million Americans can celebrate the Fourth of July, America's Independence Day, with health care. "The republic survived," the president said. No link reported in fires that hit black churches By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. federal law enforcement officials said Thursday that they had found no links among any of the six recent fires at African-American churches in five Southern states. The Justice Department said two of the fires were started by natural causes and one was an electrical fire. Spokeswoman Melanie Newman said, "All of the fires remain under active investigation, and federal law enforcement continues to work to determine the cause of all of the fires." Fears that the church fires might have been racially motivated were prompted by the fact that they occurred in the weeks after the killing of nine black worshippers at an African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17. North Korea may be loser as Cuba edges closer to U.S. By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba is likely to further North Korea’s diplomatic isolation, experts say. Recently, the United States and Cuba have agreed to re-establish diplomatic ties and permanent diplomatic missions in their respective countries on July 20, ending hostilities of more than a half-century. Analysts in Seoul say the diplomatic move between the United States and Cuba could affect relations between South Korea and Cuba. The two countries have not established formal diplomatic ties, but relations between the two sides have improved recently. Trade volume between the countries reached $57 million last year. Thursday, the South welcomed the normalization of ties between the United States and Cuba and said it hoped to improve ties with Havana. “The government of the Republic of Korea welcomes the agreement the U.S. and Cuba have reached to re-establish their diplomatic relations and reopen embassies in their respective countries,” the South’s ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement. Noh Kwang-il, spokesman for the ministry, said the government “will strengthen cooperation with Cuba in the areas of trade, culture and health, and continue to improve ROK-Cuba bilateral ties.” Nam Gwang-gyu, a professor at Seoul-based Korea University, said the normalization of relations between the South and Cuba would be a significant diplomatic blow and quite an ideological eye-opener to the North, Cuba’s longtime ally. Despite the pressure of isolation, some are skeptical the North will change course. “North Korea is not likely to embrace change. Instead, it will likely further its existing dual policy of pursuing nuclear weapons and economic development while keeping its self-reliance approach,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. In an apparent response to the development in U.S.-Cuba ties, the North dispatched senior officials to Cuba. Last week, Kang Sok Ju, a member of the North’s Political Bureau and secretary of the Workers' Party Central Committee, traveled to Cuba and met with Cuban President Raúl Castro. In March, the North’s foreign minister, Ri Su Yong, visited the country and met with his Cuban counterpart. Prensa Latina, Cuba’s state-run news media, said the two diplomats stressed the excellent relations between the two countries. North Korea and Cuba have maintained diplomatic ties since 1960. Fidel Castro visited the North in 1986 and met with Kim Il Sung, the late North Korean leader. Republicans want no dealings with Cuban military, ministry By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The Obama administration's effort to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba is expected to be harshly challenged by the Republican controlled Congress, particularly with regards to the Cuban military. Just last week, Rep. Devin Nunes of California, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that would ban Americans from engaging in any financial transactions with the Cuban military or the Cuban ministry of the interior, or with any entity controlled by the military or the ministry. The legislation was intended to “ensure that the Cuban people, and not the Castro regime’s repressive security apparatus, benefit from any increased trade resulting from the Obama administration’s policy to normalize U.S.-Cuban relations.” It has received significant support from Republican members of the House, including Mac Thornberry of Texas, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Other leaders of both the House and Senate have also introduced legislation prohibiting Americans from conducting financial transactions with the Cuban military, which could include the simple act of paying a hotel bill. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, has recently introduced such a bill. He said much of the travel business in Cuba is controlled by the military which has been benefiting from this booming industry. “Every dollar you spend will wind up in the hands of Cuban military that sponsors terrorism by smuggling arms to North Korea, with its senior officials indicted for murder of Americans over international air space, and a Cuban military that uses every access it has to fund, enrich themselves, to repress the Cuban people,” Rubio said. Havana has turned to Beijing for military supplies as Washington prohibits any weapon transferring to Cuba. Mass killings contagious, according to new research By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A study by U.S. scientists has found that media reports of mass killings and school shootings increase the incidence of similar events. A report published Thursday in the journal PLOS One finds events of mass violence spread contagiously, and that 20 to 30 percent of such killings appear to be the result of infection. The contagion period lasts about 13 days, researchers found. Under this model, for every three mass killings, an average of one more happens. And for every four or five school shootings, including those with no fatalities, another shooting takes place. But the study found the risk of a copycat shooting was temporary and appeared to fade after the two-week mark. The spread they found was not dependent on location, leading researchers to believe that national media coverage of a mass shooting might play a role. On average, mass shootings occur about once every two weeks in the United States, and school shootings happen about once a month, the study said. Researchers also found that states with higher gun ownership were more likely to have mass killings and school shootings. States with tighter firearms laws had fewer mass shootings. The report came after a widely publicized shooting at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, where authorities said Dylann Roof, 21, admitted to killing nine African-Americans on June 17, including the Reverend Clementa Pinckney, a state senator. Previous research has found that suicides can be contagious among young people, particularly when the details of the method used are publicized. "The hallmark of contagion is observing patterns of many events that are bunched in time, rather than occurring randomly in time," said lead author Sherry Towers, research professor at the Arizona State University. The study did not delve into the motives of the shootings. International Monetary Fund says Greece is in worse shape By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The International Monetary Fund said Thursday that debt-ridden Greece’s financial plight is even worse than it first thought as the country heads to Sunday’s vote on whether to accept lenders’ demands for more austerity in exchange for new bailout loans. The Fund largely blamed the leftist government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, saying that it had been slow to sell off state assets and would need debt relief and another $56 billion in new bailout loans through 2018. The Fund said that four years ago, it predicted Athens would raise $55 billion by privatizing government properties through the end of this year, but so far it has collected only $3.5 billion. The Washington-based agency said Greek economic growth would be stagnant this year, down from the 2.5 percent growth it forecast just three months ago. Greece is cut off from further European aid, after failing Tuesday to meet a midnight deadline for repaying $1.8 billion owed to the Fund. That default marked the first time a developed country had failed to meet a payment deadline on an Fund loan. The Fund's new assessment of Greece's financial condition came as Tsipras again urged his countrymen to vote no on the bailout conditions set by international creditors in the referendum. The outcome could determine whether Greece stays in Europe's euro currency bloc. "No means strong pressure for an economically viable agreement that provides a solution to our debt and will not make it skyrocket and will not continually undermine our efforts to help lift the Greek economy and Greek society," Tsipras said on national television Thursday, one day after he appeared to agree to some of the conditions. European leaders have warned that a no vote in the referendum would amount to Greece becoming the first country to leave the 19-nation eurozone during the common currency's 16-year history. One analyst said Greece’s stance is hard to figure out. “It’s very hard to know what exactly the motivations of the Greek government are at this time,” said Alex Nicholl, a senior fellow at London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies. “It’s true that right now, we have a very antagonistic situation, in that Tsipras has alienated the finance ministers and government leaders with whom he needs to do business if Greece is not to go belly up,” Nicholl said. “There’s a very poor atmosphere right now. I don’t think that a no vote is really going to sway them toward offering better terms in this atmosphere.” Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said in a televised interview with Bloomberg that if Greece accepted the EU creditors' bailout proposal, the government may very well quit and he will not be finance minister the following day. European leaders involved in the negotiations with Athens have warned that the situation is deteriorating and the outcome remains unclear.  Voice of America photo
Spinal cord injury patient
walks with new deviceExoskeletons
are now real
due to better materials By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Powered suits that could help paralyzed people walk and others lift and carry heavy loads with ease have been an inventor's dream since late 19th century. But they had to wait until the 21st century for the advanced materials, motors and power sources to bring them closer to practical use. Now, with the press of a button, a person with a with severe spinal cord injury can have the ability to walk again, thanks to the Walking Assistive Exoskeleton Robot. The 20-kilogram device, made of aluminum and carbon fiber, has four battery-powered motors that can run for up to three hours. Inventor Wu Cheng-hua, from Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute, said it had performed successfully in tests on 12 patients. “We have learned from our research process that patients whose injuries below the fourth chest joint are able to use our robot to stand, walk and sit down,” he said. Since walking contributes to muscle exercise, Wu said patients received some additional benefits by using his device. “In the clinical process, we would check their bone mineral density, and we found that the bone mineral densities of these patients had been improved, which is a positive index for their health,” he said. Wu said his exoskeleton might be available for consumers by 2018. Meanwhile, baggage handlers at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport will soon start testing a similar device, developed by the Japanese firm Cyberdyne. When a person wearing the exoskeleton called HAL bends to lift a heavy object, the machine detects the movement, said developer Yoshiyuki Sankai, who is the CEO of Cyberdyne. “This robot suit detects the signal from the human nerve system to support the waist's movement," Sankai said. "It self-adjusts the level of support it provides to reduce the load on the human waist, while being very light and compact." The battery-powered device weighs only 3 kilograms and can run for up to three hours. During next six months, Haneda Airport will test three exoskeletons as well as several small cleaning and baggage transport robots. |
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 Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School
Singapore/Guntur Fibriansah
This is an artist's
rendering of the antibody 2D22 neutralizing the dengue virus serotype
2. Antibody
cocktail seen as cure for dengue
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Researchers are inching closer toward the development of a treatment and cure for dengue fever, which affects many Costa Rican residents each year. Caused by a mosquito-borne virus, dengue fever causes severe, flu-like symptoms, and in particularly bad cases that are caused by repeated infection, the disease can be fatal. In a study published in the journal Science, researchers in the U.S. and Singapore describe the discovery of a potent human antibody that neutralizes dengue type 2, an aggressive version of the virus. Discovered in the blood of patients stricken with dengue, the monoclonal antibody is a protein that zaps one of the four types of the fever. James Crowe, director of the Vaccine Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee and a co-author of the study, said the monoclonal antibody stops infection in humans at the cellular level. “The virus injects its own genes in the cell to make more of itself," he said. "And this antibody actually stapes the virus closed so it can’t do that injecting of its own genes into cells.” In experiments with mice, the human monoclonal antibody easily killed dengue type 2. Crowe said he thought the discovery would lead to a drug to treat all four types of dengue fever. “We believe that it is possible to find similar antibodies" that would work against the other dengue types, he said. "So, if we actually move forward in developing a therapeutic for humans, it probably would be a mixture or cocktail of four antibodies, and this would be one of the antibodies that corresponds to one of the four viruses.” Crowe said researchers are in talks with a number of drug companies interested in using the discovery to develop a cure for dengue fever. |
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| Fromn Page 7: Caribbean farmers promised funds By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
President Luis Guillermo Solís told farmers in the southern Caribbean that they may have access to 5 billion colons, about $9.5 million, to restore the agriculture of the area. The money would come from the new Banca para el Desarrollo. Solís toured the area Thursday. Heavy rains have inflicted massive damage on the local crops. They include bananas, palm hearts, sugar cane, yuca, cacao and ayote, said Casa Presidencial. Solís also saw places where the Río Sixaola is undermining the land. At the Río Telire he saw where a dike has to be rebuilt. |
