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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, July 7, 2011, Vol. 11, No. 133 | |||||||||
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| Costa Rica Expertise Ltd http://crexpertise.com E-mail info@crexpertise.com Tel:506-256-8585 Fax:506-256-7575 |
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More Costa Rican news
should be in this paper Dear A.M. Costa Rica: Where’s the beef? As the famous Wendy’s commercial used to say about their competitors, “Where’s the beef?” I have notice in the past 12 months your Costa Rica Internet news has started to include more and more articles about interesting items totally unrelated to Costa Rica. And of course, less and less space devoted to Costa Rica new items, the “beef.” I know the Tico Times often copies or summarizes new articles from the La Nación in order to fill up the paper and stick to Costa Rican news. And I know you have a box that includes local news from the Spanish papers, very relevant and helpful. I would really rather see mostly Costa Rican news in your Costa Rican paper. There are so many other sources of interesting news items on the internet and TV. I rely on A.M. Costa Rica to focus on Costa Rica. You have the BBC section that you can scroll for other international news. That should be enough for non-Costa Rica news. Although I personally, find this BBC box totally irrelevant, I can find international news on my own. I may have missed it, but I didn’t see anything on the 4th of July event in Costa Rica, like location, times, etc. While The Tico Times prints an entire section on the event each year which includes lots of advertisers. For example today’s paper (July 6) included the follow articles: Seven Articles related to Costa Rica: "Some would put the Caja into the critical care unit" (good) "Desamparados man dies from blaze in his apartment" (weak news interest) "Taxis OKd for disabled" (good) "Quake rattles Dominical" (good) "Shop yields a big selection of parts from dismantled cars" (good) "Puriscal bus passengers among those with storm problems" (good) "Web link can clarify the salary adjustment for rest of year" (very good) Six articles not related to Costa Rica: "Former Californian replies to illegal alien claim" (irrelevant) "Experts seek to raise awareness to TB and HIV coinfections" (interesting) "Chávez ducks parade but talks on television" (interesting) "U.S. Coast Guard returns Haitian and Cuban migrants" (irrelevant) "Dalai Lama in Washington in new non-political role" (totally irrelevant) "Last space shuttle launch is big Florida tourist draw' (totally irrelevant) Half of the articles in today’s paper have nothing to do with Costa Rica. Maybe one or two okay, but half starts making the paper look unfocused on Costa Rica. Please don’t be offended by my criticism. I still read your paper every day. I just lament there is not as much Costa Rican news as you once upon a time reported. I would love to hear what other readers may have to say about this, if you wish to print this letter to the editor. Edward Bridges
20 years Desamparados EDITOR'S NOTE: We generally do not reply to reader letters because we have a clear advantage. But for the interest of accuracy, here are the links to the July 4 news articles: http://www.amcostarica.com/052511.htm http://www.amcostarica.com/070411.htm http://www.amcostarica.com/061711.htm
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, July 7, 2011, Vol. 11, No. 133 | |||||||||||
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| Some of the 350 new policemen
stand in ranks at the Plaza de la Cultura. Officials said 230 would
remain in the metro area and 100 would go to different parts of the
country. The new officers, who represent two classes of basic training,
are part of the Chinchilla administration plan to dramatically increase
the number of street officers to stem crime. |
 Ministerio de Gobernación,
Policía y Seguridad Pública photo
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| Missing girl, 10, found stabbed to death Three women murdered in apparent Heredia store robbery |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Someone broke into a clothing and shoe store in San Joaquín de Flores de Heredia Wednesday morning and murdered the two sisters who were the owners. A third woman found alive but died later. The store was located in a home, and the Judicial Investigating Organization said that the son of one of the woman arrived around midday and could not get anyone to respond to his ringing the bell. He called police. Fuerza Pública officers found the two dead women with bullet wounds in the head. Judicial agents said they believed the motive for the killings was a robbery because the rear door of the structure had been forced. The dead women both have the last name of Rodríguez. The third woman was identified by the last name of Herrera, said agents. She also was shot in the head and died later in the day. In May A.M. Costa Rica reported on the dangers of operating a small business. The story recounted the robbery of a woman and her infant at a new Desamparados clothing store. Businesses are reeling under the onslaught of crooks, the story said. No one was hurt in the earlier incident although a man did hold a pistol to the head of the infant. |
Meanwhile in Pérez
Zeledón, searchers found the body of a 10-year-old
girl who was the object of a massive search Monday and Tuesday. The
girl left her home to visit her grandmother but never arrived. She was found in a mountainous region about a kilometer from her home in the opposite direction of her planned route. She had been stabbed to death, judicial agents said. In Batán, Limón, judicial agents detained four men Tuesday night as suspects in the murder of an 18-year-old girl in a Siquirres street robbery over the weekend. One of the suspects is a Fuerza Pública officer. Siquirres has seen a wave of robberies by a group of men in a car who had a preference for holding up women walking on the public streets. The victim, identified by the last name of Farguaharson by the Judicial Investigating Organization, resisted when asked to surrender her cell telephone. She was accompanied by a female friend when the robbery took place. Agents said that they recovered evidence from the vehicle the men were in when detained. Judicial agents did not say so, but the four also will be suspects in the killing of a store owner in the same community at the end of last week. The suspects are 18, 19, 23 and 24, agents said. A white vehicle was seen at both crimes. |
| Battle continues to protect the nation's valuable citrus
crops |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The country has been under a state of emergency to try to eliminate an insect and the bacteria that is a major threat to the citrus crops. The emergency declaration gives agriculture officials the power to enter onto land where citrus trees grow and destroy them if they show signs of the disease, known as dragón amarillo in Spanish. Agriculture inspectors also are giving 10 days notice to owners of land where it appears the citrus trees are badly managed or abandoned. Then they will be cut if the owner does not take action even if there is no sign of the disease. Quarantine is in effect for Los Chiles, San Carlos, Guatuso Upala and La Cruz to prevent the transportation of any citrus cutting. The Servicio Fitosanitario of the Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería is in charge of enforcing the prohibition. Some trees with the disease have been found and destroyed in the northern zone. In a few months the propagation of citrus plants in the open air will be prohibited. Nurseries will have to be covered with screening and fenced subject to the approval of the Servicio Fitosanitario. The agency has been allocated a war chest of about $600,000 to fight the disease, which officials are calling a major threat. Costa Rica has about 25,000 hectares (about 62,000 acres) in citrus and exports million a year in such products. The bacteria is Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, which causes the leaves to yellow and fall off. It also causes the fruit to be deformed and to have a sour taste. The disease turned up in Florida in 2005, causing great concern there. |
 Ministerio de Agricultura y
Gandaría photo
Curled and yellow leaves are a symptomIn Asian and in the Americas the disease is
transmitted by the oriental citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri,
which is the insect that agricultural employees are seeking.
A major problem is that there is no cure for the disease and the citrus tree must be destroyed to stop the spread of the bacteria. The bacteria is called Huanglongbing in Chinese, sometimes referred to as HLB, and also called greening in English. Jamaica's ministry of agriculture said Tuesday that it ordered the closure of the nurseries and banned the sale of all citrus plants in order to protect the $43 million industry from the citrus disease, according to wire service reports. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, July 7, 2011, Vol. 11, No. 133 | |||||||||
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| Push from hot spots may be force moving
tectonic plates |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Most Costa Rican residents realize that the country rides on two tectonic plates. The Coco is forcing its way beneath the lighter Caribbean plate. The results include earthquakes and also the country's majestic volcanoes. Less well known is why the plates are in motion. A major scientific expedition offshore drilled into the Coco plate in May in an effort to answer some of these questions. Scientists know that the Caribbean plate was propelled, in part, by volcanic activity in the mid-Atlantic. Now researchers in California have identified what they think is another force that drives the movement of plates. They are at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. |
Scripps scientists Steve Cande and
Dave Stegman report that the new
force that drives plate tectonics are plumes of hot magma pushing up
from Earth's deep interior, said the university. Their research was
published in the Wednesday issue of the journal Nature. Using analytical methods to track plate motions through Earth's history, Cande and Stegman's research provides evidence that such mantle plume hot spots, which can last for tens of millions of years and are active today at locations such as Hawaii, Iceland and the Galapagos, may work as an additional tectonic driver, along with push-pull forces, said a university release.. The pair identified a hot spot that created Réunion island near Madagascar as a driving force in moving the Indian subcontinent northwards. That was 70 million years ago. |
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| Jet Blue provides some upbeat news with
new flights |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Jet Blue said Wednesday that it would be scheduling four non-stop flights a week from New York to Liberia starting Nov. 17. The low-budget airline already flies into Juan Santamaría airport in Alajuela. Costa Rican officials said that the arrival of Jet Blue to Daniel Oduber airport would coincide with the expected completion of a new terminal there. The job is about 75 |
percent done,
they said. The new terminal will be able to handle 1,500 passengers at
the same time. The airport is getting a $35 million facelift. Casa Presidencial said that the Jet Blue plan would increase by 11 percent the number of airline seats coming and going from the Liberia airport. The announcement came at a press conference in Casa Presidencial where officials were overjoyed to have some upbeat tourism news. |
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| Business chamber calls for continuing bank
secrecy here |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The employer sector has come out against a legislative bill that would allow tax officials and others to get banking information on individuals and companies without making a case to a judge. The organization, the Unión de Costarricense de Cámaras y Asociaciones del Sector Empresarial Privado, said that the proposed law, No. 17.677, goes way beyond what Costa Rica promised to do as for the international Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development. Costa Rica |
has signed a number of tax treaties
with other countries, and that should be enough, the chamber said. The chamber noted that the country no longer was on the international organization 's black list as a so-called tax paradise. The chamber said that elimination of bank secrecy might mean that anyone could get their hands on sensitive financial data. The chamber said that many other countries in Latin America as well as to the north have bank secrecy, and the order of a judge is required for tax officials and investigators to get access. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, July 7, 2011, Vol. 11, No. 133 | ||||||||||
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 Ministerio de Gobernación,
Policía y Seguridad
Pública photo
Officials brought together youngsters in La Uruca over the
weekend to surrender and help destroy top weapons. They are using a
hammer here to mangle a toy gun under the cloth.New study outlines impact of small arms on 3 nations By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A new study finds the global authorized trade in small arms, light weapons, and their ammunition is worth nearly $7.1 billion a year. In its annual report, the independent think tank, the Geneva Forum, also examines the serious impact small arms proliferation is having upon three so-called fragile states: Madagascar, Ivory Coast and Haiti. The survey finds in 2008, the United States, Italy and Germany topped the list of 14 top exporters of small arms and light weapons. These countries had annual exports of at least $100 million. In the same year, the top importers of small arms and light weapons included the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, France and Pakistan. The survey also finds the private security industry has expanded throughout the world and private guards now vastly outnumber police officers. However, it notes private security forces remain outgunned. Data for 70 countries reveal private security firms hold four million firearms compared to some 26 million held by law enforcement and 200 million held by armed forces. The report highlights the impact small arms and light-weapons have on three fragile societies. It focuses on the situation in Madagascar since the 2009 coup, which toppled the elected President. The research director of the small arms survey, Robert Muggah, said a large number of illegitimate weapons are circulating in the country. In fact, he notes authorities have registered fewer than 3,000 weapons. To add to the problems, he says the armed forces and the police have become part of Madagascar’s security liabilities. “There are concerns that Madagascar is becoming a hub, potentially a hub of narco-trafficking, much like what we are seeing in West Africa owing to these fragilities that we are seeing in the state security sector," said Muggah. The survey also traces the evolution of small arms in Ivory Coast between 2002 and 2010. During this period the country was divided into two autonomous zones, the north, which was run by rebel forces loyal to the now President Allasane Outtara and the south, which was run by the former president, Laurent Gbagbo. An arms embargo was imposed in 2003 and 2004. Despite this, the study says countries including Russia and Bulgaria continued to transfer arms adding to the instability of the country. The last case study looks at the security situation in Haiti both before and after last year’s devastating earthquake. Muggah notes some of the results are surprising. He says there was a general lack of confidence in the police’s ability to ensure security. So, after the earthquake, the United States and European Union made a major push to enhance security in the country. He says these states were afraid gang violence was going to take over the capital, Port-au-Prince as well as outlying areas. “Actually, the confidence in the police, the national police has improved since 2007," he noted. "We see that the majority of the population surveyed between 2007 and 2010 would go to the police first in the event of a security incident. And, this counters much of the conventional wisdom and, I think, some of the rhetoric that was associated with the post-earthquake intervention.” Muggah says the survey shows homicide rates throughout Haiti also have gone down since 2007. Significantly, he says it has declined in the notoriously violent slum areas, another finding that goes against conventional wisdom. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, July 7, 2011, Vol. 11, No. 133 | ||||||||||
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Latin American news Please reload page if feed does not appear promptly |
 Judicial Investigating Organization
photo
Judicial agents, their faces hidden deliberately, check out
some of the 160 wide-screen televisions they recovered Wednesday at a
Desamparados storage facility. The electronic equipment was in a
container that was hijacked June 25 in Alajuela.Drunk driving suspect does everything wrong By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
With some creativity, a motorist can get in a lot more trouble than just a drunk driving arrest. That is what the Fuerza Pública said happened early Wednesday in Santa Rosa de Santo Domingo. After a drunk driving suspect was stopped, he offered bribes to officers, then fled, firing a weapon and hitting one of the policemen as he did, they said. Luis Diego Carballo Picado was the officer who was shot in the back, the Fuerza Pública said. Officials attributed his survival to the bulletproof vest he wore. The bullet would have hit him in the spinal column, they added. Carballo and a fellow officer spotted a car moving erratically and stopped the vehicle, officials reported. That is when the driver offered a bribe, they said. When officers refused and called for a traffic officer, the man got angry and put his vehicle in gear and took off. It was when Carballo was running back to the patrol car to give chase that he heard a report and felt the bullet hit him in the back, officials said. A short time later they were able to find the vehicle in a garage and then located suspect inside his home. He tested positive for alcohol, they said. |
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