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A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Aug. 5,
2014, Vol. 14, No. 153
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By Michael Krumholtz
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff Writer Lou Kilzer, now living in Costa Rica, says a publisher once gave him a simple but unfading piece of advice: Write about what you know. As
This twisted ambition takes him along a trail of blood that runs through federal witnesses, mob bosses, and even reaches the White House where the president of the United States has his life in danger. Sally and her lover, Lou Elliot, a tough former FBI agent, take it upon themselves to unmask the crazed antagonist and put an end to his mad streak. “Once you fall in love with the characters, you hope your readers will fall in love with them, too,” Kilzer said. After finishing an initial draft of the mystery thriller six years ago, Kilzer said he had to thoroughly edit it to keep it up to date with fast-changing technology, among other modernizations. The author, who lives in Escazú, has also penned two history books in “Churchill's Deception: The Dark Secret That Destroyed Nazi Germany” and “Hitler's Traitor: Martin Bormann and the Defeat of the Reich". In his transition from a storied career in non-fiction to a new frontier with “Fatal Redemption,” Kilzer warned that this newfound freedom of imagination can be a challenge for writers of journalism or history. “What you initially find as liberating can actually be dangerous,” he said, pointing to a trap that first-time fiction writers can often fall into with distracted or meaningless passages. Kilzer said he is already 36,000 words into the sequel, which he estimated to be about a third of the way towards completion. He recently joined A.M. Costa Rica as an editorial consultant.  Alianza Francesa
photo
The Atlantic train station
in the 1920s. History
tour to visit early industrial area
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The area that is now between avenidas 3 and 11 may not have been the capital's first industrial section, but the area certainly was important. First the Fábrica Nacional de Aguardientes, as it was called then, went into operation where the Ministerio de Cultura y Juventud is now. That was in 1856. Two years later, the section was designated for water tanks for the liquor factory and the community. In the 1880s there was the arrival of the railway, the nation's first electrical generating station and then the main customs house and also the trolley terminal. The Antigua Aduana is now an exposition center and home to dancers and theater groups. The terminal still is there and a key element in the revival of the valley train. Andrés Fernández, the architect and historian, will be addressing all these structures at a lunch Saturday. Participants will leave Alianza Francesa in nearby Barrio Amón at 9 a.m. for a walking tour. There is an admission, and more information is available at 2290-2705 or 2222-2283. New human
species probably wasn't
By the Pennsylvania State University news
staff
In October 2004, excavation of fragmentary skeletal remains from the island of Flores in Indonesia yielded what was called "the most important find in human evolution for 100 years." Its discoverers dubbed the find
"The skeletal sample from Liang Bua cave contains fragmentary remains of several individuals," Eckhardt said. "LB1 has the only skull and thighbones in the entire sample." No substantial new bone discoveries have been made in the cave since the finding of LB1. Initial descriptions of Homo floresiensis focused on LB1's unusual anatomical characteristics: a cranial volume reported as only 380 milliliters (23.2 cubic inches), suggesting a brain less than one third the size of an average modern human's and short thighbones, which were used to reconstruct a creature standing 1.06 meters (about 3.5 feet tall). Although LB1 lived only 15,000 years ago, comparisons were made to earlier hominins, including Homo erectus and Australopithecus. Other traits were characterized as unique and therefore indicative of a new species. A thorough reexamination of the available evidence in the context of clinical studies, the researchers said, suggests a different explanation. The researchers report their findings in two papers published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Participating were Maciej Henneberg, professor of anatomy and pathology at the University of Adelaide, and Kenneth Hsü, a Chinese geologist and paleoclimatologist, In the first place, they write, the original figures for cranial volume and stature are underestimates, "markedly lower than any later attempts to confirm them." Eckhardt, Henneberg, and other researchers have consistently found a cranial volume of about 430 milliliters (26.2 cubic inches). "The difference is significant, and the revised figure falls in the range predicted for a modern human with Down syndrome from the same geographic region," Eckhardt said. The original estimate of 3.5 feet for the creature's height was based on extrapolation combining the short thighbone with a formula derived from an African pygmy population. But humans with Down syndrome also have diagnostically short thighbones, Eckhardt said. Though these and other features are unusual, he acknowledged, "unusual does not equal unique. The originally reported traits are not so rare as to have required the invention of a new hominin species." Instead, the researchers build the case for an alternative diagnosis: that of Down syndrome, one of the most commonly occurring developmental disorders in modern humans.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 153 | |
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| U.S. trained Latin young people here to subvert Cuban
government |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
and wire service reports In another bungled effort to foster anti-government activism in Cuba, the United States trained young Latin Americans in San José and then sent them into Cuba to identify potential targets who could bolster opposition against the Communist government of Raúl Castro. In addition to Costa Ricans, the dozen or so included Venezuelans and Peruvians. According to The Associated Press, which broke the story Sunday night, the operation was tied to Washington-based government contractor Creative Associates International, which also came under scrutiny with an April Associated Press investigation into the creation of a Cuban social media platform similar to Twitter. ZunZuneo, as the failed U.S. government-sponsored platform was called, also was designed to encourage political dissidence. The platform was run out of Sabana Sur in San José. Creative Associates International works for the U.S. Agency for International Development, known as USAID. The Associated Press said that the missions were covert as did the young men and women involved. But USAID said in a release Monday that "This work is not secret, it is not covert, nor is it undercover. Instead, it is important to our mission to support universal values, end extreme poverty and promote resilient, democratic societies. Chief among those universal values are the right to speak freely, assemble and associate without fear, and freely elect political leaders. Sadly, the Cuban people and many others in the global community continue to be denied these basic rights." USAID also said that one paragraph in The Associated Press article captures the purpose of these and many civil society programs, which is to empower citizens to "tackle a community or social problem, win a 'small victory' and ultimately realize that they could be the masters of their own destiny." "But the story then goes on to make sensational claims against aid workers for supporting civil society programs and striving to give voice to these democratic aspirations. This is wrong," USAID said.. Some of the sensationalistic claims include the revelation that the undercover agents were paid as little as $5.41 an hour for a mission that might earn them many years in a Cuban jail. One participant said that training lasted a half hour. Cuban security agents quickly picked up on the effort and asked from where the money was coming to support the travelers. A key member of the covert team was a Costa Rican named |
 Fernando Murillo, who operated the Fundacion Operacion Gaya Internacional in Heredia. He declined to discuss the mission with an Associated Press reporter. The Latin American travelers were sent to Cuba even after the 2009 arrest of Alan Gross, an American contractor who has served five years of a 15-year sentence in a prison on the island. Gross, now 65, was working covertly in Cuba to set up Internet access on behalf of the U.S. government. One of the major criticisms of the latest project is that the effort by the U.S. agents tarnished the reputation of USAID workers all over the world. Murillo used a bogus anti-HIV prevention forum in 2010 to seek out potential local activists. The undercover operation ended in mid-2011. There has been no comment yet from Costa Rican officials who are likely to be unhappy because the United States used the country as a staging ground for a disruptive effort against Cuba. There have been some comments, for and against, attributed to U.S. members of Congress. |
| Costa Rica to seek U.N. Security council action to end Gaza
war |
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By
Michael Krumholtz
and A.M. Costa Rica wire services Costa Rica intends to send a request to the United Nations to increase its intervention and support to bring the war in Gaza to an end. Foreign Minister Manuel González Sanz said Monday that the letter will be issued to the U.N. Security Council to demand immediate action. “The United Nations Security Council cannot continue to be a passive witness,” González said. The minister of Relaciones Exteriores y Culto added that country representatives recently met with Security Council delegates. There, he said, Costa Rica was able to continue voicing its position against the horrible acts of violence between Israeli and Hamas forces. “Costa Rica has all of the moral authority to demand that international law is respected,” González said. He said the ministry estimates that there could be more than 100 people that have ties to Costa Rica currently in the Gaza area. Rodrigo Carreras Jiménez, the Costa Rican ambassador to Israel, will be staying in the area for the time being to help encourage peaceful dialogue from Israeli leaders, González said. González further demanded the creation of an international |
commission that
would allow for an immediate investigation into the war crimes
committed. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon left the country Monday after his five-day visit, in which he met with González, President Luis Guillermo Solís, and other prominent political figures. Ban said Wednesday that the historically peaceful country of Costa Rica could provide a guiding light for other nations to follow in war-torn times. Meanwhile, a 72-hour cease-fire between Israel and Hamas took effect early today in the Gaza Strip, as efforts intensify to negotiate a long-term end to the conflict, according to wire service reports. Just before the truce began at 8:00 a.m. local time, Israel announced it would pull its remaining troops from the coastal enclave. Army spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told reporters soldiers will be redeployed in defensive positions outside Gaza and will maintain those defensive positions. The Israeli military says it has destroyed the last of 32 known tunnels Hamas has used to attempt cross-border attacks. The Israeli troop withdrawal was a key demand of Hamas, whose delegates are expected to arrive in Cairo over the next several days to negotiate a cease-fire extension with Egyptian and Israeli officials. Ban, in a statement praised the truce, saying talks should commence as soon as possible and deal with underlying issues. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 153 | |||||
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| Atlantic Ocean found to have major impact on the Pacific
trade winds |
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By
the University of New South Wales news staff
New research has found rapid warming of the Atlantic Ocean has turbocharged Pacific Equatorial trade winds. Currently the winds are at a level never before seen on observed records, which extend back to the 1860s. The increase in these winds has caused eastern tropical Pacific cooling, amplified the Californian drought, accelerated sea level rise three times faster than the global average in the Western Pacific and has slowed the rise of global average surface temperatures since 2001. It may even be responsible for making El Niño events less common over the past decade due to its cooling impact on ocean surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific. “We were surprised to find the main cause of the Pacific climate trends of the past 20 years had its origin in the Atlantic Ocean,” says co-lead author Shayne McGregor from the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales. “It highlights how changes in the climate in one part of the world can have extensive impacts around the globe.” The study is published in the journal Nature Climate Change. The record-breaking increase in Pacific Equatorial trade winds over the past 20 years had, until now, baffled researchers. Originally, this trade wind intensification was considered to be a |
response to
Pacific variability. However, the strength of the winds was much more
powerful than expected due to the changes in Pacific sea surface
temperature. Another riddle was that previous research indicated that under global warming scenarios Pacific Equatorial Trade winds would slow down over the coming century. The solution was found in the rapid warming of the Atlantic Ocean basin, which has created unexpected pressure differences between the Atlantic and Pacific. This has produced wind anomalies that have given Pacific Equatorial trade winds an additional big push. “The rapid warming of the Atlantic Ocean created high pressure zones in the upper atmosphere over that basin and low pressure zones close to the surface of the ocean,” says Axel Timmermann, co-lead and corresponding author from the University of Hawaii. “The rising air parcels, over the Atlantic eventually sink over the eastern tropical Pacific, thus creating higher surface pressure there. The enormous pressure see-saw with high pressure in the Pacific and low pressure in the Atlantic gave the Pacific trade winds an extra kick, amplifying their strength. It’s like giving a playground roundabout an extra push as it spins past.” Many climate models appear to have underestimated the magnitude of the coupling between the two ocean basins, which may explain why they struggled to produce the recent increase in Pacific Equatorial trade wind trends. |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
news page
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 153 | |||||||
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| James Brady, Reagan aide, reported to have died at 73 By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The White House press secretary who was shot and suffered a devastating head wound in the 1981 assassination attempt on president Ronald Reagan, James Brady, has died at 73. Brady's family says he died Monday. They say he suffered from a number of health problems. He was near President Reagan outside a Washington hotel when a gunman, John Hinckley, opened fire in an unsuccessful attempt to kill the president. Reagan was hit twice but recovered, while Brady was left paralyzed and permanently disabled. Brady went on to conduct a life-long campaign for tighter U.S. gun controls. A U.S. law requiring background checks on gun buyers bears his name, and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence is named after him. After the attack on March 30, 1981, just two months into Reagan's presidency, Brady returned to the White House only briefly. But he was allowed to keep the title of presidential press secretary and his salary until Reagan left office in early 1989. The White House press briefing room is named after him. Hinckley, the gunman, is now 59 and remains in U.S. custody at a psychiatric institution in Washington. U.S. spy craft enters Sweden to avoid fighters from Russia By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. military officials say one of its spy planes veered into Swedish airspace without permission recently, to avoid Russian planes over the Baltic Sea. The U.S. European Command told The New York Times this week that an Air Force RC-135 surveillance plane, flying in international airspace July 18, was approached by Russian fighter jets. Officials said the pilot navigated into Swedish airspace by mistake while attempting to avoid the Russian planes. The European Command said the pilot had been incorrectly advised to maneuver into the airspace by U.S. personnel. Sweden is not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. “They detected an attempted encounter by Russian aircraft," Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren told reporters Monday. "Personnel on the ground directed the RC-135 away from the encounter toward Swedish airspace. That was a mistake. U.S. personnel when they became aware that they’d entered Swedish airspace quickly exited the airspace.” Warren said the European Command is taking active steps to make sure this type of mistake doesn’t happen again but he did not specify what those steps are. The incident reportedly occurred near Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania that has a major port for Russia's Baltic fleet. Ties between the U.S. and Russia are at their lowest level since the Cold War because of tensions over Ukraine. The U.S. accuses Russia of supporting and arming pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, while Russia blames the U.S.-backed Kyiv government for the continuing violence between rebels and Ukrainian troops. Two major forest fires out of control in California By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Firefighters battling two massive fires in northern California may finally have some relief with more humid conditions forecast, but thunderstorms could bring more fire-causing lightening. The two fires have destroyed 11 homes and scorched thousands of hectares of land since Friday. State fire spokeswoman Capt. Amy Head said fire crews in northern California were trying to beat back wildfires burning near the town of Burney in Shasta County Monday. Burney residents faced possible evacuation as the two blazes, now within a few kilometers of one another, threatened their town. The fires started at about the same time in Lassen National Forest. They have destroyed hundreds of kilometers of forest, burned down at least eight homes and now threaten to destroy more buildings. Northern California has been suffering through one of the worst droughts on record. East of the state's capital Sacramento, hundreds of homes were evacuated along the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range after the so-called Sand Fire burned 10 residences and seven other buildings. The blaze, which fire officials said may have been started by a vehicle driving over dry vegetation, is only 35 percent contained as firefighters face dry conditions, high winds, and triple-digit temperatures. A second fire west of Yosemite National Park quadrupled in size overnight to consume 859 hectares. It forced the evacuation of about 100 homes in the community of Foresta, where one house was destroyed. The park remains open. Federal fire officials are working to contain 19 blazes in six western states, with state and local teams battling dozens more throughout the region. Those needing free food have increased in New York By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
In the Harlem section of New York City, people come early and line up each day for food to feed their families at a pantry run by the Food Bank for New York City. The food comes from several kilometers away at a massive distribution warehouse in the Bronx where supplies come in from the government, food companies, and donors. Row after row of canned goods, household products and fresh fruits and vegetables are neatly stacked. According to the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, nearly one in five New York City residents is food insecure. The Food Bank, a non-profit social services organization, delivered 35 million kilograms of food to pantries and kitchens in New York’s five boroughs this past year. In the past five years the number of people on food assistance in New York alone has risen by over 200,000, according to city figures. And Food Bank CEO Margaret Purvis says the need is getting greater with each passing day. “We talk about the haves and the have nots — we talk about the gap between the rich and the poor," she said. "What we’re seeing more and more in the world of poverty is that it’s not a gap. It’s more like a canyon, and the distance between those who have and those who do not is really quite devastating." At the pantry, volunteers play an important part in preparing foodstuffs. “I never really volunteered anywhere before,” said one woman who chose to withhold her name. “I’ve done little things in high school, so it’s been a while, but it just makes you appreciate what you have, but also how much more people out there need help.” One recent day, a financial services company was preparing bags of macaroni for distribution. Needy folk are not just given food. They are also taught simple, cheap, and nutritious recipes. “This is roasted sweet potato mash,” Sunny Anderson, a Food Network host told them. “It’s really, really easy. It’s just sweet potatoes, onion, salt, pepper and butter. It’s delicious.” Pantry customers do not pay for food but are granted allotments based on the size of their families. Camesha Grant, the Food Bank's director of member services, said a cutback in food stamps in 2013 resulted in a significant increase in hungry New Yorkers. “One in five are children, and one in six are seniors," she said. "And just to really make the point, we’re talking about working people. We see people who have jobs, who are working every day but really struggling to make ends meet. So it’s really been a challenge.” According to a report issued by the USDA, the number of people on food assistance in New York City alone has risen by over 200,000 in the last five years. Toxin said diminishing in algae-tainted water By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. officials in the northern city of Toledo, Ohio, have lifted a ban on the city's water supply that had left hundreds of thousands of people without drinking water. Toledo Mayor Michael Collins said Monday that multiple tests of the water show that toxin levels from an algae bloom are no longer dangerous. He said the water is now safe to drink and urged people to return to a normal life. Residents had to rely on bottled water since Saturday, when officials said tests at a water treatment plant found high levels of microcystin, a toxin that causes vomiting, diarrhea and liver problems. Troops with the Ohio National Guard distributed over 100,000 liters of clean water to residents while many people were forced to drive more than 100 kilometers just to find and buy bottled water from nearly depleted stores. Earlier, Ohio Gov. John Kasich declared a state of emergency in several counties. Officials warned residents to not even boil the tap water, saying that could increase the concentration of toxins. People with weakened immune systems were also urged not to use the water to bathe in. The toxins were caused by large amounts of algae growing in Lake Erie, one of the five so-called Great Lakes located along and near the Canadian border in the United States. The algae growths are caused by fertilizer runoff from farms and water treatment plants. Lake Erie has been plagued by algae blooms dating back to the 1960s. The blooms disappeared in the 1990s and the first decade of this century, but have steadily increased over the past decade. Last year, a harmful algae bloom forced a similar water ban in a small town located east of Toledo. Dead in quake in China reported to be about 398 By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Chinese rescue workers continue searching for survivors in the thousands of homes that collapsed following a powerful earthquake in the southwestern province of Yunnan. At least 398 people have been confirmed dead as the result of Sunday's 6.1-magnitude quake, which was centered near the remote town of Longtoushan. The official Xinhua news agency says the quake destroyed 80,000 homes and damaged another 124,000. More than 18,000 rescue workers have been deployed to the area. Efforts to send tents, water, food and other supplies have been hampered by heavy thunderstorms, which are expected to continue for the next several days, causing landslides and floods. Xinhua says damaged roads forced Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to walk nearly five kilometers to reach Longtoushan Monday. Li vowed that no effort would be spared to save lives. The news agency says it was the worst earthquake to hit the region in 100 years. Southwestern China is frequently struck by earthquakes. In 2012 an earthquake in the Yunnan region killed at least 80 people. U.S. missionary evacuated with symptoms of ebola By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A U.S. missionary who contracted ebola has been evacuated from Liberia aboard a special medical flight. The missionary, Nancy Writebol, was flown out of Monrovia Tuesday and is expected to arrive in the United States later Tuesday. She will be treated at Emory University Hospital in the southeastern U.S. city of Atlanta alongside an American doctor who also contracted the deadly virus while treating patients in Liberia. The Christian charity Samaritan's Purse said the physician, Kent Brantly, received a dose of an experimental serum before leaving Liberia, and also received blood from a 14-year-old boy who had survived ebola under his care. Meanwhile, a New York City hospital reported it is testing a man with possible symptoms of the ebola virus. Officials at Mount Sinai Medical Center said a man suffering from a high fever and gastrointestinal problems arrived at the emergency room early Monday and was quickly isolated. They say the patient recently traveled to a West African country where ebola has been reported, and is now undergoing tests to determine the cause of his illness. No other details about the man were given. Earlier Monday, the World Health Organization released new figures on the ebola virus, reporting dozens of new fatalities in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. It said the total number of cases across four West African countries stands at 1,603, including 887 people who have died. Authorities in Nigeria Monday reported the country's second confirmed case of ebola -- a doctor who treated the first patient who died July 25 in Lagos. Nigerian officials said at least two other health professionals are also showing symptoms of the disease. Also Monday, the World Bank said it would provide up to $200 million to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to help those countries contain the outbreak. World Bank president Jim Yong Kim said he is very worried that more lives are at risk unless the epidemic is contained. While there is currently no cure or vaccine for ebola, Anthony Fauci of the U.S. National Institutes of Health said a vaccine is being developed and could soon go to trial. Fauci spoke Monday on the TV program CBS This Morning. Tom Frieden, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, says a widespread outbreak of ebola in the United States is not likely because of better infection controls at American hospitals and more cautious burial procedures than in Africa. Ebola is spread through direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person. Typical symptoms of ebola include fever, vomiting, diarrhea and bleeding from the eyes, ears, mouth and nose. Death rates from the virus historically have gone as high as 90 percent, but the death rate from the current outbreak is closer to 60 percent. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution/ Simon
Thorrold
Whale sharks, which grow more than 30
feet long, are the largest fish in the world's ocean.
Whale
sharks spotted in unusual cluster
By the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
news staff
Whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) — which grow more than 30 feet long — are the largest fish in the world's ocean, but little is known about their movements on a daily basis or over years. A newly discovered juvenile whale shark aggregation off Saudi Arabia is giving researchers a rare glimpse into the lives of these gentle giants. Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and colleagues from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries report on the movements of whale sharks tagged at the site in a study published last week in the journal PLOS ONE. During fieldwork in 2009, the research team found hundreds of juvenile whale sharks gathering on coral reefs near Al-Lith on the central coast of the Saudi Arabian Red Sea. "The fact that there were so many whale sharks in such a small area gave us an opportunity to begin an unprecedented study to answer some of the basic questions," said Simon Thorrold, a biologist at Woods Hole and coauthor of the paper. "The discovery of the site provides a window into the movements and ecology of the species in a region that we were not necessarily expecting to see them in such high numbers." The research team utilized three types of satellite transmitting tags to track the movements of 47 whale sharks from 2009 through 2011. The tags, which are placed just below the dorsal fins, measure temperature, depth, and light levels of the waters the fish swim in. After several months, the tags pop off, float to the surface and beam data via the ARGO satellite system back to computers on shore. Diving data from the tags revealed the sharks made frequent deep dives to at least 500 meters (1,640 feet). Three of the tagged sharks made excursions below 1,000 meters (3,281 feet), with a maximum-recorded dive depth of 1,360 meters (4,462 feet). Most of the sharks remained in the southern Red Sea throughout the time the tags were on. Some of the tagged individuals headed into the Indian Ocean, which may have been motivated by an abundant food supply related to seasonal upwelling. Whale shark diets vary both seasonally and geographically, but they are thought to feed mainly on zooplankton as well as algae, small fishes, fish eggs and cephalopods. "Interestingly, while some individuals that we tagged left the Red Sea and headed into the Indian Ocean, most remained relatively close to where they were tagged, suggesting that the area represents a critical juvenile habitat for this population," Thorrold added. Adult whale sharks were not seen at the site, which may serve as a staging ground for juveniles before they move on to regional aggregations of larger sharks. To date, 12 whale shark aggregation sites have been identified globally. "While all other juvenile whale shark aggregations are dominated by males, we found a sex ratio of 1:1 at the site in the Red Sea. The presence of so many female juvenile sharks may be of considerable significance to the global whale shark populations," Thorrold said. Whale sharks were listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2000. Like other sharks and large rays, whale sharks likely have small litters of pups and are slow to reach sexual maturity. "Our research on whale sharks in the Red Sea clearly shows that much remains to be learned about the species," said co-author Greg Skomal, a Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries biologist and Woods Hole adjunct scientist. "This newly discovered aggregation off Saudi Arabia likely plays an integral role in the natural history of this species in this region and, perhaps, well beyond." "Eventually this work will tell us about where whale sharks are spending their time throughout their lives, where they're feeding, where they're breeding and where they're giving birth," added Thorrold. "Knowing where they go at different times of the year is critical to designing effective conservation strategies for the species." |
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| From Page 7: Banks may buy some Argentine bonds By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A group of banks may be about to buy some of the Argentine bonds owned by a group of creditors demanding repayment in full on their $1.5 billion stash of Argentine debt. A lawsuit brought by New York-based hedge fund NML Capital Ltd. prevented Argentina from making a scheduled $539 million debt payment last week to some of its bondholders. That forced the country to default on July 30. Reports on Monday were that several banks, including J.P. Morgan, Citibank and HSBC, were negotiating to buy at least some of the Argentine debt from the creditor holdouts led by NML Capital. The bonds in question were defaulted on in 2001, but not all bondholders accepted the 30 cents on the dollar restructuring. NML Capital, for example, won lawsuits in 2005 and 2010 on the restructuring. U.S. federal Judge Thomas Griesa last Thursday said Argentina could not pay some bondholders and not others, forcing the bank to default. Argentina officials have denied that the country has defaulted on its debt for the second time in 13 years. They say the money was there ready to be distributed, but a federal judge in the U.S. prevented that from happening. Last week, U.S. credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Argentina’s credit rating |
