|
|
|||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||
| |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
|
Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for more details |
|
|||
|
San
José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 158
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
|
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The president and the transport minister Tuesday signed a decree that would allow motorists to settle minor vehicle accidents among themselves. The decree also requires insurance companies to provide their policyholders with a document for use in such situations. Under current law, regardless of the degree of damage, the drivers are supposed to keep the vehicles motionless until a traffic officer arrives. That frequently creates traffic jams and ties up officers with minor accidents, said Casa Presidencial. The decree was signed by President Luis Guillermo Solís and Carlos Segnini Villalobos, minister of Obras Públicas y Transportes. The individual efforts at conciliation are an option. Any motorist will still be able to summons police regardless of the degree of damage. The option is not available in cases where there is personal injury. Insurance companies are supposed to distribute the form, called Declaración de Accidente Menor, within four months after the decree is published in the official newspaper. The idea has been presented several times, and there even is a bill in the legislature that would set the same rule. Escazú Christian Fellowship pastor leaving By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Rev. Stacey Steck told the Escazú Christian Fellowship congregation that he would be stepping down as pastor before the end of the year, the church council said Tuesday as it announced a search for a replacement. Steck has been pastor of the English-language religious group for nine years. He is married to Flora Calderón-Steck. Steck holds a bachelor's in communication from The American University in Washington, D.C., and a master's of divinity degree from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He previously served in St. Cloud, Minnesota, according to an online biography.  Ministerio de Seguirdad Pública
photo
This turtle is not for the pot.Caribbean
beach patrols paying off
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Turtle and turtle eggs are off the menu in Limón. The Fuerza Pública said that it rescued a green turtle that had been tied up on Playa Moín Monday night. Police patrolling the beach said they found the turtle on its back. Eventually it was determined not to be injured and released to the sea, said the Fuerza Pública. Further north in Tortugero police reported that they surprised a 32-year-old man with turtle eggs and found that he was the subject of a warrant for aggravated robbery. Police reported that a full-grown green turtle could fetch 30,000 colons at some markets in Limón. That's about $57. Eggs are commonly sold for from 500 to 1,000 colons each, about $1 to $2. Would-be expats attending seminar here By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
International Living Publishing Ltd. is in town with one of its living overseas conference, and potential expats are getting an introduction to Costa Rica. According to the Irish company's summary "Costa Rica's world-class public health care system, called Caja, generally costs about $30 to $90 per person per month. Yes, foreign residents can participate, and the monthly fee covers everything, from prescriptions to doctor visits to testing to surgeries. Best of all, there are no exclusions for age or pre-existing conditions." And of one of the presenters: "No one knows the ins and outs of the real estate market here better than she does." Would-be expats are getting a silver-lined presentation, and the company is offering for sale an audio recording. The company said that participants paid more than $1,000 for the two and a half-day seminar. Among other topics was what was called tax avoidance. China devalues its currency again By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
China has allowed the value of its yuan currency to drop for a second consecutive day, doubling down on a surprise move that rattled global markets and could raise tensions with its trade competitors. The yuan's market rate fell 1.6 percent today after falling nearly 2 percent a day earlier, which was its biggest single-day drop in a decade. China's central bank, which strictly controls the currency, described the move as temporary and meant to make the value of the yuan more market-oriented. "Looking at the international and domestic economic situation, currently there is no basis for a sustained depreciation trend for the yuan," the bank said today. Investors in Asia reacted negatively with stocks trading lower in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo. Major stock market indexes in the U.S. and Europe were also down. The move received a cautious reaction in the U.S., which has long accused Beijing of keeping the value of its currency low to give Chinese exporters an unfair advantage. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, a longtime critic of China's monetary policy, said the move is further evidence Beijing is artificially devaluing its currency. A U.S. Treasury statement said it is too soon to determine the move's implications. The International Monetary Fund was more optimistic, saying the devaluation "appears to be a welcome step." "The exact impact will depend on how the new mechanism is implemented in practice," said the Fund. "Greater exchange rate flexibility is important for China as it strives to give market forces a decisive role in the economy and is rapidly integrating into global financial markets." China’s currency is tightly controlled by the government and allowed to fluctuate 2 percent above or below a central point set daily by the People's Bank of China. The change follows slumping exports and stock market turmoil in the world’s second-largest economy. Analyst Gus Faucher of PNC Bank says the change in currency exchange policy is likely to support growth in China. Tech startups are going to the beach By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
America's high-tech industry is centered in California's Silicon Valley, a sprawling region on the San Francisco Bay that is home to Google, Apple and other industry giants. But tech start-ups can also be found further south in the state, in and around the city of Los Angeles. Silicon Beach, is an upstart rival to the larger Silicon Valley. The company VNTANA from the Spanish word for window, is one of many tech start-ups near Los Angeles. It is based in the seaside community of Santa Monica, and creates holograms, three-dimensional images for education, marketing, and entertainment. “It takes two people less than an hour to set up the screen and it can be shipped anywhere in the world," said engineer Ashley Crowder, who co-founded the company. The system allows live remote appearances and virtual concerts. It is interactive and users can control the projected images with gestures. Company co-founder Ben Conway demonstrates with a cartoon-like avatar projected on a translucent screen. When he moves his arms and legs, the avatar copies him. Conway says, like many Silicon Beach companies, VNTANA takes advantage of its closeness to Hollywood. “We have a focus on entertainment and on content. And that's something that the entertainment community really understands," he said. Silicon Valley is oriented more toward technology, while Silicon Beach focuses on entertainment. But the sector is diverse. A recent gathering of Los Angeles start-ups by the group Town Hall Los Angeles included Matthew Goldman, founder of Wallaby Financial, which advises consumers on which credit cards to use. “We help consumers to save money, earn rewards, avoid interest. Whatever it is they need to do by giving them intelligent recommendations about how to use their credit cards every day," he said. Goldman says the app works through their smartphones “The phone locates you and it communicates with our servers that make these recommendations and do the intelligence and send back the results to your phone, in virtually real time," he said. The Los Angeles tech sector spreads from the city to the beach and the suburbs. Analysts say its size is hard to measure since technology permeates so many industries, but Silicon Beach is home to many hundreds of tech start-ups, and it's growing.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this Web site are
copyrighted by Consultantes Ro Colorado S.A 2015 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, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 158 | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| Security minister proposes coordination of organized crime
fight |
|
|
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The security minister Tuesday met with the president of the Corte Suprema de Justicia to propose a new committee to coordinate the campaign against organized crime. The minster, Gustavo Mata Vega, suggested a committee of magistrates, judges, judicial police, prosecutors, his ministry the Ministerio de Justicia y Paz, among others to be involved in this entity. The proposal is not likely to be accepted easily by the Judicial Investigating Organization which tries to maintain its monopoly on crime detection. Mata's ministry includes the Fuerza Pública, which has the job of crime prevention and first responders. However, the ministry also includes anti-drug agents. The court president, Zarela Villanueva Monge, was reported to have agreed to take the concept under advisement. The proposal is directed at both repression of crime and prevention, Mata was quoted as saying in a statement from his ministry. The group was called in Spanish the Unidad de Articulación, which could be translated as the coordinating unit. Mata's proposal would create a center of information of crimes with all agencies being able to access it and coordinate plans with all the police agencies. There would be special jurisdictions for drug and organized crime cases, according to the proposal, |
 Ministerio
de Seguridad Pública photo
Gustavo Mata Vega, security
minister, and Zarela Villanueva Monge, president of the Corte Suprema
de Justicia.The minister said in April that an integrated strike force was needed to crack down on organized crime and murders. The court president said last month that she was preparing a bill to address organized crime. President Luis Guillermo Solís also has proposed a high-level commission. The bill, No. 19.346, transforms the existing Dirección de Inteligencia y Seguridad into a new agency called the Dirección de Inteligencia Estratégica Nacional. The measure also creates an oversight committee that is supposed to meet at least once a year to supervise the work. |
|
||||
| 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 Web site are
copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A. 2015 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, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 158 | |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
 Ministerio
de Seguirdad Pública photo
These are the cigarettes that
were intercepted by police at a highway checkpoint in Tibás. |
|
| Cigarettes, smuggled or sold, continue to generate
controversies |
|
|
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Cigarette smuggling continues to be a problem, but there also is controversy over proposals to restrict legal sales. The Fuerza Pública stopped a vehicle carrying 1,840 packs of cigarettes Monday night in Tibás. The Silver Elephant cigarettes were on their way to the central Pacific from the Limón area, police said. They were presumed to be smuggled, and the driver faces legal action. |
Meanwhile at
the legislature Tuesday, members of the Partido
Acción Ciudadana expressed their opposition to a change in the
proposed
anti-tobacco law that would permit retail sales of lots of 10
cigarettes. Lawmakers already have agreed to prohibit the sale of single cigarettes in an effort to reduce smoking. The theory is that poorer individuals cannot afford to purchase a full pack and must buy lesser quantities. The discussion came in the Comisión de Seguridad y Narcotráfico on proposals against tax fraud. |
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 Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río
Colorado
S.A. 2015 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, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 158 | |||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
 |
 |
| Possible missile fragments found at Ukrainian crash site By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Investigators probing last year's downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine have found fragments that may have come from a Russian surface-to-air missile. Dutch prosecutors said in a statement Tuesday that the investigators from Belgium, Australia, Ukraine, Malaysia and the Netherlands who are conducting the criminal investigation into the crash of the Malaysian airliner are examining several parts, possibly originating from a Buk surface-air-missile system. The prosecutors said the parts are of particular interest to the criminal investigation as they can possibly provide more information about who was involved in the crash of MH17. The investigators, they added, will internationally enlist the help of experts, among others forensic specialists and weapon-experts, to determine the origin of the parts. The prosecutors said that at present the conclusion cannot be drawn that there is a causal connection between the discovered parts and the crash of flight MH17. Flight MH17 crashed July 17 of last year in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, on territory held by pro-Russia separatists fighting Ukrainian government forces. All 298 people on board, most of them Dutch, were killed. Western intelligence agencies have said the plane was brought down by a Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile launched from separatist-controlled territory. Preliminary results of the Dutch-led investigation reportedly suggest the missile was launched from a Russian-owned battery that was most likely manned by a Russian crew. Russia has blamed the downing of the airliner on a Ukrainian missile, also insisting that Kyiv bears ultimate responsibility for the incident as it happened in Ukrainian airspace. Ukraine has rejected the claim. Late last month, Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council draft resolution that would have set up an international tribunal to prosecute those responsible for downing flight MH17. Mississippi couple caught trying to join Islamic State By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A young Mississippi couple has been arrested and charged with trying to join Islamic State militants in Syria. Muhammad Dakhlalla, 22, and his fiance, Jaelyn Young, 20, were arrested by the FBI on Saturday after traveling to the Golden Triangle Airport in Columbus, Mississippi, where they were to board flights to Amsterdam en route to Istanbul. The pair was charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to Islamic State. An affidavit from an FBI agent says both confessed to the charges after their arrest. According to the criminal complaint, the two repeatedly said in online communications with undercover FBI agents that they planned to travel to Syria in support of the terrorist group. Over the course of several months, Miss Young told undercover agents on various social media platforms that money was the only thing keeping them from immediately traveling to join the Islamic State, updating them when the pair found jobs and when they had saved enough for plane tickets. At one point she told agents that the Muslim family she spends time with, and her local community as a whole, did not support Islamic State and that she disagreed with them. Miss Young said the story the two would use to travel abroad would be that they were newlyweds on their honeymoon. FBI agents also made contact with Dakhlalla on social media, where he said he expressed his intention to join the Islamic State saying he was good with computers, education and media and asking how he could help. The two are former students at Mississippi State University. Miss Young was a chemistry major and the daughter of a police officer. Dakhlalla graduated in May and was planning to start graduate school in psychology. His father is a religious leader at a local Islamic center. At a hearing Tuesday, a federal magistrate ordered the couple to be held without bail, saying despite their never being in trouble with the law, she still feared that both would attempt to commit acts of terrorism. If convicted, they each face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Google restructuring seen as way to keep executives By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The question on Wall Street is why? What was the real reason behind the shake-up at Google. Google, Inc., announced a radical restructuring of the company in which it will become a subsidiary of a new entity called Alphabet. At the same time a new CEO, Sundar Pichai, will be in charge of the traditional Google entities. The theory making the rounds among insiders is as follows: Twitter is looking for a new CEO. Speculation is that Twitter made an offer to Pichai, who has headed up Google’s core businesses since last October. Insiders are saying that in order to keep Pichai, Google decided to go ahead with a major organizational change that it has been considering for some time, giving Pichai the CEO title. The word is that in order to keep Pichai, Google countered with the title and a huge package. Rhonda Schaffler, editor at large and anchor at TheStreet.Com said that the speculation about the Pichai offer could very well be true. She added, that the promotion is clearly an effort by Google to keep good executives. And, according to Ms. Schaffler, "if you are in the very competitive tech world today, you need all the best executives around you.” The new umbrella holding company, Alphabet, will be run by Google’s current leaders, including CEO Larry Page and his team of co-founder Sergey Brin and CFO Ruth Porat. Alphabet will now consist of two parts, the Google core business, which includes Search, Ads, You Tube, Android and Chrome. All fall under Pichai. The other part of Alphabet will be the potentially big new business industries far from Google’s search engine roots. That includes Google X (self-driving cars, delivery drones, internet balloons), Nest (smart thermostats), Google Fiber (a broadband service), Calico (longevity research), Life Sciences (contact lenses) and Google Ventures, or new startup investments. Ms. Schaffler said there are two obvious reasons why the change was made, other than keeping top executives. “First of all,” she said, “Google is an innovative company and wants to stay innovative. By creating Alphabet this gives Google leverage to keep a lot of its creative components going and to nurture those, almost like a start-up.” The Street.Com editor added, “It also satisfies some concerns on Wall Street about ‘hey, what is Google spending to create self-driving cars and going into all these things that are a bit off the normal trend for Google.” She says in a way, both problems were fixed. The move confirms that Page, Sergey Brin and CFO Porat, believed the company had become more complex to manage as its growth was absorbing new businesses in industries from Google’s search-engine roots. Insiders, like Ms. Schaffler, believe that Page wants to structure the company similar to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway with each Alphabet subsidiary having its own CEO, reporting to him. She added, “some analysts have said it now will look a little like Berkshire Hathaway which has got about a hundred companies, a huge conglomerate in all sorts of businesses.” Ms. Schaffler says it’s a little bit different for Alphabet. “These innovative businesses,” she added, “by and large are still technology focused although there is now a healthcare component to Alphabet. But a lot of the Wall Street analysts have made that comparison that it’s like a Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate.” Her feeling is that Berkshire Hathaway has really been an exception to the general rule. “Over the years,” Ms. Schaffler said, “we’ve seen conglomerates struggle, sometimes break apart and revenue and earnings growth can slow. So being a conglomerate doesn’t always necessarily translate into higher earnings. Google declined to discuss the restructuring. Employees are reported uncertain as to which entity they will work for. And the stock rose slightly in trading on Tuesday. Trump continues his lead in new polls of Republicans By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Billionaire Donald Trump may have taken some hits in last week’s Republican presidential debate, but so far it doesn’t appear to be hurting him in the polls. The latest Reuters-Ipsos national poll found Trump holding steady at the top of the Republican field with 24 percent, followed by former Florida governor Jeb Bush at 12 percent. Bush was at 17 percent before the debate. No one else garnered more than 8 percent support in the online survey, which was conducted between the end of the debate last Thursday and Sunday. Two new polls in the early contest state of Iowa also show Trump now surging into a lead over Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who had been leading in Iowa for months. A Suffolk University survey found Trump at 17 percent, followed by Walker with 12 percent. A Public Policy poll also found Trump leading with 19 percent, followed by Walker at 12 percent and Bush in third place with 11 percent. Trump appeared Tuesday on Fox News Channel for the first time since last week’s debate and again raised the specter of a third-party effort should he not win the Republican nomination. “I want to run as a Republican, but I do want to keep that door open in case I don’t get treated fairly,” Trump said on “Fox and Friends.” Previously, Trump criticized one of the Fox debate hosts, Megyn Kelly, who asked him about past offensive comments he has made about women. After the debate, Trump told CNN that he thought Kelly was angry about their exchange during the debate and said she had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” That comment sparked a furious backlash against Trump, and he spent several days trying to explain what he meant. Trump was disinvited from the grass-roots conservative Red State gathering held right after the Cleveland debate. On her Fox show Monday night, Ms. Kelly said she felt her question to Trump about his comments concerning women was a tough but fair question. She added, “I certainly will not apologize for doing good journalism.” The reaction among Trump’s Republican rivals to his debate comments and penchant for attacking critics remains mixed. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said in a conference call with reporters that Trump is “an empty suit here, full of bravado.” “Unless someone points out the emperor has no clothes,” Paul went on, “we’ll end up with a reality TV star as the nominee if we’re not careful.” Paul was one of the few Republicans on the debate stage in Cleveland to go after Trump after the latter refused to pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee or rule out a third-party bid. Bush has said Trump’s language is divisive, and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina said Trump’s comments about Ms. Kelly were completely inappropriate and offensive. Walker and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, another GOP presidential candidate, have also criticized Trump. But several other candidates have steered clear of taking critical shots, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who said in the debate that Trump had touched a nerve with his blunt-spoken campaign. Cruz in particular has been careful not to criticize Trump, perhaps in hopes of eventually winning over Trump supporters to his campaign if and when Trump stumbles. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton also weighed in on the Trump controversy during a rare media availability with reporters in New Hampshire. “I know it makes great TV, but I think the guy went way overboard, outrageous, pick your adjective,” she said Monday. Mrs. Clinton said she attended Trump’s 2005 wedding because she thought it would be fun and entertaining. She added, “Now that he’s running for president, it’s a little more troubling.” Trump’s refusal to pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee may have sown some doubts about his loyalty among party activists. “His refusal to play by party rules is a long-term problem for him,” said Josh Kraushaar , National Journal's Hotline executive editor. “Trump said that he won’t be a team player, and he did not provide any policy answers. It’s an open question as to whether he can keep it going.” Trump remains an unpredictable force in the Republican field at the moment, but in the long run he may do the party some good. Last week’s debate drew 24 million viewers, a record for a primary debate, and voters got a good look at some other plausible nominees including Rubio, Kasich and Fiorina. The former CEO performed well in the earlier debate for the seven contenders who did not qualify for the top 10 debate in prime time. That exposure could pay off down the road if, as many experts predict, Trump eventually implodes. But there is no sign of that happening yet, and Trump has maintained his lead in the polls even after slamming illegal immigrants as criminals and rapists and criticizing Sen. John McCain’s war record. “There is a long way to go,” said Hotline's Kraushaar. “We have eight more debates and many months to go, and at the moment it remains a very unsettled Republican field.” The intense focus on Trump is already taking a toll on the rest of the Republican field. Paul and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had hoped the debate would rekindle their campaigns, but they were both overshadowed during the debate by Trump. Meanwhile, former Texas governor Rick Perry has stopped paying campaign staffers as he struggles in the polls and in fundraising. Perry was one of the seven Republican contenders relegated to the so-called undercard debate last week. Pakistan child porno ring may have involved 300 kids By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The United Nations, children's rights defenders and local media are stepping up pressure on Pakistani authorities to swiftly bring to justice a gang of men accused of sexually abusing nearly 300 children for years and selling videos of the abuse. It is being described as the biggest child abuse scandal in the history of a country where pedophilia remains a taboo subject. Parents and residents of the Kasur district in Pakistan’s Punjab province have accused police of failing to break up the pedophilia ring because of political pressure. They allege that an influential family in the area for years forced children to perform sex on camera and the video was used to extort money from the victims and their poverty-stricken families. Tuesday, victims’ lawyers told an anti-terrorism court in Lahore, the provincial capital, that many of the videos were sold to buyers and pornographic Web sites outside Pakistan. The revelation has shocked and outraged Pakistanis. Human rights activist Tahira Abdullah said pedophilia is a worldwide phenomenon and a hallmark in developing countries like Pakistan. “But what has come as a shock is the fact that there is such a large number, allegedly 284 children — mostly boys but girls also — ranging from age 6 to 16, and it has taken place over a prolonged period of time, from 2006 to 2015," she said. "That is the shocking aspect, because the village is a small village. It is a poverty-stricken village, and I am amazed that nobody spoke up.” Provincial authorities have arrested 13 suspects, including government officials, and police have instituted cases against them under anti-terrorism laws. An attorney for some of the victims, Aftab Bajwa, said there was enough evidence for police to establish their case. “I am 100 percent sure, because we have a strong evidence in the shape of videos,” Bajwa said. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has vowed punishment for the culprits. But the provincial law minister of Sharif’s party, which rules Punjab, is under fire for allegedly misstating facts in a statement to the media in a bid to protect pedophilia gang members. Victims and their families have told the media and authorities they are receiving threats. They say they have been told to withdraw their complaints or reach out-of-court settlements. The U.N. International Children’s Emergency Fund has condemned the child abuse as appalling and called on the Pakistani government to bring to justice those responsible for the abuse. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents of this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río
Colorado S.A. 2015 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, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 158 | |||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
||
|
By the University of British Columbia
news staff
Scientists have discovered a gene that could be an important cause of obesity. The gene, which encodes a protein called 14-3-3zeta, is found in every cell of the body. But when scientists silenced the gene in mice, it resulted in a 50 per cent reduction in the amount of a specific kind of unhealthy white fat, – the kind associated with obesity, heart disease and diabetes. The fat reduction occurred despite the mice consuming the same amount of food. Mice that were bred to have higher levels of the 14-3-3zeta protein were noticeably bigger and rounder, having an average of 22 per cent more white fat when fed a high calorie diet. Earlier this year, a consortium of scientists found over 100 regions on the human genome that correlate with obesity, likely through regulating the brain’s perception of hunger and the distribution of fat throughout the body. That study, however, did not identify the gene that encodes 14-3-3zeta, which controls the production of fat cells (known as adipogenesis) and the growth of those cells. Discovery of this direct link between a protein and fat production, described in Nature Communications, points the way to a possible drug therapy. Scientists theorize that by suppressing the gene or blocking the protein, they could prevent fat accumulation in people who are overweight, or are on their way to becoming so. “People gain fat in two ways, through the multiplication of their fat cells, and through the expansion of individual fat cells,” said Gareth Lim, a postdoctoral fellow in University of British Columbia’s Life Sciences Institute. “This protein affects both the number of cells and how big they are, by playing a role in the growth cycle of these cells.” Lim and James Johnson, a university professor of cellular and physiological sciences, began investigating the 14-3-3 family of proteins four years ago as it often shows up in the unhealthy fat tissue of obese people. This study not only identified zeta as the operative protein, but demonstrated a clear cause-and-effect between 14-3-3zeta and fat accumulation. “Until now, we didn’t know how this gene affected obesity,” Johnson said. “This study shows how fundamental research can address major health problems and open up new avenues for drug discovery.” Obesity is linked to increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and some forms of cancer. Worldwide, obesity costs society $2 trillion each year. More than one in four Canadians are obese, and that number continues to grow, according to Statistics Canada. Alarmingly, the obesity rate is also increasing in children. Hacker conspiracy ran insider scheme By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. officials have accused an international group of hackers and stock traders of stealing insider information and making as much as $100 million in illegal profits. Federal authorities in New Jersey said Tuesday it is the biggest scheme of its kind ever prosecuted. Nine people in the United States and Ukraine have been indicted for alleged fraud. More than 20 other individuals and companies face related civil complaints. Authorities said hackers stole financial and other information from companies that publish press releases. Members of the group were able to make trades in stocks and options before the information was made public, giving them an unfair, illegal and highly profitable advantage in trading. The participants also are accused of money laundering by using several shell companies to try to hide their activities. |
| 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 Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río
Colorado S.A. 2015 and may not be reproduced anywhere without
permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
| From Page 7: Lawmaker wants blockades to remain a crime By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The government's gentle handling of protesters who block highways does not set well with at least one lawmaker. He is Gerardo Vargas Rojas of the Partido Unidad Social Cristiana who called upon the government to crack down on protesters and subject them to prosecution. He was the only member of Comisión de Asuntos Jurídicos who expressed his opposition Tuesday to a proposal that would decriminalize such road blockades. The proposal was put forward by Frente Amplio, a political party that believes in what is called street democracy. Unlicensed taxi drivers have been blocking main highways in their dispute with the government over reduction in permits. In Palmar Sur evicted squatters are blocking a key bridge on the Interamericana Sur. Another negotiating session in that situation is scheduled for Friday. Licensed taxi drivers also have been known to block the highways or drive at a very slow speed in the past. Such actions are illegal, but the central government has been reluctant to have police take action, although there have been threats of confiscating vehicles and arrests. All of these are damaging to business and residents. A recent blockade caused a woman to make a bad judgment and turn into the path of a tractor trailer with multiple fatal results. |
