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A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Aug. 14,
2014, Vol. 14, No. 160
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 Compañía
Nacional de Danza photo
Ballets feature characters in a
same-sex relationshipTwo ballets
address sexual orientation
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A pair of ballets from the national dance company of the Ministerio de Cultura y Juventud are designed to highlight the organization's respect for all sexual orientations and genders. The dances, “Viceversa” and “Los tiernos anónimos,” are scheduled to premier at the Teatro de la Danza Wednesday at 7 p.m. The director of the Compañía Nacional de Danza, Adrián Figueroa, said these performances stand as an invitation to the public to an artistic space free from discrimination. Both ballets feature characters in same-sex relationships, confronting the issue under the creative and free medium of dance. “In the theater we combine the artist with the audience member, so that's why it's important for these cultural spaces to allow people to feel free, and also feel respected,” Figueroa said. “Viceversa” features choreography from Wendy Chinchilla and will be performed by dancers from the national dance company. Its story is presented in a way to focus primarily on constructing a love story, just with two characters who happen to be of the same sex, a culture ministry report said. “Los tiernos anónimos” by Christopher Núñez will be performed by the Danza Graffiti group. The performance focuses on anonymous love and the way in which gay couples have to hide themselves, according to Figueroa Figueroa, who is also a dancer, said that the company's events can present an avenue on which human rights and issues of equality can proceed in Costa Rica. “We live in a free country, in theory,” he said. “Costa Rican society has been gradually realizing that we are distinct from one another, regardless of sexual identity, religion, political leaning, etc. We are distinct, but at the same time we are equal, because we are human beings, and we have the same rights to feel, to live, to be protected and to protect each other.” Vice Minister of Cultura y Juventud Elena Quesada will speak on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender movement in the country before the dances begin. Free tickets are slated to be available at the Teatro de la Danza an hour before the shows start. Teacup poodles rescued from puppy mill Special to A.M. Costa Rica
Friday, 18 teacup French poodles were rescued from a puppy mill in the province of Cartago. Humane Society International/Latin America and the Costa Rican national animal health service participated in the rescue. All the dogs found were being housed in deplorable living conditions, showing signs of malnutrition, said the Humane Society. Several had different health afflictions requiring specialized care. Because of the bad conditions and overcrowding, the dogs were confiscated and carried to the Asociación Humanitaria para la Protección Animal de Costa Rica, an animal shelter in the province of Heredia, the society said. At the shelter, the dogs are being examined by a team of veterinarians and will receive any necessary medical treatment. The dogs at the Asociación Humanitaria will be in constant interaction with people, becoming more sociable and companionable, to prepare them for adoption, said the society. Two pregnant dogs and a one-month-old puppy were part of the rescue and are now being cared for by Club Poodle Costa Rica. "No animal should ever be subjected or forced to live in such deplorable conditions, said Cynthia Dent, regional director for Humane Society International/Latin America. "We're thankful to SENASA and AHPPA for taking action and letting us help rescue these dogs, and we’re relieved these animals will soon find loving homes. We will continue to support and collaborate with SENASA and other local animal welfare organizations to help achieve higher standards of animal welfare, she said referring to the Servicio Nacional de Salud Animal" The Humane Society encourages people to adopt dogs from animal shelters or responsible breeders rather than purchasing a puppy from a pet store or online seller, where most of the dogs come from puppy mills. Puppy mills are facilities that churn out puppies for the pet trade with an emphasis on profit over welfare, said the society. Dogs bred in puppy mills often live in small wire cages with little or no personal attention, exercise or veterinary care, the organization added. Poder Judicial identifies lawyer who is fraud suspect By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Poder Judicial identified a lawyer detained Tuesday by the last name of Sibaja. He lives in Curridabat. He is accused of submitting fake paperwork to the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social where he served as a contract bill collector. Sibaja appeared in court Wednesday morning and was freed with conditions by a judge. The man must sign in with prosecutors periodically. He came to the attention of the Caja and then prosecutors because he began an action against the health agency in the Tribunal Contencioso Administrativo to collect back bills, said the Poder Judicial.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 160 | |
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| Tax agency outlines a new three-part campaign to stem evasion |
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By
Michael Krumholtz
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff Authorities say they want to combat Costa Rica's tax evasion problem by collecting from those who donate money or provide services to political parties. The finance ministry and the Dirección General de Tributación issued the plan Wednesday. It included two additional parts to regulate taxes from business professionals who declare expenses above 60 percent of their income and a campaign against companies and citizens wrongly declaring zero taxes. The agency is cross referencing various data bases. There were tax irregularities found in more than 75 percent of donors surveyed from election campaigns before 2014, according to a Ministerio de Hacienda report. The majority of those campaign backers are not registered with Tributación and remained hidden from their tax rules. Others were found guilty of outright omissions or inaccurate tax reporting, the report said. Vice Minister Fernando Rodríguez said the finance ministry, working with the Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones, will start to tightly monitor the influx of political party funds by reviewing donor reports. He added that the agency does not yet have reports from the recent presidential election. As far as securing its control over professionals, Tributación now requires that they declare all expenses and deductions that equal more than 60 percent of their income. Tributación investigators found that some professionals have been registering up to eight related companies with the same pattern of excessive spending just to buy expensive personal items that they could hide from tax collectors. For example, they found that people have been buying |
cars worth more
than $50,000 and including them in these company expense reports to
dodge taxes. “We will ask professionals to detail all these elements with their respective receipts for each piece of data marked,” said Carlos Vargas, director of Tributación. “Whatever can't be proved will be rejected and will lead to a trade modification and its corresponding tax. This is considered very serious and is an act punishable with 100 percent of Tributación's power,” he said. The plan's third installation, which says that taxpayers cannot declare zero taxes, is already subject to a trial run in the Pacific regions of Puntarenas and Guanacaste. Vargas said that so far investigators have discovered that depreciation expenses exceed more than 50 percent of the worth of asset values, despite fixed percentages in the country's income tax law that basically only range between 5 and 15 percent. “Here as in the rest of the country we have cases of taxpayers reporting expenses greater than their incomes, although their displays of wealth say the contrary,” he said. Neither companies or individual taxpayers are allowed to declare zero taxes based on the argument that their income was equal to or greater than their expenses, the finance ministry report states. Authorities said they hope to have this aspect of the plan in effect by the year's end. Rodríguez said the finance ministry is now taking a variety of steps to plug these leaks in the country's tax collection. He said the agency has improved computer processing and has developed a social media mechanism that calls upon the public to out tax evaders. This three-part plan presented Wednesday should allow for greater ability to prevent and detect evasion, he said. “We are making efforts in all areas of income to improve compliance,” he said. “We have proposed to close legal spaces, and we'll send our first proposal of the law against fraud to congress.” |
| Drug-spotting dogs continue to earn their keep on the road
or at airport |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Anti-drug dogs are earning their chow. In Cieneguita, Limón, Wednesday a black lab known as Alka sensed the presences of marijuana near the gas tank cap. Officers of the Unidad Canina followed up to find five baggies stuffed around the tank cap. Tuesday night at Juan Santamaría airport a dog named Inca became interested in a shipment of mascara tubes that were headed for Ireland. Officers found that the tubes had been laced with about 437 grams of cocaine. Other beauty supplies yielded 593 grams. The same night police located 619 grams of cocaine hidden in auto repair parts headed for Canada. Police said they probably would not have located the cocaine hidden in the beauty products without the help of the dog. The confiscation in Limón was part of a security ministry effort to provide more police there. Officers have been transferred to Limón Centro and adjacent areas indefinitely. Police said that they were able to confiscate four 9-mm. pistols Wednesday, too. |
 Ministerio de Gobernación,
Policía y Seguridad Pública photo
Alka knows what is behind the cap |
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| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 160 | |||||
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| Panama Canal celebrates 100 years of linking East with the
West |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The Panama Canal turns 100 this week. Officially opened in 1914, the 77-kilometer channel joins the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean at the isthmus of Panama. It made the world smaller, creating a shortcut for cargo ships that ply their trade from east and west. But 100 years later the canal is straining from the demands of expanding global trade. It may also be facing some serious competition as it navigates the next 100 years. Taking over 30 years to build, tens of thousands of workers and more than 27 million kilograms of dynamite, it is considered one of the biggest engineering feats of the 20th century. "The Panama Canal is one of those phenomenal moments in history. A terrific example of engineering and technological strength of the United States, and really the coming of age of the United States as a global power," said University of Maryland Professor Julie Greene, author of the book "Canal Builders." But the work exacted a heavy toll. By the time the first ship crossed the canal, nearly 26,000 workers had died, some from accidents, many from malaria. But it also changed international commerce forever, especially in the U.S., says George Washington University Professor, Noel Maurer. “Because it enabled for the first time oil from California and lumber from the Pacific Northwest, but it was really the Californian oil that was driving the boat, to be profitably exported from California to the rest of the United States, and that had huge economic benefits for the United States," Maurer said. Today more than 4 percent of the world's commerce passes through the canal, some 14,000 ships per year. But the canal's locks are now too small for much of the world's container fleet and the largest oil tankers. Transportation expert Rodney McFadden says bigger ships can be more efficient and profitable. “They carry more cargo for about the same amount of money per mile. They are much easier on the environment," he said. "And they increase trade." A Hong Kong company is backing a $40 billion plan to dig an |
 Voice of America photo
These are some of the men who
built the canal.alternate route through Nicaragua. If successful, it could pose a serious challenge to the canal. But critics say the project is redundant and impractical, especially when the Panama canal is in the midst of a $5 billion expansion. Once complete, the new locks will accommodate ships the length of the Empire State building and as wide as three basketball courts. Autodesk, the New Hampshire-based company that created the software for the project, is thrilled. Not only has the expansion created over 250,000 jobs, once finished it will create thousands more around the world, says AutoDesk spokesman Paul Sullivan. "The ripple effect here is interesting because once this canal is completed and these ships are able to transit the canal, you’re going to see a lot more cities around the world competing for improving their ports so they can support those larger ships," he said. Of the approximately 160 ports in the U.S., only about 15 can accommodate the larger supertankers that will pass through the expanded canal. By early 2016, experts say this grand canal will be able to handle 97 percent of the world's container ships - doubling the canal's capacity and ensuring it remains a marvel of engineering a hundred years from now. |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 160 | |||||||
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| Another protest takes place at troubled Missouri town By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Tensions are rising between police and residents in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, where an unarmed black teenager was shot and killed by a police officer. Police in riot gear fired tear gas and smoke bombs late Wednesday night at hundreds of residents who were protesting for a fourth consecutive night in the predominantly black community. The community of 21,000 residents has been on edge since the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown last Saturday. Ferguson police officials say Brown was killed after fighting with the policeman in his car, but witnesses say the teenager was shot multiple times as he and a friend were walking from a store and that his hands were raised to show he was surrendering. The demonstrations have turned violent, with some protesters vandalizing and looting stores. Police officials have responded by deploying heavily-armed officers in military-style vehicles throughout the community, a sight that has worsened relations between residents and Ferguson's mostly white political leadership. The unrest has prompted school officials in Ferguson to delay the opening of the official school year from Thursday until next Monday. Hours before Wednesday's tear gassing, two reporters working in Ferguson, Wesley Lowery of The Washington Post and The Huffington Post's Ryan J. Reilly, were arrested while sitting in a fast-food restaurant. Both reporters say police dressed in riot gear and carrying assault weapons entered the restaurant and ordered the patrons to leave. Lowery and Reilly took photos and videos of the incident on their cellphones and posted them on Twitter. Both men were later released from custody without being charged. The FBI has opened an investigation into the shooting to determine if Brown's civil rights were violated. Witnesses say the officer who shot Brown was white, but authorities have not disclosed his race or identity. The officer is now on administrative leave. President Barack Obama released a statement Tuesday offering his condolences to Brown's family. He urged residents to comfort each other "in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds.” Fewer refugees in Iraq weight against evacuation By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. Defense Department says a mission to evacuate refugees from a mountain in northern Iraq is far less likely after an assessment found fewer refugees in the area than previously feared. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, speaking to reporters late Wednesday, cited the effects of U.S. air strikes against the Islamic State group and airdrops of humanitarian aid in helping to improve the situation on Mount Sinjar. "Not only were there fewer people up there, but they were in relatively good condition, and the people up there credited our efforts with the water and the food and also buying space and time with those air strikes against ISIS, so that's good news," said Hagel. Iraqi Kurds and other minorities sought refuge on Mount Sinjar ahead of a deadly militant onslaught in the vast regions near the Syrian border. The U.S. sent troops to the area this week to assess how to help the humanitarian situation. Hagel said Wednesday that despite the positive assessment, the U.S. effort in Iraq is not complete. President Barack Obama has ruled out sending combat troops back into Iraq. Meanwhile, embattled Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki continued to resist mounting international pressure to step aside. Maliki, who is intent on serving a third term, said Wednesday he will not give up power until a federal court rules on new President Fouad Massoum's decision to name a Maliki rival as prime minister. Maliki, a Shi'ite, has lost the support of the international community. Critics accuse him of marginalizing Iraq's minority Sunnis and Kurds and of failing to unite the politically fractured landscape of Iraq during his tenure. Ebola outbreak stimulates efforts for a good treatment By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The World Health Organization has approved the use of experimental drugs for people who have ebola, a virus that already has claimed more than 1,000 lives in western Africa. The experimental ebola serum that was used on American and Spanish missionaries is produced in California at the Mapp Biopharmaceutical laboratory. The manufacturer says it has run out of the serum but that it is trying to increase production as quickly as possible. Other groups also are working on treatments and vaccines. Researchers at Newlink Genetics in Iowa say they have a vaccine that was 100 percent effective when given to monkeys. The company got a federal grant to ramp up its work and to speed up human testing. The U.S. National Institutes of Health has approved a grant to the University of Texas Medical Branch to develop effective treatments for ebola. Professor Thomas Geisbert is the lead researcher. "That grant really is to focus on what we believe are three of the most promising post-exposure treatments against ebola," said Geisbert. All have proven effective in testing on monkeys. Professor Geisbert says the next step is human trials. “One of the goals for this project is to actually try to combine these different treatments, for example with HIV there’s been a lot of success in combining different anti-viral drugs that operate by different mechanisms of action, and we believe that this is something that may work for ebola as well," said Geisbert. Since 1976, there have been more than 15 ebola outbreaks in sub-Saharan Africa, but no licensed treatments are available. U.S. aid worker is still a Taliban captive in Pakistan By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Three years ago Warren Weinstein, an American aid worker, was kidnapped by unknown armed men in the Pakistani city of Lahore. A resident of Rockville, Maryland, Weinstein was a business development expert working in Pakistan on a contract with the U.S. Agency for International Development. He had been in Pakistan for close to seven years when the gunmen stormed his residence and took him away. “I really don’t know why they are holding him. He was in Pakistan doing development work. He is just an old man, a sick man who was dedicated to doing his job in Pakistan and kept staying there for the benefit of the Pakistani people,” Elaine Weinstein, the wife of Warren Weinstein said. No group has claimed the responsibility of the kidnapping, but some experts say Pakistani Taliban or its affiliated groups may be behind the kidnapping. These groups oppose the U.S. policy of conducting drone strikes inside Pakistan, targeting militants that allegedly attack targets in the neighboring Afghanistan. Mrs. Weinstein said that her husband was in no position to make the U.S. change its policy. It's believed that Weinstein is being held in a mountainous region near the Afghan border where the Pakistani military is fighting extremists. His captors released four videos of him, most recently last Christmas. “His captors have released some videos. The last one they released was in December of 2013. It is terrible to see him and not be able to talk to him. Not be able to tell him how we feel and ask him how he is doing,” Mrs. Weinstein said, adding that her husband’s captors have not contacted the family with any demands. Weinstein has a heart condition that requires medication, along with high blood pressure and asthma. His family is worried that his health could fail or that he could be mistakenly killed by Pakistani forces. Mrs. Weinstein said both the U.S. and Pakistani governments assured her that they are doing their best to secure her husband’s release. Mrs. Clinton must travel delicate path for election By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
One of the more complicated and fascinating relationships of the modern political age is that of President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Once bitter rivals, Mrs. Clinton was Obama’s surprise pick as his first secretary of State. By all accounts they worked well together. Petty rivalries were mostly swept aside as Mrs. Clinton traveled the world as the face of a new administration, determined to show the U.S. had turned the page after eight years of the presidency of George W. Bush. In recent days it appears that the relationship has taken yet another turn. Mrs. Clinton stepped up criticisms of the president's handling of foreign policy, taken by some as yet another sign of an impending campaign for the White House in 2016. In an interview with The Atlantic, Mrs. Clinton seemed to take a shot at what has come to be known as the Obama administration’s shorthand foreign policy mantra: “Don’t do stupid stuff.” Mrs. Clinton put it this way: “Great nations need organizing principles and ‘Don’t do stupid stuff’ is not an organizing principle.” Some of the president’s advisers were not amused. David Axelrod blasted away on Twitter: “Just to clarify, ‘Don’t do stupid stuff means stuff like occupying Iraq in the first place, which was a tragically bad decision.” All of a sudden, the memories of the Obama-Clinton 2008 battle for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination came back into focus, especially the Obama campaign’s efforts to remind Democrats at every turn that Mrs. Clinton voted for the Iraq war as a senator from New York. In an effort to tamp things down, Mrs. Clinton called Obama to assure him that nothing she said was an attempt to “attack him, his policies or his leadership,” according to a statement from a Clinton spokesman. Mrs. Clinton detailed in her recent book “Hard Choices” how she and the president differed over arming moderate rebels in Syria. She was in favor. He was opposed. All of that has come back into play as the Obama administration grapples with the growing threat of jihadists in northern Iraq. No doubt if Hillary Clinton runs for president in 2016, she will have to put some distance between herself and the president, especially if the president remains unpopular. But how she does that, without annoying liberal Democrats who remain loyal to Obama and whose support she will need to win, will be a key test of her political skills. For Obama, the criticism comes at a bad time politically. He is stuck at some of the lowest poll ratings of his tenure, just a few months before midterm congressional elections will likely determine what kind of presidency he will have in his final two years in office. In fact, it is Mrs. Clinton who is likely to be in demand as a Democratic speaker during the upcoming midterm campaign, more so than the president. Mrs. Clinton is expected to carefully choose where and when to campaign and for whom. The demand for her is likely to outstrip her ability to accommodate all those who would seek her help. It will be a different scenario for the president. Many vulnerable Democrats running in Republican-leaning states have already signaled they would prefer he not come on their behalf. And the White House, fully aware of the prospect of losing Democratic control of the Senate, understands and is willing to oblige. While the Democratic Party story line for 2016 is clear at the moment with Mrs. Clinton as the frontrunner, it is anything but on the Republican side. A recent Marist poll shows undecided is the top choice for Republicans in Iowa with 20 percent and in New Hampshire at 22 percent. After that Rand Paul and former Florida governor Jeb Bush are tied with 12 percent each in Iowa followed by 2012 vice presidential candidate and Rep. Paul Ryan at 11 percent. In New Hampshire, Rand Paul is at 14 percent support followed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 13 percent. Christie has made some early visits to Iowa, which some Republican strategists see as a sign that he believes he remains a viable 2016 option among GOP contenders. That’s important because Christie has been dogged by a scandal that ensnared some of his aides related to lane closings on the George Washington Bridge that caused massive traffic jams last September. International law is clouded by modern war practices By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The argument, made by an American law professor and presented to the Israeli parliament as Israeli forces pummeled Gaza and Hamas rained rockets, was as provocative as it was straightforward: Israel has the legal right to shut off electricity and water to Gaza as part of its Operation Protective Edge, said the professor. The military effort, now in its fifth week, has resulted in more than 1,900 deaths and more than 10,000 injured. Howls erupted in legal circles. Days later, dozens of legal experts around the world piled into a debate with origins dating back decades, if not, centuries: in times of armed conflict, what exactly is a war crime? “How do you balance military targets with human lives? That’s exactly what all commanders must do,” said Gary Solis, a U.S. law professor and author of a definitive textbook on war crimes and humanitarian law. “And many think the Israelis have not done this well.” War has evolved quickly over the years. Less so the laws of war. Also known as humanitarian law, the laws of armed conflict were born in the U.S. Civil War, matured in the devastation of World War I and refined after the second, built on the proposition that even if war is inevitable, it doesn’t have to be immoral. The 1949 Geneva Conventions, adopted by every country in the world, spell out the rules for everything from how prisoners of war should be treated and who exactly is considered a soldier, to what objects or buildings are considered legitimate targets. Two additional protocols updated those rules in 1977 to include special protections for children, women and civilian medical personnel, and measures of protection for journalists. The International Committee of the Red Cross, considered the interpreter of international humanitarian law, tries to be the neutral arbiter of conflicts like those now raging in Gaza, Ukraine and Syria. As of last Friday, more than 1,900 people had been killed in Gaza, along with 10,000 wounded and at least 400,000 people displaced, according to the Red Cross. That included at least 10 people killed when Israeli artillery hit a United Nations-operated school that was sheltering women and children. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called that shelling a criminal act. "International humanitarian law is meant to strike a balance between military necessity and humanitarian considerations,” Red Cross President Peter Mauer said in a statement Aug. 8. "Having seen the destruction on the ground, and met the victims of the hostilities, I can affirm first-hand that this balance has not been respected.” Humanitarian law’s slow evolution was jolted by the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, whose resulting wars highlighted the laws’ limitations. It’s one thing to have armies clashing on a battlefield — think U.S. and German tanks in the Ardennes in 1945. It’s another when the enemy doesn’t wear uniforms or targets civilians with suicide bombs. When an attacking force launches Qassam rockets near schools or hospitals, or a soldier fires a Hellfire drone missile with the push of a button from suburban Washington, D.C., the Geneva Conventions’ proscriptions seem almost quaint. That was something the Bush administration struggled with, what to call men captured in Afghanistan who may or may not have had connections to al-Qaida. Under traditional laws, they would have been called prisoners of war and entitled to legal protections. For some Bush advisers, that was problematic: a terrorist is not the same as an enemy combatant. “The verbal gymnastics that the U.S. and others have undertaken is a good illustration of the conceptual challenge that IHL has had in trying to keep up with this new form of conflict,” said John Ciorciari, an assistant professor of international law at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. Last month, Abraham Bell, a professor at the University of San Diego, submitted a legal brief to the Israeli Knesset arguing that Israel is within its rights to cut off the water and electricity supplies it provides to Gaza. “In times of armed conflict, warring parties have to allow humanitarian supplies to flow to civilians in enemy territory as long as they are certain the supplies will not be appropriated by the enemy combatants,” Bell said in an email interview. “But they obviously have no obligation to provide the supplies themselves, and they certainly have no duty to allow the passage of non-humanitarian goods. On July 26, on the legal blog OpinioJuris and elsewhere, Bell was rebutted by others who called cutting off power and water a violation of humanitarian law: civilians in Gaza are not combatants and shouldn’t be targeted as part of military action. That question, Cornell University law professor Jens David Ohlin said, turns on whether Gaza is considered occupied or not. “If Gaza is occupied territory, then Israel has certain humanitarian obligations to the residents of Gaza based on Israel’s status as a belligerent occupier of the territory,” Ohlin wrote in an email. “Many questions of international law hinge on whether a territory is a state or not, and the status of Palestine continues to be controversial and unsettled.” Days after Bell’s argument circulated on OpinioJuris, an open letter signed by more than 140 legal experts from around the world began circulating on the Internet, accusing Israel of war crimes. The letter, which doesn’t appear timed to Bell’s argument, argued that, among other things, Operation Protective Edge was in fact part of an armed conflict that’s been ongoing since 1967. Many argue that Israel, which has smart weaponry, sophisticated surveillance and a clear command structure, has a greater duty to avoid civilian casualties. If you have satellite-guided missiles that can be targeted with pinpoint accuracy, then using an artillery barrage in an area crowded with civilians is indiscriminate — illegal. Others point to the fact that Hamas is firing its missiles amid Gaza’s high-rise apartments where Palestinian civilians live— also a violation under the international humanitarian law. The Palestinian group Hamas also doesn’t fit the traditional definition of a combatant. Rather it is closer to something called a non-state actor, a legal concept that, according to Ohlin, is only gradually being incorporated in international legal thinking. |
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| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by A.M. Costa Rica.com Ltda. 2014 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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Single gene
appears to control jet lag
By the Salk Institute for Biological
Studies news staff
Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified a gene that regulates sleep and wake rhythms. The discovery of the role of this gene, called Lhx1, provides scientists with a potential therapeutic target to help night-shift workers or jet lagged travelers adjust to time differences more quickly. The results, published in eLife, can point to treatment strategies for sleep problems caused by a variety of disorders. “It’s possible that the severity of many dementias comes from sleep disturbances,” says Satchidananda Panda, a Salk associate professor who led the research team. “If we can restore normal sleep, we can address half of the problem.” Every cell in the body has a clock, an abundance of proteins that dip or rise rhythmically over approximately 24 hours. The master clock responsible for establishing these cyclic circadian rhythms and keeping all the body’s cells in sync is the suprachiasmatic nucleus, a small, densely packed region of about 20,000 neurons housed in the brain’s hypothalamus. More so than in other areas of the brain, the neurons of the nucleus are in close and constant communication with one another. This close interaction, combined with exposure to light and darkness through vision circuits, keeps this master clock in sync and allows people to stay on essentially the same schedule every day. The tight coupling of these cells also helps make them collectively resistant to change. Exposure to light resets less than half of the suprachiasmatic nucleus cells, resulting in long periods of jet lag. In the new study, researchers disrupted the light-dark cycles in mice and compared changes in the expression of thousands of genes in the suprachiasmatic nucleus with other mouse tissues. They identified 213 gene expression changes that were unique to the suprachiasmatic nucleus and narrowed in on 13 of these that coded for molecules that turn on and off other genes. Of those, only one was suppressed in response to light: Lhx1. “No one had ever imagined that Lhx1 might be so intricately involved in SCN function,” says Shubhroz Gill, a postdoctoral researcher and co-first author of the paper. Lhx1 is known for its role in neural development: it’s so important, that mice without the gene do not survive. But this is the first time it has been identified as a master regulator of light-dark cycle genes. By recording electrical activity in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of animals with reduced amounts of the Lhx1 protein, the researchers saw that the SCN neurons weren’t in sync with one another, despite appearing rhythmic individually. “It was all about communication–the neurons were not talking to each other without this molecule,” says Ludovic Mure, a postdoctoral researcher and an author on the paper. A next step in the work will be to understand exactly how Lhx1 affects the expression of genes that creates this synchronicity. Early morning quake near Nicoya By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Laboratorio de Ingeniería Sísmica said earlier today that a 4.2-magnitude quake took place at 4:04 a.m. The epicenter was estimated to be about 14.6 kilometers or about 9 miles due east of Nicoya Centro on the Nicoya peninsula. In fact, the epicenter was estimated by the Universidad de Costa Rica agency as being 40 kilometers directly under the highway that leads from the Puente de Amistad to Nicoya. Earlier in the day at 2:32 p.m. there was a 3.9-magnitude quake in the hills of the northern Pacific coast some 9 kilometers (5.5 miles) south southwest of San Mateo Centro. Both quakes appear to have been felt just locally and not in the Central Valley. |
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| From
Page 7: Investigative firm expands reach into Asia Special
to A.M. Costa Rica
Derish Associates, Inc., has formed a new strategic alliance with Ted Kavowras of Panoramic Consulting, a firm that specializes in intellectual property investigations, primarily in Hong Kong and China. Seth Derish, the principal in the firm that bears his name, said he and Kavowras have worked together for years on investigations around the globe. They recently firmed up this alliance when Derish attended the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition conference, which took place in Hong Kong. Also attending the conference were international law firms, U.S. and Asian law enforcement agencies, manufacturers' representatives, as well as the U.S. consul general and his staff. “As many of our existing clients already know, Mr. Derish's recent focus is in Latin America, as he lives and works in Costa Rica and is the district director for Central America for the Council of International Investigators. The new partnership with Panoramic increases Derish Associates' global reach to include Asia,” said Mary Nikas, vice president and chief investigator for U.S. Operations. While Panoramic specializes in detection and gathering of evidence against foreign counterfeiters, Derish Associates provides background intelligence on the individuals and corporations behind these crimes, offering victims the information they need to recover damages. The Council of International Investigators is meeting in San Francisco Sept. 3 to 6, and both Derish and Kavowras are offering free consultations then to discuss intellectual property needs.Those unabel to do that can visit the Derish Web site. Derish Associates is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with offices in Chico, California, Salem, Oregon, and San Jose, Costa Rica. The U.S. operations are personally handled and directed by Ms. Nikas, a San Francisco Bay Area native who joined the firm in 1994 after several years in the financial securities sector. She specializes in financial and real estate fraud investigations and has exposed bankruptcy and mail fraud rings, money laundering schemes, and mortgage loan and escrow company fraud. Kavowras is currently the operations manager of Panoramic Consulting Ltd. He is a retired police officer and a seasoned investigator, with years of experience in the U.S. law enforcement arena, working for the New York Police Department and with various federal agencies. Panoramic protects many major brands in China, and has developed a working relationship with Hong Kong customs officials and police and with the Chinese Public Security Bureau and Food & Drug Administration, to combat counterfeiting. Kavowras has been featured as an anti-counterfeiting expert on many major networks and is frequently called upon to speak at worldwide conferences of lawyers, investigators and law enforcement. Derish, a San Francisco native, opened his own investigation agency there in 1978 and has been continuously practicing since. In the 1980s, he worked with legendary personal injury attorneys Melvin Belli and Bob Cartwright, became an outside consultant to Security Pacific National Bank and was an investigative adviser to The San Francisco Examiner, The San Francisco Chronicle and CBS local affiliate, KPIX News. Derish assists local and national law firms in all types of cases, including labor, environmental, personal injury, and financial fraud. He has worked on several murder cases for the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office as an outside contractor. His most notable case involved eyewitness testimony that led to the exoneration of the client for murder, he said. |
