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José, Costa Rica, Friday, Aug. 14, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 160
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The elderly have been mistreated on public buses, according to the Defensoría de los Habitantes. The defensora de los habitantes, Montserrat Solano Carboni, has filed official complaints against two bus lines with the Consejo de Transporte Público. In addition she said that the treatment of passengers should be a consideration when concessions are renewed. The complaints are directed at the Metrocoop R.L firm that runs buses to Hatillo and Alajuelita. Bus passengers have said that drivers retained their cédulas de identidad, did not guarantee use of the preferred seating for the elderly and did not stop where the elderly passenger wanted. The elderly receive reduced fare rides if they show that they are of age, and this has made drivers all over the metro area unhappy. The defensora also suggested that the public transport supervision authority keep a registry of complaints that it can consult when time comes to renew concessions. Arts festival figures faced banning By the
A.M. Costa Rica staff
A legislative committee wants to prohibit four persons involved in the last Festival Internacional de las Artes from government work for four years. The Comisión Permanente Especial de Control del Ingreso y Gasto Público named Elizabeth Fonseca, who was minister of Cultura y Juventud at the time. Also named were two vice ministers, José Alfredo Chavarría Fennell and Luis Carlos Amador Brenes, as well as Inti Picado Ovares, who directed the festival. The committee will present such a suggestion to the full legislature. If approved, the suggestion will go to the Fiscalía General de la Republica to be included with any legal action that might grow out of the festival. The festival is widely seen as badly managed. Only a judge can order individuals to be excluded from public service. What happened with the festival does not seem to rise to the level of a crime, so there may not be any legal proceedings. The principal allegation is lack of coordination.
Health Insurance scams are widespread
Dear A.M. Costa Rica: Diego Rodriguez is quite right. Too many expats come to Costa Rica and expect to benefit from a welfare system they did not spend a lifetime contributing to. The small Caja payments in their declining years will in no way cover the rising medical bills that come with age. It is worse than that. Many exploitative expats lie about their prior conditions. Even the state-owned insurance company is open to exploitation. As one might expect from a state-run enterprise, it is not very commercial. Younger expats can get insurance with no medical examination. There is widespread insurance fraud in this, too, with lies about prior medical conditions and general health. Social medicine can work and does well in other countries. Expats need to behave themselves to help it to do so here. Chris Clarke
Grecia Naturalization has pitfalls for military Dear A.M. Costa Rica: Recently on vacation visiting a friend on the Nicoya peninsula, we were perusing a public forum discussing the naturalization of a retired U.S. military member, (becoming a naturalized Costa Rican citizen). The statement made by the forum participant (and I paraphrase) "does not lose retired pay if the foreign country is not one that is engaged in hostile military actions against the U.S." This statement was absolutely correct! However, only when a retired member is retired from non-regular service. Addressing this subject, the record must be set straight so as to prevent some unwary regular retiree from losing not only his U.S. citizenship, but also all retired pay and benefits!! According to the Department of Defense publication 7000.14-R Financial Management Regulation Volume 7B, Chapter 6, any regular member (retired active duty) loses citizenship and loses retired pay and benefits upon becoming the citizen of ANY other country upon naturalization. Another paragraph speaks to loss of citizenship by voluntary renunciation, or voluntary expatriation! No matter what laws are being ignored at this time concerning citizenship, the laws being discussed remain in force, and all active duty regular retirees remain under recall to active duty and are still under oath! Everyone retired from active regular duty should avail themselves of the facts, prior to considering any naturalization action! J. Farthington Carruthers
Chicago Illinois EDITOR'S NOTE: The writer is correct, based on the documents he provided. However, expats also should know that Costa Rica requires those seeking citizenship based on time in the country to promise to renounce any other citizenship they might have. Many promise and then do not follow though, but the document still is in the files. DNA rules out long-jailed suspect By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A 63-year-old U.S. man who has spent more than half his life in prison for the murder of a 15-year-old girl was released Thursday after newly discovered DNA evidence indicated he was likely not responsible for the girl's death. Theman, Lewis Fogle, served 34 years of a life sentence for the rape and death of Deann Katherine Long in 1976. He has always maintained his innocence. However, while an Indiana, Pennsylvania, judge threw out Fogle's 1982 conviction, Indiana County District Attorney Patrick Dougherty has until Sept. 14 to decide whether to re-try Fogle. Dougherty, who agreed to the DNA testing, also joined with lawyers from the New York-based Innocence Project in asking that Fogle's conviction be thrown out. "I am not agreeing that he is actually innocent," Dougherty said. "I also don't want to let somebody out that deserves to be" in prison. David Loftis, the managing attorney for the Innocence Project said his organization is incredibly grateful to Dougherty "for working with us to conduct the DNA testing" and for acknowledging Fogle's conviction should be set aside. DNA material found on the girl has excluded Fogle as the source. The DNA evidence has proven that Fogle "had nothing to do with this terrible crime," said Loftis. Fogle was arrested and tried primarily on the testimony of three jailhouse informants who said he confessed to them while he was incarcerated. Another man, Earl Eugene Elderkin, said he was present when Fogle raped the victim and later shot her. The Innocence Project says Elderkin was interrogated five times in a five-year period about the incident. The organization said in a statement that "it was only after his fifth interrogation, during which he was placed under hypnosis by someone with no formal training, that he implicated Fogle." The project said at the trial, there was no physical evidence linking Fogle to the crime. The Innocence Project is a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. Vietnamese suspicious of Monsanto, too By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
When Vietnam moved economically from communism to capitalism in the 1980s, it enjoyed an agriculture boom that lifted millions from poverty. But today, new trade deals could threaten Vietnamese farmers, who are considering using genetically modified seeds to stay competitive. In the water, the soil and the genes of newborns, Vietnamese people believe the chemical Agent Orange still endures 40 years after it was sprayed to kill plants in the Vietnam War. Duong Thi Thanh Ha said that’s why she doesn’t forgive chemical producers Monsanto and Dow. Today the companies sell genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. But because of the war history, Ha doesn’t want these companies to bring their products to Vietnam. “We don’t believe them because they already create the Orange Agent to kill our Vietnamese people. Don’t one word say apologize. So we doubt. The guy is not a good guy. So how can they create something good for the human?” she said. The decades-old resentment adds baggage to an already heated debate as Vietnam considers using genetically modified crops on its fields. Farmers have been essential to transforming this Communist country into a powerhouse exporter. But yields have stagnated in recent years, and farmers don’t know if they can compete with more foreign growers as new free trade deals start to take effect. Genetically modified crops could help, said Tran Dinh Long, chairman of the Vietnamese Seed Association. He believes planting genetically modified seeds could improve productivity, so that Vietnam can become a self-sufficient grower. But he wants farmers to look beyond modified crops, too, and adopt high-tech farming methods so they can compete “Technology is not advanced enough yet, human resources aren't great yet, and capital is low, so we'll definitely be depending on foreigners. But if we want to increase our competitiveness, then we have to use high tech at an international level,” said Long. Consumers are not sure about what to make of lab-modified seeds. Chung Hoang Chuong said he is skeptical of all the money modified seed companies spend to lobby politicians. He also worries about the risks for his health, and for the environment. In July, the Pew Research Center in the United States said it surveyed the American Association for the Advancement of Science about modified products. It found that 88 percent of scientists consider genetically modified food to be safe, compared with just 37 percent of U.S. adults. Nguyen Phuong Thao agrees with the other scientists. She teaches biotechnology at Vietnam National University and has researched the topic for 18 years. “My research, many others’ research shows that besides the good side, let’s say that, of the GMO, we care about the side effect of the GMO as well. But there is, so far, no evidence to show that the GMO will cause a problem for the animals or the human health,” said Thao. Thao said GMOs don’t hurt the environment either. On the contrary, she believes they will help Vietnam endure climate change. Some seeds are genetically altered to withstand flooding or drought, the threat of which could increase in Vietnam if climate change worsens. “Right now it’s not so serious, but in 30 years, you will need those drought tolerant crops for sure or many kind of GMO crops. At that time the natural crops will not work for Vietnam, as well as other countries,” said Thao. With its long coastline on the South China Sea, Vietnam is considered one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change. That factor will make it even harder for Vietnamese leaders to decide how to move forward with genetically modified corps.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Aug. 14, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 160 | |
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| Activities and celebrations for Día de la Madre begin
today |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Saturday is the Día de la Madre, a legal holiday that ranks just below Christmas for many Costa Ricans. Although the day is mainly a family affair when children gather to honor their mother, there are official events, too. The first is today at the Hospital de la Mujeres when President Luis Guillermo Solís will meet with breast cancer survivors. He is being accompanied by his wife, Mercedes Peñas Domingo, and other officials for the 10 a.m. ceremony. Casa Presidencial also is hosting an arts and crafts fair at the Zapote facility this morning. The legal holiday is Saturday but the day will not be much of a holiday for restaurant workers and some store clerks. Taking mother to lunch or dinner is a traditional activity on the day. Mother also receives some big ticket appliances and other gifts. |
Merchants and
restaurants have been promoting the day for weeks. And
there are some good deals with some restaurants offering small gifts of
free cocktails for mothers who dine there. The U.S. Embassy staff celebrates weekend holidays on the previous Friday, so that facility will be closed today. Even the Mercado Central in San José is promoting itself as the place to get late mother's day presents. The market will be open Saturday, it announced. The market plans special shows, including marimba, mascaradas and those traditional street bands, cimarronas, both today and Saturday. The merchants also plan a raffle with a beach hotel stay as the top prize. The market increased its hours for the two days, and will be open from 6 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. |
The goal is a clean canton Workers are seen at one of two recycling centers in Desamparados. The municipality announced that it is the first canton in the country to offer pickups for recycled materials in 100 percent of its territory. The two centers process 700 tons of recycled material a year now, thanks in part to studies by Korean experts. |
 Municipalidad de Desamparados photo
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| Animal protection measure receives two official backings |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Dogs had their day Thursday, and so did cats and other animals. Casa Presidencial said that a bill to protect animals was being added to the list of measures to be considered by the legislature in the next two months. At the legislature, Celso Gamboa Sánchez, the No. 2 prosecutor, appeared before the Comisión Permanente |
Especial de
Ambiente to promote the bill. He said that the
nation's prosecutors were not going to go after ranchers and other
farmers who raise animals when the bill is passed. He said the targets
were those who arrange chicken fights or dog fights
and those who participate in the general mistreatment of animals. Also excluded from penalties in the bill were those who accidentally kill animals on the highways, however sad that might be, he said. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Aug. 14, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 160 | |||||
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| University team gets $100,000 Facebook prize for finding
browser bugs |
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By the Georgia Institute of
Technology news staff
Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing developed a new cyber security analysis method that discovered 11 previously unknown Internet browser security flaws. Doctoral students Byoungyoung Lee and Chengyu Song and Professors Taesoo Kim and Wenke Lee of Georgia Tech received an award and $100,000 from Facebook to continue their research and increase its impact to make the Internet safer. The 11 vulnerabilities identified by Georgia Tech have been confirmed and fixed by vendors. “It is time for the Internet community to start addressing the more difficult, deeper security problems,” says Wenke Lee, professor in the School of Computer Science and an adviser to the team. “The security research community has been working on various ways to detect and fix memory safety bugs for decades, and have made progress on stack overflow and heap |
overflow
bugs, but these have now become relatively easy problems.
Our work studied the much harder and deeper bugs . . . and our tools
discovered serious security bugs in widely used software, such as
Firefox. . . ." The work was selected for Facebook's second ever Internet Defense Prize award, which recognizes superior quality research that combines a working prototype with significant contributions to the security of the Internet, particularly in the areas of protection and defense. The award is meant to recognize the direction of the research and to inspire researchers to focus on high-impact areas. “Designing defensive security technology has never been more important, and that’s why we are once again offering the Internet Defense Prize to stimulate high quality research in this area,” said Ioannis Papagiannis, security engineering manager at Facebook. “The Georgia Tech team’s novel technique for detecting bad type casts in C++ programs is the type of standout approach we want to encourage. We look forward to seeing what the team does next to create broader impact and improve security on the Internet.” |
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
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Aug. 14, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 160 | |||||||
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| Mideast hostilities continue on bank of the Seine River By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Hundreds of police were out in force in Paris, where a beach event honoring the Israeli city of Tel Aviv sparked controversy, and a rival event supported Gaza. Along with the beach umbrellas and the sunbathers, politics was on display in downtown Paris. Women brandishing an Israeli flag danced to Jewish music. People waited patiently in line in front of a truck advertising peace food and selling falafel and other Middle Eastern specialties. The city’s annual Paris Beach festival has been devoting every day to a different beach around the world. Few have attracted so much attention or controversy than this one feting the laid-back Israeli city of Tel Aviv. For Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, the event is not about politics but about people, a sentiment echoed by math teacher Rolande Remokh, who was among hundreds of Parisians and tourists attending the festival that creates an artificial beach on the Seine River. “I am Jewish and I wanted to bring some joy. Not always political, just smile. People mix things. They do not think. They just think there is politics. There is religion," said Remokh. But it is hard to ignore the politics here. Politicians and some leftist groups have sharply criticized the Tel Aviv event, calling it a public relations stunt for the Israeli government. A few yards away, separated by a line of police, protesters set up a rival Gaza beach event, where speakers called for a boycott of Israel and greater support for the Palestinian cause. The protesters included 24-year-old French-Moroccan Fadoua El Amri who says the city has no right organizing the Tel Aviv day just one year after the Israeli strikes on Gaza. Events in the Middle East resonate strongly in France, which is home to Europe’s largest numbers of Muslims and Jews. So tensions, along with temperatures, have been rising in Paris over what should have been a very ordinary beach day. Military checking out prisons as home for terrorist transfers By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The Department of Defense has started surveying a military installation in Leavenworth, Kansas, to potentially hold detainees currently at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Leavenworth facility and another military installation in Charleston, South Carolina, are the two approved for surveying at the direction of Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, according to a defense spokesman. Military personnel started surveying in Leavenworth Thursday, while surveyors will start in Charleston in the next week or so, the spokesman said. The U.S. facility will need to hold about 50 of the detainees, according to a U.S. defense official. There are currently 116 prisoners at the detention center at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Many of the others are eligible for transfer to other countries. The defense spokesman said the surveys are part of the ongoing effort to identify locations within the United States that can possibly facilitate military commissions and can possibly hold detainees. He said military personnel will consider surveying a variety of military and civilian sites to determine whether they can hold the war detainees in a humane and secure manner. “Only those locations that can hold detainees at a maximum security level will be considered,” the spokesman said. Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said earlier this week that the Pentagon hoped to hand Congress a plan to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility some time after the legislative branch’s August recess. However, under current U.S. laws, the military and the Department of Justice are not allowed to send the detainees anywhere in the United States. “Congress has slammed the door on virtually any means to move individuals out of Guantanamo to the United States,” said Gary Solis, an adjunct professor of law at George Washington University. Congress must vote to change the law before any of the detainees could be moved to Kansas, South Carolina or another state. President Barack Obama has called for the closure of the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay since the beginning of his presidency. When asked earlier this week about efforts to close the facility, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the administration remains dedicated to the ultimate closure of Guantanamo and is taking all possible steps to reduce the detainee population at Guantanamo. Established by the former George W. Bush administration after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Guantanamo Bay once held nearly 800 enemy combatants captured in the war on terrorism. Republican backers of Guantanamo Bay say it is an indispensable tool for holding and interrogating America’s enemies, and they note that some detainees released from the camp have again taken up arms against the United States. One third of U.S. population favor's Obama's Iranian deal By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Only one in three Americans approves of President Barack Obama's handling of the international agreement to restrain Iran's nuclear program, according to a new Gallup survey. The pollster questioned more than 1,000 people in the last few days and said Thursday that 55 percent disapproved of Obama's handling of Iran policy and 33 percent approved of it. The finding was similar to that of another pollster, Quinnipiac University, which showed recently that Americans opposed the internationally brokered Iran deal by a 2-to-1 margin. The U.S. Congress is now in a summer recess but plans to vote next month on whether to approve or reject the accord, which would bar Iran from building a nuclear weapon in exchange for lifting sanctions that have hobbled Tehran's economy. Obama scored higher on all other issues that Gallup asked about, including race relations, education, the economy, terrorism and foreign affairs, although without a majority approval rating on any of them. Gallup said Obama's overall approval rating was at 47 percent. Connecticut high court rules death penalty unconstitutional By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Connecticut's highest court has ruled the death penalty is unconstitutional in that U.S. state because it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Hours earlier another state, Texas, carried out its 10th execution this year. The contradictory death penalty events reflect the conflicting views about capital punishment in the United States, where 31 states permit executions and 19 do not. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled the death penalty is legal and 19 prisoners have been executed this year. In Connecticut, in the northeastern part of the country, lawmakers approved a law three years ago banning the death penalty for future crimes. But Thursday's ruling means 11 men on the state's death row at the time the law was changed will no longer be executed and are likely to serve lengthy sentences, possibly for life. The southwestern state of Texas, where more death sentences are carried out than anywhere else in the United States, executed a 27-year-old man by lethal injection for running down a policeman at high speed with a sport utility vehicle. He was the 528th person Texas has executed since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1967. Ebola battle is being won in Africa, Who chief says By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The head of the World Health Organization said Thursday that ebola in West Africa could be soundly defeated by the end of this year. Margaret Chan told the U.N. Security Council that current surveillance and response capacities have greatly improved and health workers have a better picture of how the disease spreads. Speaking via a video link from Hong Kong, she said the three most affected West African countries have made huge progress. New cases in Liberia have stopped, and in Guinea and Sierra Leone a total of only three cases have been reported during each of the past two weeks. “If the current intensity of case detection and contact tracing is sustained, the virus can be soundly defeated by the end of this year. That means getting to zero and staying at zero,” she said. World Health says the latest outbreak of ebola, which started last year, will not be officially over until there are zero cases of the virus. Affected countries need to have no new reported cases for 42 days before they can be declared virus-free. Dr. Chan said the African Union and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are jointly establishing a communicable disease control system to help African nations better prepare for potential future outbreaks. There have been nearly 28,000 cases of ebola and more than 11,000 deaths. Satellite setup will track aircraft all over the world By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
One of the reasons Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 hasn't been found is because the plane couldn't be tracked continuously over the ocean. In fact, nearly three-quarters of the globe is untrackable by ground-based radar, the typical way to keep track of aircraft since the 1940s. One company now plans to deploy space-based tracking payloads so that 100 percent of the earth is trackable and no plane will ever be lost again. Sixty-six satellites orbiting the planet, the Iridium NEXT constellation, could change flight. Deployment begins in December as told satellites are replaced. The NEXT satellites will carry a payload to receive an airplane's transponder signal every few seconds. MH370 flew out of the range of Malaysian military radar while over the Indian Ocean. The plane has yet to be found, more than a year later. Don Thoma, CEO of aircraft tracking company Aireon, said MH370 revealed the limits of the current tracking system. “It highlighted to the rest of the world and to the public at large what the aviation industry already knew -- that over 70 percent of the world doesn’t have surveillance. Aircraft aren’t tracked when flying over a major, major portion of the world," said Thoma. Thoma said the NEXT satellites will show it all. The satellites’ receivers, which update every few seconds, rely on cockpit equipment already required by some countries as controllers move from ground-based radar to satellite navigation. Iridium monitors its satellites from a control center in Virginia. Since planes can't currently be tracked over entire oceans, safety rules require large distances between planes. Once NEXT is fully deployed in three years, planes will be able to fly closer to each other, resulting in efficiency and fuel savings for the airlines. Passengers will see more flights and more direct flights to locations around the globe. Iridium already has customers ready to pay for this real time tracking of civilian aircraft. They also are building an emergency operations center 10 kilometers north of Ireland's Shannon airport. Any time an aircraft is lost, the airline or rescue organization could contact the center for the plane's last flight track. "That's unique now because it will be within 8 seconds of when the last contact was made, the distances would have been narrowed down, in the case of MH370, if that was available at the time," said Tony Merrigan of the Irish Aviation Authority. And that service will be free. Honeybee effort in Indiana is a missionary effort of sorts By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Megan Ryan wants to do everything she can for honeybees. So earlier this year she started an apiary at the Southwest Conservation Club in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She and fellow beekeeper Alex Cornwell chose Italian honeybees for their hives. Italian bees are among the most popular stocks because they’re gentler and reproduce faster than other types of domesticated honeybees. In just four months, the club’s apiary has grown from 10,000 to 70,000 bees per hive. Cornwell said that’s good news, noting that over the last decade both American and European hives have lost more than a quarter of their population because of a mysterious condition called colony collapse disorder. "It’s unknown what colony collapse disorder is caused by specifically," he explained, "but it could be a combination of anywhere from pesticides from mites to pathogens." It could also be stress. If too many bees die off at once, it prompts immature bees to leave the nest too early. They can’t collect the needed honey quickly enough, make fatal mistakes and die off early, continuing the downward spiral. Researchers at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, suggested that theory in the March issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. While the search for the cause of colony collapse continues, the Southwest Conservation Club's apiary is adding to the bee population. It also provides information. Every time they visit, Ryan and Cornwell document everything from the bees’ temperament to the condition of the hive to the way the queens are laying their eggs. Cornwell said they share the data with the Department of Natural Resources, other beekeepers, any conservation effort, any organization that would like those records. And Ms. Ryan and Cornwell are sharing their knowledge and passion, along with their data. They have set up an educational component, teaching the public about beekeeping in the hope of encouraging more people to start their own hives. "You don’t have to be a scientist that has a degree in order to teach people and help people learn about bees," Ms. Ryan observed. "That’s the awesome part about beekeeping. Anybody can do it." So far about 100 people have expressed an interest. Ms. Ryan and Cornwell also plan to start a program to teach migrant workers about beekeeping so they can take that skill with them wherever they go. In the meantime, at the Southwest Conservation Club, the bees are doing fine, there has already been an early honey harvest and more people have offered to donate land to expand the apiary. Russian officials incinerate flowers as political signal By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Russia has burned flowers from Holland in a battle against Western imports that saw the destruction of hundreds of tons of food in retaliation for sanctions over Ukraine. Critics say the action is unethical while Russia is struggling against rising poverty. Russia added Dutch flowers to the fire just days after officials destroyed more than 500 tons of banned Western food imports. Authorities say the flowers may have dangerous bugs. But political analysts say the timing with a Dutch-led investigation into the downing of a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine is meant to send a message. “I do not think that this is coincidence. This is one more PR action in this anti-Western mainstream," said Andrei Kolesnikov, of Moscow's Carnegie Center. Dutch investigators say they found suspected Russian missile fragments at the crash site. Meanwhile, the Kremlin blames Kyiv and suggests numerous Western conspiracies seeking to tarnish Russia's image. But critics say images of food destruction, when millions of Russians live in poverty, show officials are the ones doing harm. “This is the main point, ethical point, of this action. Because, for many many years there was hunger in Russia," said Kolesnikov. Authorities say the food ban is stimulating domestic substitutes, but it is also reducing competition and flooding the market with lower quality products. “The situation is quite bad. With competition, with inflation, with consumer moods, with ... GDP growth, not growth, but decrease in GDP," continued Kolesnikov. Russia bans food from Australia, Canada, the European Union, Norway, and the United States. The Kremlin plans to add more countries to its banned food list to include those supporting EU sanctions against Russia because of its actions in Ukraine. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Aug. 14, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 160 | |||||||||
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 Instituto
Costarricense de Electricidad
photo
of Alajuela province were without power Thursday after this truck ran into the base of this electrical transmission tower near Atenas. The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad said power was restored in all areas by Thursday evening. Some charges against WikiLeaks founder dropped By the
A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Swedish prosecutors said an allegation of rape against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will continue to be investigated, but they have dropped several charges of lesser sexual misconduct. Three cases of sexual molestation and unlawful coercion against Assange were dropped because a five-year statute of limitation expired. Sweden issued an arrest warrant for Assange after two women accused him of rape and sexual misconduct during a visit there in 2010. Prosecutors have until 2020 to investigate the claim of rape. Assange took refuge in the Ecuador Embassy in London in 2012 after British courts said he could be extradited to Sweden to face questioning. He denies the charges, saying they are politically motivated. Assange fears Sweden will turn him over to the United States, where he would likely face trial for his involvement in one of the largest leaks of classified material in U.S. history. A U.S. federal court said in March that there were active and ongoing attempts to bring Assange and WikiLeaks to justice in the United States on charges of espionage, conspiracy and computer fraud. Assange and his WikiLeaks team published hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. documents, including military documents on the Iraq war and U.S. Embassy cables detailing its dealings with countries around the world. Meanwhile Thursday, Britain said it would make a formal protest to the Ecuadorian government over its decision to provide asylum to Assange in its London embassy. "Ecuador must recognize that its decision to harbor Mr. Assange more than three years ago has prevented the proper course of justice," British Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire said in a statement. |
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| From Page 7: Animal health services OKs pork from Chile By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The nation's animal health service says that pork imported from Chile is suitable for human consumption. The service, the Servicio Nacional de Salud Animal, sent inspectors to Chile and rejected certification for three of the plants. The decision comes at a time when pork producers here are complaining about imports. The animal health service said that its labs checked pork being imported into the country for a variety of contaminants including Escherichia coli and salmonella. The news release Thursday was seen as a justification for the actions earlier this month in Chile. The service said that six meat packers in Chile sought permission to export to Costa Rica, and two that applied for the first time were denied permission. Of the other four, the service did not renew the permission for one, it said. The remaining three plants have 60 days to correct any deficiencies that inspectors may have found, said the service. |
