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in Pacific, U.N. agency says Special
to A.M. Costa Rica
The United Nations agency dealing with weather, climate and water says an El Niño event has begun in the tropical Pacific and is likely to continue into early 2010. El Niño and La Niña bring significant temperature fluctuations in surface waters of the tropical belt of the Pacific Ocean. An El Niño event sees a rise in temperatures, and La Niña witnesses a drop in normal temperatures. These temperature changes are strongly linked to major climate fluctuations around the world, especially in Latin America, Australia and East Asia, which can last for a whole year or more. Both El Niño and La Niña can disrupt the normal weather patterns and have widespread impacts on climate in many parts of the world. The U.N. World Meteorological Organization said Wednesday that sea-surface temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific had risen to between 0.5 and 1 degree Celsius warmer than normal by the end of June, with similar temperatures in July. “Scientific assessments of these observations indicate that this warming resembles the early stages of an El Niño event,” the Geneva-based agency stated in a news release. “Although some of the atmospheric changes associated with this warming have been initially slow to develop into classical El Niño climate patterns, the warming is now well-established enough for scientists to conclude that it is consistent with a basin-wide El Niño event.” In its most recent update on the subject, the Meteorological organization said that the expectation is for El Niño conditions to very likely prevail through the remainder of 2009 and into the first quarter of 2010. “This expectation is based on model forecasts, and the typical life-cycle of El Niño events, which once established in the early-middle part of a year, usually persist through into the first quarter of the following year.” The agency added that El Niño typically occurs once every four to five years, so the current assessments translate to a substantially elevated risk of an El Niño developing later this year. At the same time, it noted that, in considering risk management strategies, it is important to keep in mind that many unusual climate patterns and significant climate extremes occur independently of El Niño. Hurricane Bill may head to Canada next week By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
U.S. weather forecasters say Hurricane Bill has grown into a powerful storm as it swirls in the open Atlantic and could become stronger, possibly threatening easternmost Canada next week. The National Hurricane Center in Miami says in its 11 p.m. report Wednesday that Bill was maintaining category four strength. Bill was moving toward the northwest near 17 mph (28 kph) and this general motion is expected for the next day or so with a turn toward the north-northwest by late Friday. Maximum sustained winds were near 135 mph (215 kph) with higher gusts. Some strengthening is possible during the next 24 hours, the center said. The storm was about 880 miles (1,415 km) south-southeast of Bermuda. In Costa Rica some increases are expected for the Caribbean waves. The Instituto Meteorológico Nacional said that there would be an increase in winds and humidity from the Caribbean today, and this would cause more afternoon rains through the northern zone, the Central Valley and the Pacific coast. 30 experts on the trail of missing U.S. citizen By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Cruz Roja said Wednesday that it had 30 trained mountain rescue workers in the search for missing U.S. citizen David Gimelfarb. Late in the day it appeared that two U.S. military helicopters also were on the hunt over the rugged Parque Nacional Rincón de la Vieja in northern Costa Rica. The Chicago man failed to return to his hotel Aug. 12 after a hiking trip to the park. Searchers later found his rented car. The Cruz Roja also said it had telecommunications specialists and three cartographers on the search, too. The searchers are facing adverse weather conditions with heavy rains. The park contains 14,083 hectares or 34,800 acres. It is home to two volcanoes, the Rincon de la Vieja and Santa Maria; six different volcanic peaks and 32 rivers and creeks. Aggressive soccer fans will meet today for game By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Sometimes at first division soccer games there is more action in the stands or later in the streets or in the parking lot than on the field. The reason is the aggressive partisanship of the so-called barras, organizations of fans. The major groups are the La Ultra and La Doce. Although not as violent as some of the similar European groups, members of the barras, dressed in their team colors have been known to stone buses and engage in attacks on supporters of other teams. The Ministerio de Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública, the la Liga Deportiva Alajuelense and community leaders plan a friendly soccer game today at the Estadio Morera Soto in Alajuela to bring the two groups of fans together to prevent future confrontations. Quake near Puriscal felt in San José area, too By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A quake near Puriscal rattled some homes there and in the Central Valley early Wednesday. The exact location was reported as 10 kms. southeast of San Ignacio de Acosta, said the Red Nacional Sismológica of the Universidad de Costa Rica. The Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica said the 5:30 a.m. quake had a magnitude of 3.3, but the Red Nacional said 4.3. The quake was about 67 kms (about 42 mile) deep and was caused by movement of the Coco and Caribe tectonic plates.
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Once you are
bilingual, the brain will not let you shake it
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By
the Association for Psychological Science
news service A new study shows that bilinguals are unable to turn off a language completely. With a vast majority of the world speaking more than one language, it is no wonder that psychologists are interested in its effect on cognitive functioning. For instance, how does the human brain switch between languages? Are humans able to seamlessly activate one language and disregard knowledge of other languages completely? According to the study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, it appears humans are not actually capable of turning off another language entirely. Dutch psychologists Eva Van Assche, Wouter Duyck, Robert Hartsuiker and Kevin Diependaele from Ghent University found that knowledge of a second language actually has a continuous impact on native-language reading. The researchers selected 45 Ghent University students whose native-language was Dutch and whose secondary language was English. The psychologists asked the students to read several sentences containing control words — plain |
words in their native language —
and cognates. Cognates are words that
have a similar meaning and form across languages, often descending from
the same ancient language;. For example, cold is a cognate of the
German word kalt. While the students read the sentences, their eye movements were recorded and their fixation locations were measured — that is, where in the sentence their eyes paused. The researchers found that the students looked a shorter period of time at the cognates than at the controls. So in the example sentence Ben heeft een oude OVEN/LADE gevonden tussen de rommel op zolder ("Ben found an old OVEN/DRAWER among the rubbish in the attic"), the bilingual students read over oven more quickly than lade. According to the psychologists, it is the overlap of the two languages that speeds up the brain's activation of cognates. So even though participants did not need to use their second language to read in their native language, they still were unable to simply turn it off. It appears, then, that not only is a second language always active, it has a direct impact on reading another language — even when the reader is more proficient in one language than another. |
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In a tough
economy extortion seems to be on the upswing
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Extortion seems to be on the rise as the economy remains flat. The extortion can be as brutal as a violent kidnapping and torture. Or it can be a repeated toll exacted by armed youth like that found in Barrio Chino, Pital, San Carlos, where residents had to pay to go to their homes. Or it may be a repetition of the automobile kidnappings in which owners are offered the right to recover their stolen vehicle for a payment. On the Nicoya peninsula agents still are searching the mountains and woods for four kidnappers who finally released an Atenas businessman Tuesday afternoon. They took him Friday night near the finca or farm he owns near Cóbano. They wanted 30 million colons, about $51,500. They settled for about a third of that amount. Express kidnappings are more common in other Central American countries, but seem to be on the rise here. The situation in Barrio Chino is tense. The Fuerza Pública officers who responded to a call about a shooting Sunday night were stoned by some residents. So was a Cruz Roja ambulance. It was here that some thugs were demanding payment to allow neighbors to pass through their own neighborhood. Police responded in force Tuesday with the Grupo de Apoyo Operational, a tactical squad, and a K-9 dog unit. Officers checked documents and detained two illegal Nicaraguan immigrants for rapid deportation, they said. Police and immigration officers have deported about 70 persons from that area already this year, they said. |
Residents told police that they did
not think that the young toughs
were members of an organized gang, although the specter of the
notorious Central American gangs always are on the minds of law
enforcement. Residents said that they were being charged from
5,000 to 6,000 colons to enter their own homes,
some $8.50 to $10.30. That is a substantial sum in a poor neighborhood. Perhaps unrelated to the extortion scheme, a Nicaraguan man, Julio Meneses Toledo, died there Sunday night in a gun battle. Two persons suffered bullet injuries. A riot broke out when one neighbor kept the presumed aggressor safe in his home. A crowd gathered and rock-throwing began. That's when 10 officers arrived and were greeted with rocks. Investigators broke up one auto extortion ring this week with the arrest of two men, they said. The Judicial Investigating Organization set up a trap for the men after a citizen complained he had been offered the right to buy back a stolen car. The theft victim was told he would have the car back for 600,000 colons, some $1,030, An additional payment was sought for the return of a laptop computer that was in the car when it was taken. Judicial police arrested the two men when they arrived near Juan Santamaría airport to exchange the car for the money. One man was a guard, and he had a number of stolen vehicles hidden on the property he was supposed to watch, agents said. A judge in Alajuela declined to jail the two men in preventative detention. Instead, they have to sign in with the prosecutor every 15 days. |
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| U.S.
will get all information it sought under Swiss pact Special
to A.M. Costa Rica
The U.S. Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service have announced that the data exchange agreement with the Swiss government has been finalized. As a result of the agreement, the United States will receive substantially all of the data on bank accounts of interest when it initiated the John Doe summons against the UBS ban a year ago. Under the agreement, the IRS will submit a treaty request to the Swiss government describing the specific accounts for which it is requesting information. The Swiss government will then direct UBS to initiate procedures which could result in the turning over of information on thousands of accounts to the IRS. The IRS will receive information on accounts of various amounts and types, including bank-only accounts, custody accounts in which securities or other investment assets were held and offshore company nominee accounts through which an individual indirectly held beneficial ownership in the accounts. Also, the agreement retains the U.S. Government’s right, if the results are significantly lower than expected and other measures fail, to seek appropriate judicial remedies, including resuming actions to enforce the John Doe summons. The agreement involves a number of simultaneous legal actions: • The judicial enforcement of the John Doe summons will be dismissed. While this enforcement motion will be withdrawn, the underlying John Doe summons remains in effect. Upon receiving the treaty request, the Swiss government will direct UBS to notify account holders that their information is included in the IRS treaty request. It is expected that these notices will be sent on a rolling basis with some being sent over the coming weeks and others over the coming months. Receipt of this notice will not by itself preclude the account holder from coming into the IRS under the Voluntary Disclosure Program, which is due to end on Sept. 23. In addition, the Swiss Government has agreed to review and process additional requests for information from other banks regarding their account holders to the extent that such a request is based on a pattern of facts and circumstances equivalent to those of the UBS case. Information provided to the IRS through this process will be thoroughly examined for all potential civil and criminal tax violations, the agency said. The IRS will assess any additional tax, interest and a number of applicable penalties. This includes the penalty for the willful failure to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts. This penalty can be up to 50 percent of the value of the account for each year a report was not filed. Under the Voluntary Disclosure Program, the account holders must pay 20 percent of the amount of tax that was underpaid for the past six years and 20 percent of the highest value of the account over the past six years, in addition to all their unpaid taxes and interest due on those taxes. The IRS will also recommend criminal prosecution in those cases where the facts warrant such an action. To date, the Justice Department and the IRS have successfully prosecuted four U.S. customers of UBS whose information was provided to the IRS by the Swiss bank as part of the Deferred Prosecution Agreement. Individuals whose information is obtained by the IRS through this process will, by longstanding policy, not be eligible for the voluntary disclosure program, the agency said. |
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| Latin American news |
Pakistani
VOA reporter finally released by U.S. By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. immigration officials have released a Pakistani journalist who reports for Voice of America's Deewa Radio and whose home was destroyed by Taliban militants last month in northwestern Pakistan. The journalist, Rahman Bunairee, was freed Wednesday, more than one week after he arrived in the United States and was taken into custody at Dulles International Airport outside Washington. The Department of Homeland Security has refused to comment on his case, citing privacy reasons. Bunairee was let go after U.S. customs authorities apparently resolved questions about his visa. Bunairee's ultimate legal status and right to remain in the U.S. will be determined at a future immigration hearing. The journalist is currently reviewing his legal options with his attorney. Voice of America's parent agency, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, issued a statement welcoming Bunairee's release, describing him as a man of extraordinary courage and dedication. The board said it expects Bunairee will in due course be able to undertake the assignment at VOA for which he has come to the United States. Bunairee traveled to Washington to help VOA develop its broadcasts to the troubled Afghanistan-Pakistan border region through the Radio Deewa service. Bunairee came to the United States after a group of militants came to his residence early last month in northwestern Pakistan's Buner district and blew up his home. The reporter, who was not present at the time, said the militants allowed 11 members of his family to leave. No one was reported hurt in the blast, but the journalist said militants threatened to take further action if they found him. |
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