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A.M.
Costa Rica
Your daily English-language news source Monday through Friday |
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Published Monday, Aug. 29, 2016, in Vol. 17, No. 170
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San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Aug. 29, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 170
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U.S.
immigration director issues warning
By the A.M.
Costa Rica wire services
The head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection is urging Central Americans to not make the dangerous trip to the United States to try to enter the country illegally. During a trip to Honduras, Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske said he discussed the issue of migrants with a delegation of Honduran officials, including first lady Ana Garcia. "We're very much in agreement with the government of Honduras to help their people stay in their country and not make the dangerous journey to America," Kerlikowske said. The migratory flow is mostly from the Central American nations of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, three countries with some of the world's highest murder and poverty rates. Kerlikowske, who visited a police station to see the process of migrant detention, said the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama wants the migrants to be safe. "From whatever Central American country, we would like them to remain in their country where they can be safe and where they can prosper and where they can get a good education. That is the goal of President Obama," he said. The Obama administration announced in July an expansion of a program to let people fleeing violence in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador enter the United States as refugees. It said Costa Rica agreed to temporarily shelter some of the migrants so they would not try to make the dangerous trek to the United States. Earlier this month, the U.S. Border Patrol released for the first time a public service announcement video in Central America, cautioning immigrants against entering the United States illegally. The video features testimonials from migrants who attempted to make the journey to the United States, including a 19-year-old boy from Honduras who told the story of how his father died in his arms from dehydration.
Suspect
detained in case of beheaded boy
By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
The Guácimo community of Eden reacted Sunday with shock, hatred and revenge when police took into custody a 23-year-old on the allegation that he molested, killed and beheaded an 8-year-old boy. This was no brain teaser for investigators. The child’s father and neighbors found a trail of blood from the home of the suspect to a site near the Río Jiménez where the body was found in two pieces. The boy vanished Saturday, but neighbors had seen him in the home of the suspect around 4 p.m. The father became concerned and began a search about 6:30 p.m., police said. Eventual 200 officers were on the scene. Police detained the man Sunday after a 10-hour search and said that he had blood on his clothing. After judicial investigators conducted a detailed study of the small home of the suspect and left, neighbors torched the place. Dead was Kendall Martínez. The suspect is Jordi Campos Mendoza.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Aug. 29, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 170
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| Overseas
firms seem to be promoting prostitution here and
elsewhere |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Costa Rica has a 2012 law prohibiting calling
the country a sex tourism destination. Based on an
internet search, the law has not had much impact.A computer user can find pages and pages offering the services of call girls and escorts supposedly in Costa Rica. A Diario Extra news story over the weekend said that some Costa Ricans in the United States were upset because their home country was being advertised there as a sex tourism destination. So is every other Latin country and maybe most countries in the world. Many of the Costa Rican listings, however, seem to trace back to a few businesses. Hot Girls Costa Rica, Costa Rica VIP Party, Costa Rica Beach Escorts, Call Girls Costa Rica and Call Girls Panama all seem to include a Colorado Springs, Colorado, phone number. That doesn’t mean the operation is there. Telephone technology allows someone anywhere to receive telephone calls as if being somewhere else. This is a major tool of crooks. The ownership of these internet domains are protected by a Canadian company. Hosting also appears to be from Canada. A few similar operations include local telephone numbers. In fact, anyone can advertise their availability in sites like Craig's List and Backpage. And some other Web sites simply are advertising sites for independent workers. Prostitution is not penalized in Costa Rica, but lawmakers did pass that law that basically says talking about it is a crime. So far the only person who has fallen afoul of that law is David Strecker a/k/a/ Cuba Dave. He was picked up nearly a year ago as he was leaving the country at Juan Santamaría airport. He has been jailed since while prosecutors scurry to find a reason to charge him with crimes. |
 A.M. Costa Rica
graphic
This a fraction of what a Google search producesAt the time of his arrest, the allegation was designating Costa Rica on a Web page as a sex tourism destination, which, of course, it is. Strecker has been very public about all his exploits in paying money for sex in Latin countries. He began by taking boat trips from his Miami hometown to Cuba in the 1990s. Apparently judicial agents followed Strecker for 12 days trying to find him doing something illegal. Since the Strecker case there have been no known actions by prosecutors to enforce the sex tourism designation law. However, news stories in the Spanish-language press frequently result in official actions, so there probably will be a flurry of statements by politicians this week about the sex tourism sites. |
| Health
ministry urges caution in reporting suicide after woman
jumped |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica
The health ministry is calling on media outlets to downplay reports of suicide for fear such publication will cause copycat cases. Although copycat suicides seem like a reasonable consequence of a publicized suicide, the science on that is not conclusive. The Ministerio de Salud is referring to what is called the Werther effect, named that way because of the novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther,” published in 1774 by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In the novel, a young man kills himself because the girl he loves marries another. The book was reported to cause copycat suicides in Germany in the 18th century. The concern in Costa Rica follows the jumping suicide of 40-year-old Déborah Formal Fernández, the daughter of a wealthy family and the former girlfriend of politician Otto Guevara Guth. She stopped her car and jumped from a bridge in Tibás Thursday afternoon. Television stations carried the news with video footage of the covered body being raised to the bridge on a rope. El Diario Extra, a newspaper not known for being shy, carried the story with a blazing red Page One headline Friday. |
The
health ministry said that it was preparing a national
strategy to counteract suicides in Costa Rica with the
help of some private organizations. It said that recent
suicides confirm the Werther effect, although researchers elsewhere are not that sure. Although there was a spike reported in suicides after the death of Marilyn Monroe, there were no spikes after the death of other celebrities. Modern research on the Werther effect is mixed. Said a team of German researchers in a 2007 academic paper summary: “Even though we find several reports on imitation effects connected to Goethe’s Werther in literary works, the epidemiological extent of this phenomenon could never be determined. Also current social scientific research on the impact of suicide stories on suicidal behaviour could not completely remove the remaining lack of evidence of the phenomenon. A.M. Costa Rica usually does not report private suicides. It would have reported the suicide of Ms. Formal if the verified information was available in time. Public suicides usually are reported. Similar cases take place periodically at the so-called suicide bridge in Los Anonos de Escazú and the Platina bridge on the General Cañas highway. Lack of full publication by this newspaper does not mean lack of attention by a reporter. Sometimes suicides are not suicides. |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page |
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San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Aug. 29, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 170
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| Zika’s harm to young brains not limited to small heads, study reports | |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
A report released on Tuesday shows in graphic detail the kind of damage zika infections can do to the developing brain, damage that goes well beyond the devastating birth defect known as microcephaly in which the baby's head is smaller than normal. The current zika outbreak was first detected last year in Brazil, where the virus has been linked to more than 1,800 cases of microcephaly, which can cause severe developmental problems. Prior research has shown the zika virus attacks neural progenitor cells, a type of stem cell that develops into different types of nerve or brain cells. The latest research, published in the journal Radiology, draws from imaging and autopsy findings linked with confirmed zika infections done on 17 infants and fetuses cared for at the Instituto de Pesquisa, in Campina Grande in the state of Paraiba in northeastern Brazil, where the infection has been especially severe. The study also included reports on 28 fetuses or newborns with brain anomalies whose mothers were suspected of having zika during pregnancy. Nearly all babies in each group had ventriculomegaly, a condition in which the ventricles, or fluid-filled spaces in the brain, are enlarged. While most of the fetuses had at least one exam showing abnormally small head circumference, suggesting they had microcephaly, three of the fetuses with ventriculomegaly had normal head circumference, but severe ventriculomegaly. |
Nearly all
of the fetuses or babies in the confirmed zika group and
nearly 80 percent of those in the presumed zika group also
had abnormalities of the corpus callosum, a large bundle
of nerves that facilitates communication between the left
and right hemispheres of the brain. In all but one of the cases studied, the researchers found instances in which developing neurons did not travel to their proper destination in the brain. In many cases, the babies' skulls seemed to have collapsed on themselves, with overlapping tissues and abnormal skin folds suggestive of a brain that had stopped growing. "From an imaging standpoint, the abnormalities in the brain are very severe when compared to other congenital infections," said study co-author Deborah Levine of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a radiology professor at Harvard Medical School. As with other reports, the paper suggests that zika does the most harm in the first trimester of pregnancy. The researchers plan to keep following the cases to see what impact prenatal zika infections have on future brain development. There is no vaccine or treatment for zika, which is a close cousin of dengue and chikungunya and causes mild fever, rash and red eyes. An estimated 80 percent of people infected have no symptoms, making it difficult for pregnant women to know whether they have been infected. Zika is carried by mosquitoes, which transmit the virus to humans. A small number of cases of sexual transmission have been reported in the United States and elsewhere. |
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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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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contents
of
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Colorado S.A. 2016 and may not be reproduced anywhere
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Aug. 29, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 170
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are laying down their weapons By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Rebel commanders in Colombia have ordered a final cease-fire at the stroke of midnight Sunday as part of a permanent peace deal with the government. "Never again will parents be burying their sons and daughters killed in the war," the rebel leader known as Timoshenko said. "All rivalries and grudges will remain in the past." Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos already had announced that the military will lay down its arms against the rebels today. A peace deal was reached this past week in Havana, Cuba, aimed at finally ending 52 years of fighting between the Marxist rebel group and various Colombian governments. The deal is expected to be put to a referendum next month. What began as a small peasant uprising in 1964 grew into one of Latin America's longest and bloodiest conflicts, leaving more than 220,000 people dead and driving more than 5 million people from their homes. Both major U.S. candidates stress their minority support By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Rhetoric on race in America continues at a fever pitch in the presidential contest between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, as both vie for the backing of minority voters eight years after the United States elected its first president of color. “More than 6,000 African-Americans are the victims of murder, of murder, every single year,” Trump said at a recent campaign stop, adding that failed Democratic policies are to blame for high levels of crime and economic dislocation in minority communities. “Trump has stood up in front of largely white audiences and described black communities in such insulting and ignorant terms,” Mrs. Clinton said in a speech late last week. “He certainly doesn’t have any solutions to take on the reality of systemic racism and create more equity and opportunity in communities of color and for every American.” Trump is highlighting crime in the black community as part of a larger narrative about threats to public safety and his promise to be a law-and-order president. A Trump television ad proclaims: “Donald Trump’s America is secure. Terrorists and dangerous criminals kept out. The border secure. Our families safe.” Mrs. Clinton, meanwhile, is painting a more sinister picture of her opponent and some of his backers. An internet ad strings together comments from white supremacists who are openly backing the Republican nominee. “Trump is reinforcing harmful stereotypes and offering a dog-whistle to his most hateful supporters. It’s a disturbing preview of what kind of president he’d be,” Mrs. Clinton said at a campaign stop. Trump’s backers say the candidate is speaking cold, hard truths about issues that need to be addressed, from illegal immigration to inner-city crime. “If people want safer streets, want their police supported, then they should vote for Donald Trump because that’s what he’ll do,” said New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on ABC’s “This Week” program. “He’ll appoint an attorney general who will send very clear messages about how law enforcement is to be pursued in this country.” Trump drew headlines for a recent Twitter post proclaiming a high-profile gun slaying in Chicago as a reason for minorities to back him in the November election. He followed up with a tweet expressing condolences to the family of the murder victim. European Union confronting terrorism, border challenges By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
As the 27-member European Union wakes up from its long August recess this week, thoughts are turning to what will be a critical quarter for the bloc as it makes preparations for divorce talks with Britain as well as strengthening internal and external borders, boosting economic growth and providing jobs for its young people. The bloc will be holding a crucial meeting in Bratislava Sept. 16 in a bid to forge a common position on the EU's future and hash out pressing issues. The sharp rise in terrorism, the failure to protect external EU borders and the current failure of the European project to deliver sufficient jobs and prosperity to the coming generation are the daunting challenges that face Europe’s leaders. Guntram Wollf, director of the economic think-tank Breughel, said the far-reaching issue will be how the European Union is getting itself out of its current malaise. “Will there be more reforms, will there be a greater sense of stepping up the game and become more productive and efficient and more collaborative, or will the result be the opposite?” he asked. One of the most immediate challenges is Europe's fight against terrorism after it was shocked by a number of attacks in Belgium, France and Germany over the past year. The most deadly attacks are linked to sympathizers of the radical Islamist group, Islamic State. Mark Singleton, former director of the International Center for Counter-Terrorism, said even though the EU has developed a lot of non-binding anti-terrorism policies, there is not enough harmonization between the countries to come up with a cohesive plan. “Terrorism threat is by definition a national responsibility so member states of the EU each have their own approaches to the threat, depending on their own perspectives and past history with the phenomenon,” he said. EU member states do not like to delegate security supervision to a body such as the European Commission. Singleton says the current trend in Europe is to prioritize national interests while terrorism can only be solved collectively by addressing root causes of radicalization. Despite most of the radicalized terrorists in Europe being homegrown, the terrorism threat has increased calls to close the borders for incoming refugees and migrants. Eastern members the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia are refusing to take in refugees under a EU-wide quota system championed by Berlin. This past week, several hundred protesters, including members of anti-Islam groups, rallied in central Prague against German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her decision to open the EU's doors to refugees and migrants last summer. Tatiana Festerling, leader of Germany's anti-Islamic, anti-immigrant Pegida movement, was also present for the demonstration. "There are diverging views on how to distribute migrants across the EU, but on many other issues opinions converge," Ms. Merkel said in response, pointing to an EU agreement with Turkey to stem the flow of mostly Syrian refugees to Europe. Jonathan Prentice of the International Crisis Group doesn't believe that stemming the flow of refugees to Europe will work. “Precedent suggests that those desperate enough to risk drowning in the Mediterranean will always strive to find pathways to safety, even ever more dangerous ones. And Europe will find it difficult both to expect other states to remain open to refugees when it fails to do so. The EU is risking its long-standing commitment to human rights and development for the goal of keeping migrants at bay,” he said. Ms. Merkel met with 15 EU leaders over the past week on a post-Brexit tour to find a compromise between those who want deeper European integration and those, particularly in eastern and central Europe, where governments support taking some powers back to the national level. Mexican singer Juan Gabriel reported dead in Los Angeles By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Legendary Mexican singer-songwriter Alberto Aguilera Valadez, 66, known to millions of fans as Juan Gabriel, died Sunday near Los Angeles. Details were not immediately confirmed. But noted Mexican journalist Joaquin López Doriga said the iconic entertainer suffered a heart attack just hours after performing to sold-out crowds in Los Angeles. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, writing Sunday on Twitter, mourned the death, calling Gabriel "one of the great musical icons of our country . . . a voice and a talent" that showcased Mexico and its music to the world. Gabriel, a six-time Grammy nominee known for his onstage flamboyance, first rose to fame in his homeland in the 1970s. In 1990, he became the first pop singer to perform at Mexico City's acclaimed Palace of Fine Arts, a venue until then reserved for classical musicians. A balladeer who sang of love and heartbreak, his recordings sold more than 100 million albums across Latin America, Spain and the Spanish speaking United States. One of his many hits, "Querida," topped Mexico's pop music charts for an entire year. He was inducted into the Latin Music Hall of Fame in 1996, a year after being named Songwriter of the Year by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2009.  Voice of
America photo
Researchers are testing these two types of concrete
aggregates from pre-cast, unused slabs (left) and from
demolished structures with construction debris (right).Researchers seek new life for types of concrete rubble By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Recycling in the construction industry has become big business. It's easy to find new life for everything from old windows to wood beams. But until now, concrete, the most widely used building material on Earth, has been largely left behind. That's a problem for the environment, says Notre Dame engineering professor Yahya Kurama, because concrete has a huge carbon footprint. "It’s very intensive in terms of its demands on energy, water, land space, everything." Producing concrete accounts for 5 percent of the world’s annual human-generated CO2 emissions. In the U.S., it, along with other demolished building materials, takes up nearly half of all landfill space. To reduce such harm, the industry has concentrated on things like reducing new concrete production and finding new uses for concrete byproducts. In the United States, recycled concrete is used in sidewalks and roads, but not for load-bearing structures. Kurama and his team, along with scientists from the University of Texas at Tyler and New Mexico State University, set out to determine whether it was strong and durable enough to be used to construct buildings. "Currently there’s a lot more supply of recycled concrete aggregates than demand," he pointed out. "What we’re trying to do is bring up the demand and at the same time generate the engineering background that these materials can be used in a higher-level application." Kumara’s team is studying different recycled aggregate combinations in hopes of supplying that demand. Graduate student Michael Brandes says they’re interested in two sources for recycled concrete. "The traditional RCA, or recycled concrete as we call it, is something that comes from a bridge that was demolished, a building that was demolished," he said. "Basically what that means is it has the opportunity to accumulate a lot of other materials, wood chips, asphalt, brick, from the construction site. We don’t want to have to sort that out, because it’s an added cost." The other, cleaner source is rejected material from a precast concrete plant, which has no steel, wood or other construction debris mixed in. In both cases, the material is crushed down as aggregate and mixed with fresh cement to make a new product. The team is testing both types of recycled concrete to determine durability and many other qualities: life-cycle costs, weight-bearing abilities, statistical variabilities and properties of the aggregates. Kurama says they are also working out how they might engineer around any differences between the recycled materials and traditional concrete. Currently, without that research, federal building codes bar its use in load-bearing structures, like walls and floors. Kurama says using recycled material reduces concrete’s environmental impact by about half, from decreased water usage and less mining to decreased transportation costs, because materials are often on site or close by. His analysis also showed that in some instances recycled concrete is stronger than its natural counterpart. "Nobody’s going to see an immediate effect of this," he says of his work, "but if you think about the impact of built infrastructure 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years down the road, this will have a big impact in terms of reducing concrete's impact on our environment." It’s expected the world will need 4.4 billion metric tons of concrete a year by 2050. Drug firm rolls back cost of allergy injection packs By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Mylan NV said on Thursday it would reduce the out-of-pocket costs of its emergency EpiPen allergy injection for some patients amid a wave of criticism from lawmakers and the public over the product's rapidly escalating price. The list price of the drug will remain the same, but the company said it would increase the maximum copay assistance program to $300 from $100 for patients who pay for the two-pak in cash or who are covered by a commercial health insurer. The price of EpiPen has skyrocketed to $600 from $100 since it was acquired by Mylan in 2007. Mylan also said it is doubling the eligibility for its patient assistance program, which will eliminate out-of-pocket costs for uninsured and under-insured patients and families. Government paid programs are not eligible for the copay assistance program. Ronny Gal, an analyst with Bernstein, said when all is said and done he estimates a total price reduction for EpiPen of 32 percent. The price rose 27 percent in the second quarter of 2016 versus the same quarter a year ago. "Thus we are basically rolling back the increase of the past year," he said. "In all, we estimate that today's news results in a 20-25 percent hit on EpiPen revenues." He expects that to translate into a 3 to 4 percent hit to Mylan's earnings per share over the next few years. He estimates the company will earn $4.77 a share in 2016 and $5.58 in 2017. Mylan is the latest company to be caught up in the growing outrage at apparently egregious drug price increases. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International and Turing Pharmaceuticals have both been publicly excoriated for similar price increases. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who has spoken out against escalating drug prices, "welcomes the fact that Mylan is now apparently open to taking steps to lower some of the cost sharing burdens imposed on families," Tyrone Gayle, a campaign spokesman, said in a statement. However, he added, "discounts for selected customers without lowering the overall price of EpiPens are insufficient, because the excessive price will likely be passed on through higher insurance premiums." Mrs. Clinton's view was echoed by Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Elijah Cummings, who said Mylan's move is nothing but a public relations stunt that does nothing to help the majority of patients who need the drug. "Offering a meager discount only after widespread bipartisan criticism is exactly the same tactic used by drug companies across the industry to distract from their exorbitant price increases," he said in a statement. "Nobody is buying this PR move any more." Mylan Chief Executive Heather Bresch, defending the price in an interview on Thursday on CNBC, said her company had spent hundreds of millions of dollars improving EpiPen, including making its needle invisible, since adquiring the device from German generic drugmaker Merck KGaA. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents
of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río
Colorado S.A. 2016 and may not be reproduced anywhere
without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
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| A.M. Costa Rica sixth news page |
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San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Aug. 29, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 170
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Give those plants a break when
traveling Good ol’ Metric Man says I should talk about transporting newly purchased plants by car or truck. He has good ideas at times, and I know
Cardboard boxes can work, but only if things aren’t too wet. Leaky stuff makes a mess in the car, lets in the mold, and can collapse when you try to take the box out of the car leaving everything on the ground – and that can provoke cursing. Plastic plant cartons, milk cartons and such are good, but only if you line them with more plastic . . . Life is so complicated. And those larger shrubs of trees that hang out of the car? Drive slowly, please. So much for the trunk of the car, what about your truck? I love pickup trucks, I don’t have one, but I love them. They hold so many plants and you can just hose out the dirt, what could be the problem? The problem is the wind. Drive your truck at 40 mph (65 kph or so) and you are creating a gale force wind, which, according to the Beaufort Scale: “Twigs and small branches [to be] blown off trees.” Leaves will be long gone before you have reached gale force. Worse, the other day we saw a very strange sight, a pickup with an eight-foot tree (2+ meters) upright behind the cab with a woman holding on, bracing it against the wind! There is a first time for everything and I hope it was the first and last time she has had to do something like that. Got a tree to put in your pickup? For heaven sake, lay it flat in the bed. And your potted plants in the bed? Cover them with something, maybe some nice shade cloth, before they get buffeted to bits. There is nothing worse than getting home with plants you really wanted and finding out you have flayed them to bits during the trip. Even Metric Man would prefer dirt in the car.
If you would like to suggest a topic for this column, simply send a letter to the editor. And, for more garden tips, visit HERE! |
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| From Page 7: Motor fuel prices will decline slightly By the A.M. Costa Rica
staff
The Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos said Friday it was cutting the price of super by 24 colons a liter and the price of plus gasoline by 22 colons a liter. The price of diesel will drop by five colons a liter. The new prices will be 566 colons a liter for super and 541 for plus. Diesel will be 433 colons a liter. The prices will be about 2,143 colons ($3.93) a U.S. gallon for super, 2,048 colons ($3.76) for plus and 1,677 ($3.08) for diesel. The agency said the price cuts were due to a decrease in the world price of petroleum. The prices will go into effect when published in the official newspaper. Costa Rica still has some of the highest fuel prices in the isthmus. |
