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San
José, Costa Rica, Wednesday,
Sept. 24, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 189
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Liberty Reserve
figure admits guilt
Special
to A.M. Costa Rica
Maxim Chukharev, a figure in the Liberty Reserve case, pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, said the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. The former Costa Rican resident faces a possible five years in prison at sentencing Jan. 30. He admited one count of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. The U.S. Attorney's Office described him as an information technology manager for Liberty Reserve. According to allegations contained in the indictment filed against Liberty Reserve, Chukharev, and six other individual defendants, and statements made in related court proceedings: "Liberty Reserve was incorporated in Costa Rica in 2006 and billed itself as the Internet’s largest payment processor and money transfer system. Liberty Reserve was created, structured and operated to help users conduct illegal transactions anonymously and launder the proceeds of their crimes. It emerged as one of the principal money transfer agents used by cybercriminals around the world to distribute, store, and launder the proceeds of their illegal activity. "Liberty Reserve was used extensively for illegal purposes, functioning as the bank of choice for the criminal underworld because it provided an infrastructure that enabled cybercriminals around the world to conduct anonymous and untraceable financial transactions. "Before being shut down by the U.S. government in May 2013, Liberty Reserve had more than one million users worldwide, including more than 200,000 users in the United States, who conducted approximately 55 million transactions through its system totaling more than $6 billion in funds. These funds encompassed suspected proceeds of credit card fraud, identity theft, investment fraud, computer hacking, child pornography, narcotics trafficking, and other crimes." Chukharev was an associate of Liberty Reserve founder Arthur Budovsky and was responsible, along with co-defendant Mark Marmilev, formerly Liberty Reserve’s chief technology officer, for maintaining Liberty Reserve’s technological infrastructure, said prosecutors. Chukharev is among seven individuals charged in the indictment, which was unsealed on May 28, 2013. Three co-defendants, Vladimir Kats, Azzeddine el Amine, and Mark Marmilev, previously pled guilty and await sentencing. The indictment also charged Liberty Reserve with conspiracy to commit money laundering and operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business, and those charges remain pending. Value-added tax has many problems Dear A.M. Costa Rica: As another correspondent has noted, value added tax, VAT, applies equally to the poor and rich on each item they buy. As the rich spend more, they pay more tax, which in Costa Rica, means that those who are rich and evade tax might pay for the first time. VAT does raise more revenue, but in Europe, where the rates have been sneaked up each year to around 20 percent in many countries, there have been other problems: 1. As a tax on purchases, every increase adds to inflation and acts as a brake on economic growth. 2. It is easily evaded by those providing and using services who can accept cash without receipts, for example plumbers, electricians, gardeners, doctors, dentists, etc. The service providers do have to pay on their own spending on manufactured products which are easier to track. 3. Smuggling increases from countries with no such taxes. 4. There are many opportunities for fraud. In the UK individual fraudsters are under prosecution or in the the courts for frauds of well over $200 million each. False documentation is usually involved, which is easily obtained here. In a country such as Costa Rica where tax evasion seems to be considered normal, there are many accusations of corruption in the legislature, administration and judicial systems, the scope for such fraud could be both proportionally higher than in Europe and enormous. Perhaps the president's focus should be more on restricting spending, enforcing existing taxes and vigorous anti-corruption measures. Given the embedded vested interests in stopping such measures, he needs all the luck he can get. We should not be too hopeful. Chris Clarke
Grecia
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 189 | |
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| Anti-exploitation day generates some unusual trafficking
statistics |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Tuesday was the International Day against Sexual Exploitation and Human Trafficking, and the observance produced some unusual statistics. An article in Acontecer Digital at the Universidad Estatal a Distancia reported that in San José there were 2,000 young girls working in prostitution. The article cited Colombians, Dominicans and Filipinos who have been brought to Costa Rica for sexual reasons. There was no attribution. However, the article says that the International Police Agency saying that each year there are 35,000 Colombian women who are victims of trafficking, presumably in Costa Rica. At the legislature Tuesday, Sandra Piszk Feinzilber asked her fellow lawmakers to pay more attention to the situation. She said that modern slavery and trafficking of all types involves 20.9 million victims each year and that the international Labor Organization says that 18.7 million are exploited for economic reasons by individuals and companies. |
Despite the large
numbers of trafficking victims supposedly in Costa
Rica, the Acontecer Digital correctly reported that just 29 persons in
Costa Rica were considered trafficking victims in 2013. Still, it said,
2.5 million persons in Latin America are victims of trafficking. The
university is part of a network that studies and keeps statistics
on trafficking. Part of the reason for the confusion has been the way statics have been very broad. Generally they do not separate out those forced into prostitution form those who are willing participants. Costa Rica has seen cases of both, including women brought to the country under false pretenses and then forced into prostitution by individuals who confiscate passports. Most are not aware that there are special programs for trafficking victims, including temporary residency. In addition, included in the mix are persons who pay to be transported through Costa Rica with the goal of reaching the United States. A recent case involved citizens of Nepal who were stopped by the Fuerza Pública. A case of forced labor developed when the crew of a foreign fishing boat said they have been forced to work without pay. |
| Smugglers fail to bring to shore another load of marijuana |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Crewmen of the Servicio Nacional de Guardacostas might be thinking about affiliating with the longshoremen's union. After another boat confiscation in the Caribbean Monday they ended up having to handle up to a ton of marijuana. That is on top of some 1,117 kilos of marijuana that they confiscated from the sea Sept. 12. The latest interception was of an open boat about 100 miles off the Limón coast. The alert came from the crew of a U.S. spotter plane. The four crewmen on the small boat began throwing packages into the sea, but the coast guard crew managed to recover them, said the security ministry. The captured crew was made up of three Costa Ricans and a Nicaraguan. The marijuana is presumed to have come from Jamaica. They arrived in Limón early Tuesday. |
 Ministerio de Gobernación,
Policía y Seguridad Pública photo
Coast guard crewmen are building
muscles handling bales of pot. |
| 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, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 189 | |||||
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| Climate summit closes with billions in pledges to reduce
global warming |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
and the A.M. Costa Rica staff The day-long United Nations Climate Summit has closed with hundreds of billions of dollars in pledges from member states to fight global warming but no binding agreements. U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders are calling for a new global commitment to protect the Earth from greenhouse gas emissions. The World Bank is promoting a price on carbon emissions. Addressing this year’s United Nations Climate Summit Tuesday, Obama said the United States, the world's second biggest polluter, takes responsibility for its role in damaging the global environment, but that all nations must act together to combat the worsening problem of climate change. At the largest high-level gathering on climate in years, Obama called on world leaders to reduce emissions and invest in clean energy, saying it is time to take action against what he called the urgent and growing threat posed by rising temperatures. "The climate is changing faster than our efforts to address it. The alarm bells keep ringing, our citizens keep marching," he said. "We cannot pretend we do not hear them. We have to answer the call." The U.S. leader said the United States has reduced pollution by more than any other nation, adding that his administration has taken measures to cut carbon emissions by 300 million metric tons through the year 2030. He then urged other nations to take similar measures, saying no one gets a pass, or is exempt, from the effort. That effort, Obama said, includes China, the world's biggest carbon polluter. He met Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli on the sidelines of the summit before his speech. Obama said they agreed that their countries, with the world's two biggest economies, must take responsibility to lead the effort to curb carbon emissions. The summit has shown the sharp divisions that exist between industrialized countries and those with developing economies that see environmental restrictions as a threat to growth. Minutes after Obama spoke, the Chinese vice premier called for developing countries to be allowed to have more relaxed carbon emission restrictions than industrialized nations. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened the summit by calling for the world's nations to adopt a new course to protect the global environment from the carbon emissions. Ban said the world should be |
carbon neutral
by the end of the 21st century. Monday, the World Bank announced that 73 national and 22 regional governments, together with about 1,000 companies, will join forces to push for policies that encourage a shift to cleaner energy technologies. That coalition includes countries like China, South Africa, Russia and the Marshall Islands, and companies like British Airways, Unilever and Swiss cement manufacturer Holcim. The United States, the World Bank's largest single financial supporter, was absent from the list. Carbon pricing, if expanded to this scale and then globally, has the potential to bring down emissions in a way that supports clean energy and low-carbon growth while giving businesses the flexibility to innovate and find the most efficient choices, the World Bank said. “The science is clear. The economics are compelling. We are seeing a shift toward the economic architecture that will be necessary to avoid a 2-degree-warmer world, an architecture that supports green growth, jobs and competitiveness,” said Rachel Kyte, World Bank Group vice president and special envoy for climate change . To move carbon pricing use and understanding forward, the World Bank Group, World Economic Forum, and We Mean Business Coalition announced that they would convene a carbon pricing leadership coalition with business and government leaders. Carbon pricing brings together two distinct groups that have each spoken in favor of climate action but rarely worked together to address climate change: governments, which have been testing carbon trading systems and carbon taxes, and businesses that have started setting internal shadow carbon prices to help guide decisions. Quebec started with a tax on fossil fuels and a goal to reduce emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. It launched a carbon trading system in 2012 that is now linked with California’s. “We are encouraging our businesses to become more energy-efficient, adopt clean technologies, and use renewable forms of energy,” said Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard. That means modernizing business models. “Decisions made by companies should reflect the high environmental, social and economic costs associated with climate disruptions.” Couillard and California Gov. Jerry Brown added their public support for carbon pricing through the Put a Price on Carbon Statement, organized by the World Bank with support from several partners. “There has to be a price on carbon because there is a price on carbon: it’s the consequences to health and the economy and to our climate,” Brown said. |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
news page
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 189 | |||||||
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| 1.4 million ebola cases projected by late January By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Between 550,000 and 1.4 million people in West Africa could be infected with the ebola virus by late January, according to a report issued on Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The top range of the estimate, 1.4 million, assumes that the number of cases officially cited so far, 5,864 according to the count kept by the World Health Organization, is significantly underreported, and that it is likely that 2.5 times as many cases, or nearly 20,000, have in fact occurred. CDC emphasized that the projections, based on an epidemiological model that takes into account how many people each ebola patient eventually infects as well as other factors, is based on data available in August. They therefore do not account for the recently announced U.S. government relief effort, which includes sending 3,000 members of the armed forces to the ebola-stricken region. "Extensive, immediate actions - such as those already started - can bring the epidemic to a tipping point to start a rapid decline in cases," the centers said in a statement. The agency's best-case model projects that by getting 70 percent of patients into facilities where the risk for transmission is reduced and burying the dead safely, the epidemic would be almost ended by Jan. 20. A senior U.N. official warned the escalating ebola crisis in Liberia is threatening the social fabric of the country, reversing many of the social, economic and political gains achieved since Liberia emerged from civil war. U.N. special representative Antonio Vigilante said Tuesday the number of ebola cases in Liberia is doubling every few weeks and stands at more than 3,000. About half of those infected have died. “While in the last years Liberia was growing at a very interesting rate, the projections for this year have already been slashed by half and perhaps now 70 percent," Vigilante said. "Production in the mining industry and the agricultural sector and the forestry sector are slowing down, and many in the concessions are actually closed or have had their activities reduced significantly." Vigilante said poverty is increasing as people lose their livelihoods, markets are short of supplies and people are going hungry because food prices are soaring. Meanwhile, it was revealed that experimental ebola drugs will be tested in West Africa for the first time, as part of an initiative to quickly find treatments for the vicious disease. A London-based charity, the Wellcome Trust, said Tuesday it is giving $5.2 million so a consortium of aid groups, research institutions and the World Health Organization can set up clinical trials at ebola treatment centers. There is currently no cure or vaccine for ebola, which has infected more than 5,600 people and killed more than 2,800 in West Africa this year, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The Wellcome Trust says drug makers taking part in the project include Mapp Biopharmaceutical, whose untested Zmapp drug has been given to a small number of ebola patients, as well as a Canadian company, Tekmira, and U.S.-based Sarepta. Precise details of how the trials will be carried out are still under discussion. The Wellcome Trust says participating groups are working with health officials in the affected countries to choose the best sites for the trials. World Health says the number of people infected with ebola could grow at an explosive rate - exceeding 20,000 by November - unless more is done quickly to control the outbreak. The New England Journal of Medicine published a report Tuesday by World Health's Ebola Response Team warning that efforts to isolate patients, increase clinical care, safely bury bodies and engage the community must improve quickly to avoid a sharp increase in cases. World Health Strategy Director Christopher Dye, a co-author of the report, says it is important to act now. "One of the key messages that we want to get across is that we are now in the third explosive phase of growth of the epidemic," he said. "This is an exponential increase with hundreds, going into thousands of cases per week, and if we don't stop the epidemic very soon, this is going to turn from a disaster into a catastrophe," he said. The report comes six months after the World Health was notified of the ebola outbreak. The virus has infected 5,864 people and killed 2,811. Tuesday's report says that although ebola has been reported in many parts of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, more than 90 percent of the cases have been in just 14 of 67 total districts in those countries. World Health said Monday that the outbreak appears to have been stopped in Nigeria and Senegal, with no new cases in Nigeria since Sept. 8 and none in Senegal since its first and only case was reported Aug. 29. Another 30 to 40 U.S. military personnel were due to arrive in West Africa, joining 60 Americans already there, as part of the U.S. effort to combat ebola. The United States has committed $175 million to help combat the outbreak and is sending 3,000 troops to the region to build field hospitals and provide logistical aid. World Health has called for an end to flight cancellations and travel restrictions to the ebola zone. It says these measures hamper international relief efforts and hurt the countries' economies. Stars join USAID project to educate young women By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Hollywood stars Alicia Keys, Jennifer Garner and 30 others have voiced their support for a U.S.-backed initiative called Let Girls Learn. The $231 million program, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, is aimed at ensuring public and quality education for girls worldwide. The new program will focus on five countries in Africa, South Asia, Latin America and the Middle East “In Nigeria, hundreds of young girls were kidnapped as they prepared for their final exams at a boarding school. In Pakistan, a girl was shot,” says an USAID ad. The U.S. Agency for International Development partners with celebrities to call attention to the importance of education for girls worldwide. “For them to be motivated by Malala, for them to be motivated by the kidnapping of the girls in Nigeria ... that means we have a whole new group of people that we can educate,” said Christie Vilsack, a USAID senior advisor for international education. Today, the agency reports that 62 million girls are not in school, and some who insist on getting an education risk their lives. In Pakistan, teenage activist Malala Yousafzai was shot two years ago for her campaign against Taliban efforts to deny girls an education. On Sept. 12, Pakistani authorities announced the arrest of 10 people believed to be responsible. Meanwhile in Nigeria, hundreds of school girls are still missing after being kidnapped by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is a sin" in the local Hausa language. But Ugandan Mandela Fellow Cyrus Kawalya says education is key to reaching one's full potential. “Education helps you open up your mind. Once you open up your mind, then you choose what information works for you and how you are going to work with it," Kawalya explains. "Without education you cannot open up your mind, then what would you do.” USAID recently announced it will provide $231 million to fund programs for primary and secondary schools in Afghanistan, Jordan, Guatemala, South Sudan and Nigeria. “In Nigeria, part of those resources would go for training quality teachers and that is really an important part of it too," Ms. Vilsak said. "About 250,000 girls will be affected.” While a lot of progress has been made in getting children to schools in general, a recent report by the World Bank shows that in a number of countries, about 70 percent of students in the second and third grades could not read a simple paragraph. Ms. Vilsack, says her agency uses a new system to assess students. “I was in Pakistan and got to see the children taking this 10-minute test that very quickly evaluates their fluency, their ability to recognize letters, to name and pronounce the sound of them," she said. She says the agency is working hard to train teachers to make sure the children are not just memorizing, but truly understanding what they are studying. Most U.S. lawmakers say they support Syrian strikes By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. lawmakers are reacting to the first U.S. air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria, with a number of congressional leaders praising the action taken by President Barack Obama. But some members of Congress say the nature of the U.S. mission is shifting, and that Congress needs to debate and vote on authorization of a broader and more sustained military campaign against terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria. Members of Congress are scattered across the country for a seven-week recess, many of them campaigning for the Nov. 4 congressional elections. But a number of lawmakers came out in strong support of the first U.S. air strikes against militant group targets inside Syria. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin said it is historic that the strikes involved forces from Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Republican House Speaker John Boehner said he supports the air strikes ordered by the president, understanding they are just one step in what must be a larger effort to defeat the terrorist organization. Speaking at the White House Tuesday, President Obama highlighted bipartisan support for the U.S. mission in the House and the Senate. But there were also some lawmakers who expressed concern that the nature of U.S. military action is shifting. Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, spoke at an event at the Center for American Progress research institute in Washington. “The point that I think is so critical is that the president shouldn’t be doing this without Congress. And maybe more to the point, frankly, if we are going to assess some culpability, Congress shouldn’t be allowing it to happen without Congress," said Kaine. Before leaving town for the recess, the House and Senate both voted on a narrow measure to authorize the Defense Department to train and equip vetted Syrian rebels in the fight against the Islamic State group. Sen. Bill Nelson, another Democrat, said that is all that is required for now. "The national security of the United States is definitely threatened by ISIS. As I have said over and over, I believe the president has the constitutional authority to strike ISIS in Syria, as he already has in northern Iraq. And that is under his constitutional duty as commander-in-chief," said Nelson. Congress returns Nov. 12, and then will have one month to approve a spending bill to keep the federal government running past Dec. 11. Some lawmakers are saying Congress will also have to authorize additional funds for the costly air campaign against Islamic State targets, and that approving the money should be part of a broader debate to authorize the whole mission. Ben Laden son-in-law gets a life term for propaganda By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A son-in-law of Osama bin Laden has been sentenced by a U.S. court to life in prison for his role as al-Qaida's spokesman after the 2001 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States. Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced Sulaiman Abu Ghaith in New York, telling the 48-year-old Kuwaiti he saw no remorse from him. The judge said he believes Abu Ghaith still wants to do everything he can to carry out al-Qaida's agenda of killing Americans. Before sentencing, Abu Ghaith, speaking in Arabic, said he would not seek mercy from anyone but God. He said, by sentencing him, the judge was "at the same time unleashing the hands of hundreds of Muslim youths." Abu Ghaith was convicted in March of conspiring to kill Americans and providing support for terrorists. Prosecutors said he answered bin Laden's request to speak on inflammatory videos aimed at recruiting new followers to carry out more suicide missions like those in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Jurors at the trial saw parts of a video from Sept. 12 that year showing Abu Ghaith seated next to bin Laden and two other top al-Qaida leaders as they sought to justify the attacks the day before. Surgeons use ultrasound to kill tumor in kidney By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
There is a new way of killing certain cancer tumors that allows the patient to go home on the same day. Surgeons at the Keck Medical Center of the University of Southern California became the first doctors to use this procedure on a patient with the help of high intensity focused ultrasound and new robotic technology. A month ago, doctors found a cancerous tumor in Gary Fradkin’s kidney. It needed to be removed. The 62-year-old windsurfer feared being inactive for weeks after surgery. Doctors told him about a new procedure that would allow him to go home just hours after the operation. “Summer is almost over. I have got to get whatever wind surfing left I can in the season, so I am happy,” he said. Fradkin is in a clinical trial that uses high intensity focused ultrasound to destroy a tumor. Inderbir Gill, physician, says the process starts with an incision about a centimeter wide. A robotic device then gets into the abdomen, finds the tumor and kills it. “So that is what is exciting about the case today, is that to our knowledge, for the first time, a kidney tumor has been ablated using high intensity focused ultrasound as monotherapy, without any additional treatment. And allowing us to do this cuts down on the operative time, decreases the blood loss, decreases the chances of complications, preserves kidney function, while killing the tumor and allows the patient to go home the same day,” Gill explains. Traditionally, patients would have a hospital stay of three to four days after kidney cancer surgery because surgeons would have to cut out the tumor. “We would stop the blood supply to the kidney. We would cut out the tumor then we would suture and repair the kidney, restore blood supply to the kidney, that is a reasonable undertaking and leads to reasonable amount of blood loss and a significant hospital stay to make sure everything is good before letting him go home and even then tell him “take it easy for a month,” Gill adds. With high intensity focused ultrasound, Gill says the tumor is not removed. It dissolves slowly over time. “That is what we will be studying closely as to how long it takes for it to go away,” he said. Gill says he has identified other patients who can benefit from this procedure. They have to have tumors that are four centimeters or smaller, which is about 10 percent of all kidney tumors. He says he believes in the future similar surgery can also be an option for patients with prostate, liver and pancreatic cancers. “I thought it’s exciting. Dr. Gill keeps pushing the edge. I was happy I was able to get this rather than have to go through a traditional surgery,” stated Fradkin. Fradkin said he plans on going back to work as a post-production engineer in the film industry in a few days, and back on the water, surfing with the wind. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 189 | |||||||||
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 Consejo Nacional de vilaidad photo
The rainy season can
generate big surprises for motorists, like this washout at Kilometer
101 on the Interamerican in southern Costa Rica.Simplifying procedures mandated By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The government moved Tuesday to simplify and make more efficient what citizens must do to conduct official business. Public institutions and ministries are supposed to designate a high-level employee to be the simplification officer, and the agency must create a plan on how to protect citizens from excessive requirements. Welmer Ramos, minister of Economía, said he was optimistic that this action would improve use of the government by citizens and firms. He noted that there will be 65 simplification officers in the country. The annual plan is supposed to be published in the La Gaceta official newspaper and also on the institution's Web page. Jacó woman, 39, is murder victim By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A 39-year-old Jacó woman with the last name of Sandí died early Tuesday from what appears to be a severe beating. The woman's body turned up near the bridge over the Río Tárcoles north of Jacó, said the Judicial Investigating Organization. The woman was last seen about 4 a.m. walking alone in Jacó, said investigators. They said her body showed bruises and possible signs of suffocation. The speculation is that the killer tried to eliminate the body by throwing the woman to the crocodiles that inhabit the river. Striking municipal workers to meet By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The mayor of Montes de Oca, which includes San Pedro, said Tuesday that municipal workers have been on strike since Friday. After a series of meetings Tuesday, the worker's union has called a general meeting today at 9 a.m. to see if the strike should continue. The mayor, Fernando Trejos B., said that he expected the strike to end soon so that the jobs of trash collection, recycling, cemetery maintenance, cleaning streets and gutters and all the other necessary tasks could resume. |
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| From Page 7: JetBlue will institute a Boston-Liberia flight By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
JetBlue will begin passenger service between Liberia and Boston Nov. 1, tourism officials announced. The new flight was announced with much fanfare because President Luis Guillermo Solís and Wilhelm von Breymann, minister of Turismo, met with airline officials in New York. Unstated was if the flight is just for the high season or will continue year round. Many lines increase their flights in anticipation of refugees from the frigid north heading south to Costa Rica over the North American winter. Von Breymann, in a release, noted that the airline also has announced flights from Orlando, Florida, and from New York. |
