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| Costa Rica Expertise Ltd http://crexpertise.com E-mail info@crexpertise.com Tel:506-256-8585 Fax:506-256-7575 |
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in session with Arias By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
President Barack Obama chaired a summit level-session of the U.N. Security Council Thursday that unanimously adopted a resolution committing to work toward a nuclear weapons-free world. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the second day of the U.N. General Assembly where the annual debate continued. The Security Council session focused on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, and the resolution urged action to prevent the spread of atomic weapons. Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sánchez also spoke because his country is a non-permanent member of the Security Council. He urged nations to reduce their nuclear arsenal. President Obama presided over the meeting, the first time a U.S. president has done so. He told the council that the United Nations has a "pivotal role to play" in preventing a nuclear crisis. "The historic resolution we just adopted enshrines our shared commitment to the goal of a world without nuclear weapons," said President Obama. "And it brings Security Council agreement on a broad framework for action to reduce nuclear dangers as we work toward that goal." Among its goals, the resolution aims to strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to keep nuclear materials out the hands of terrorists, and to ensure the development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. All of the other council members were represented by their head of state or government, except for non-permanent member Libya, which sent its U.N. ambassador instead of President Moammar Gadhafi. Uribe insists illegal drugs should remain that way Special
to A.M. Costa Rica
The consumption of drugs should be made illegal to break the increasingly close links with production, trafficking and organized crime, Colombia’s president told the U.N. General Assembly as he warned about the dangers posed by the illicit drug industry. Álvaro Uribe Vélez told the start of the assembly’s annual General Debate, held at U.N. headquarters in New York, that proposals to legalize drug use did not make sense given the tightening nexus between consumption and production. “The old division between producer and consumer countries has disappeared,” he said. “Colombia began as a space for trafficking, broke into production and today suffers as a consumer. Those who started as consumers increase production. All peoples are exposed to the risks of production, trafficking and consumption.” Uribe urged U.N. member states to “reflect on the need to make consumption illegal,” rather than to advocate for the legalization of drugs. “There is no coherence between the severity facing production and trafficking and the permissiveness of consumption. This has led to murderous micro-trafficking in cities, to encouraging consumption by adolescents and youth and to involving children in the criminal enterprise. “We are advancing in the constitutional process to make consumption illegal, making sure not to confuse the sick addict with the criminal distributor.” The Colombian president said the only reason now for terrorism in his country was the illicit drug industry, with criminals more open about their connection to the drug trade and their tactics, such as abductions. But he said authorities in the South American country, where government forces, rebels, paramilitary groups and criminal gangs have fought over four decades, were having success in combating criminal activity and what he described as “paramilitarism.” Tucson gets new U.S. center to issue passports to public Special
to A.M. Costa Rica
The U.S. Department of State opened its 23rd domestic passport issuance facility in Tucson, Arizona. The Western Passport Center is located in Broadway Northeast at 7373 E. Rosewood St.. The Western Passport Center is a mega-adjudication center with a public counter that is the first domestic passport facility of its kind. It combines the efficiency of a high-volume production environment with personal customer service, the State Department said. The center is one of 19 domestic passport agencies that is open to the public. The Western Passport Center has the capability to issue passport books and cards on site to qualifying customers who have urgent/emergency travel needs and those who have planned departures within 14 days. Appointments can be scheduled 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, through the department’s automated appointment system. With the land border phase of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative in effect since June, the Center will greatly improve the department’s ability to meet the travel needs of customers in several states along the U.S.–Mexican border, the department said. Drug agents knew suspect from previous encounters By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The 10th time is a charm, or at least the Policía de Control de Drogas hopes so. They detained a man for the 10th time Thursday. He was identified by the last names of Méndez Matamoros. Agents said he was 50 years old. He faces a drug distribution charge, agents said. The man was detained on Calle 4 between avenidas 7 and 8 near a bar. Agents said they had received telephoned complaints about the man via the 176 anti-drug hotline. They said the man was carrying crack cocaine and a significant amount of money. There was no explanation about why he was at liberty after having been arrested nine times in the past. Police sweep the downtown By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Fuerza Pública officers, accompanied by the security minister, conducted a sweep of downtown San José and León XIII Thursday afternoon. In the downtown between avenidas 3 and 7, police questioned about 100 persons and visited bars and vacant lots in the area. In León XII they made contact with 90 persons, they said. The security minister is Janina del Vecchio, who is pushing to install some 300 surveillance cameras downtown. Officials said she was there to inspect the work of the police. Science fair in Cartago today By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica in Cartago is hosting a regional science fair today in its gymnasium. Some 57 projects produced by 120 students are expected to be displayed. The event lasts through 3 p.m.
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| A.M. Costa Rica third newspage |
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 Ministerio de Cultura, Juventud y Deportes
photos
José Miguel Rojas and Castillo de Moro
Juan Carlos Camacho
Hernández 'Aquella tarde de abril' |
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Historic
structures provide great subjects for artists
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
No one needs an artist's eye to find and appreciate historical buildings in Costa Rica. The country is full of them, and some even have been designated as historical landmarks. That is the job of the Centro de Patrimonio of the Ministerio de Cultura, Juventud y Deportes. But the heritage center also tries to raise interest in such structures, which is why culture officials conducted an art contest in which the works would feature historic buildings. The winners were announced Thursday. First place went to José Miguel Rojas, curator of the Museo de Arte Costarricense. He depicted the Castillo de Moro, a well-known San José building. Second place winner Juan Carlos Camacho Hernández went to the city's smallest barrio, Barrio Otoya, where he found |
the perfect house for his
watercolor "Aquella tarde de abril," translated as That
April Afternoon. In the young artists category, Eugenia Núñez Barrionuevo took first prize with her work of the Edificio Metálico in San José, and Zurych Hernández Solano took second with a painting of the Capitanía de Puerto in Puntarenas. All 44 works submitted by 35 artists will be on display in the Centro Nacional de Cultura, the old liquor factory east of Parque España. The awards were money prizes. The Centro de Patrimonio also runs a contest each year that provides substantial sums for the restoration of historical buildings. One structure is the central post office in San José. Among other improvements, the Correos building is now a light brown instead of the institutional green it wore for years, |
| You just never know how the journey will
turn out |
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| How long has it been
since you spent over an hour in a doctor’s office (not the waiting
room), and during that whole time he/she never once looked at a
computer? And you got to see more than just his
profile? This was my experience recently and it was a repeat of
the experience I had the first time – nearly17 years ago – when I
visited Dr. Davidovich. I hadn’t consulted him since that first time (the problem I went to him for was gone). But this time he was is just as involved and thorough, with the same gentle and reassuring singsong voice as he was then. He did not dismiss out-of-hand any of my concerns that stemmed from a recent test at the Hospital San Juan de Dios. But I was already set up for a good day. I’ve been hanging out in my apartment lately, so this week was the first time I’ve boarded a bus headed for downtown. I took a new bus book with me and was immediately charmed with the first lines of a poem, "Ithaca" by C. P. Cavafy, translated by Rae Dalven, that is a preface to the novel, "Journey to Ithaca," by Anita Desai. “Then pray that the journey is long. That the summer mornings are many, That you will enter ports seen for the first time With such pleasure, with such joy!” Okay, I can do that, I thought, paraphrasing Helen Hunt in “As Good as it Gets.” Authors often use the descriptive phrase like “Go away, George,” she hissed. And I, an attentive reader, cannot figure out how anyone can hiss that phrase or others like it. But Ms Desai did it perfectly in the sentence, “She saw that his skin was scarred with boils and drew back her lips in a hiss of horror.” I could do that, too. What I could not do is what the couple in the book and a friend of mine is doing right now: making a pilgrimage through India and staying in ashrams or following yogis. It simply is not my cup of chai. I will find enlightenment (if ever I do) in Costa Rica, taking buses and trains wherever they go – once the glitches in the train to Heredia get solved, |
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| A.M. Costa Rica fourth news page |
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| The Royal Dutch Navy supply ship Amsterdam
departed Limón Thursday after a visit of three days. Despite the designation, the boat is becoming more and more involved in the fight against drug smuggling. The craft contains launches and hangers for helicopters. The boat, based in Curaçao, also is used to render aid in emergency situations like hurricanes. The Dutch ambassador to Costa Rica, Matthijs van Bonzel, was the host when the ship was in port. He gave a presentation pointing out his country's concern over drug smuggling and the treaty with Costa Rica that was desgined to stem drug traffic in the Caribbean. |
 Royal Dutch Navy photo
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| Pacific
cruise ship season begins with California liner |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Puntarenas tourism industry is happy with the start of the cruise season. The Island Princess docked Wednesday and became the first visitor of the season. The boat has San Francisco, California, as a home port. The Instituto Costarricense de Turismo estimates that there will be more cruise ships visiting Costa Rica this season. Some 122 are scheduled for the Pacific, and the total is expected to exceed the 238 that visited at both ports last season. There were 1,947 passengers on the island Princess. |
They were greeted
with a ceremony put on by the Municipalidad de Puntarenas with the
mayor, Agnes Gómez. Last year nearly 320,000 cruise passengers visited Costa Rica counting both the Pacific and Limón. The high season for cruise ships runs through April on the Caribbean and through May 15 on the Pacific. The tourism institute said it welcomed the creation of the Asociación Costarricense de la Industria de Cruceros, formed in August, to develop better services for the visitors. Members are many of the tourism operators in the area. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Sept. 25, 2009, Vol. 9, No. 190 | |||||||||
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| Bilingual
youngsters lower in recall, high in creativity By
the University of Alberta news services
If your language Immersion student is not able to think of a certain English word or the correct foreign word, a University of Alberta researcher has a sage piece of advice. Relax, it's completely normal. Elena Nicoladis, an experimental psychologist, recently published a study of unilingual and bilingual children's ability to recall words in "Bilingualism: Language and Cognition." Nicoladis' research with students between the ages of 7 and 10 showed that bilingual children's lexical recall was slightly lower than their unilingual counterparts. However, Nicoladis notes that this is not an alarm bell to pull children from immersion programs. She said that the results of the study show only a small part of the children's overall language skills. "The results are not a deficit of bilingualism," said Ms. Nicoladis. "We know from other studies that the same challenges can be found in bilingual adults. But you don't see bilinguals stuttering more or having a difficult time expressing themselves." In the study, a group of unilingual and bilingual students were initially asked to name a series of objects that, while familiar to them, were not everyday words, such as a weather vane. The bilingual students scored slightly below their English-language peers. However, the bilingual students were equally able to recognize an object's name in both languages at a later period during the testing. The bilinguals also showed a stronger capacity to describe the object or even literally translate the name of the object. The Canadian students wre bilingual in French and English. "The bilingual children displayed what were clearly some influences from a literal translation or some other translation," said Ms. Nicoladis. "For example, a couple of students called a pine cone a pineapple, which, in French is pomme de pin, so, literally, pine apple in English." The children also demonstrated some distinct behaviours during the study. Some students would occasionally answer in French during the English interview portion or in English during the French interview. Ms. Nicoladis notes that these types of responses did not occur with researchers working with adults. Ms. Nicoladis believes that it is likely a developmental issue related to filtering language context and accessing two separate lexical files, akin to picking up the wrong dictionary. Ms. Nicoladis notes that there are some positives to the study. If the adult research is any indication, the bilingual children will improve their recall ability as they grow older. She also sees the thinking process that the bilinguals displayed in responding to the questions as a benefit to the students' linguistic duality. "The kids are already showing incredibly clever ways at coming up with words or expressions that convey what they're trying to say," she said. "One argument about an advantage of bilingualism is that it could lead to creativity, and we're already seeing the signs of that now in that age range here in the study." |
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Latin American news |
U.S.
financial indicators continue to be a mixed bag By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. economy continues to generate mixed data that analysts say point to a slow recovery from a deep and prolonged recession. U.S. job losses continue, but at a slower pace. The Labor Department reports the number of newly laid off workers seeking unemployment benefits fell for the third consecutive week. Last week's total of 530,000 claimants was down 21,000 from the previous week. "The labor market is improving. These numbers are still high," said Global Insight Chief Economist Nariman Behravesh, "The jobs market always lags the recovery by at least six months, and there is a very simple reason for that. Businesses are reluctant to rehire until they are sure that the recovery is sustainable." America's unemployment rate stands at 9.7 percent and is widely expected to top 10 percent by the end of the year, even if economic contraction ends before then. Meanwhile, existing home sales in the United States dipped unexpectedly in August, reversing several months of gains in one of the country's most beleaguered sectors. The National Association of Realtors says home sales fell 2.7 percent to an annual rate of 5.1 million units, down from a 5.24 million unit pace in July. The group's spokesman, Walter Maloney, says plenty of would-be home buyers exist, but that finalizing sales is proving difficult. "We know there has been a lot of contract activity, very strong increases in contracts. But what is happening is that not all of them are closing," Maloney said. Despite an easing of last year's severe credit crunch, some home buyers continue to report difficulty securing financing. It was the mass issuance of home mortgages to individuals of dubious creditworthiness that led to a rash of defaults and foreclosures beginning in late 2007 and set the stage for last year's financial meltdown. Since then, many banks have tightened lending standards. The median sales price of an American home stands at $177,000, down from $203,000 a year ago. |
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