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San
José, Costa Rica, Friday, Oct. 16, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 205
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Decree
expands Parque Braulio Carrillo
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The president signed a decree Thursday that added the existing Reserva Forestal Cordillera Volcánica Central to the Parque Nacional Braulio Carrillo. He took the action along with Edgar Gutiérrez, the minister of Ambiente y Energía. The ceremony was at the Escuela de Concepción in San Isidro de Heredia. The park is just north of San José and most of the mountains seen from the capital in that direction are in the park. So is the Autopista Braulio Carrillo, the main highway to the northern zone and the Caribbean coast. The decree adds 2,386 hectares or 5,896 acres to the park's 47,588 hectares or 117,593 acres. Solís said the new designation would give the reserve more protection.  Ministerio
de Seguridad Pública
photo
Lots of hands to hold down croc. Visiting
croc gets run out of town
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A 1.65 meter female crocodile might not seem to be a mighty foe, but pets and children might think so. That is why law enforcement is quick to remove such wandering critters. The last such case was in Boca Vieja de Quepos where neighbors spotted the five and a half-foot reptile near homes Wednesday night. Members of the Servicio Nacional de Guardacostas, the Cuerpo de Bomberos and the Sistema Nacional de Áreas de Conservación of the Ministerio del Ambiente participated in the relocation. The animal ended up in the mangroves along the Río Pirrís, which is considered good territory for crocs. Missing man's brother to run to help others By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Michael Dixon, who vanished in Tamarindo six years ago, is the
Michael Dixon stayed at the Villas Macondo Hotel in Tamarindo, and he is believed to have been seen last at a local nightspot. The brother continues to be critical of the police response. "Evidence indicates he was the victim of violent crime," the bother said of Michael, adding that " . . . Costa Rica authorities and British police did little to investigate. They've now given up on the case, despite the family’s long-standing appeals for assistance." “I’m going to run in Frankfurt to raise money for Missing People because families can only rely on themselves, or on charities like this, if their loved ones go missing abroad,” he said, adding: “Michael’s case was grossly mishandled. So I’m also running to raise awareness of the issue. The British government needs better procedures to protect people when they travel.” Michael Dixon was 35 when he vanished, and his brother said the nature of his work was not likely to be a reason for his disappearance. “It’s never too late for someone to come forward if they know what happened to my son,” Lynn Dixon, Michael’s mother said. “Things sometimes feel normal after all this time. But then, every day, I realize that nothing is normal. I don’t want anybody else to go through what we’re going through,” she added. Veterans will honor the fallen Nov. 6 By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Veterans here will gather Nov. 8, a Sunday, for a U.S. Veterans Day and Commonwealth Remembrance Day ceremony. The location is the International Baptist Church in Guachepelín, Escazú. Officiating at the 5 p.m. ceremony will be the Rev. Stacey Steck of the Escazú Christian Fellowship. A spokesman for the local veteran groups said that everyone is invited to attend, especially all former British Commonwealth country military vets and all members of the U.S. military. The invitation extends to their families and widows and children of veterans, the spokesman, Melvin Goldberg, a retired U.S. Navy commander, said. The purpose of this day is to honor all living veterans and to commemorate the sacrifices of members of the armed forces and of civilians in time of war, he added. The church is visible from the Caldera highway just one mile west of Multiplaza, he noted. Veterans Day this year is Nov. 11. The original name was Armistice Day when it was declared to mark the end of World War I. Commonwealth Remembrance Day is the same date. Young directors to perform tonight By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Seven directors will lead the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional tonight in a program for young conductors. The symphony will perform at the Catedral Metropolitana at 7 p.m. The event is free. The young directors are students of Carl St. Clair, who is the full-time director of the orchestra. For some of the directors, tonight will be their first time in the role in public. Man accused of robbing pedestrians By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Judicial agents have detained a man they say has committed at least 10 street robberies. The 31-year-old man was detained near his residence in Tejacillos de Alajuelita. Agents said they tracked the man down due to the type of vehicle he drove and reports from victims. Agents alleged that this was the man who cruised the streets and would stop to ask pedestrians for directions. Once they neared the vehicle, the robber would threaten them by saying he had a gun. He then ordered them into the vehicle where a second man in the back seat would take their belongings, agents said. The crimes took place between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. in San José, Santa Ana, Desamparados and Aserrí. Agents said that when the man was detained they recovered a briefcase that had just been taken from a robbery victim. They expect to hear from more victims. |
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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 Ro Colorado S.A 2015 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 Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Oct. 16, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 205 | |
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| Nicoya council to mourn the loss of southern part of
peninsula Sunday |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The government of the Canton of Nicoya says it will declare a period of provincial mourning Sunday as part of its battle to reclaim the southern part of the peninsula. The mayor, Marco Antonio Jiménez Muñoz, noted in a statement that exactly 100 years have passed since the then-president Alfredo González Flores issued a decree incorporating the districts of Lepanto, Cóbano, Paquera and islands in the Gulf of Nicoya to the canton of Puntarenas. The Nicoya municipal government has claimed lately that González Flores did not have the power to do that and that a law was required to change the boundaries of the province of Guanacaste. |
Jiménez
said that those who support the cause will gather in the Parque
Recaredo Briceño at 5 p.m. and that lights will be dimmed for
five
minutes and 100 candles will be lighted to mark the passage of time. The municipality is involved in a court case to recover the districts. González Flores apparently took the action because transportation across the waters of the gulf was more efficient at the time. Residents of the lower part of the peninsula still have to cross the gulf either by ferry or by the Puente de Amistad further to the north to handle local governmental paperwork |
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Country
represented at forums
in two European cities By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Costa Rica was represented in two European cities Thursday. Mercedes Peñas, the wife of President Luis Guillermo Solís was in Turin, Italy, for a forum on local development. Manuel A. González, the foreign minister, also was at a forum. This one was in Budapest, Hungary, where he stressed in a speech the strategic importance of the country's relationship with the European Union, said the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto. González also urged approval of a a cooperation and commercial association agreement with Costa Rica. The president's wife is expected to travel to New York where she will participate in the 35th anniversary celebration of the University for Peace in Ciudad Colón. That will be at the United Nations, which operates the university. Casa Presidencial said that expenses for her trip were being assumed by sponsors of the two events. |
 Casa Presdiencial photo
Mercedes Peñas,
Costa Rica's first lady, presents a gift to Giuliano Giubilei, deputy
director of TG3, the Italian state television station who is involved
with the forum in Turin. Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto
photo
Manuel A. González addresses the
forum in Hungary.
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Oct. 16, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 205 | |||||
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| Four-year
study determines impact of rain and heat on turtle sex |
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By the Florida Atlantic University news
staff
Marine turtles deposit their eggs in underground nests where they develop unattended and without parental care. Incubation temperature varies with environmental conditions, including rainfall, sun, shade and sand type, and affects developmental rates, hatch and emergence success, and embryonic sex. Although the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) has been around for more than 60 million years, drought, heavy rainfalls and record temperatures are impacting hatchling sex ratios and influencing future reproduction. Because sea turtles don’t have an X or Y chromosome, their sex is defined during development by the incubation environment. Warmer conditions produce females and cooler conditions produce males. Researchers from Florida Atlantic University have just published the results of a four-year study in the journal Endangered Species Research, on the effects of turtle nest temperatures and sand temperatures and on hatchling sex. “The shift in our climate is shifting turtles as well, because as the temperature of their nests change, so do their reproduction patterns,” said Jeanette Wyneken, professor of biological sciences at the university. “The nesting beaches along Florida’s coast are important, because they produce the majority of the loggerhead hatchlings entering the northwestern Atlantic Ocean.” Loggerhead turtles are already fighting an uphill battle since roughly one in 2,500 to 7,000 sea turtles make it to adulthood. The typical loggerhead produces about 105 eggs per nesting season and would have to nest for more than 10 nesting seasons over the span of 20 to 30 years just to replace herself and possibly one mate. And, if enough males aren’t produced because of climate changes, then this will result in a dire problem for this species. “If climatic changes continue to force the sex ratio bias of loggerheads to even greater extremes, we are going to lose the diversity of sea turtles as well as their overall ability to reproduce effectively. Sex ratios are already strongly female biased,” said Professor Wyneken. “That’s why it’s critical to understand how environmental factors, specifically temperature and rainfall, influence hatchling sex ratios.” Professor Wyneken and her team documented rainfall and sand temperature relationships as well as rainfall, nest temperatures and hatchling sex ratios at a loggerhead turtle nesting beach in Boca Raton, located in southeast Florida. Nesting season, which runs from April through October, |
 Florida Atlantic
University photo
Baby turtle ready to be released.were sampled across 2010 and 2013. The researchers used temperature dataloggers in the sand at three locations and buried them at three different depths to create temperature profiles of the sand column above the level that would directly influence eggs. The rainfall data were graphed with sand temperature for each depth. Nest temperatures were recorded throughout incubation. Rainfall data collected concurrently with sand temperatures at different depths showed that light rainfall affected only the surface sand. Effects of the heaviest rainfall events tended to lower sand temperatures. However, the temperature fluctuations were very small once the moisture reached upper nest depths. Nest temperature profiles were synchronized with rainfall data from weather services to identify relationships with hatchling sex ratios. The sex of each turtle was verified laparoscopically in a lab to provide empirical measures of sex ratios for the nest and the nesting beach. “The majority of hatchlings in the sampling were female, suggesting that across the four seasons most nest temperatures were not sufficiently cool to produce males,” said Professor Wyneken. “However, in the early portion of the nesting and in wet years, nest temperatures were cooler, and significantly more males hatched.” After a small operation to determine sex, the baby turtles were kept in the lab to recover and then released into the Atlantic. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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Colorado
S.A. 2015 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's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Oct. 16, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 205 | |||||||
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| Hacker from Kosovo held for aiding the Islamic State By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
In what the Justice Department calls the first case of its kind, the United States has charged a Kosovo citizen with computer hacking and handing over the personal information of more than 1,300 U.S. military members to Islamic State. Authorities in Malaysia arrested Ardit Ferizi on a U.S. warrant. The Justice Department will seek his extradition to the U.S. Prosecutors allege Ferizi used the alias Th3Dir3ctorY and ran an Internet hacking group called the Kosova Hacker's Security. They say he broke into the computer system of a U.S.-based company and stole personal information on 1,351 U.S. military members and federal employees and passed that information to the terrorists. In August, an Islamic State member named Junaid Hussain sent out a Twitter message that contained a link to a longer document. That document said, "We are in your emails and computer systems, watching and recording your every move. We have your names and addressees . . . we are extracting confidential data and passing on your personal information to the soldiers of the khilafah who soon with the permissions of Allah will strike at your necks in your own lands." The rest of the document listed the names, email addresses and telephone numbers of the federal military and civilian workers. It is not yet clear whether any Americans were harmed as a direct result of the stolen information. Ferizi faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted. Synthetic drug sweep nets 151 persons in 16 U.S. cities By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. law enforcement officials say they have arrested 151 people in 16 cities in connection with more than 10 metric tons of assorted synthetic drugs. The Drug Enforcement Agency, along with other federal, state and local police agencies also seized more than $15 million and 39 weapons in a 15-month nationwide operation. Officials say they targeted money launderers and major dealers who allegedly sold or facilitated the sale of illegal substances. Drug designers have created 400 new substances in an effort to get around laws banning certain drugs. Authorities blame these substances for serious illnesses, emergency room visits, overdoses, and some deaths. A DEA note to journalists says many of the drugs were created in rogue laboratories in China while profits from these activities make their way to countries of concern in the Middle East. U.S. government deficit lower but still put at $18.4 trillion By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. government's budget deficit fell to its lowest level in eight years for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, as the recovering economy boosted tax revenue. Treasury Department officials reported Thursday that the deficit fell 9 percent to $439 billion, an amount equal to 2.5 percent of the total output of the world's largest economy. While the deficit is growing more slowly than it has in other years, adding it to past deficits brings the total national debt to $18.4 trillion, which is around the size of the entire U.S. economy. The Republican-dominated Congress and the Democratic Obama administration are in a political squabble over a looming deadline to renew the legal authorization for financing the debt. Under U.S. law, Congress has to authorize borrowing money by raising the debt limit. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Thursday that Washington would hit that limit Nov. 3, a few days sooner than previously thought. Major New York restaurants to phase out tipping waiters By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Tipping, giving a waiter or waitress an extra 10, 15 or 20 percent of the check when dining out, is an American custom that baffles many visitors to the United States, but it may be changing. The popular Union Square Hospitality Group of restaurants in New York is eliminating the practice, saying that it will instead give a fair wage to its employees so that they are no longer dependent on tips for their income. Chief Executive Officer Danny Meyer said all 13 of his restaurants would phase out tipping over the next year. The practice isn't fair to all employees, he said. "We believe hospitality is a team sport, and that it takes an entire team to provide you with the experiences you have come to expect from us," he said in an announcement. "Unfortunately, many of our colleagues, our cooks, reservationists and dishwashers, to name a few, aren't able to share in our guests' generosity, even though their contributions are just as vital to the outcome of your experience at one of our restaurants," Meyer added. Meyer is not the first to eliminate tipping, with some higher-end restaurants having already abolished the policy. But the fact that such a large and prominent group would do away with tipping may lead the way for more restaurants to do the same, analysts said. Food workers around the country have been seeking a higher minimum wage, and the state of New York plans to phase in a $15-an-hour minimum wage. Canadian who was Iran hero reported to have died at 81 By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Former Canadian ambassador to Iran Ken Taylor, who sheltered six Americans during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, has died at the age of 81. His family said Taylor died Thursday after a two-month battle with colon cancer. As Canada’s envoy to Iran, Taylor played a key role in the rescue mission carried out by the Canadian government and the CIA. The mission inspired Ben Affleck's 2012 Acadamy Award-wining movie "Argo." Taylor kept the Americans hidden at his residence and at the home of his deputy, John Sheardown, in Tehran for three months. Taylor facilitated their escape by arranging plane tickets and persuading the Ottawa government to issue fake passports. Former Canadian prime minister Joe Clark, who was in office during the Iranian hostage crisis, called Taylor a Canadian hero and “an example of what we can be at our best.” For his actions in Iran, Taylor was awarded the U.S. Congressional gold medal. In 1980, he was made an officer of the Order of Canada. After his return from Iran, Taylor was appointed Canada’s consul general in New York. He is survived by his wife and son. Two more suspects identified in 1988 Pan Am bombing By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Scottish prosecutors have identified two more Libyan suspects in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, which killed 270 people. Scotland's Crown Office said Thursday chief prosecutor Frank Mulholland and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch agree that the two Libyans can be questioned under Scottish and U.S. laws as part of the ongoing investigation. The Scottish government did not name the suspects. But newspapers identify them as former Libyan intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi and bomb expert Abu Agila Mas'ud. Both are in prison in Libya on unrelated charges with Senussi having been sentenced to death. Libyan authorities have not yet responded to Scottish requests to meet with the two. A bomb planted in a suitcase blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988. All 259 people on board were killed along with 11 people on the ground. Most of the victims were American college students. The late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi never admitted guilt for the terrorist attack, but as part of his efforts to ingratiate himself with the West, he said Libya was responsible. He paid $2.7 billion in compensation to the the victims' families. He also turned over the main suspect in the bombing to Scotland, Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Baset al-Megrahi. Al-Megrahi became the only person convicted for the attack. He died in 2012 still insisting he was innocent. Families of those killed say they always believed more people than al-Megrahi were involved. Scientists zero in on shots against hemorrhagic viruses By the A.M. Costa
Rica wire services
For the second week in a row since the most recent ebola epidemic began in March 2014, the World Health Organization says no new cases of the disease have been reported in West Africa, according to an ebola situation report issued Oct. 14. Despite the good news, the ebola epidemic in West Africa is not over yet. Nor has the world heard the last of the deadly virus, according to Anthony Fauci at the National Institutes of Health. "We are going to have other ebola outbreaks. History tells us that ebola doesn’t just disappear and go away," Fauci said. To prove his point, Fauci pointed out that there have been 24 outbreaks of ebola since 1976. But it wasn't until this year that a vaccine that’s 100 percent effective was available. That's because scientists in the public and private sectors, even those from competing pharmaceutical companies, worked together to produce a safe and effective vaccine in record time. The vaccine combines a piece of the Zaire strain of ebola with a weakened cold sore virus. The result is vaccine that doesn't make people sick, but protects against ebola-Zaire. There are four different strains of ebola virus that can affect people. "The available evidence is that a vaccine against one strain will not protect against other viruses of a different strain," according to Mark Feinberg, the chief scientist for Merck Vaccines, a branch of the pharmaceutical company that produced the vaccine for trials in West Africa. Merck is also known as MSD. Although the current vaccine only protects against ebola-Zaire, Feinberg said the cold sore virus, or VSV, can be combined with proteins from other strains of ebola. He said, "The VSV approach for the Zaire ebola strain that was tested in this study has been successfully and very effectively applied to all the other known strains of ebola" in studies involving monkeys. Fauci, who heads the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said marrying the weakened cold sore virus with a piece of other hemorrhagic viruses could produce vaccines against the deadly marburg virus or the less deadly but more prevalent lassa virus. Well before the first case of ebola broke out in West Africa, scientists were working on vaccines for other deadly hemorrhagic viruses. Marburg is just as deadly as ebola, and lassa is a virus that is far more common in Africa than ebola or marburg. Up to half a million people in West Africa get lassa fever every year and about 5,000 die from it, according to data from the World Health Organization. Lassa fever is a major health problem throughout West Africa. Fauci said. "Our original purpose before the outbreak of ebola in West Africa, was to . . . have VSV as a vector and to have marburg, lassa and ebola in there." He said the research on producing vaccines against hemorrhagic viruses will go forward. The goal is to never have an ebola epidemic again. "Our original purpose before the outbreak of ebola in West Africa, was to do just that: to have VSV as a vector and to have marburg, lassa and ebola in there. That was the original plan. When ebola had this historic outbreak in West Africa, we put aside the plans for the others and we focused on developing just the ebola," Fauci said. The next time ebola breaks out, Fauci said, public health specialists want to be prepared. Meanwhile, research continues on vaccines for all hemorrhagic viruses. The goal is to end the suffering from all hemorrhagic fevers in West Africa. Find in China challenges out-of-Africa migration By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Forty-seven human teeth dug out of a cave in southern China reveal that the modern human species, Homo sapiens, may have arrived in China 80,000 to 120,000 years ago, much earlier than prevailing theories suggest. A study published Wednesday in the science journal Nature says teeth from the Fuyan Cave site in Hunan province's Daoxian County place Homo sapiens in southern China 30,000 to 70,000 years earlier than in the eastern Mediterranean or Europe. "The model that is generally accepted is that modern humans left Africa only 50,000 years ago," said Maria Martinon-Torres, a researcher at University College London and a co-author of the study. "In this case, we are saying the Homo sapien is out of Africa much earlier." Older traces of modern humans have been seen outside Africa, such as the roughly 100,000-year-old remains from the Skhul and Qafzeh caves in Israel. But many researchers had argued that those remains were only evidence of unsuccessful efforts at wider migration. The excavations for the Fuyan Cave also found the remains of hyenas, extinct giant pandas and dozens of other animal species. The researchers found no stone tools. It is likely that humans never lived in the cave and their remains were instead hauled in by predators. It is also not clear why modern humans would have reached East Asia so long before they reached Europe. Martinon-Torres suggests that humans could not gain a foothold in Europe until Neanderthals there were teetering on extinction. The frigid climate of Ice Age Europe may have presented another barrier to people adapted to Africa. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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Colorado S.A. 2015 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's sixth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Oct. 16, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 205 | |||||||||
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New fire
stations to be built with bonds
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The fire department will get two new large stations as a result of a bond issue engineered by the Instituto Nacional de Seguros. The amount involved is 13.7 billion colons or about $26 million. The bonds will be paid off by the income the Cuerpo de Bomberos de Costa Rica gets from a small percentage of each insurance policy sold in the country, said the state insurance firm. The Superintendencia General de Valores authorized the bond issue Thursday, the insurance firm said. The stations will be designed as Metropolitana Norte and Metropolitana Sur. The north station at Plaza Traube near the Caribbean bust station in Barrio Amón will house the current Barrio México fire fighters. The south station at Parque Cañas at Avenida 18 and Calle 2 will house fire fighters currently at Barrio Lujan and the central station. The land still needs to be acquired. The current locations are not sufficient for future expansion, said the fire department. Buena Vista Social Club at White House By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Cuba's legendary Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club became Thursday the first Cuban-based musical act to perform at the U.S. presidential mansion in more than 50 years. The group's appearance at the White House was part of a reception honoring both Hispanic Heritage Month and the 25th anniversary of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. Named after a long-defunct members-only venue in Havana, the group was formed in the late 1990s when a group of elderly Cuban musicians was brought together for a recording session by American guitarist and producer Ry Cooder that led to a multimillion-selling Grammy Award-winning album, an acclaimed documentary film and sold-out world tours. Thursday's performance at the White House not only comes in the middle of the group's farewell tour, it also represents the end of the Cold War-era animosity between Washington and Havana. The two sides have reopened long-shuttered embassies in their respective capitals in the 10 months since U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban counterpart Raul Castro announced they were restoring diplomatic relations. President Barack Obama said that he had purchased one of the group's CDs in the 1990s. |
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| Feom Page 7: Tax reporting system subject of Sala IV appeal By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Someone has filed a Sala IV appeal against the obligatory use of the Ministry of Hacienda's new online tax reporting system. The press office of the Poder Judicial said Thursday that the appeal had been filed this week. The system is called Administration Tributaria Virtual, and it was the subject of a news story Thursday HERE! The system is a replacement for the EDDI-7 system. The appeal specifically challenges the ministry's Dirección General de Tributación and its Oct. 1 decree published in the official La Gaceta newspaper. There was little additional information on the appeal except that the grounds seem to be that the ministry did not give sufficient time for airing objections. The Poder Judicial did not disclose who filed the case. The use of the system was mandatory for the filing of the September sales tax report, which had a deadline of Thursday. |
