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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page | |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Monday, Oct. 28, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 213
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 A.M. Costa Rica/Barry Hovland at 10 Degrees
Above
Alvaro Campos cools off a biker.Cross-country
bike race
tests muscles of 445 entrants By
Kimberley A. Beck
Special to A.M. Costa Rica La Ruta de Los Conquistadores or Route of the Conquerors is an extreme mountain bike race, which starts in Jacó along the Pacific coast and leads to Playa Bonita along the Caribbean. The 2013 entrance fee was $1,650 for foreigners and $550 for Ticos. This year 445 entrants paid to be part of this event. Many cyclists had major sponsors such as behemoths Gatorade and Land Rover while local Costa Rica sponsors included packaged snack producers Pozuelo. Other well known sponsors were Specialized and Scotia Bank. Riders traverse 310 kilometers of varying types of terrain. The start and finish lines are level beach town paved roads, but during the three-day event the cyclists climbed up the sides of Irazú (11,259 feet) and Turrialba volcanoes. While passing through the town of Siquirres, Limon, on the final day, the cyclists were treated to a refreshing water spritz from Alvaro Campos, who has been standing behind his home with a water hose every year since the race’s inception 21 years ago. Alvaro says “They need refreshment. It is a tough race” but adds “years ago they would pass with a lot of mud and dirt on them. I would be helping them by cleaning the mud from their bikes. Now they are on mostly paved roads so they just want to cool off.” The cyclists know that Alvaro will be there, and they indicate how much and where they would like the water sprayed with hand signals as they approach. “Some slow to get a soak but I know never to spray in the face”. After passing the dousing the riders must dismount and port their bikes over the Río Siquirres river walking carefully on the Old Line rail bridge. Family and sponsors of the riders take advantage of this time to check for possible equipment issue’s and cheer on the cyclists. Divisions of the race include Women’s, Men’s 30-39, 40-49 and 50 and over and Fat Bike (a bicycle fitted with over sized tires to accommodate tough terrain). Marianela Quesada from Costa Rica won the women’s division followed by Sonia Lopez and Heidi Shilling from the United States. The Men’s division was dominated by Ticos with Erick Sojo taking first place, the Australian Andrew Mock in second. The Elite (Professionals) Men & Women’s winners, including Costa Rica’s own Marconi Duran took home a $1500.00 check. The 2014 event will take place from Nov. 6 through the 8. Information can be found on the events official website http://adventurerace.com/la-ruta-mtb/ which is now taking early registrations for next year.  A.M. Costa Rica/Barry Hovland at 10 Degrees
Above
The bridge is the only walking
they did.Boston evens up Series with ninth inning pickoff By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
For the second time in as many nights, a Major League Baseball World Series game has ended on a rare play as the Boston Red Sox picked off a St. Louis Cardinals runner to clinch a 4-2 win. The victory evened the best-of-seven championship series at two games apiece heading into Monday's game five in St. Louis, which features a rematch of each team's top starting pitcher. The Cardinals had pinch runner Kolten Wong on first base with two outs in the ninth inning and one of their best hitters, Carlos Beltran, at bat with a chance to tie the game. However, Red Sox pitcher Koji Uehara caught Wong straying too far from first base and threw over to first baseman Mike Napoli before Wong could make it back to get the final out. St. Louis led Sunday's game 1-0 early before Boston scored a run in the fifth inning to tie. In the sixth, Boston had two men on base with two outs when outfielder Jonny Gomes slammed a three-run homer to left field, giving the Red Sox a 4-1 lead. The Cardinals scored a run in the bottom of the seventh to make it 4-2 and had runners on base in both the eighth and ninth innings, but could not score any more runs in front of their home crowd. Press group votes to urge shield law and guidelines Special
to A.M. Costa Rica
The Inter American Press Association has reiterated its concern over the direction taken on matters of freedom of the press in the United States following revelations of spying on journalists and citizens, and called for a backup law protection of journalistic sources. As part of the results of organization 69th General Assembly in Denver, Colorado, the hemispheric organization said that the U. S. government in 2012 secretly seized the records of 21 telephone lines of The Associated Press, in violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. constitution. This overreaching action by the U.S. government has had a chilling effect on an open and vigorous pursuit of journalism in the public interest, it said. The organization said it decided to encourage the U.S. Department of Justice to vigorously adopt and comply with the updated guidelines recommended this year and to call on the U.S. Senate and House to pass legislation including a robust shield law that protects journalists. After the disclosure of the Association Press seizures, the Department of Justice reviewed and proposed updated guidelines that call for advance notice of a subpoena to be given to the media in all but rare circumstances, which is critical in enabling the press to challenge subpoenas in court; adding additional safeguards around seizure of press source material and applying them to all forms of communication including e-mail and text messages; and ensuring that journalists are not prosecuted for doing their jobs
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A. 2013 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 |
A.M.
Costa Rica advertising reaches from 12,000 to 14,000 unique visitors every weekday in up to 90 countries. |
| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Oct. 28, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 213 | |
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| Mild Atlantic hurricane season is a
surprise to forecasters |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said May 23 that there was a 70 percent chance that 13 to 20 named storms would form in the Atlantic Ocean this season. It said as many as 11 of them could strengthen into hurricanes, storms with winds of 119 kph or higher. In April the respected Colorado hurricane forecasters said that the 2013 season will be more active than normal. The forecasting team at Colorado State University predicted 18 named storms, nine of which would be hurricanes. Of the hurricanes they said two would be major ones. With just a month left in the Atlantic Hurricane season, forecasters are scratching their heads and trying to figure out what happened to the hurricanes. So far there have been 12 named storms and two category 1 hurricanes, the least powerful type. Ingrid developed in the northern Caribbean east of Honduras and became a hurricane Sept, 14. This was the only hurricane so far this season to make landfall. Ingrid came ashore in northern México and dissipated quickly. At the very least, predictions point out the dynamic nature of the world's weather. Meteorologists look at Africa where many of those low pressure tropical waves sweep out into the Atlantic. The waves sometimes but not always spawn major storms. The meteorologists also are looking at something called the Madden-Julian Oscillation, a circulation pattern over the warm Indian Ocean. Then there is the well-known El Niño system in the western Pacific. Meteorologists, like Phillip Klotzbach and William Gray at Colorado State University have been studying and predicting hurricanes for years. They usually are very close to what actually happens. But not this year. Atlantic hurricanes can develop as late as December, but the traditional end of the season is Nov. 30. At the same time, the Pacific Hurricane season has been much stronger. Scientists point to an inverse relationship between the Atlantic and Pacific storms. For some reason, heavy activity in one area means less activity in the other. There have been 19 named storms and eight hurricanes in the Pacific, although most head west after they develop, Barbara became a Pacific hurricane May 29 within one of those waves that had passed over Central America. The storm |
caused heavy rains
in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and up the coast into México and left a
toll of four killed and four missing. There were two other hurricanes
that caused damage even though they did not come ashore. Klotzbach and Gray are producing short-term predictions now. One is due today. That last one covered Oct. 11 to Oct. 24. The pair called for an above-average end of the season in the Caribbean. They said the potential is there for the development of storms. Hurricanes hardly even make landfall in Costa Rica, but the storms can have deadly effect here with heavy rains, flooding and landslides. President Laura Chinchilla and other Central American presidents have blamed First World industry for producing global warming. In a declaration two years ago, the presidents said that the intensity of the prolonged rain suffered in Central Americas constituted a concrete manifestation of the adverse affects of climate change and the direct impact of this over the life and existence of the population of the countries and for achieving the Millennium development goals. To cite the current lack of major hurricanes in the Atlantic as evidence against global warming would be unscientific. But in 2006 the 6th International Workshop on Tropical Cyclones of the World Meteorological Organization met in San José. This group of experts issued a report that said although there is evidence both for and against the existence of a detectable human influence in the tropical cyclone climate record to date, no firm conclusion can be made on this point. The group also said that no individual tropical cyclone can be directly attributed to climate change. The recent increase in societal impact from tropical cyclones has largely been caused by rising concentrations of population and infrastructure in coastal regions, the meteorologists said, adding that tropical cyclone wind-speed monitoring has changed dramatically over the last few decades, leading to difficulties in determining accurate trends. The Hurricane Research Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a chronology online that runs from the first hurricane sighted and recorded by Christopher Columbus in 1494 to the most recent disaster caused by Hurricane Sandy when it ravaged the New Jersey shore and caused $75 million in 2012. The chronology shows how deadly hurricanes can be and the continued effort to refine prediction methods. |
| Foreign scammers express interest in
buying home or business |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Nigerian scammers have become far more sophisticated in seeing information from Costa Rica. The latest example shows a knowledge of both Spanish and the country's economic situation. An email says: "My family and I are moving to Costa Rica. We need to buy a home and business. Please let us know if you can help so we can send information on what we want." There are a lot of homeowners and business owners here who would wish to have a reputable buyer. This isn't it. Although the message contains the same request in Spanish, the IP address in the email header is listed by an online service as being in Lago, Nigeria. Frequently the word Nigerian scammer is used loosely. There are a lot of scammers in Eastern Europe and China. But in this case, the scammers really appear to be Nigerian. The latest message is far more sophisticated than the ones promising to transfer $1 billion from the account of a late client, although these still circulate. Then there is the give-away ad. Scammers try to insert these in A.M. Costa Rica repeatedly. The latest purporting to be selling kittens. That one arrived via the newspaper's dedicated classified insertion system Friday. Unlike classified sites such as Craigslist and some automated sites, A.M. Costa Rica ad submissions are handled by real persons, who try to weed out the scammers. The purpose of the classified pitches are to gain personal information, addresses and cell telephone numbers. These will be used in many ways. In a worst-case scenario, some victim will give the scammers (pretending to be a vendor) a credit card number and the security code. |
 Online service tracks the IP address of suspicious email |
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| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A. 2013 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Oct. 28, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 213 | |||||
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 Comisión Nacional de
Prevención de Riesgos y Atención de Emergencias photo
Emergency commission officials
and Nosara residents tour the 10-kilometer dike that is designed to
protect the community. |
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| Emergency commission says it invested
$743,000 to protect Nosara |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The National emergency commission said that it has invested $743,000 or some 373 million colons to protect residents of Nosara from the river of the same name. Some 5,000 people live in the vicinity of the river, said the Comisión Nacional de Prevención de Riesgos y Atención de Emergencias. The residents have been flooded out several times, including tropical |
storm Tomas in
2010. They are quick to note that this has not happened this year. The river also endangered the local airport. Among the work done on the river was the construction of a 10-kilometer dike that protects the airport and the base of a bridge. The channel of the river has been enlarged. too, to create more capacity when there is heavy rains in the mountains. In Nicoya inland from Nosara the commission is helping to repair earthquake damage. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A. 2013 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
| A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Oct. 28, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 213 | |||||
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| Germans sending a team to U.S. to probe spying By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Germany is sending intelligence officials to Washington to discuss allegations of U.S. spying on German mobile phones, including one used by Chancellor Angela Merkel. German newspaper Bild am Sonntag quoted Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich Sunday as saying the allegations have shaken Berlin's trust in Washington, a longtime ally. Friedrich told the newspaper that if the Americans intercepted mobile phone communications in Germany, they broke German law and said that would be an unacceptable violation of German sovereignty. Bild am Sonntag quoted an unnamed official of the U.S. National Security Agency as saying President Barack Obama received an NSA briefing in 2010, informing him that U.S. spies were monitoring Chancellor Merkel's mobile communications. The newspaper's source said Obama let the operation continue. Merkel complained about the alleged NSA surveillance of her communications in a phone call to Obama Wednesday. Her office said she told Obama that if such practices occurred, they represent a grave breach of trust. The White House said it is not monitoring Ms. Merkel's mobile phones and will not do so in future. But, it did not comment on whether the NSA spied on her devices in the past. The Bild am Sonntag report said the NSA allegedly bugged a mobile phone used by Ms. Merkel to conduct the business of her Christian Democratic Union party and a second supposedly secure device that she began using in the middle of this year. The newspaper said the only Ms. Merkel phone that the NSA could not access was the land line in her office. In a separate report on Saturday, German weekly Der Spiegel said the NSA may have been bugging Merkel's mobile phone as early as 2002, when she served as opposition leader. She took office as chancellor in 2005. Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents earlier this year purporting to show sweeping U.S. surveillance of Internet searches and telephone records of U.S. citizens and world leaders. The revelations have sparked outrage globally. Germany is working with Brazil on a draft U.N. General Assembly resolution to guarantee privacy in electronic communications. U.N. diplomats say it would call for extending the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to Internet activities, but would not mention the United States. Colombian rebels release U.S. citizen it captured By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Colombia’s largest rebel group has released a U.S. citizen it held hostage for more than four months. The guerrilla group, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or FARC, turned over American Kevin Scott Sutay to an international delegation in a rural area of southeastern Colombia. The head of the Red Cross in Colombia, Jordi Raich, said a doctor examined Sutay and determined that he was in good health and able to travel. "Well, the liberation of the U.S. citizen started this morning… In a rural area in Guaviare, he was turned over to the Red Cross and to a humanitarian committee. The U.S. citizen was later transported by helicopter, as we always do, from San José del Guaviare where he was then transported to Bogota," said Raich. Sutay was kidnapped in mid-June while traveling in an area where the FARC is active. News reports said that local authorities had warned him not to remain in the area. Voice of 'Simpsons' character reported dead at age 70 By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
American actress Marcia Wallace, best known as the voice of cynical schoolteacher Edna Krabappel on the television cartoon "The Simpsons," has died at age 70. No cause of death was announced. Wallace's portrayal of the wisecracking but lonely teacher won her an Emmy award and fans in more than 100 countries where "The Simpsons" is a TV favorite. Ms. Wallace's other signature role is the sarcastic receptionist to an office of insecure doctors on TV's "Bob Newhart Show" in the 1970s. Ms. Wallace was also a regular on game shows and the stage, and chronicled her battles against breast cancer and other tragedies in a 2004 autobiography. Pioneer rock musician Reed dies after a liver transplant By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Influential American rock musician Lou Reed, the widely acknowledged poet laureate of the dark, hard-edged genre known as punk rock, has died in New York. Reed's agent said the 71-year-old performer, who had been in frail health in recent months, died Sunday outside of New York City of apparent complications from a recent liver transplant. Known for his cold onstage persona and gaunt appearance, Reed's early compositions with his band, Velvet Underground, focused on New York City's darker themes of drug addiction, sexuality and violence. Critics say his groundbreaking imagery rivaled that of 1960s icon Bob Dylan, radically expanding lyrical boundaries into themes never before explored in popular music. Reed had only one commercial hit, the 1972 composition "Walk on the Wild Side." Other songs popular among his followers included "Heroin," "Sweet Jane" and "All Tomorrow's Parties." Reed would perform decades later at the White House during the Clinton administration. He also was the subject of a public broadcasting "American Masters" documentary and the recipient of a 1999 Grammy Award. This tweet from Reed's account is widely believed to have been a veiled announcement of his passing: U.S. says it will use evidence obtained without warrant By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The United States for the first time plans to use information gathered from warrantless surveillance as evidence against a terrorism suspect. The suspect, Jamshid Muhtorov, is in jail in Colorado. The FBI arrested him last year for allegedly providing material aid to the Uzbek terror group Islamic Jihad Union. Federal agents monitored communications between Muhtorov and the administrator of a Web site associated with the group. In a court filing, the Justice Department informed Muhtorov's lawyers that it plans to use these communications as evidence. It is the first time since the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was amended in 2008 that the government acknowledges using such evidence to prosecute a suspect in a criminal case. The law allows U.S. agents to listen in on communications between citizens and foreign entities without a court order. The Supreme Court has refused to hear challenges to the law, saying the plaintiffs could not prove they were deliberately targeted. Legal experts say the Muhtorov case could wind up before the court. Tiny ant invaders in Texas becoming a major problem By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Every few days, Joe Stuckey unleashes chemicals on the legions of tiny ants that invade his home and swarm over his 40-acre property south of Houston. Once they die, he scoops them up by the shovel-full. Then he repeats the ritual. "It's literally a huge problem," said Stuckey, a Houston environmental attorney. Stuckey is one of several landowners who allow researchers to use their property to learn more about tawny crazy ants, a nuisance spreading rapidly across the U.S. Gulf Coast. Originally from South America, the ants were discovered in Texas in 2002, and there have been confirmed sightings in at least four other states, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida. They are within four miles of Alabama right now, according to research scientist Joe MacGown at the Mississippi Entomological Museum. The good news: Tawny crazy ants do not sting or bite like fire ants, which have been around since the 1970s. The bad news: Tawny ants multiply very quickly and like to make their home in warm, tight spaces including around electrical equipment, under floorboards and in car engines. Large swarms of the ants have been found in the mall area of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, although they have not done any significant damage, said NASA Houston Facilities Management and Operations Chief Shelia Powell in an email. "We are principally concerned about the possible damage to infrastructure such as electronics, employees' automobiles, and our facilities," Ms. Powell said. NASA uses a local extermination company, which has come up with a temporary strategy using frequent application of multiple products to kill them, she said. Still, not enough is known about their physiology to predict how far north or inland they will travel, and how best to eliminate them, experts said. "You almost have to see it to believe what a nuisance these can become," said Robert Puckett, an associate research scientist at Texas A&M University. "I've been in people's houses where they show me trash bags full of ants they've swept up." Diana Tahtinen, who owns a home south of Houston, estimates having spent about $1,000 a year for pest control during the last three years of battling the ants on her land. "It has a huge impact on your quality of life," she said. The ants hitch rides in landscaping and building materials and even on shoes or cars, which is common for invasive species, said David Oi, a research entomologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Although financial losses have not officially been tallied, Tom Rasberry, a Houston exterminator credited by local experts with discovering the ants in the U.S., believes that the costs over a decade of damage could be in the hundreds of millions. State and federal funds to combat the ants have been slow in coming, Puckett said. But Texas A&M has several projects in the works to learn more about the ants, thanks partly to state funding formerly reserved for fire ants that has now been opened up to tawny crazy ants. Traditional extermination chemicals do not seem to work. "You can spray and it will kill tens of thousands, but they come back," said Stuckey. "If you took a restaurant-sized pepper jug and poured it on the floor, that's how thick they are." "This year's been the worst ever." Baffin Island temperature estimated warmest in millennias By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Average summer temperatures in the eastern Canadian Arctic are higher than they have been in at least the past 44,000 years and perhaps higher than at any time in the past 120,000 years, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of Colorado, Boulder, say the warmth there exceeds that of the Early Holocene era, when the amount of the sun’s energy reaching the Northern Hemisphere in summer was roughly 9 percent greater than today. “The key piece here is just how unprecedented the warming of Arctic Canada is,” said professor Gifford Miller, a fellow at CU-Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research who led the study. “This study really says the warming we are seeing is outside any kind of known natural variability, and it has to be due to increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.” Miller and his colleagues used dead moss clumps emerging from melting ice caps on Baffin Island as tiny calendars. At four different ice caps, radiocarbon dates show the mosses had not been exposed to the elements since at least 44,000 to 51,000 years ago. Since radiocarbon dating is only accurate to about 50,000 years and because Earth’s geological record shows it was in a glaciation stage prior to that time, the indications are that Canadian Arctic temperatures today have not been matched or exceeded for roughly 120,000 years, Miller said. The researchers compiled the age distribution of 145 radiocarbon-dated plants in the highlands of Baffin Island that were exposed by ice recession during the year they were collected by the researchers. All samples collected were within 1 meter of the ice caps, which are generally receding by 2 to 3 meters a year. “The oldest radiocarbon dates were a total shock to me,” said Miller. Located just west of Greenland, the 315,999-square-kilometer Baffin Island is the fifth largest island in the world. Most of it lies above the Arctic Circle. Many of the ice caps on the highlands of Baffin Island rest on relatively flat terrain, usually frozen to their beds. “Where the ice is cold and thin, it doesn’t flow, so the ancient landscape on which they formed is preserved pretty much intact,” Miller added. To reconstruct the past climate of Baffin Island beyond the limit of radiocarbon dating, the team used data from ice cores previously retrieved by international teams from the nearby Greenland Ice Sheet. The new study also showed summer temperatures cooled in the Canadian Arctic by about 5 degrees Fahrenheit from roughly 5,000 years ago to about 100 years ago, a period that included the Little Ice Age from 1275 to about 1900. “Although the Arctic has been warming since about 1900, the most significant warming in the Baffin Island region didn’t really start until the 1970s,” said Miller. “And it is really in the past 20 years that the warming signal from that region has been just stunning. All of Baffin Island is melting, and we expect all of the ice caps to eventually disappear, even if there is no additional warming.” A paper on the subject appeared online Wednesday in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal published by the American Geophysical Union. Ballet dancers provide a clue on ways to defeat dizziness By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Scientists have discovered differences in the brain structure of ballet dancers that may help them avoid dizziness while whirling around the stage and performing pirouettes. The findings could lead to the development of dance therapy for patients suffering from chronic dizziness. Researchers at Imperial College London have studied brains of dancers who can perform multiple spins with very little or no feeling of dizziness. A team led by neurologist Barry Seemungal compared 29 female dancers with 20 female rowers of the same age range and fitness levels. The brains in the two groups reacted differently after being spun around in a dark room. "When we correlated dizziness sensation to the white matter structure in non-dancers, we found a very strong correlation between how dizzy you were and the strength of a white matter network in the cerebral cortex, which is the part of the brain we use to sense and perceive things. In the dancers, we did not find this correlation," said Seemungal. Normally, the feeling of dizziness stems from the vestibular organs in the inner ear. These fluid-filled chambers sense rotation of the head through tiny hairs that detect the fluid moving. After turning around rapidly, the fluid continues to move, which can make you feel like you're still spinning. MRI brain scans revealed differences in two parts of the brain: an area in the cerebellum where sensory input from the vestibular organs is processed and in the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for the perception of dizziness. "It demonstrates to us that the brain is a very plastic organ and what happens to it is heavily dependent on what you do, and so years of training the brain re-models itself into a form that becomes quite resistant to dizziness," said Seemungal. Dance student Clare Haven, who took part in the study, says dancers learn how to spin gradually. With a technique called spotting and with a lot of practice they learn to perform multiple pirouettes without feeling dizzy. "It's something that you're taught how to do. It's not something that's natural. So from a young age in ballet class you run around pretending to be a fairy. You're just turning around on the spot. Then as you get older you're taught what spotting is, so you whip your head round. As you get older you practice where your balance is," said Haven. Seemungal, who also runs a specialist clinic for dizziness at London's Charing Cross Hospital, says if dance therapy proves to be helpful to patients with chronic dizziness, it could be done in large groups and practiced at home. He says such therapy would be much cheaper than current individual treatments. Rare pink diamond displayed in advance of November auction By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The world's most expensive diamond has gone on display in London ahead of an auction next month. It is expected to sell for more than $60 million. The 59.6 carat Pink Star is by far the largest diamond of its kind ever found. The oval-cut stone, the largest internally flawless fancy vivid pink diamond ever graded, will be sold by Sotheby’s in Geneva Nov. 13. David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby's jewelry division in Europe and the Middle East said the diamond is off the scale in terms of rarity. "Well pink diamonds, as you probably know, are extremely rare. They're amongst the rarest of all diamonds, and to have one like this, 59.6 carats, which has been graded as vivid yellow, the highest possible color rating for a pink diamond, is off the scale of rare," said Bennett. The sale of the Pink Star will follow a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong in October containing a white diamond and a blue diamond valued at more than $28 million and $19 million each. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A. 2013 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
| A.M. Costa
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Oct. 28, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 213 | |||||||||
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Argentine
president's pals fare badly in Sunday voting By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Argentine leader Cristina Fernandez's allies took a beating in Sunday's midterm congressional election, snuffing out chances of a constitutional change to allow her a third term and kicking off a succession struggle ahead of the 2015 presidential vote. Voters went to the polls under sunny Southern Hemisphere skies to choose half of the lower house of Congress and a third of the Senate in Sunday's vote, marking 30 years of democracy following a 1976-1983 military dictatorship. Re-elected in 2011 on promises of increasing state control in Latin America's No. 3 economy, Ms. Fernandez's political coattails were trimmed by inflation, clocked by private analysts at 25 percent, while heavy-handed currency controls and falling central bank reserves have dented confidence. Candidates sponsored by Argentine opposition leader Sergio Massa won the House of Deputies' midterm by a 10-percentage-point margin in the key province of Buenos Aires, according to exit poll announced on local television. About the size of Italy, Buenos Aires province is home to 40 percent of Argentina's population and most of the country's agricultural output. Massa, the mayor of the affluent Buenos Aires town of Tigre, headed his own list of candidates for Congress and is seen as a possible, business-friendly presidential contender in 2015. ”Tomorrow, we start with a new political map,” said Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri, another possible presidential candidate who promises a shift toward market-friendly policies. Other exit polls announced on television showed Ms. Fernandez's candidates losing in key provinces around the country. Some legislators had said they wanted a constitutional amendment to allow the ailing president to run for a third term. But the poor showing by Ms. Fernandez's branch of the Peronist party in Sunday's mid-term dashed those hopes once and for all. To push through the legislation, they would need two-thirds support in both houses. If the exit polls prove accurate, Ms. Fernández would not come close to achieving that level of support for another run for the presidency. Ms. Fernández was unable to campaign for her congressional candidates since an Oct. 8 operation to remove blood that pooled on her brain after she fell and hurt her head in August. She is expected to continue convalescing for another few weeks. The surgery marked the latest in a series of health issues for the 60-year-old leader, including low blood pressure and a thyroid tumor that also was surgically removed. Speaking to local television, Ms. Fernandez's son, Maximo Kirchner, declined to speculate on when his mother would return to work. “She's OK. She's in a good mood,” he said. As expected, Massa beat his rival, Martin Insaurralde, Fernandez's handpicked Buenos Aires candidate. Massa, who vows to fight crime, combat inflation and improve farm profits, appeared well positioned to run for president. But Argentine history shows midterm victors are rarely able to sustain momentum and clinch the nomination. A dark horse could appear within the next two years, as was the case with former president Carlos Menem, who burst onto the scene in 1989, and Nestor Kirchner in 2003. Sunday was the third anniversary of the death of Kirchner, who was married to Ms. Fernández, preceded her as president and set the tone for her policies. Twin quakes in Panamá are felt in Costa Rica By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Residents in the Central Valley and points south felt a 9:26 a.m. quake just across the southern border in Panamá. The Laboratorio de Ingeniería Sísmica estimated the magnitude at 5.3 with the impact being the strongest in Corredores and Ciudad Neily. That followed on the heels of a 4.7 quake also in Panamá but offshore. That quake was Saturday at 4:34 p.m. |
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| From Page 7: Untrue news cited in Chinese scandal By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Shares of Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology Co Ltd. surged today after a newspaper admitted it had not thoroughly fact-checked disparaging reports on the Chinese state-owned construction equipment maker. The apology from Guangzhou-based New Express came after its detained reporter, Chen Yongzhou, confessed to accepting payment in exchange for disparaging Zoomlion. Zoomlion has been the subject of a string of Chinese media reports this year, including those from New Express, that have accused the company of fictitious sales and helped its Hong Kong-listed shares tumble nearly 40 percent for the year to date. It has vigorously denied the reports. The controversy over Zoomlion also comes at a time of fierce rivalry with hometown competitor Sany Heavy Industry Co Ltd. that has escalated into ugly public rows. Zoomlion said in a July stock filing that it had been under an all-round malicious attack by its competitor since the fourth quarter of 2012 and has denied accusations by Sany of spying and attempting to kidnap the son of Sany's chairman. Tensions between the country's media and its listed firms have also been increasingly troubled in recent years, with both sides seeing their integrity questioned by the other. New Express had earlier made a front page plea for Chen's release, an unusual public rebuke amid a wider government crackdown on freedom of expression. However, it admitted on Sunday that its monitoring of the manuscript had not been strict. “The incident has seriously damaged the credibility of the media,” it said. Today Zoomlion's Hong Kong and Shenzhen-listed shares were trading about 7 percent higher compared with largely flat markets. |
