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San
José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 218
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 U.S. Department of Agriculture
photo
This is the lab setup of
the mimicry device.Buzzer designed
to confuse love-sick bugs
By the Acoustical Society of America news
staff
When a male Asian citrus psyllid is looking for a mate, he situates himself on a twig, buzzes his wings to send vibrations along adjacent leaves and branches and listens for a female’s response call. If the call comes, he travels in her direction, the abbreviated insect version of courtship ensues, and two to seven weeks later, scores of psyllids nymphs emerge from their eggs, feed on phloem sap, and mature into adults who head out into the world, ravaging untold numbers of citrus trees in the process. The pest is loathed by orange farmers, not because of the direct damage the insects cause, but because they spread an even more pernicious foe: a rod-shaped bacteria called Candidatus Liberibacter Asiaticus. The bacteria causes a disease called citrus greening that turns the trees' leaves a sickly yellow and makes the fruit bitter and stunted. There is no cure, and the infected trees usually die within a few years. To halt the spread of the disease, which was responsible for an estimated $3.63 billion in lost revenue from orange juice for the state of Florida from 2006-2012, researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and University of Florida are developing vibration traps that hijack psyllid mating calls to locally bring their populations under control. “The route I’m trying to take is looking at disrupting mating and putting out signals that either outcompete the females and bring males to a trapping system, or just make it difficult for males and females to communicate with each other,” said Richard Mankin, a research entomologist at the department's Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology in Gainesville, Florida. A collaborator on this project, Barukh Rohde, is a doctoral student in the university's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The researchers are presenting the construction and operation of their device, which contains a piezoelectric buzzer and a microphone wired to a microcontroller, at the 170th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America being held in Jacksonville, Florida. Mankin’s previous work at the agriculture department involved using acoustic methods to find hidden infestations of insects, such as rice weevils inside grain kernels. This brought him to an interest in hemipteran insects, so called true bugs, he said, due to their use of acoustic communication and their recent resurgence as pests due to the gradual phasing out of pesticide use after the introduction of genetically modified maize that is toxic to most moth pests. “The moth pests aren’t around anymore, but the hemipteran insects that used to be controlled also by the pesticides are still present, so we’re looking at other options for controlling hemipteran pests like psyllids that use vibrations in their communication mating system,” he said. Although pesticides had been phased out in citrus growing years prior, due to health concerns, Mankin said, “all that changed when we had to really dig down and do multiple sprayings each year to keep down the psyllids populations so that we could get an orange crop. And we’re trying to still develop new ways to solve the problems because we’re anticipating in a few years that the psyllids will become resistant to the current pesticides.” Out in the mid-day heat of the orange groves the psyllids are most active between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. The male psyllids channel their wing vibrations down their legs and out through adjacent twigs and leaves. If a nearby female is interested, she’ll reply back within a third to a half of a second. Within this window, the researchers' microphone detects the incoming male call and the microcontroller sends out a female response call through the piezoelectric buzzer before any neighboring psyllids can. When the male draws closer, he gets snagged and immobilized on an adhesive surface, from where he can be collected during periodic trap inspections. While the device hasn’t yet been tested extensively out in the field, Mankin estimates that each device would be effective over a range of two feet in a citrus tree, with a cost of construction between $50 to $100, including the cost of the microcontrollers, which are bought from a company that uses open source code. Ongoing work for Mankin and his colleagues involves incorporating better speech identification algorithms into the software and reducing the system’s response time, as well as finding ways to cut the cost of the final device. In addition, studies are in progress to optimize signals that disrupt communication across the trees. “If you can target low populations and treat just the isolated populations, the costs are quite a bit lower, and there’s less environmental damage,” he said. May-December marriage ended by court By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A 29-year-old woman who was married briefly to an 80-year-old man carried her claim all the way to the Sala Segunda of the Corte Suprema de Justicia, which adjudicates family cases. The court affirmed an earlier decision in favor of the man and ratified the divorce. The key element was that the court concluded that the man was abused during the several months of his marriage and that he was denied contact with his family. He also was ailing and vulnerable to abuse, said the court. The decision also reserved the right of the man to seek separation payments. The woman denied the allegations that she had treated the man badly. The court also ordered a prosecutor to investigate the case. No names were given in the summary released by the Poder Judicial. Brothers held in serial rapes and robberies By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Judicial agents say that two brothers preyed on couples in the vicinity of Parque la Sabana, robbed them and raped the women. The second of the two brothers, a 23 year old, was detained Tuesday. The older brother, 34, was detained Sunday, said the Judicial Investigating Organization. In addition the girl friend of one of the men was detained on the allegation that she received stolen property. The men live in Rincón Grande de Pavas. Agents said that the wave of crimes started in August and that at least four couples have been robbed and attacked in that area by two men dressed in black. Not all the crimes happened in the evening. At least one was in the afternoon. Parque la Sabana is beginning to get a reputation as a dangerous location, according to runners who frequent the sprawling park. Agents said they are expecting more victims to come forward. Costanera Sur paint bids close today By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Road officials will close the bidding today on a contract to put lines on the Costanera Sur between Dominical and Palmar Norte. The highway has been asphalted, and expats have complained that there are no lines. The $1 million job is to install reflective line markers as well as apply thermoplastic paint, said the Consejo Nacional de Vialidad. Five firms already have submitted bids. The job is expected to be done in the first four months of the new year. |
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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, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 218 | |
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| Las Olas developer decries lack of police and judicial
action on squatters |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The manager of the stalled Las Olas development in Esterillos Oeste said that neither the local government nor the police have taken action to eject squatters from the property. He blamed the government for creating the situation in the first place and said that the lack of official action creates a security problem that already has led to break-ins and rapes in the area. The manager, David Richard Aven, said this in a letter to Luis Martinez, a San José-based prosecutor. "I want to inform you about crimes being committed in Costa Rica," Aven said. "First, there is an invasion of criminal trespassers in the community of Esterillos Oeste and on our Las Olas property, and the trespassers are cutting down many small trees in order to clear the land for their use. The criminal trespassers are a large mob who are carrying machetes and guns, and robberies and assaults have been reported against the people in the community." He said that the illegal trespassing and tree cutting is a natural result of the government shutting down the project in 2011. He said the project has received abusive treatment. Las Olas has been involved in lengthy legal action over alleged environmental damage. Aven also said that as he was writing the letter Monday he learned that two homes were burglarized Sunday night and two girls, one a U.S. citizen, were raped. He said this pointed out the need for urgent action. |
A copy also
was sent to President Luis Guillermo Solís and other officials,
as well as to A.M. Costa Rica. This newspaper reported on the land invasion last week. Aven said that his lawyer had been in contact with the local municipality seeking action against the land invaders for seven weeks. "This is a seriously grave situation for the people of Esterillos Oeste and it’s urgent that immediate action is taken before someone gets seriously injured or killed by this criminal mob that has invaded the community," he said. Aven has been the driving force behind the project, but there are other investors in the United States. He is from New Castle, Pennsylvania. Although Aven calls the land invaders a criminal mob, in other cases, the squatters have turned out to be residents of the nearby communities who pretend to be homeless. Usually they are well disciplined and under the leadership of local strongmen. Other expats have commented in emails that some of the squatters have expensive automobiles. The location is near Parrita on the Central Pacific coast. The idea is that if the squatters can stay long enough on the land they will gain possession rights that can be sold or used to blackmail the legitimate owner. Although the central government has spoken often about fighting organized crime, the officials there never have recognized land invaders as that type of activity. |
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Great balls of
nets
In some sections of the Gulf of Nicoya, nets are prohibited. Fishing can only be done with a line. So the Servicio Nacional de Guardacostas is on the lookout for violators. One such area is along the Costa de Pájaros-Punta Morales. These are called responsible fishing areas. One fisherman was confronted Monday night by a coast guard launch and had to surrender his nets, shown to the right, and catch of some 60 fish. He will face charges, officials said. |
 Servicio Nacional de Guardacostas photo
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| Only bid for electronic monitoring of prisoners is way over
estimate |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The plan to put electronic bracelets on some 200 prisoners so they could be monitored at home has hit another snag. The Ministerio de Justicia y Paz that runs the prisons said that the only bidder sought a contract for more than had been allocated for the pilot program. The Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo also is involved because it is putting up the money. The law permitting the devices already is a year old, and the |
ministry
has struggled to qualify bidders and to get bids. The ministry
estimated that the 18-month pilot project would be about $1.5 million. The only qualified bidder said $3.4 million. In addition to the 200 electronic devices, the project also included the development of a monitoring station. Officials hoped that the project would allow the transfer of some prisoners to home detention from the overcrowded facilities. Now another round of soliciting bids appears to be the next step. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 218 | |||||
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| Female monarchs found to have the athletic edge over their
males |
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By the University of Georgia news staff
Evidence has been mounting that female monarch butterflies are better at flying and more successful at migration than males, and researchers from the University of Georgia have now come up with an explanation, but not one they expected. In the study comparing physical traits of female and male monarchs, they found that although female monarchs have smaller wings and smaller flight muscles than males, their wings are thicker and also bear less weight per square inch, making them both sturdier and more efficient in flight. "Both of these elements would play important roles in determining the outcome of the migration," said the study's lead author Andy Davis, a research scientist at the University of Georgia. "Until now, we had no idea why females were better flyers than males, but this study definitely helps to answer that question," he said. For the study, published recently in the Journal of Insects, Davis and co-author Michael Holden, an undergraduate ecology student, measured the wings and body parts of 47 male and 45 female monarchs, specifically targeting those characteristics that are important for flight, such as the ratio of wing size to body size, the size of flight muscles and wing thickness. "We expected we'd find that females have bigger flight muscles, but it was the opposite," said Holden, who will graduate in spring 2016 with a bachelor's degree in ecology and will document moth species next year through an internship in Costa Rica. "Males had the largest muscles." Their analysis revealed, however, that female bodies tend to be lighter in relation to their wing size, |
 University
of Georgia/ Sonia Altizer
Monarchs at a wintering site in
central Mexico cluster in a tree to sun their wings. meaning their wings have to carry less weight overall. This would make their flight more efficient. "The way I think about it is that per flap of their wings, females use less energy to move their bodies relative to males," Holden said. In addition, the wings of females were significantly thicker than those of males, making them less likely to break or tear during migration. "Having damaged wings is a death sentence during the migration," Davis said. By the end of the study, the researchers had accumulated a substantial data set of flight-related measurements, the first of its kind for monarchs. "We believe this work will be important for improving scientific understanding of the migratory cycle," Davis said, "and it will also serve as a reference point for future studies aimed at flight characteristics of monarch butterflies." |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 218 | |||||||
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| Religious belief dips slightly in latest Pew Research poll By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A newly-released poll on Americans’ religious beliefs shows a modest shift downward in the number of adults who believe in God, pray daily and regularly go to church. The 2014 Religious Landscape Study, released Tuesday by The Pew Research Center, found that the percentage of Americans who say they are absolutely certain God exists fell from 71 percent in 2007 to 63 percent in 2014. Despite the declines, Pew said there is a great deal of stability in the U.S. religious landscape, saying that for those who claim a religion, there was no discernible drop in their commitment to the religion. And the belief in God remains strong compared to other advanced industrial countries, Pew said. The study found, for example, that 77 percent of adults said they were affiliated with a religion, down from 83 percent in 2007. Furthermore, those who said they believe in God remained at 89 percent compared to 92 percent in 2007 when the last survey was done. Additionally, 60 percent of those surveyed believe the Bible or other holy books are the word of God, with 31 percent saying those books should be interpreted literally. “People who say they have a religion, which is still the vast majority of the population, show no discernible dip in levels of observance,” said Alan Cooperman, director of religion research at Pew. “They report attending religious services as often as they did a few years ago. They pray as often as they did before, and they are just as likely to say that religion plays a very important role in their lives,” he added. “On some measures there are even small increases in their levels of religious practice.” Pew said that decreases in religious beliefs were likely a result of a growing number of millennials, young people born between the early 1980s and early 2000s who say they don’t belong to an organized religion, and older, more religious Americans dying off. So-called nones, those who don’t belong to a religion, make up 23 percent of the adult population compared to 16 percent in 2007. Still, 61 percent of nones said they believed in God. One barometer that moved considerably was same-sex marriage, with 54 percent of Christians saying homosexuality should be accepted by society, up from 44 percent in 2007. On evolution, still a point of contention among some Americans, 62 percent of Americans say humans evolved over time, with 34 percent saying they did not believe in evolution. Lawmakers await their copies of Trans-Pacific Partnership By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Even before the text of a massive Pacific Rim free trade accord is made public, U.S. lawmakers of both political parties are voicing skepticism about the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s chances of being approved by Congress next year. “Very tough,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said. "Doesn’t mean it can’t be done, but it is going to be a tough lift.” “Next year is an election year, and in an election year it’s hard to do anything of major consequence,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat of Washington State. Negotiated between the United States and 11 other nations that when combined account for about 40 percent of global economic output, the Pacific agreement would create the world’s biggest free trade bloc and serve as President Barack Obama’s crowning achievement in international commerce. But while swift approval is expected in Vietnam and elsewhere in Asia, its fate is anything but certain in the United States. Earlier this year, Congress passed so-called fast track authority that subjects trade pacts to simple majority votes in both chambers with no amendments allowed. But even with legislative hurdles greatly reduced, it is not clear that majorities will materialize to approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican of South Carolina said forces at opposite ends of America’s ideological spectrum could unite to defeat the pact. “The unions are always against trade agreements, and you have the Tea Party types who have an isolationist view. Those things create a pretty good voting bloc,” said Graham. For now, many lawmakers are reserving judgment until they read the text of the deal, which was announced in early October, but has yet to be released. “The law requires that it be on the Internet for 90 days for the public to read before we can vote on it,” said Grassley. “So I hope my constituents will read it and tell me their opinion.” “Obviously, it is going to depend on the text, what’s in there,” Sen. Ben Cardin, as Democrat of Maryland said. “There’s a natural response by organized labor against and a natural response of the business community in support. But I think most Marylanders are waiting to see the text.” “Everybody here who supports opening up markets for U.S. products wants to understand what Asian markets are willing to do to allow American products in,” said Cantwell. "We are very anxious to see the details.” Even as lawmakers await line-by-line details of the accord, some are decrying provisions already reported, such as an eight-year limit on exclusive rights to biologic pharmaceutical products developed in the United States. Others object to a provision that would make it harder for U.S. tobacco companies to contest the treatment of their products abroad. “The Obama administration is rigging the system to pick winners and losers in favor of industries that he and his allies support,” said Sen. Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican from a major tobacco-growing state, in a statement. “I cannot support a deal that singles out North Carolina’s agricultural industry unfairly.” Other lawmakers see benefits for their constituents. “Overall, for Iowa, we export a lot of our agricultural goods, so it would be a good thing for Iowa,” said Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican. But even Ernst is not committing to a firm yes vote just yet. “We haven’t been able to read those documents, and it will be very important that we do that,” she said. Air bag firm gets big fine for withholding information By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The top U.S. car safety agency imposed a record $200 million fine against Japanese air bag maker Takata Tuesday for failing to warn the public and government about exploding bags. Seven people were killed and about 100 were hurt when the bags, designed to protect drivers and passengers in an accident, unexpectedly exploded, sending large pieces of metal into heads and bodies. For years, Takata has built and sold defective products, refused to acknowledge the defect and failed to provide full information to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, its customers and the public, said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. "The result of that and denial has harmed scores of consumers and caused the largest, most complex safety recall in history," he added. Under the settlement, Takata will stop building and selling air bags using an ammonium nitrite propellant, which experts believe was one of the causes of the explosions. Takata will also speed up the recall and replacement of bags in affected car models, including many Hondas. Takata will pay a $70 million cash fine now and another $130 million if it fails to carry out all the terms. Safety experts believe millions of cars around the world may be equipped with the faulty air bags. Cars driven in areas with high humidity are believed to be most at risk. Regulators say they expect to have enough replacement parts in the priority areas ready by June. Death to America doesn't mean that, ayatollah says By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Iran's supreme leader said the slogan Death to America is not aimed at the American people, but rather American policies, in comments reported on his official Web site Tuesday. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei discussed the slogan while meeting with Iranian students ahead of the anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979. Militant students stormed the compound and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since then. However, current President Hassan Rouhani has made efforts to improve relations, including a landmark nuclear agreement reached with world powers in July. Khamenei said the aim of the slogan is not death to American people. The slogan means death to U.S. policies and arrogance, he said. The slogan has strong support In Iran, he said. Khamenei and hard-liners in the Iranian government remain deeply suspicious of the United States and view its policies a threat to the country. The supreme leader said the U.S. has tried to influence new figures in Iran to conceal its enemy image from the Iranian nation. He urged the students not to trust the U.S., saying, "the Americans shed tears in front of cameras pretending they are against war. These are the same people who do not even frown when the Zionists slaughter hundreds of children in Gaza and attack the West Bank. "How can their tears shed in front of cameras be considered an honest act?" he asked. Khamenei reiterated his warning that the U.S. is not to be trusted despite the nuclear deal reached with the U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany. The agreement promises Tehran relief from crippling economic sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program. "The nature of the U.S. attitude is continuation of the same hostile aims from the past, and the nation will not forget this," Khamenei said. Ultrasound can improve cleaning power of fluids By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
While a stream of ordinary cold water may clean some dirt, it is not considered an effective cleaning agent. But when two inventors at the University of Southampton added a little ultrasound, the water became highly effective for removing germs from tiny cracks and crevices. Under ultraviolet light greasy residue on human hands becomes visible, but trying to rinse it off with ordinary cold water is next to impossible. Infusing the water stream with a bit of ultrasound turns it into an effective scrubber that quickly and harmlessly rinses the skin to spotless clean. The simplicity of Starstream, invented by two researchers from the University of Southampton, England, promises to change the way bodies as well as objects, from kitchen tools to medical instruments, are cleaned. “We wanted to build some kind of micro-scrubber that can clean without bleach and detergents and can get into the crevices and the cracks. And so what we did, what we found is the bubble," said Tom Leighton from the University of Southampton. Normally, bubbles of gas contained in ordinary water have smooth surfaces. But the infusion of ultrasound makes their surfaces ripple, almost like the surface of sand paper. Flowing with water over contaminated surfaces the bubbles take dirt away. “One of the key factors of Starstream is that it takes any liquid that you are using and makes it several thousand times more effective. So if you are using soapy water or bleach, something like that, it will make it more effective," said Leighton. Starstream is especially effective for removing bacteria where it hides, like on a glass smeared with lipstick and mascara or for cleaning rust spots from kitchen sinks. Researchers say their invention could easily replace the recommended 20-seconds washing of hands with soap and warm water with only a six-second wash with water infused with ultrasound. Race to the smallest goes to tiny snail for the moment By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The race to hold the title of world’s smallest snail just got more interesting. Writing in the journal ZooKeys, Dutch and Malaysian researchers say a new snail, Acmella nana, is now the smallest. The researchers say the new snail, which was found in Malaysian Borneo, has a shell that is only between 0.5 and 0.6 millimeters wide and between 0.6 and 0.79 millimeters tall. That means Acmella nana unseats the previous record holder, the Chinese Angustopila dominikae, which measured 0.80 millimeters wide and 0.89 millimeters tall. The new snail was just one of 48 new species described in the paper. Since snails move so slowly they can get stuck in small isolated areas long enough to evolve and adapt to the unique surroundings, the researchers said. For example, some of the snails described live on isolated mountain tops or in rare vegetation, said the researchers, adding that seven of the new species are only found on the top of one mountain, 4,095-meter-high Mount Kinabalu. Another lives only at the mouth of a remote cave, researchers said. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 218 | |||||||||
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 National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration photo
Immature Pacific green sea
turtle (Chelonia mydas)
captured in
San Diego Bay, California. New test shows
sex of young turtles
By the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration news staff
Six species of sea turtles that inhabit U.S. waters are listed as threatened or endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and are thus the focus of extensive protection. Data on sex ratios and survival rates of both males and females at foraging sites are important keys to conserving sea turtles because they can help explain trends seen on nesting beaches and determine population abundance. Because sea turtles are wide-ranging, with a relatively long maturation period, most sea turtle population assessments rely only on data from nesting beaches giving counts of females or nests, limiting knowledge of population and nesting trends to this female portion of the population. Foraging populations represent a cross-section of life stages from new immature recruits, juveniles to adults, therefore, sex ratios at foraging locations can offer greater insight into the overall population. The research study also yielded a safe and effective method of determining the sex of immature turtles, which can provide more complete data on numbers of males and females in wild populations. Determining the sex of an immature turtle at foraging grounds is, otherwise, challenging because sex is not genetically determined and external sexual characteristics such as the longer tails of males are not visible until a turtle reaches maturity. Until now, the two main techniques applied to determine the sex of immature sea turtles are laparoscopy and analysis of blood plasma testosterone concentration. Laparoscopic sex determination is unequivocal, but is an invasive surgery and requires specialized expertise. So analysis of blood plasma testosterone is more common. A research partnership involved the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, the University of Charleston, South Carolina, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Eckerd College, and SeaWorld San Diego. This provided an opportunity to try a different approach. Researchers used an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Scientists determined that the technique is a much more practical approach to determine the sex of juvenile turtles, since it only requires a blood sample rather than invasive laparoscopic procedures. Results were the same as those from other approaches. This method may now provide a faster, more efficient method of determining the sex ratio of sea turtle populations because the test can be completed in a single day, the start-up costs are cheaper, and the analysis equipment is small enough that it could be used in the field. The results of the study of the San Diego Bay aggregation of sea turtles indicated a female bias of 2.83 females to each male among the 69 green turtles sampled. “What really surprised us was that the immature turtles in the San Diego Bay aggregation were even more biased toward females, with 78 percent of them being female,” said Camryn Allen, the lead investigator of the study. So far, the available sex ratio data for green turtles worldwide indicate a female-bias at most foraging ground study sites. |
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| From Page 7: More problems for beleaguered Volkswagen By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
German automaker Volkswagen said that an internal investigation has found new problems which it termed unexplained inconsistencies in the carbon dioxide emissions on 800,000 more vehicles. The company said in a statement Tuesday that it estimated the possible economic impact at over $2 billion to the firm. Volkswagen did not identify the vehicles affected but said the flaw does not compromise the safety of any of the vehicles. The statement says the company will do the utmost to clarify the further course of action as quickly as possible and ensure the correct carbon dioxide classification for the vehicles affected. Tuesday's admission of irregularities about carbon emissions is another setback for the company, and comes a day after U.S. authorities accused it of fitting defeat devices on its larger 3.0 liter diesel vehicles. Volkswagen was plunged into the biggest crisis in its history in September with the revelation that 11 million of its vehicles had been fitted with devices that switched anti-pollution controls on during tests, but shut off the devices during normal driving. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said there were 500,000 diesel Volkswagens with problems in the U.S., which warranted fines up to $18 billion. Some law firms in North America have filed class action suits. Countries in Europe, including Germany, have also filed lawsuits, in addition to ordering investigations into emission levels of Volkswagen cars. |
