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San
José, Costa Rica, Friday, Nov. 7, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 221
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Four held in
Heredia murder-for-hire plot
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Four men including a business partner of the victim have been detained in the attempted assassination. The case involves persons associated with Busetas Heredianas S. A. Last Feb. 10 a man waled up to a car stuck in traffic in Heredia and pumped eight bullets in and near the driver. The victim was identified by the last name of Garita. One of the persons detained Thursday is in the reserves of the Feurza Pública, said the Judicial Investigating Organization. Another is a former member of the Unidad Especial de Intervención of the Ministerio de Presidencia. The man identified as the intellectual author of the shooting was identified with the last name of Ramírez. The victim, Garrita, was a principal witness against him in 1996 when he was sentenced to six years in prison. The case involved handling of company money. Garrita also has a pending financial claim against Ramírez for $1 million, officials said. The allegation is that Ramírez approached the two persons with police experience and asked them to find a hitman. The allegation is that they contracted with a man with the last name of Reyes to make the hit in Mercedes Norte de Heredia. All four of the suspects have been placed in preventative detention, said the Poder Judicial. Fund set up for drought relief By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Banca para el Desarrollo has designated 1 billion colons for a fund to help farmers and ranchers affected by the Guanacaste drought. The project was developed in conjunction with Luis Felipe Arauz Cavallini, the minister of Agricultura y Ganadería. The fund is designed to provide credit and easy repayment terms when the president has made a declaration of emergency. The amount is about $22 million. Those in agriculture in Guanacaste have suffered this year because there was less rain than normal. But they are very concerned about the possibility of even less rain in 2015. Press group deplores repression in México Special to A.M. Costa Rica
The Inter American Press Association has condemned acts of censorship, discrimination and repression by members of the Querétaro state government in Mexico taken against local journalists, and called on the federal government for guarantees for the safety of reporters. Some 75 journalists in Querétaro complained in a public statement of threats, discrimination and repression on the part of state officials in the administration of Gov. Antonio Calzada. The journalists condemned the order by the state’s government secretary to censor and instigate an attack on Juan Manuel Auzua, host of the program “The Night Guardian” broadcast by 92.7 FM radio, in which he had raised the issue of lack of security in the state. Press association President Gustavo Mohme of the Peruvian newspaper La República declared that “we also issued a call on the government of Mexico to strengthen the mechanisms established to investigate crimes against freedom of expression and protect the work of journalists.” State insurance firm returns money By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Instituto Nacional de Seguros says it has refunded some 300 million colons to 44 companies that have reduced workplace accidents. The amount is about $550,000. The money comes from premiums that the companies paid for their worker compensation insurance, the seguro de riesgos del trabajo. Police say canned goods held cocaine By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Anti-drug police said a tip caused them to stop a bus bound for Playas del Coco Wednesday and to discover 3.2 kilos of cocaine hidden in cans marked as containing palm hearts, pineapple and beans. The bus originated in San José and police stopped it near Liberia, they said. The presumed owner of the cocaine was detained.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Nov. 7, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 221 | |
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Skateboard heaven The Municipalidad de Heredia opens this skate park today. The project cost 140 million colons, about $257,000. The official event today in San Francisco de Heredia will be followed by demonstrations and professional skaters. More parks are planned for Heredia Centro, Los Lagos and San Jorge, said the municipality. In addition to skating, the park is designed for skateboards and bikes. |
 Municipalidad de Heredia photo
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| Tourism chamber seeks to reconstruct nation's marketing image |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The national tourism chamber has called a session for next week where the future of the country's tourism will be discussed. The chamber, the Cámara Nacional de Turismo, said it wants experts to analyze the aspects of the tourism industry that need urgent decisions to guarantee the competitivity of the country. The chamber said the session would take place during the XVIII Congreso Nacional de Turismo, which is Monday and Tuesday at the Hotel Wyndham San José Herradura. International experts have |
been invited from
Spain and Venezuela. Also invited are two
representatives of 22Squared, the Atlanta, Georgia, advertising agency
that created the talking sloth promotion and the movie advertising
project for the country. Basically the goal is to position Costa Rica so it attracts more tourists. The chamber noted that the tourism industry is valued at about $1.6 billion each year. The program seems geared to consider promoting the use of social media for marketing Costa Rica. The invitation list does not include anyone with expertise in traditional media. |
| Government defends letting Limón strikers return
without docking pay |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Casa Presidencial says it was able to let striking Limón dockworkers off the hook because the declaration that their strike was illegal had not been validated by a higher court. Negotiators agreed Wednesday night that the dockworkers would return to the job Thursday without any pay deductions for the days they had been off work. Although the strike had been declared illegal last week, an appeal was pending Wednesday. |
Not until Thursday
did the Tribunal de Trabajo de Limón resolve the appeal and
affirm that the strike was illegal, noted Casa Presidencial. By
then strikers were back at work. The government also cited a Sala IV constitutional ruling that said strikers could not be dismissed or penalized as long as there was not a declaration of illegality. Strikers had been off work since Oct. 22 when police took over the docks. The Casa Presidencial statement in conjunction with the Ministerio de Trabajo was seen as trying to deflect criticism as to why there would be no penalties for the strikers. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Nov. 7, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 221 | |||||
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| California university pioneers holistic approach to treating
Alzheimer's |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Alzheimer’s is a frightening disease not only for those who suffer from the progressive memory loss, but also their loved ones. But researchers at the University of California Los Angeles said a new way of treating Alzheimer’s is showing promise for reversing some of that memory loss. The treatment combines western medicine with eastern philosophy. Dale Bredesen, with the university's Easton Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research, said nine of 10 patients suffering from either Alzheimer’s or other cognitive impairments saw improvements in their memory. He said the new therapy treats the patients holistically, unlike traditional treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. “They have either taken a single drug, monotherapy, to try with Alzheimer’s and that has been a failure repeatedly, or they have tried without any sort of background simply saying, 'Okay, try exercise, try changing your diet,' these sorts of things, and there has not been any way to understand how these things contribute to the disease,” Bredesen said. A 55-year-old attorney who does not want her identity revealed because she suffered from progressive memory loss associated with early Alzheimer’s and still works is one of 10 patients who received a new therapy to treat memory loss. "I could not remember conversations that I'd had with my kids and my husband. I started having to refer to my calendar all the time,” she said. “I now have much more confidence in my work and am not afraid |
that I will forget
something. I don't have to rely on my lists. I don't have to write
everything down.” Bredesen said there is a constant balance of the brain remembering and forgetting. He said many factors, including lifestyle, can create an imbalance in brain activity, leading to memory loss. “We identified 36 different parts of this network that contribute to the imbalance. So when you are chronically on the wrong side of that balance, you are in fact pulling apart the connections instead of making them. Then, in the long run, that can lead to Alzheimer’s disease.” The different elements include a person's diet, exercise and sleep habits. Through brain imaging, blood work and lifestyle questions, Bredesen creates an individualized therapy for each patient. Treatments include lifestyle changes and even medications or supplements. He described this new therapy as combining western understanding of the human body with the eastern approach of looking at the whole patient. “What we’re using is a combination that brings these two together to create a new kind of physician that is doing a different kind of medicine who understands the basis of molecular genetics, but also understands the need to bring things together in a network fashion,” Bredesen said. He said for the nine patients experiencing improvement, it typically came within three to six months. He said the 10th patient was too far along in the disease to see results. The center is now working with 30 additional patients as it moves to expand its research. |
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2014 and may
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
news page
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Nov. 7, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 221 | |||||||
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| Environmental group accuses Chinese of airlifting ivory By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A new report accuses members of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s entourage on a state trip to Tanzania last year of loading an official plane with illegal ivory. The report released Thursday by the Environmental Investigation Agency, a London-based international nonprofit, said members of the Chinese delegation bought so much ivory on the March 2013 trip that prices for the illegal commodity doubled up to $700 per kilogram. A spokesman in Beijing said Thursday the charge that illegal ivory was carried out of Africa by a Chinese government airliner is groundless. The illegal ivory trade has devastated elephant populations in the East African nation. Local traders, quoted in the report, said the contraband was allegedly bundled up and flown back to China on the presidential plane. In a video released by the environmental agency, an alleged Tanzanian ivory dealer discusses the Chinese deals with an undercover investigator. The unnamed trader said when Xi’s entourage visited, “Many kilos go out, many kilos. Half of his plane goes to that business.” When an investigator asked how he knew, the trader responded: “I know. They buy from us.” The report added that Chinese diplomatic and military staffs, along with Chinese businessmen, in the past have used such visits to purchase large amounts of ivory. China has vowed to crack down on ivory trafficking. In a ceremony in the city of Guangzhou in January, officials crushed more than 6 tons of confiscated raw and carved ivory to show the commitment. The event was attended by representatives of African countries hit hard by poaching, including Tanzania. The report said Tanzania is the biggest source of illegal ivory seized around the world. International ivory trading was banned in the 1980s in an effort to protect elephants, tens of thousands of whom are killed by poachers each year for their tusks. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species last year named China among eight nations failing to do enough to fight the import of illegally smuggled ivory. Tanzania is a close ally of China. On a visit to Beijing last month, President Jakaya Kikwete signed business deals reported to be worth $1.7 billion. Trafficking follows established trade routes in Tanzania, beginning in the country's own wildlife reserves. Elephants are slaughtered at the parks – Selous, a reserve in southern Tanzania, is one of the hardest hit. The ivory is collected in villages and brought to the port in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s capital. It is loaded onto freighters and shipped to destinations in Asia, including Hong Kong, Manila and Haiphong, Vietnam, before ending up in China, where it is cut, carved and sold as decoration or used in medicine. None of this would be possible without the cooperation of Tanzanian authorities, said Shruti Suresh, a wildlife campaigner. "Seeing that there are several tons of ivory going through government posts, past government officials, it is clear that this corruption permeates through the highest levels of government," Suresh said. The insatiable demand for ivory, mostly from Asia, has had devastating consequences for elephant populations. The environmental agency said Tanzania had lost two-thirds of its elephants in less than a decade, mostly to poachers. The country had 142,000 elephants in 2005; the agency predicted that, at the current death rate, the number would fall to about 55,000 in 2015. The elephant population at the Selous reserve alone fell from 70,000 in 2006 to just 13,000 in 2013. Suresh called the decline of Tanzania’s elephant population "dire in the extreme." "It's quite shocking," Suresh said. "And if we don't stop this rate of decline, we really don't know if Tanzania will have elephants in the near future." Retired SEAL says it was he who killed Osama bin Laden By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A veteran U.S. Navy SEAL says he was the middle-of-the-night raider who shot and killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden at his Pakistani hideout in 2011. His name has been secret for more than three years, but Robert O'Neill is telling U.S. news organizations he fired three shots at bin Laden, hitting him twice in the forehead and a third time after he crumbled to floor in front of his bed at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. O'Neill says he was near the head of the column of commandos on the Navy SEAL Team 6 that burst into the bin Laden compound and confronted the architect of the 2001 al-Qaida terror attacks on the United States that killed nearly 3,000 people. O'Neill said the first SEAL to reach bin Laden's room fired a shot that apparently missed, before he spotted bin Laden through his night-vision scope. The 38-year-old O'Neill said that at least two other SEAL team members fired shots, including Mark Bissonnette, who previously wrote a book about the raid, "No Easy Day." O'Neill, now retired from the military after 16 years and giving motivational speeches, said he decided to disclose his role in the raid after becoming convinced his identity was about to be revealed by others. He was preparing to make his story public when a group of former SEAL members disclosed his name in protest of his plan to make the disclosure himself. The U.S. military has also been angered by the disclosure as O'Neill's plan became evident. A few days ago, a U.S. Naval Special Warfare commander warned individual SEALS they were obligated to "not advertise the nature of my work nor seek recognition for my action" in exchange for public notoriety or financial gain. O'Neill, who was awarded numerous military decorations during more than 400 U.S. combat missions, also participated in the 2009 rescue of merchant marine Capt. Richard Phillips from pirates off the coast of Somalia. That raid was depicted in the 2013 movie, "Captain Phillips." Medal of Honor awarded to long-dead Civil War hero By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Alonzo H. Cushing gave his life for his country more than 150 years ago, and Thursday he was recognized for bravery by the president of the United States. Barack Obama awarded the Medal of Honor, the country's highest military decoration, to First Lieutenant Cushing, killed at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. More than 24 members of the Cushing family were at the White House Thursday to accept the medal. Cushing was killed during an infantry assault by southern troops on the Union Army on the last day of the three-day Battle of Gettysburg. Although badly wounded, Cushing refused to back down as he led northern troops against more than 10,000 advancing Confederate soldiers. Historians call this the turning point in favor of the Union in the U.S. Civil War. Cushing is buried at the U.S. Army's military academy at West Point, New York. Historians and Cushing's family have kept his story alive. President Obama said the medal reflects the obligations the country has to its servicemen and women, long after they've taken off their uniforms. He said the medal is a reminder that no matter how long it takes, it is never too late to do the right thing. Boehner adopts a hard line in discussing immigration By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
After a sweeping victory on Election Day, Republican House Speaker John Boehner took a hard line on the next Congress’ agenda and quelled any talk of compromise with Democratic President Barack Obama, using strong language to warn the president he would get burned if he took unilateral action on immigration reform. It appears the new Congress, with both chambers controlled by Republicans starting in January, may be on a collision course with the president. Boosted by the prospect of having the biggest Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in 80 years, Speaker Boehner appeared tough at a news conference Thursday, vowing to hold another vote to repeal the president’s signature health care reform law when the new Congress is sworn in next year. The Republican-led House has already voted to repeal, delay or dismantle the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare,” more than 50 times. Boehner also warned the president not to take executive action on immigration reform. “When you play with matches, you take the risk of burning yourself, and he is going to burn himself if he continues to go down this path. The American people made clear on Election Day they want to get things done, and they do not want the president to act on a unilateral basis," said Boehner. The Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill more than one year ago, but the House has not brought an immigration bill to the floor for a vote. Speaking to reporters Wednesday, President Obama warned his patience is wearing thin waiting for Congress to fix what many call the broken U.S. immigration system. "So before the end of the year, we are going to take whatever lawful actions that I can take that I believe will improve the functioning of our immigration system that will allow us to surge additional resources to the border," said President Obama. Pro-immigration reform lawmakers and activists are putting pressure on President Obama to take bold executive action to stop the deportation of undocumented immigrants, after the president delayed any action until after this week’s elections. Labor leader Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, told reporters the House had had more than enough time to act on immigration. “When given a chance to fix it, Republican extremists refused; now the president must act," said Trumka. The president is meeting with 16 congressional leaders today at the White House to discuss the new political realities after the election, and to try to find some common ground to get things done. Canada wants to enact multiple marriage ban By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Canada's government has proposed changes to strengthen a current ban on polygamist immigration. Amendments to the Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act were introduced in Parliament Wednesday. A Canadian government review of the current law suggests some permanent resident applicants begin polygamous marriages once in Canada to try to circumvent the law. The proposed changes would give the government the power to deport those who begin polygamous marital relationships in Canada, without the need for a criminal conviction. Canada’s Immigration Minister Chris Alexander said Canada will not tolerate cultural traditions in the country that deprive individuals of their human rights. Alexander said there are hundreds of immigration cases that will be affected if the law is amended. The proposed legislation also would ban forced marriages, set a minimum age for marriage at 16, and limit possible defenses in so-called honor killings and many spousal murders. Workers in Brussels march to protect austerity plans By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
At least 100,000 workers took to the streets of Brussels on Thursday to protest the Belgian government’s free-market reforms and austerity measures. At least 14 people were injured when protesters clashed with the police. Protesters pelted police with stones and fireworks, overturning cars or setting them on fire. Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the demonstrators. The workers were protesting plans by the country's new center-right government to increase the pension age from 65 to 67, freeze wages and cut public services. The government says it must implement austerity measures to keep the budget deficit in line with European Union requirements. It also insists that businesses need more tax breaks to compete in the global market. Trade unions have objected to the government plans, saying they undermine Belgium's welfare state. The unions have announced they will push their demands forward during a several-week long campaign that will culminate in a general strike on December 15. |
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2014 and may
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| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Nov. 7, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 221 | |||||||||
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Switzerland announced last month that it will ask the United Nations to add yodeling, a long tradition in the Alpine nation, to the U.N. global heritage list. But despite the popular image of the yodeling alpine goatherd, Switzerland does not have a monopoly on the distinctive sound. Cultures all over the world have their own version of the yodel, and even Canadian country music artist Eli Barsi says it can be heard in everything from American cowboy songs to Eastern European, British, Dutch, Scandinavian, Bollywood, Asian, and West African pygmy music. Yodeling is defined as singing a single note that begins with a low-pitch chest registers and then abruptly jumps to a falsetto head register. While much yodeling sounds spontaneous, Ms. Barsi says most artists write unique yodels for each song and sing them the same way every time. Country music artists like Ms. Barsi have the American cultural stew to thank for the yodels they perform today. German immigrants brought their traditional yodel to the North American plains, while African slaves brought their own broken voice field calls to the Americas. John Rumble, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum historian, says the two traditions merged in country music in the early 20th century, thanks to Jimmie Rodgers, who became known as America’s Blue Yodeler. A fan of traditional European yodeling, Rodgers had daily exposure to African American construction workers who repaired railroad tracks on the line he worked for as a young man. They imbued yodeling with a unique, bluesy twist. “No one has every surpassed Jimmie Rodgers in terms of the emotion that he packed into his yodels," said Rumble. "And that could be light-hearted, it could be nostalgic, it could even be world-weary.” Rodgers died in 1933. But in the years since, Rumble says, no yodeler has matched his commercial success. But while it may no longer enthrall American audiences, Ms. Barsi, the Canadian musician, says artists are still yodeling. In fact, she recently conducted live yodeling demonstrations for participants in Nashville, where she saw an expanding range of interest. “At the western festival and the cowboy festivals we go to, there are a lot of the younger artists that are interested," she said. "So, you know, all of us yodelers try to help them along the best we can, because they are the next generation of yodelers coming up.” While Ms. Barsi notes that examples of yodeling can be heard in genres of music beyond country, she says she also hears broken voice singing — generally described as transitions between different vocal registers of the human voice akin to that of yodeling — in pop, jazz, reggae, and even classical music. Satellites spot unknown Amazon villages By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Scientists are using satellite images to get a better view of the location and size of isolated Amazon tribes living in dense forests along the border of Peru and Brazil. The spacecraft are replacing surveys by invasive, low-flying aircraft, that may scare people not accustomed to modern technology. Analyzing images taken over a number of years by satellite cameras with 50-centimeter resolution, authorities in Brazil discovered five previously unknown villages along the Envira River. Indigenous people, who have a subsistence lifestyle, growing crops and hunting and gathering in the forest, have long avoided contact with the rest of the world. But their existence is severely threatened by illegal loggers and cocaine traffickers who, fleeing from authorities, keep moving their cocoa cultivation and processing plants deeper into the jungle. Scientists say they have found obvious differences between the villages and contemporary camps of drug and timber traffickers. Some scientists have also expressed concerns that contact with the outside world may expose the tribes to germs against which they have no immunity. |
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| From
Page 7: Tech chamber expands opposition to monopoly By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The technology chamber is putting together a joint effort to oppose bills that would force everyone in the computer field to join a colegio. The chamber, the Cámara de Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación, already has voiced opposition to the bills, Nº 18.919 and Nº 18.928. It said it is seeking professionals in that industry to use the social networks to voice opposition. The bills would require, it seems, anyone who works with a computer to join and pay dues to the Colegio de Profesionales en Informática y Computación. The colegio already exists and has about 5,000 members. The bill would reform the laws that created the professional organization. The chamber meets Wednesday with students at the Universidad de Costa Rica who are in these fields to seek support. The chamber also will approach lawmakers to outline what it said were negative consequences of the bills. The chamber has said that many in the computer field are self taught and need not be required to have a university degree. |
