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San
José, Costa Rica, Monday, Nov. 9, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 221
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Well-fertilize
plant surprises cops
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A marijuana plant in la Rosalía de Jorco de Aserrí must be some kind of record. The Policía de Control de Drogas said that the plant measured three meters and 40 centimeters in height. That is more than 11 feet. A neighbor directed police to the plant that was in the patio of a home of a 27 year old man, they said.  Voice
of America/ Chandana
Gadiraju
Australian cricket legend Glenn McGrath interacts with youngcricketers at Citi Field in New York. Cricket invades
the home field of the Mets
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
More than 25,000 fans, mostly expats, flocked to New York's Citi Field to witness a cricketing spectacle on a chilly Saturday afternoon. In an entertaining game that lasted a little over three hours, Indian batting legend Sachin Tendulkar’s Blasters took on Australian balling legend Shane Warne’s Warriors. “It’s exciting to see all the stars coming together to introduce the game to the U.S. It’s exciting, also, to see Waseem Akram,” said Mohammad, a Pakistani-American who enjoyed the game with a group of his cricket-crazy friends. Budding cricketer Chris Nancoo was thrilled to see his icons from the West Indies, saying, “I am here to watch Brian Lara. Hope he scores big.” Though their average age was above 35, the legends did not disappoint. It was a feast for an average cricket follower in America who is deprived of watching live, quality cricket. New Jersey native Padma Sharma never expected to see her favorite cricketers live in the U.S. “I am only here to enjoy cricket and never imagined it would happen,” she said. But the biggest attraction for many fans was the God of Cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, widely regarded as one of the most popular sports icons in the world. Fans cheered his name at every possible opportunity. “It’s a dream come true just to see him live. It was also great to see old rivals playing together,” said Anand Balachandra, who drove from Philadelphia to witness the battle between his cricketing idols. Warne said he was thrilled to play in front of thousands of his fans who had packed a baseball stadium in New York. “It was a pretty amazing day,” he said. “The whole idea of Cricket All Stars is to get as many people from different countries to enjoy it, to globalize cricket,” Tendulkar said. The Indian batting legend felt that the atmosphere was as electrifying as the Mets baseball game he'd witnessed a few days ago. The Cricket All Stars, a group of 28 retired players from Pakistan, India, South Africa, Australia, Sri Lanka, West Indies and New Zealand, are trying to re-create the magic that entertained the world of cricket followers during their playing days. They are participating in three exhibition matches across the United States. The next matches will be at Houston’s Minute Maid Park Wednesday and at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles Friday. New York-based sports marketing company Leverage Agency joined with United Sports Associates to organize the series. The icons spent a week in New York interacting with fans and young cricketers. By some estimates, there are about 200,000 cricket players in the United States, playing in more than 150 leagues. Most of these players are expats who continue to follow their passion. Capturing the attention of the average American sports fan remains cricket’s biggest challenge, and the star power of Cricket All Stars was expected to create a big buzz for the sport. Saturday’s game was mostly attended by cricket-loving South Asians, Australians and Caribbeans. Houston and Los Angeles may not be very different. “Cricket All Stars will definitely score big from the nostalgia or a personal standpoint, but . . . for the general casual U.S. fan who likes his NFL, his baseball, or his basketball, I don’t really see much impact being made, particularly from the standpoint of the prices that are being put out for these tickets,” said ESPNCricinfo’s U.S. correspondent, Peter Della Penna. Only 12 percent of the seats in these venues are priced at $50, while the rest range from $75 to $175. Della Penna believes the higher ticket prices may have discouraged those not familiar with this sport. U.S. Youth Cricket’s President Jamie Harrison, who grew up as a baseball lover, agrees that pricing could have had a role to play, but also feels that a little more advance promotion on mainstream American media would have been helpful. “They needed to be more open to interacting with Americans," Harrison said. "I would have liked to see a lot more promotion for a longer time, TV commercials, newspaper interviews, basically to get cricket out there.” Moreover, younger players and fans would have liked to see today’s cricketers rather than watching retired legends. Experts feel that cricket should have followed the soccer model, where current players and clubs play exhibition games during the off-season. “Soccer games with current stars get 50,000 to 60,000 people in a stadium," Della Penna said. "When the U.S. sends their sports overseas, they send the current talent. You see the NFL going to London every year now, or baseball opened a season in Sydney to a large crowd. Cricket could have used current stars like Chris Gayle, David Warner and M.S. Dhoni that could have helped in bringing in larger crowds.” New York Times reporter Victor Mather believes that compared with soccer, cricket is a complex game and a little hard to sell, but he feels that thanks to such events, it will continue to grow. “I have been living in New York for 30 years and this is the biggest thing cricketwise we have ever had," he said. "So you increase people gradually. Somebody who had no interest now has a little interest." |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Nov. 9, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 221 | |
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| Guardacostas official reports some progress in fighting Nicoya piracy | |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A Guardacostas official says the agency has recovered two motors and three boats that were carried off by pirates from the community of Pochote on the Nicoya peninsula. An arrest warrant was issued for one man, he said. Miguel Madrigal, who heads the Servicio Nacional de Guardacostas in Caldera, met with fishing interests to discuss the wave of piracy in the gulf of Nicoya. He gave the report on the investigation prompted by the raid on Pochote. An estimated eight pirates invaded Puerto Pochote near Tambor on the west coast of the gulf in mid-October. They attacked a guard, stole two boats, five motors and gasoline and took other fishing necessities. There have been at least two more similar incidents during the |
year,
and at least twice the pirates tied up the guard and threw him
into the mangroves where he managed to escape by swimming. One of the major jobs of the Guardacostas is suppression of illegal fishing. That means recovering illegal nets and checking the location and catches of fishing boats on the gulf. These violations are covered by fishing laws. Piracy is covered by the penal code and is what amounts to a felony, Madrigal noted. He urged members of the various fishing associations to file complaints when crimes happen because without complaints there will not be an investigation, he said, noting that a complaint involving Pochote resulted in the recovery of the motors and boats. Fishing communities in the gulf of Nicoya are setting up a network to fight piracy. |
Celebrating with a bang Blowing off an explosive would be one way to celebrate a soccer score by your favorite team. But this also would be illegal. Maybe that is why someone abandoned a bag containing 11 homemade explosives near the Estadio Nacional. Police found them and reported that there were 11 devices of phosphorus and powder. These are called bengalas in Spanish, and there are many varieties, some of them legal. The stadium hosted Deportivo Saprissa and the Liga Deportiva Alajuelense Sunday. |
 Ministerio de Seguridad
Pública photo
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| Congress urged to go slow in stripping tax violators of
passports |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
American Citizens Abroad has urged the U.S. Congress to delay a measure that would strip citizens of their passports if they were delinquent with tax payments. The expat advocacy organization said that the tax provision has been added to a surface transportation bill. The measure authorizes the revocation or denial of renewal of passports if the holder owes what the U.S. Internal Revenue Service claims is more than $50,000 in taxes. American Citizens Abroad called the measure draconian and discriminatory. In a letter Friday to congressional leaders it urged that the measure be delayed until hearings are held and alternate ways to solve the problem are explored. |
The
organization noted that overseas IRS offices have been closed
and that there are few chances for citizens to meet with revenue
officers to seek resolution of their tax problems. The measure discriminated against "American abroad, who unlike Americans living in the U.S., are overwhelmingly reliant upon their U.S, passports in their everyday lives," said the organization. A tax debt of $50,000 initially appears large, but as some U.S. expats here have learned, the IRS piles on penalties and interest on even the smallest claim. The United Sates is just one of a few countries that tax its citizens on earnings overseas, something expat advocacy organizations oppose. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Nov. 9, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 221 | |||||
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| Germany's universities with free
tuition are a big foreign student draw |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
More young Americans are taking a novel approach to getting a higher education without paying the rising costs of U.S. college tuition: enrolling in German universities where tuition is free. Germany offers free university tuition to foreign as well as domestic students who meet certain academic qualifications. By contrast, tuition fees at U.S. public and private universities have risen significantly in recent decades. U.S. college students accumulate debts averaging $30,000 to pay for tuition by the time they graduate, according to American historian and social justice activist Lawrence Wittner. “Today, paying for tuition is beyond the means of most U.S. college students and their families,” said Wittner on this week’s HashtagVOA program. Hunter Bliss, from the southern U.S. state of South Carolina, told HashtagVOA that his family faced a stark choice. “I either had to leave my country and save my own life, or stay in the U.S. and put down $45,000 for a bachelor’s degree. That was simply not doable for me,” said Bliss. He is a student at Technical University of Munich. Germany became an option for Bliss when he realized that he could pursue physics at the Technical University, where he enrolled as an undergraduate one year ago. Tuition at the university is free, but Bliss says each year he has to pay semester fees of about $200, an amount that covers administrative costs of the university and its student union. Thousands of other Americans have made the same decision as Bliss in recent years. The Institute of International Education, a U.S.-based nonprofit group, says there were 3,069 Americans doing full degrees in Germany in the 2013-14 academic year, a jump of 50 percent from five years earlier. It attributed the data to the German Academic Exchange Service, an organization of higher education institutions in Germany. |
Bliss says
Americans who qualify for undergraduate programs in Germany
typically can study in English for the first
year. But he says those students are required to take intensive German
language courses to prepare them for completing their studies in the
local language. “The language barrier is probably the biggest challenge,” said Bliss, who already had some German skills before moving to Germany. “But there is a tradeoff. You either pay a lot of money to study in English in the U.S., or you learn the language in Germany.” Bliss says he is considering a switch to studying design after failing to pass his latest physics exams. But he says he has no regrets about the move to Germany. “Living more than 7,000 kilometers away from parents, that can be kind of difficult. But the whole journey has been an absolute pleasure. I loved every second of it,” Bliss said. Chicago-based international university consultancy Eight Hours and Change is trying to help other American students to follow Bliss' lead. Its founder, Jay Malone, also studied in Germany and now lives in Cologne. He told HashtagVOA that U.S. students and their families often ask him about the additional costs of studying in Germany. “It’s not absolutely free,” Malone said. “If you live in a more expensive city like Munich, students should budget around $800 to $1,000 per month for living expenses. For some less expensive cities in the east, you might be looking at spending less than $600 a month.” Malone says Germany wants to boost its international student population from 300,000 to 400,000 in the coming years, hoping that many of them will go on to work in the country, revive its aging workforce and join its pool of taxpayers. Bliss, when asked whether he will be one of those students who stays in Germany after graduation, gave an emphatic response. “Absolutely, I want to stay. This country is amazing!” |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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Colorado
S.A. 2015 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Nov. 9, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 221 | |||||||
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| Pope says Vatican leaks will not stop his reforms By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Pope Francis says the leaking of sensitive Vatican documents is a crime and a deplorable act that will not stop him from moving forward with church reforms. The leader of the world's Roman Catholics, in his first comments since two people suspected of leaking the documents were arrested last week, said "this sad fact will certainly not distract me from the work of reform that is moving ahead." "Stealing those documents is a crime, it is a deplorable act that does not help," he said before tens of thousand of people at his Sunday blessing in Saint Peter's Square. Information from the leaked documents was used for two books, "Merchants in the Temple" by Gianluigi Nuzzi and "Avarice" by Emiliano Fittipaldi. The books detail mismanagement and corruption in the Vatican and how some prelates are resisting the pope's financial and administrative changes in the Holy See. Last week the Vatican arrested two people, a high-ranking Holy See official and an Italian woman who is a public relations expert, for allegedly leaking the documents. Russia and Britain move to bring home citizens By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
European holiday makers are leaving the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh by the thousands following an airline disaster that killed hundreds of Russian tourists at the end of October. British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said by the end of Sunday, 5,000 British citizens will have left the Red Sea destination. However the country's embassy in Cairo was careful about how it labeled the departures. "Britain is not evacuating its tourists early from their holidays," the diplomatic mission said in a statement Saturday. "The steps that we have taken yesterday and today with the Egyptian authorities and UK airlines will now allow us to get British people home safely at the end of their holidays." Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his government last week to facilitate the repatriation of Russian travelers from Egypt. Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said Saturday that up to 80,000 Russians were visiting the country, twice as many as previously estimated. On Sunday, a Russian official said about 11,000 have now returned home. All 224 people aboard a Russian Metrojet flight from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg were killed Oct. 31. The tragedy prompted some European air carriers to curb or cut flights to the longtime tourism magnet at the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula. Militants claiming affiliation with Islamic State claimed the attack, however the head of Egypt's investigation team says no conclusions have been reached about what brought the airliner down. U.S. and British officials have said it's possible that a bomb may have brought down the plane. An unexplained noise during the final second of audio recordings from the cockpit has drawn intense attention, but Egypt's chief investigator, Ayman al-Muqaddam, said his team has not determined whether that signaled an explosion. British media reported Saturday that a plane carrying tourists to Sharm El-Sheikh in August came within 300 meters of a rocket Aug. 23. However, officials in London and Cairo dismissed the incident. Egypt's Foreign Affairs spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said Saturday that both governments were fully aware that plane was in no danger during military training near the Sharm el-Sheikh airport. Russians loitering over cables prompts security concerns By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
It seems like something more fitting of a Cold War-era James Bond movie script than present-day reality: unnamed Pentagon officials circulating reports that Russian naval vessels and submarines are lurking around undersea cables that link the U.S. to Europe and Asia. The unnamed officials speculate the Russians might be trying to tap those links or even worse, completely sever them during a time of crisis. That’s exactly what unnamed U.S. military and intelligence officials have been telling influential news outlets such as The New York Times. And they’re not alone. Last week, the former NATO Supreme commander, Admiral John Stavridis (Ret.), warned that undersea fiber-optic cables handle almost all the world’s Internet communications and represent a serious security vulnerability should an adversary attack them. This week, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators requested information from the secretaries of State, defense and homeland security regarding the security of the nearly 200 fiber-optic cables that link the globe together electronically. “Due to increased Russian aggression and their presence in waters these cables rest in, we are increasingly concerned with what a targeted attack on the cables the U.S. depends on could result in,” they said in their request. “Nearly all the world’s Internet traffic passes at some point through an underwater cable,” said Doug Madory, director of Internet research at the cyber-intelligence firm Dyn. “And rarely a week goes by that there isn’t a submarine cable break somewhere in the world.” According to the firm TeleGeography, there are approximately 200 active submarine cables crisscrossing the bottom of the ocean’s floors. These cables electronically link together all of the world’s continents, except Antarctica, and nearly every island with a human population. Undersea cables are generally around a mere 3 inches in diameter and composed of various layers of insulation, steel cables and water protection. Deep inside are bundles of thin optical fibers, tiny, flexible fibers marginally larger than a human hair. Each can carry huge amounts of digital data. Together they handle over 95 percent of all Internet and phone data between continents. Some nations, such as Cuba or New Zealand, have only one main cable connecting them to the global Internet. “For countries relying on a single submarine cable, the loss of that cable could be crippling for their Internet service,” Madory said. “They may be able to fall back on bulk satellite service, but satellite has much greater latency and less capacity.” The U.S., by contrast, has several dozen cables connected to its Atlantic and Pacific coast hubs. Exposed along the vast expanses of ocean sea floor, these cables face a wide range of hazards, including dragging anchors and, in some areas, sharks that inexplicably like chewing on the cables’ polyethylene sheathing. “When close to shore, these cables are encased in protective metal shielding and buried up to 3 meters deep in the seabed, but out in the deep sea they are unprotected and as thin as a garden hose,” said Madory. “If someone was able to locate these cables at sea, they could easily cut them.” So could one nation sabotage another by simply mapping those cables and tapping into them or worse, cutting them? “The U.S. and the former Soviet Union repeatedly tapped each other’s land lines during the Cold War,” noted Christopher Harmer, senior naval analyst with the Institute for the Study of War and retired deputy director with the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet. “The U.S. Navy tapped the Russian Pacific Fleet data lines for at least a couple of years," said Harmer. Harmer and Madory agreed that in most areas, undersea cables could easily be cut, and the Russians have a few vessels capable of very deep sea maneuvers. Harmer said the Pentagon has long been aware of the cables' vulnerabilities to potential threats. “Transoceanic cables are high-value targets that are extremely vulnerable to attack,” Harmer said via email. “The U.S. Navy is highly aware of the threat, has simulated the scenarios, understands the risks, but does not have the assets to mitigate the risks.” However, Madory downplays the size of the problem for the U.S. “There are multiple cables crossing the Atlantic and Pacific, providing enormous capacity and resilience for the Internet in North America,” Madory wrote via email. “To even make a dent in U.S. international connectivity would require simultaneously taking out multiple cables. “If a perpetrator with a submarine wanted to cause maximal downtime, they could attempt to cause multiple breaks at harder-to-reach locations on multiple cables, but the impacts would be fleeting,” said Madory. “I don't think the Russians have a significant advantage here,” said Harmer. “Their economy has devolved into a resource extraction economy. They need customers for it. Cutting data lines also cuts off their customers in Western Europe from communication with North America. The real threat is IT theft by China or Russia.” Madory disagrees. “Experts in the industry are very doubtful that it is possible to tap a fiber-optic cable on the seabed without it being noticed,” he said. Perhaps not, said Harmer. But that doesn’t mean that someone isn't trying. World Bank says warming means spike in poverty By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The World Bank is warning that global warming will push 100 million more people into poverty across the globe in the next 15 years, in the absence of further action by developed nations to curb rising temperatures. In a report released Sunday, the bank called for "rapid, inclusive and climate smart development, together with emission reductions" aimed at protecting the world's most vulnerable inhabitants. The report, entitled "Shockwaves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty," comes ahead of a global summit on climate change that opens Nov. 30 in Paris. It also follows last week's United Nations warning that voluntary carbon emission cutting pledges from industrialized nations go nowhere near far enough to prevent a looming crisis. Current recommendations call for global measures aimed at limiting temperature increases to 2 degrees C in this century. But Friday's U.N. Environment Program report said existing pledges, if honored, will yield only a third of the reductions needed by 2030 to preserve that long-range target. Key elements in the World Bank report include warnings that 150 million more poor people could be at risk from malaria, diarrhea and growth stunting. It also warns that climate change will continue to spur mass human migration by the poor in affected areas, requiring more social services elsewhere to address the crisis. Additionally, the report warns that rising temperatures could drive up food prices in large parts of Africa as much as 12 percent by 2030. Western nations have collectively pledged to boost climate related financing to $100 billion annually by 2020. But developing countries are calling for commitments beyond 2020 in any agreement reached in the upcoming summit. Rubio's credit card use becomes campaign issue By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio charged more than $7,000 in personal expenses on a Republican Party credit card while he was a state lawmaker in Florida 10 years ago, but his campaign says he has reimbursed the party for all the charges. The campaign's defense of Rubio's spending practices came just days after Republican rival and billionaire Donald Trump publicly ridiculed Rubio, saying he was a disaster with his credit cards who certainly lives beyond his means. The New York Times reported that another rival, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, also raised the issue of Rubio's spending in questioning his fitness for higher office. The campaign said Rubio's personal expenses included more than $3,700 to a tile store, and other charges made at a hotel and car rental agency in Las Vegas. A campaign statement also said the Las Vegas charges were linked to a business trip that he extended to visit relatives. It did not explain the other expenses on the card. Wednesday, Rubio told ABC News that his only debt is the mortgage on his home. "I obviously don't come from a wealthy family," he said. Rubio's finances also played out during his 2010 campaign for the U.S. Senate, when critics questioned details of his home mortgage payments and a liquidated retirement account. In a report earlier this year, the Times said campaign managers for 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney flagged Rubio's spending record while vetting him as a possible vice presidential running mate. Romney eventually tapped U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, forming a ticket that lost the election to the incumbents, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Carson raps excess scrutiny by national media outlets By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said Sunday he is receiving more scrutiny than others who have run for president because of the threat he poses to “the secular progressive movement in this country.” Carson has soared to the top of the 2016 Republican presidential heap, where he remains with real estate mogul Donald Trump, with an inspiring story about his rise from a difficult childhood in Detroit, Michigan, to a successful career as a neurosurgeon. But in recent days, media outlets have been reviewing several stories Carson describes in his autobiography, "Gifted Hands," and have found that many of the claims are difficult to verify. The Wall Street Journal reported that the class "Perceptions 301," mentioned in the book, did not exist while Carson was a student at Yale University, despite his claims that he was the only student not to walk out after being told he had to retake an exam. That piece also questioned his recollections about high school, including a claim that he protected white students during a race riot. Politico questioned the veracity of Carson's oft-repeated claim that he was offered a full scholarship to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, which does not offer scholarships because the cost of attendance for those accepted into the school is free. Carson told ABC's "This Week" television news show on Sunday that the West Point Web site uses the word "scholarship," so that he was not wrong to use this word in the past when describing overtures from military officials who told him when he was young that they could get him a full scholarship to the academy. Also Sunday, Carson repeated his stance that the level of scrutiny to which he is being subjected has never been applied to others who have sought the presidency, including Barack Obama. "I have always said that I expect to be vetted, but being vetted and what is going on with me - 'You said this 30 years ago, you said this 20 years ago, this didn’t exist' ... I have not seen that with anyone else," he said during an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press." "It's time to really move on," he said. But his main rival Trump did not heed that suggestion, instead raising questions about Carson's accounts of his past on four different Sunday talk shows. Trump called Carson's tales strange and weird, in a conversation with ABC's "This Week." "He's going to have to explain a lot of things away," Trump told NBC's "Meet the Press." |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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contents of this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río
Colorado S.A. 2015 and may not be reproduced anywhere without
permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Nov. 9, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 221 | |||||||||
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What's this about
a chill in the tropics?
I am told, by those who have
lived in Costa Rica a lot longer than I have that the
end of the rainy season is often presaged by a cold spell.
Or maybe the grass is crunchy with frost? Nah. And that funny, fluffy, white stuff that used to fall from the sky? Not happening. So what is all this talk about a cold spell and can it really mean that the rainy season will soon be over? I haven’t got a clue. What I can tell you is that I had to put a blanket – a blanket! – on my bed last night. Not only that, but I got up and closed my window at 4 a.m. This is a sad state of affairs for someone living in the tropics. And what about my garden? Will my flowers fade away from the chill? Will the squash curl up and die? Well, not so far, although my tomatoes seem to be suffering a bit. All in all, the garden seems to be weathering the chill better than I am, even with my extra blanket. But does all this actually presage an end to the rain. I asked the experts, that is, my friends who are native born Costa Ricans, and the answer was: Yes and No. Okay, come on guys, quit messing with me. Yes and No? I want to plan ahead. Do I need to go out now and buy hose that will stretch from the house to the new vegetable garden or can I wait a while? What about my transplants? Will I need to plan on being home every day to keep them watered or can I take that three days we have planned at the beach. Sadly, the weather sages have no answer except, wait and see.  Plant for the Week
The genus mussaenda
includes several dozen separate species. This is mussaenda philippica or
Aurorae which come in both white and shades of pink. This sun-loving
shrub can grow 2 meters tall but can also be cut back to suit the
available space and prevent an untidy look. Bare spots at the base of
the shrub can be hidden with other plantings. To enjoy near continuous
blooming, dead-head discolored blooms. Plant as a specimen or as a
hedge. If you would like to suggest a topic for this column, simply send a letter to the editor. And, for more garden tips, visit https://www.facebook.com/pages/Arenal-Gardeners/413220712106845 |
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| From
Page 7: Good job news might mean a rate hike By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. said Friday its labor market rebounded sharply from three months of weak job growth, adding 271,000 more jobs in October and likely easing the way for the central bank to raise interest rates next month. The Labor Department reported the U.S. unemployment rate edged down to 5 percent last month, the lowest rate in seven years. The world's largest economy shrugged off a sluggish manufacturing sector, showing strong job growth in professional and business services, health care, retail, food services and construction. Analysts had been predicting a much weaker employment advance last month, only slightly better than the 145,000-a-month average for August and September. Analysts say the robust October hiring is likely to ease the path for the Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank, to boost its benchmark interest rate next month. |
