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Published Friday, Nov. 18, 2016, Vol.
17, No. 229
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San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Nov. 18,
2016, Vol. 17,
No. 229
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Pacific
coast hammered by heavy rains
By the
A.M. Costa Rica staff
The national emergency commission is increasing its level of alert because of rain generated by a stationary low-pressure system stalled off the coast of Costa Rica and Panamá. The emergency commission said it based its action on information provided by the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional. Readers in the southern Pacific coast have said that rain there has continued for at least 36 hours non-stop and that some major highways were flooded. The emergency commission said that there were at least 29 incidents stemming from the weather in Pavón, Golfito, Puerto Jiménez, Guaycará, Bahía Drake, Sierpe, Piedras Blancas, Corredores and Laurel. There were communities cut off by flooding, ruptures of dikes, rivers running out of their banks and slides, it said. The emergency commission also included the Caribbean coast in the alert. The weather institute said that the low-pressure area would continue to affect the south and central Pacific and the Caribbean coast today. Further north there is a cold front making its way south that will increase the intensity of winds and keep the humidity low. That means much of the country will not see rain, although the Central Valley will see cloudiness, it said.
Researchers
zero in on Gulf War illness
By the U.S.
Veterans Affairs Research
Communications news staff
Twenty-five years ago, Brian Zimmerman was a strong 6-foot-1 inch, 185-pound Army infantryman in prime physical condition fighting Iraqi forces in Operation Desert Storm. He witnessed charred Iraqi bodies on the Highway of Death, including a dead child, took part in a tank battle, and was close to an Iraqi ammunition depot called Khamisiyah that upon detonation is believed to have released nerve agents such as sarin and cyclosarin in the direction of U.S. troops. Today, Zimmerman, 45, is still entrenched in a battle, but one worlds apart from his military days. He's one of the estimated 300,000 Veterans with Gulf War illness, which affects various organs, most notably the brain. He experiences symptoms common with that disorder: fatigue, rashes, serious body aches and joint swelling, gastrointestinal problems, memory loss, depression, anxiety, and chronic headaches. He says his body is deteriorating, and that everyday tasks like getting out of bed can be a struggle. "I get joint pain that's astronomical, to the point where there's nothing that makes it go away," says Zimmerman, who also has post traumatic stress disorder. "My hands are getting disfigured from the swelling that goes on. It's like my knuckles are exploding. Three other members from my squad have identical symptoms in their hands. Our hands will just blow up, and your shoulders, your neck, your hips. You get in such extreme pain, there's no getting rid of it. It's almost like you're burning up from the inside." At the same time, Zimmerman believes there's a ray of hope due to the extensive research at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Health Care System on Gulf War illness. In one endeavor, scientists there are pursuing the theory that his illness stems from abnormal immune responses that lead to neurological-cognitive-mood, pain, and fatigue symptoms. Three Veterans Affairs-funded studies led by Apostolos Georgopoulos, head of the Brain Sciences Center in Minneapolis, identified brain mechanisms and other areas involved in Gulf War illness and found that certain forms of genes offer protection. A lack of those alleles has made Veterans vulnerable to developing Gulf War illness symptoms. The Minneapolis team further discovered how this protection is manifested in the brain. The findings could pave the way for immunotherapy for Vets with Gulf War illness, or treating symptoms by providing the missing immune protection, says Brian Engdahl, a psychologist with the Brain Sciences Center who took part in all three studies. Gulf War Veterans including Zimmerman participated in the studies, published in the past year in EbioMedicine, part of the British Journal Lancet. The first one, which included 66 Vets with Gulf War illness and 16 without, found differences in gene type, based on blood tests, that distinguished these two groups with 84 percent accuracy. Veterans with Gulf War illness, in other words, had genetic susceptibility to developing their symptoms. In a follow-up study, published in October, the scientists documented sharp differences in brain function between healthy and ill Gulf War veterans in the cerebellum and frontal cortex. Forty Vets with Gulf War illness and 46 without underwent a brain imaging scan. It found, with 94 percent accuracy, distinctions between the two groups in communication within the brain. The third study, also published in October, combines the genetic risk factors and the brain miscommunication patterns to explain Gulf War symptoms. The Minneapolis researchers said they believe larger groups are needed to better validate the findings from all three studies, and they hope the work will lead to clinical treatments.
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San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Nov. 18,
2016, Vol. 17,
No. 229
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| Trash bin Fuerza Pública officers in Alajuela Centro demolished a shack put up by drug users in a lot. The structure was of plastic and cardboard. Usually such retreats used by drug dealers and users are more solid. They are called bunkers. With the ending of the rainy season, the drug abusers and vagrants are moving to more outdoor locations. |
 Ministerio de
Seguridad Pública photo
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| Solis
says dry canal projects must respect protected lands of
the country |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The president said Thursday that the construction of a so-called dry canal across northern Costa Rica is a strategic necessity that Costa Rica has to decide on in the coming years. But he said in a statement that any project will have to comply with all the legal requirements and undergo scrutiny by citizens and experts. Two consortiums have proposed a rail route across the country from Limón to a point on the Pacific coast. The idea is that container ships could unload on one side of the country and the cargo could be placed on a second ship on the other side. The cost would be less than if the ship sailed through the Panamá Canal, according to the projections. And the dry canal |
could
accommodate ships bigger than can fit through even the
new lane of the Panamá Canal. One firm already put an incredible $18 billion price tag on the project. The plan calls for a major highway and twin rail lines from coast to coast. President Luis Guillermo Solís said that any developer would have to keep in mind environmental concerns so that no damage would be done to national parks or other protected areas. He said that he reminded the Consejo Nacional de Concesiones of this fact. The developers seem to be opting for a concession so that they can use the power of the government to condemn land for right-of-way. |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page |
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San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Nov. 18,
2016, Vol. 17,
No. 229
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| Genetic
modifications help plants use more sunlight, study says |
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By the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory
news staff Plant biologists have bumped up crop productivity by increasing the expression of genes that result in more efficient use of light in photosynthesis, a finding that could be used to help address the world’s future food needs. Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Illinois targeted three genes involved in a process plants use to protect themselves from damage when they get more light than they can safely use. By increasing the expression of those genes, the scientists saw increases of 14 to 20 percent in the productivity of modified tobacco plants in field experiments. The researchers described their findings in a paper published in the journal Science. “Tobacco was used as the model crop plant in this study because it is easy to work with, but we’re working to make the same modifications in rice and other food crops,” said co-senior author Krishna Niyogi, a faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Division of Molecular Biophysics and Integrative Bioimaging. “The molecular processes we’re modifying are fundamental to plants that carry out photosynthesis, so we hope to see a similar increase in yield in other crops.” Niyogi teamed up with Stephen Long, a plant biology and crop sciences professor at the University of Illinois, for the study. In photosynthesis, plants use the energy in sunlight to take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into biomass, which is used for food, fuel, and fiber. When there is too much sunlight, the photosynthetic machinery in chloroplasts can be damaged, so plants need photoprotection. Inside chloroplasts, plants have a system called NPQ, or nonphotochemical quenching, for this purpose. Niyogi compared NPQ to a pressure relief valve in a steam engine. “When there is too much sunlight, it’s like pressure building up,” said Niyogi. “NPQ turns on and gets rid of the excess |
energy
safely. In the shade, the pressure in the engine
decreases. NPQ turns off, but not quickly enough. It’s
like having a leak in the system with the valve left open.
The photosynthetic engine can’t work as efficiently.” The highly variable levels of light plants receive, particularly in densely planted crop fields, presents a challenge to the efficient use of solar energy. Plants must adapt to intermittent shading from leaves that are higher in the canopy, or from passing clouds. Niyogi and his postdoctoral research associates figured out a way to speed up recovery from photoprotection and demonstrated a proof of this concept in the laboratory. They used a new method to rapidly test gene expression in tobacco leaves. By boosting the expression of three genes involved in NPQ, they showed that NPQ turned off more quickly, and the efficiency of photosynthesis in the shade was higher. Half of crop photosynthesis occurs in the shade, so any improvement in speeding up recovery from photoprotection could have a big benefit, the researchers said. Illinois postdoctoral researchers Johannes Kromdijk and Katarzyna Glowacka took the trio of genes studied at Berkeley and put them into tobacco plants for further testing in greenhouse and field experiments. The work to boost crop productivity comes as concerns about food shortages rise with the world’s population. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that food production will need to nearly double by 2050 to meet increasing demand. Yields of the world’s major staple crops have not been increasing fast enough to meet this projected need. “My attitude is that it is very important to have these new technologies on the shelf now because it can take 20 years before such inventions can reach farmer’s fields,” said Long. “If we don’t do it now, we won’t have this solution when we need it.” Any new technology licensed from this work will be made freely available to farmers in poor countries in Africa and South Asia, Berkeley Labs said. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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contents
of
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Colorado S.A. 2016 and may not be reproduced anywhere
without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Nov. 18,
2016, Vol. 17,
No. 229
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reaffirm their goal from Paris By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Nearly 200 nations are calling on the world to make the highest political commitment to fight climate change after U.S. president-elect Donald Trump threatened to toss out the Paris Agreement. "Our climate is warming at an alarming and unprecedented rate, and we have an urgent duty to respond," delegates meeting at a U.N. climate conference in Marrakech, Morocco, said Thursday. They called the move away from carbon-emitting fossil fuels and toward renewable energy sources irreversible, according to a statement. "It is being driven not only by governments, but by science, business, and global action of all types at all levels." The delegates stood up and cheered, holding their hands above their heads in a gesture of victory after the statement was read. The Marrakech talks were aimed at setting out a timetable for carrying out the Paris climate change agreement. The deal signed in April aims to cut carbon emissions and limit the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius over the Industrial Revolution levels of the 19th century. But success of the deal hinges on the cooperation and contributions of some of the world's biggest polluters and consumers of fossil fuels, including the United States. Trump's longtime insistence that global warming is a Chinese-created hoax has many world leaders worried he will carry out his threat to pull out of the Paris deal. "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive," Trump first tweeted in 2012. He has also championed more gas and oil exploration, and promised to revive the moribund U.S. coal industry. Neither Trump nor anyone from his transition team have talked publicly about global warming since his election. But China's Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said in Morocco that former U.S. presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush began talks on global warming more than 30 years ago and China was not part of those early meetings. He said it is impossible the Chinese invented the concept. If you look at the history of climate change negotiations, actually it was initiated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change with the support of the Republicans during the Reagan and senior Bush administration during the late 1980s, Liu said. Between 2012 and 2014, Trump tweeted several more times with some variation on the idea that climate change is a hoax. He often said cold weather as a reason why he doesn't believe in the concept. "The weather has been so cold for so long that the global warming HOAXSTERS were forced to change the name to climate change to keep $ flow!" Trump tweeted in 2014. Trump has since denied making the claims. During the first presidential debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton, Clinton said: "Donald thinks that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. I think it's real. I think science is real." To which Trump responded, "I did not, I did not. I do not say that." Meanwhile, U.S. government experts said Thursday that 2016 is on track to be the hottest year in recorded history, with a global temperature so far nearly 1 degree C above normal. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said this October was the third-hottest October on record. U.S. intelligence director says he will leave office in January By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
The top U.S. intelligence official will not stay on to work with President-elect Donald Trump, telling lawmakers he has already submitted his resignation. U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper surprised some onlookers by making his departure official at the start of a U.S. congressional intelligence committee hearing Thursday. "I submitted my letter of resignation last night, which felt pretty good," Clapper told lawmakers. "I've got 64 days left, and I think I'd have a hard time with my wife with anything past that," he added. The announcement immediately led to speculation that Clapper may have been trying to send a message to the incoming Trump administration. But a spokesperson quickly tried to downplay such concerns. "DNI Clapper signed his letter as required by all appointed administration officials but is finishing out his term," the spokesperson said. The spokesperson added, for emphasis, that Clapper's resignation would become effective at noon on Jan. 20, 2017, the same day President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Clapper has long hinted he would be stepping down at the end of the Obama administration. He often would begin any remarks with a count of how many days he had left on the job. And during an intelligence forum in September, he joked, "About the only thing we'll be rolling out the door in the next four months is me." Clapper's announcement that he would be stepping down as the nation's spy-master came as little surprise to those in contact with the Trump transition team. Some suggested that, after six years, the time had come for a change and it would be good to infuse the office with some new energy. There also appears to be some hard feelings between those on the transition team who are supporters of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the former chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency who has been advising Trump on national security. A senior Trump official said Flynn had been offered the job of national security adviser, but a formal announcement has not yet been made. Flynn retired from the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014. The Washington Post reported that his departure came a year earlier than expected, and he may have been forced out after clashing with Clapper. Clapper has served as the director of national intelligence since August 2010. He began his career at the U.S. Air Force and has served the U.S. for more than six decades. The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, said that Clapper "always exhibited sober judgment and put the fate of the nation first." Despite such praise, Clapper's tenure as the top U.S. intelligence official has not been without controversy. He was criticized for testimony he gave to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in March 2013. In response to a question, he said the U.S. had not wittingly collected data on millions of U.S. citizens. Several months later, former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked evidence showing the U.S. had indeed collected bulk data on private citizens. More recently, the U.S. Intelligence Community, under the direction of Clapper, took the rare step of issuing a statement blaming Russia for directing the email hacks of several Americans and U.S. organizations, including the Democratic Party. Trump openly challenged that assertion in the weeks leading up to the election. Senate Republicans reject plan to limit filibusters in debates By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Senate Republicans are eager to flex their party's newfound political muscle next year, but say they have no plans to weaken rules enabling Democrats to block major legislation and, potentially, any Supreme Court nomination put forth by soon-to-be President Donald Trump. Whether Republicans adhere to their promise of restraint will determine the fate of the filibuster, which checks the power of the majority by making some degree of minority support necessary for most bills to pass the Senate and for high court nominees to be confirmed. For now, Republicans are defending the filibuster as they plan a busy legislative agenda for the first 100 days of the Trump administration, an agenda they know will prompt fierce Democratic resistance on some items. "We have not changed the rules in the Senate, should not change the rules in the Senate," Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said. "There's a reason why we're a distinct institution." "I would not like to turn this Senate into the House any more than we have done," said South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham, referring to the fact that, in the House of Representatives, all legislation is passed by simple majority votes. Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona said the filibuster "is what makes the Senate the Senate. And I know a number of my colleagues feel the same way." The filibuster requires at least 60 of the Senate's 100 members to vote affirmatively for the chamber to take up a bill or nomination, and similar three-fifths backing to end debate and hold a final vote. It can be sidestepped if senators grant unanimous consent to advance a bill, or if a party has at least a 60-vote majority in the chamber, a rarity in modern times. Senators of both parties have long understood the filibuster's importance in America's system of checks and balances on political power. In 2012, then-minority leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, described the filibuster as "the last legislative check against the kind of raw exercise of power majority parties always have been tempted to wield." Filibusters were never used more than 10 times a year prior to the 1970s. They regularly have exceeded 100 per year during the Obama administration, sometimes to block legislation with significant public support, like stiffer gun laws, but most often to block presidential nominations of judges and members of his administration. In 2013, frustrated by persistent Republican filibustering of Obama's nominees, then-majority Democrats changed Senate rules so that only Supreme Court nominations could be blocked. Republicans were outraged. John Cornyn of Texas warned of setting "a new precedent in the Senate — one that says it's permissible to break the rules of the Senate at any point to get your own way if the majority has the gumption to do it." Democrats made a similar point years earlier, when then-majority Republicans threatened to rein in the filibuster during the George W. Bush administration. The fury could be fiercest when Trump makes a Supreme Court nomination to fill the seat of Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February. The filibuster remains in order for high court picks, and Democrats continue to seethe over the Republicans' refusal to consider Obama's choice, Judge Merrick Garland. "They stole that Supreme Court seat," Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown said. "They owe an up-or-down vote on Merrick Garland. To me, it's first about that." Brown and other Democrats refuse to say whether they intend to retaliate against Trump's eventual pick for the high court vacancy. Republicans who fiercely defend the filibuster, however, say all bets are off if Democrats block a qualified nominee next year. Twitter chief says he’s sorry about running White Power ad By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey apologized Thursday after the microblogging service let through an ad promoting a white supremacist group. “We made a mistake here and we apologize. Our automated system allowed an ad promoting hate. Against our policy. We did a retro and fixed," Dorsey tweeted. The ad promoted an article titled "The United States Was Founded as a White People's Republic." It showed eight white children in a field. It was tweeted from an account with the handle "@NEW_ORDER_1488." Twitter has suspended several accounts linked to the alt-right movement, USA Today reported Wednesday. The company, which has also been under criticism for not doing enough to thwart cyberbullying, said Tuesday that it would upgrade some features to curb abusive behavior. Twitter's advertising policy prevents advertisers from promoting certain sensitive topics, including hate speech or discrimination against race, ethnicity, color, religion or sexual orientation. Labor activists say China in home to toy sweat shops By the A.M. Costa Rica
wire services
“The world of toys is a heaven for children, but may be a world of misery for toy factory workers.” That's how a team of researchers from New York-based China Labor Watch summarized findings of a recently released report that outlines working conditions at four toy factories in China's Guangdong Province. Faced with long shifts and monthly wages of about $300 for 174 hours of work, the Chinese laborers, investigators say, assemble popular brand name products such as Barbie, Thomas the Tank Engine, Hot Wheels and other toys for Mattel, Hasbro, Disney, McDonald's, Wal-Mart and other American companies, often in dangerous working conditions and without workplace training. “We found that the average working hours in these four factories are 11 hours a day, with more than 50 overtime hours a month, and at half of the factories, overtime hours had reached 100 hours, with the highest at above 130 hours,” the report said, based on accounts of investigators who worked undercover on assembly lines in what the report called relatively well managed factories. According to Chinese labor law, laborers may not work more than 8 hours a day, although hours may be extended under certain circumstances with provisions for the workers' physical well-being. “During the 11 hours that workers put in within a day, all they had was a 40- to 60-minutes lunch break,” it said. “This is an obvious violation of the right of workers to have adequate rest.” Toy factory managers described in the report routinely asked workers to sign voluntary overtime agreements, which allowed the factory to violate labor laws and regulations with relative impunity. However, the vast majority of workers request overtime in order to supplement their basic earnings. Although Chinese laws require foreign-invested enterprises to pay social security for workers, the Watch report said just one of the factories followed the provisions strictly. The report accused the four factories of negligence in pre-job safety training, and for failure to provide workers with masks, gloves and other safety products. In the packaging plant of Mattel's Chang'an manufacturing facility, a commonly used toxic solvent, thought to be isoamyl acetate because of its distinctive bananalike odor, was distributed in unlabeled plastic drinking bottles. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says isoamyl acetate is considered dangerous to life after five hours of exposure at certain concentration levels. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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Colorado S.A. 2016 and may not be reproduced anywhere
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| A.M. Costa Rica sixth news page |
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San José, Costa
Rica, Friday, Nov. 18, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 229
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Colombia to get more help
clearing mines By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
The United States is doubling down on aid programs for de-mining efforts in Colombia, a country that has the second most unexploded ordnance next to Afghanistan since 1990, as its government is making peace with the largest guerrilla rebel group after a decades-long conflict. According to the latest "To Walk the Earth in Safety" report, which chronicles the U.S. government's efforts to rid the world of land mines, the U.S. has provided more than $2.6 billion in assistance in more than 95 countries for conventional weapons destruction programs. Among the most notable of global de-mining initiatives is in Colombia, where the government reached a peace deal with the Marxist Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias rebel group in September. The deal was rejected in a plebiscite last month, but the two sides agreed upon a revised deal last weekend. Washington has pledged an additional $46 million since September to support efforts to rid Colombia of land mines. That amount is more than what had been invested over the past five years. From 2001 through 2015, the U.S. invested more than $43.2 million to support conventional weapons destruction in Colombia, including clearance, risk education and survivor assistance programs. But critics said Washington could do more to clean up land mines, cluster munitions and other highly explosive ordnance in many countries where its military inflicted damage. While the United States' contribution to clearing minefields is world-leading and very valuable, said Jeff Abramson from Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, the pace of mine clearance is not sufficient to meet the global goal of a mine-free world by 2025, a goal declared by the Mine Ban Treaty members. The U.S. is not a state party of the Mine Ban Treaty but has been participating as an observer in meetings for years. A senior U.S. official said Thursday that Washington would attend the 15th Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Santiago, Chile, from Nov. 28 to Dec. 1. The meeting is set to reaffirm commitment for completion of mine clearance and other treaty obligations by 2025. California parental kidnapper sentenced Special to A.M. Costa Rica
A Los Angeles-area woman who brought her two children to Mexico to keep them from their father was sentenced Thursday to 13 months in prison in a federal kidnapping case. The woman, Faye Hsin-I Ku, 42, of Lakewood, was sentenced by U. S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt. Ms. Ku pleaded guilty in September to two counts of international parental kidnapping. When she pleaded guilty, Ms. Ku admitted that on Aug. 29, 2015, she took her two children who were 15 and 9 at the time into Mexico through the San Ysidro Port of Entry. After bringing the children to Mexico, Ku brought the children to Sinaloa. The FBI’s legal attaché in Mexico City pursued a series of leads to identify their location and passed information to Mexican officials, who took action. The children were reunited with their father on Feb. 12. “This defendant sought to deprive her children’s father of his court-sanctioned parental rights by fleeing the United States,” said U. S. Attorney Eileen M. Decker. “She abducted her children, abused their emotional attachment to her, brought them to a dangerous part of Mexico and had a destructive impact on the entire family.” |
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From Page 7: Ministerio de
Comercio Exterior photo
Country representatives display signed copies
of the agreement.Costa Rica reaches trade pact with South Korea By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Cámara de Comercio de Costa Rica is applauding the free trade treaty with South Korea. Both countries have signed the document Thursday after months of negotiations. The agreement is complex because all the countries of Central America are parties. The signing was in Managua, Nicaragua. The chamber noted that trade with Korea has increased 123 percent over the last 10 years and that the country is the largest Asian economy after China and Japan. South Korea has a population of 50.6 million. Trade between both countries was up 12.6 percent in 2015 at $442 million, the chamber said. The treaty needs approval by the legislature in Costa Rica. There does not seem to be any organized resistance to the agreement. South Korea, of course, is a source of electronics gear and machinery, and Costa Rica’s agricultural producers see it as a growing market. |
