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San
José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 231
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 Festival
Guanacastearte photo
Puppet
in a box, Errabundo Pelele, will star at the festival.
Festival
Guanacastearte
begins in Tilirán today By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Festival Guanacastearte begins today. This is the sixth annual edition. The event at Tilirán runs through Sunday. The festival is sponsored by the Fundación para el Desarrollo del Área de Conservación Arenal and the Asociación Cultural Quijotes y Molinos. Costa Rican and international performers will be featured. The program includes dancing, poems, theater, concerts and all sorts of additional diversions, including a Spanish puppeteer. There also are planned various workshops on literature, theater and several other art forms. Previous festivals have been held in Liberia, Hojancha, Abangares, La Cruz and Bagaces. Bankers warn the public "tis the season for crooks By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The banking association issued warning Wednesday in conjunction with the Fuerza Pública and the judicial police. The gist was that during the holidays residents should take extra precautions in handling money. The Asociación Bancaria Costarricense specifically mentioned automatic tellers and the area outside banks as danger zones. They urged that persons with large sums of money use drive-up windows instead of arriving at the bank on foot. They also said that there were a lot of fraudsters offering fake lottery tickets, bad checks and stolen credit cards. Other sources said there were many fake banknotes on the streets. This is the time of year when Costa Ricans receive their annual Christmas bonus or aguinaldo, so there will be a lot of money in the streets. Public employees receive theirs as an electronic transfer Dec. 3. Others receive the bonus in cash. Starting Monday, police will be stepping up patrols around banks, said the association. The association also urged Costa Ricans who receive pensions to refrain from withdrawing money the first day it is available because crooks know this also. The warning involved the entire country, not just the metro area, the association said. The banking association also warned of cybercrime involving spam email messages and similar. Employee is main suspect in shooting at bus firm By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The owner of a bus line was shot in his Alajuelita office Wednesday, and the principal suspect is an employee who asked him for money, said the Judicial Investigating Organization. The victim was identified by the last name of Funes. He was in Hospital San Juan de Dios with a gunshot wound and stab wounds. Judicial agents said that the man was in his office at the terminal in San Felipe de Alajuelita, when the attempted robbery happened. Man accused of beating tot and causing his death By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Judicial police say they have detained a 33-year-old man in the death of a 2 year old. Nov. 6 the child died in his San Pedro de Montes de Oca home, and police at the time at first considered the death natural. Because the body showed some bruises, agents said they ordered an autopsy. The result was that the child had damage to internal organs, they said. Agents attributed the injuries to the man who watched the child during the day while the mother was at work, they said. Agents allege that the man beat the child. Holiday fair planned in Tilarán Dec. 8 by ladies group there By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
An organization of women, The Ladies of the Lake, again are putting together a Christmas fair in Tilarán. The event will be Dec. 8 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. All proceeds from this annual event go towards families in need in the local area, local veterinarians for food and medical needs, and for assistance during emergencies, the organization said. "We are women of varying backgrounds and nationalities in the Lake Arenal Community who meet regularly to support one another and who work together to have a positive impact in the extended community," said an organizer, Denice Key. "We will have a wide assortment of artisans, many family and kid activities, live music, and a pretty impressive everyone wins raffle with prizes such as a full day fishing trip for two, two nights in a three-bedroom condo at Flamingo Beach, and much much more," she said. Details are on the fair Facebook page. Holiday lights will go on in Jacó a week from tomorrow By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The holiday lights go on in Jacó Nov. 29, the Central Pacific Chamber of Commerce reports. The Municipalidad de Garabito plans a parade at 6 p.m. that day with at least the Banda Unión Pacífico Central and the Banda Municipal. There will be concerts, artistic presentations and fireworks, said an announcement. Lights will stay up until Jan. 10. Construction chamber issues a code of ethics for members By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Cámara Costarricense de la Construcción has announced a code of ethics for its more than 50 members. The code consolidates good practices that contributed to the responsible development of the industry, said Gonzalo Delgado, chamber president. Among other promises, the chamber members agree not to involve themselves in corruption, to maintain professional credentials, work with excellence, integrity, diligence, promptness and efficiency as well as adhere to the industry standards.
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 231 | |
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Just like today, La Sabana is a place of recreation. This is a 1922 photo, said an archives spokesperson. The scene probably is a Sunday afternoon when city residents could take the trolley to the park and perhaps have a picnic. There still is a lake in the park. |
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| New exhibit at Archivo Nacional is said
to be like time travel |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Archivo Nacional opened its exhibition that honors San José on its 200th birthday. The photos on display do not go back that far, although other documents in the archives do. The period displayed with photos from the archive's collection start in the the middle of the 19th century and run until the middle of the 20th. The archive said that seeing the photos is like time travel. The exposition is called “San José en blanco y negro,” and it will run until March. The archives building is in Zapote. Virginia Chacón Arias, director of the archives, said the goal |
was to share with residents a small
part of the documental heritage the institution has. There was a roundtable Wednesday to mark the opening of the exhibit. The exhibit comprises 35 photos and texts from six different authors who wrote about the city. There also is a computer system to display digital photos taken recently of the city. The archive still is asking for the public to submit photos They can be sent in jpeg or tiff formal to difusion@dgan.go.cr. The archive also asks for a description of what is depicted in the photo and other dates such as time and the name of the submitter. |
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This undated photo probably was taken in the 1920s. Dress was more formal then, except for youngsters. And there were no bars or steel coverings on the doors and windows. |
| Environmental group says Hotel Rui will
be topic of hearing |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
An environmental group says that the Sala IV constitutional court will hold a hearing Nov. 28 on the zoning plan that the Municipalidad de Carrillo put in practice. The group says that the plan was made specifically to favor the construction of the Hotel Rui. The organization, the Asociacion Confraternidad Guanacasteca, has raised environmental issues and also said that the hearing will define the type of tourism Costa Rica wants. "The choice is between foreign megaprojects that destroy the mangroves, the forests and the waterways sustained by acts of corruption or ecological tourism, rural, cultural and respectful of the legality and where the community participates and benefits," said an announcement. The Confraternidad said that the public can attend the 9 a.m. hearing. |
The organization said it plans to
present technical studies that address turtles in risk of extinction
that nest in Playa Matapalo, something that was not considered in the
zoning plan, which is called the plan regulador, and hidden from the
Secretaría Técnica Nacional Ambiental to get approval of
the environmental impact study. The five-star hotel opened in October 2009. It is on the Pacific on the north coast. Construction was not possible unless the municipality approved a zoning plan and specified land where hotels could be located. Gadi Amit, a member of the Confraternidad and a resident of the area, has filed claims that the hotel went up over some runoff ditches. The Confraternidad has battled most development in the Guanacaste area. |
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| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 231 | |||||
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| Mars probe will try to figure out why planet lost much of
its atmosphere |
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By
the Boston University news service
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, a small scientific satellite, to do some chemical meter-reading in the Martian atmosphere, is on the way. This is the launch in which Costa Rican Sandra Cauffman is the deputy project manager. “MAVEN will provide key knowledge for understanding how all atmospheres, even our own, have changed since the formation of the solar system,” said Paul Withers, a College of Arts & Sciences assistant professor of astronomy, who is one of a Boston University trio working on the project. Unlike studies of quicker, human-induced climate change, MAVEN will study “the longer, natural changes that occur as every planet’s atmosphere slowly boils away.” Billions of years ago, scientists believe, water coursed over the Red Planet’s face. Today, its arid surface may be a textbook on how solar heat not only evaporated that liquid, but also thinned the atmosphere by bleeding off nitrogen and carbon dioxide. MAVEN’s goal is to “detail the processes that lead to atoms and molecules escaping into space,” said John Clarke, a colleague, “so that we can extrapolate back in time to tell what the conditions were like when Mars was young.” Erosion channels on the planet suggest surface water earlier in its history, and the thicker atmosphere and warmer climate that would have gone with it, meaning, he says, “Mars may have begun its history looking much more like Earth,” and possibly hosting some form of life. Withers’ past research has included study of the Martian ionosphere, the |
electrically
charged atmospheric gas produced by the sun’s X-rays and ultraviolet
light, which “blast atoms of neutral gas apart,” he said. This happens
to all atmospheres within the sun’s reach, but “lucky for us, that
dangerous sunlight gets absorbed high in the atmosphere, rather than
blasting away at our skin and flesh,” he says. His job with MAVEN is to
investigate how Mars’ ionosphere is influenced by the sunlight’s
intensity and by conditions in the neutral, uncharged portion of the
atmosphere. Michael Mendillo, the third member of the trio, has helped develop a new model of the Martian ionosphere at Boston University and hopes it will be validated by MAVEN and aid in interpreting data from the satellite. He also hopes that MAVEN will reveal useful information for future Mars exploration. On Earth, the ionosphere can cause GPS errors by affecting the system’s radio waves. A GPS-type system to pinpoint a rover or astronaut on Mars’ surface would have the same problem there, he says, so studying that planet’s ionosphere “has potentially important implications.” Another Boston University study was the first to tie simultaneous ionospheric disruptions on Earth and Mars to a large solar flare, Mendillo says, showing that the sun’s effects on Mars could be instructive for the future of Earth’s atmosphere. MAVEN is the first project of its kind, says NASA: rather than crawl on the surface, the satellite will hang out in orbit, using its sensitive instruments to pinpoint trace amounts of chemicals, according to the space agency. Clarke said the project is being led by the University of Colorado at Boulder. MAVEN will reach Mars in 10 months and then take readings for two years. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 231 | |||||
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 Voice of America photo
Laura Genello explains the
project net to a fish tankMixing
vegetables and fish
is new, experimental approach By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The fish don’t like strangers. Ellen Perlman poured a scoop of fish food into one of four blue plastic tanks at Chesapeake Aquaponics, about half an hour from Baltimore. The tank is like a giant kiddie pool that's deep enough to stand in up to the belly. “You would think we have piranhas here,” she said, expecting a torrent of tilapia to froth the water’s surface. But it remains stubbornly smooth. She chuckled. "Maybe not.” She says the fish recognize her voice and her footsteps, but not those of a visiting reporter. It’s an indelicate aspect of these delicate creatures that makes her garden grow. From these tanks, water rich in what you might call fish manure flows through a filter system and into the adjacent plant beds, where lettuce and other vegetable plants float in Styrofoam rafts. “It’s a way of recycling the fish nutrients,” she said. It’s called aquaponics. It combines aquaculture or fish farming with hydroponics, growing plants without soil. Aquaponics hits a sweet spot for environmentalists. It recycles fish waste into plant food. Hydroponics typically uses less water than conventional farming. And for those concerned about insecticides on their produce, the fact that the fish share the water with the plants means aquaponic farmers have to be very careful about what they spray. “Any type of spray would harm the fish,” Ms. Perlman said. Even insecticidal soaps popular with organic growers are off limits. Another part of aquaponics’ appeal is the fact that overfishing is depleting the world’s oceans. Fish farming accounts for at least half the world’s production, but waste from all those confined fish is polluting some areas. “There are fewer and fewer fish in the ocean and more and more fish will be raised on farms,” said Dave Love, a microbiologist with the Johns Hopkins University Center for a Livable Future. “The trick is, how do we do that responsibly, sustainably and in ways that make fish farmers money?” Tackling those questions is what Cylburn Aquaponics Farm aims to do. Located next to greenhouses at Baltimore’s Cylburn Arboretum, the farm has been up and running for a little over a year. Farm manager Laura Genello says she’s delivering about 10 to 20 pounds (five to 10 kilograms) of produce per week to local farmers markets from about 300 square feet (28 square meters) of growing space. “Which is relatively small,” she said, “but 10 pounds of greens is a fair amount of greens.” The farm harvested its first 20 one-kilo fish earlier this fall, and they expect to produce about 275 fish per year. But whether aquaponics is profitable is an open question. Energy costs are a big factor. “Our tilapia like 70 degrees (21C). In the winter, it gets quite a bit cooler," Love said. "So, we need to heat the space.” Cylburn Aquaponics Farm is grant-funded, but Chesapeake Aquaponics is a commercial venture. It has not turned a profit yet, but Ms. Perlman is optimistic that providing high-quality fresh greens in the middle of winter will win her a niche market. The elegance of aquaponics’ symbiosis is alluring, and aquaponic businesses and nonprofit projects are popping up around the country and around the world. But Ms. Genello is cautious. “I think we have to be careful about not getting ahead of ourselves with the excitement about the system because there are a lot of things that are not quite perfect about it,” Ms. Genello said. “That’s why it’s really important for more people to actually do aquaponics, so we get more people experimenting and playing around with what works and what doesn’t.” Sunday storm survivors glad they still are alive By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
After breaking her leg late last year, having a double mastectomy in the summer and seeing her house destroyed by a tornado that swept through Washington, Illinois, Sunday, Kim Wright said her luck was due to change. “They say bad luck comes in threes and I've had my three,” Ms. Wright, 56, said Wednesday, standing in the pulverized wreckage of what just three days ago had been her home. “I'm due now for some good fortune.” Five minutes later a group of people who were cleaning up the debris of a house 100 feet (30 meters) away pulled Wright's cat, Fred, out of the rubble, alive. “Oh my God, he's everything to me,” she said through tears of joy, running to collect her cat. The fast-moving storm system that rolled destructively through the Midwestern United States killed eight people in two states and may have caused $1 billion in property damage. It damaged around 1,000 homes in Washington, a small city located about 150 miles (240 km) southwest of Chicago. As cleanup work proceeded Wednesday, many homeowners like Ms. Wright who were home when the storm hit said they felt lucky to be alive. “If it weren't for the sirens, I would be dead,” said Ms. Wright, who made it to her basement in time. “You'd be sifting through the wreckage looking for pieces of me.” Crews had worked overnight to clear the streets in the neighborhood that was devastated by the tornado, with heavy equipment in the area hauling out debris. Volunteers walked the streets offering water, gloves or heating pads to people sifting through debris for their belongings. More than 130,000 homes and businesses in the U.S. Midwest remained without power Wednesday morning following severe thunderstorms Sunday night, according to local power companies. There had been over 800,000 outages on Monday morning. Ed Henderson, 41, was replacing the power steering pump on his Ford F-350 pickup truck when he heard the sirens Sunday. “We're used to weather in Illinois so like any good resident of Illinois I stuck around to see what was happening,” he said cheerfully, spitting tobacco juice on the ground. About 10 minutes later he saw the tornado touch down a quarter of a mile (half a kilometer) from his house, hurling debris through the air. Hearing the freight train-type sound often referred to by tornado survivors, he threw himself down the basement stairs as all the windows in the house blew out. Henderson's house is no more, his chimney is in the front yard, his truck about 600 feet (180 meters) behind the house and all he can find of his 30 foot (nine meters) camper is the spare wheel and air conditioning unit. His dogs were trapped under a door, which saved their lives. “The way I'm looking at it, I got off pretty lightly,” Henderson said. Many others here were lucky because they were at church when the tornado hit. When Dick Stinson, 65, and his family returned home their house was almost entirely gone and his pickup truck was lodged in his neighbor's living room. Stinson plans to rebuild and hopes to be back in a new house on the same spot in six months. “We were very blessed that none of us was hurt,” he said, surveying the smashed wood and other detritus that formerly constituted his place of residence. “As for the rest of it, all we lost was stuff. And that's all it is, just stuff.” Marriage monopoly irks many couples in Israel By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
For most Israelis in the Jewish state, there is one legal way to get married. Israeli law empowers only Orthodox rabbis to officiate at Jewish weddings, but popular opposition is growing to this restriction and to what some Israelis see as an Orthodox stranglehold on the most precious moments of their lives. Some of Israel's most popular TV stars and models have come out this week in an advertisement supporting a new bill allowing civil marriage. A political storm is likely when it eventually comes up for a vote in parliament. The Rabbinate, the Orthodox religious authority that issues marriage licenses in Israel, says it is charged with a task vital for the survival of the Jewish people, and a recent poll showed more Israelis oppose civil unions than support them. Nevertheless, many Israelis want either a secular wedding or a religious marriage conducted by a non-Orthodox rabbi. Facebook pages have been popping up, with defiant couples calling on others to boycott the Rabbinate. In September, Stav Sharon, a 30-year-old Pilates instructor, married her husband in an alternative ceremony performed in Israel by a non-Orthodox rabbi. “We wanted a Jewish wedding despite being secular. We feel connected to our Judaism, even if we are not religious," she said. "It is our people, our tradition.” Weddings such as Ms. Sharon's fall into a legal no man's land. They are not against the law, but neither are they recognized as valid by the Interior Ministry, which is responsible for registering marital status on the national identity card every Israeli is required to carry. In a twist in the law, the ministry will register as married any Israeli couple that weds abroad, even in a non-religious ceremony, outside the purview of the Israeli rabbinate. Some couples hop on the short flight to Cyprus to marry. The Czech Republic is another popular destination for Israelis wanting a civil wedding. Sharon and her husband decided against that option. “Marrying abroad means giving in. We wanted to marry in our own country,” she said. No formal records are kept on the officially invalid alternative ceremonies held in Israel. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, nearly 39,000 Jewish couples married via the Rabbinate in 2011. About 9,000 couples registered that year as having married overseas. Muslims, Druze and Christians in Israel are also required to marry through their own state-recognized religious authorities, making interfaith weddings possible only overseas. Frog names after Darwin may have gone extinct By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A frog species named after Charles Darwin has gone extinct because of a deadly amphibian skin disease, scientists believe. Darwin's frogs were named after the father of evolution, who discovered them in 1834 in Chile during his voyage around the world on the ship "HMS Beagle." They are notable for having evolved to escape predators by looking like a dead leaf with a pointy nose, and the fact that the males carry young tadpoles around inside their vocal sacs. Researchers think the northern Darwin's frog, one of two species, has been killed off completely by a fungal disease called chytridiomycosis that infects their skin. Numbers of the related southern species have plunged dramatically. An analysis into the spread of the disease by a team from the Zoological Society of London and Chile's Universidad Andres Bello found that habitat loss contributed to the decline, but this alone could not explain the animal's demise. “Only a few examples of the 'extinction by infection' phenomenon exist,” said Andrew Cunningham, from London's Institute of Zoology. “Although not entirely conclusive, the possibility of chytridiomycosis being associated with the extinction of the northern Darwin's frog gains further support with this study.” Consumer prices in U.S. take a tiny October dip By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Consumer prices are easing in the U.S., pushed down by a drop in gasoline prices that motorists pay at service stations. The U.S. government reported Wednesday that gas prices fell nearly 3 percent in October, as world oil prices decline and U.S. oil production advances. Overall, the country's Consumer Price Index fell a tenth of a percentage point last month, its first drop since April. Inflation is tame in the United States, with consumer prices up 1 percent over the last 12 months, the smallest year-over-year increase since 2009. That increase is half the 2 percent inflation target policy makers have set at the U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve. But with high unemployment in the U.S. and modest wage increases for most workers, consumer spending has been cautious and businesses have been reluctant to increase prices. In a separate report, the government said increased car sales pushed consumer spending up four-tenths of a percent in October. But excluding the purchase of autos, sales only edged ahead by half that. The Federal Reserve is weighing whether to trim its direct support of the U.S. economy, its massive purchase of securities designed to pump money into the economy, keep interest rates low and boost job growth. U.N. report urges changes in developmental approach By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A new United Nations report says the world’s poorest countries should reconsider their economic policies, because they are not creating jobs for the masses. The U. N. Conference on Trade and Development is warning that current economic policies will not significantly reduce poverty because no jobs are created for the masses. The conference's "2013 Least Developed Countries" report released Wednesday predicts social unrest and international mass emigration will be the consequences if the employment situation in these countries is not improved. Taffere Tesfachew of the conference said a new economic approach is needed. “We are not questioning growth and growth matters very much. It is absolutely critical. Nobody is changing their views on the need for growth. But I think the question is - perhaps there is a way to grow and create employment, and there is a way you grow you do not create employment. The policies followed by many least developed countries and those especially that did not create employment while there is a need to create employment.” Development partners like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have mainly advocated macro-economic stability and liberalization policies for poor and undeveloped countries. But this approach has failed to generate many jobs, even during the economic boom from 2002 to 2008, when many least developed countries experienced an average annual growth of 8 percent or higher. According to the United Nations there are 49 "least developed countries." Thirty-four are African, along with nine in Asia, five in the Pacific and one in the Caribbean. Almost all of these countries face rising numbers of new entrants to the labor market, with the youth population looking for jobs expected to rise to 300 million by 2050. Taffere said countries should invest in labor-intensive industries such as manufacturing to create jobs for the millions of unemployed. “We really believe that infrastructural transformation, countries that are moving, jumping from agriculture to services, bypassing manufacturing, I think they will have a problem. The manufacturing sector, the industrial sector, particularly manufacturing, is I think critical for countries with large population, for countries with large demand.” A country is considered least developed when the per capita income is below $992 on a three-year average, by the economic vulnerability of a nation, and by its score on the Human Assets Index that looks at factors such as health, nutrition, school enrollment and literacy rates. Money from developed nations is stumbling block in Warsaw By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Disputes over finances have hampered progress at U.N. climate talks in Poland as delegates debate how to best provide aid to help developing countries fight global warming. Meanwhile, a small group of protesters outside the talks expressed displeasure over how financial issues have bogged down efforts to prevent climate change. Developing countries are challenging wealthy nations to follow through on a pledge to allocate $100 billion a year to help them deal with climate change. The commitment is supposed to be in place by 2020, yet there is concern that industrialized nations are not living up to that promise, according to Simon Bradshaw, a climate change spokesman at Oxfam. "The worry is that developed countries just have not delivered fast enough on the finance commitments that were made right back in 2009. We have seen very little new money on the table this year and we have not seen strong, credible plans from any country on how they are going to scale up their contributions," said Bradshaw. The talks on climate change are taking place as the Philippines continues to reel after being devastated by Typhoon Haiyan. The World Bank estimated that global economic losses caused by extreme weather -- such as this storm -- have risen to nearly $200 billion annually and could continue to rise as climate change worsens. However, the talks have come at a time when many industrialized nations are trying to spur growth in their stagnant economies. "We cannot have a system where there will be automatic compensation whenever severe weather events are happening in one place or other around the planet. You can understand why this is not feasible," said Connie Hedegaard, the European commissioner for climate action. Mary Sering, the Philippine representative at the talks, criticized the lack of an agreement on greenhouse gas emissions. "If we are to review our progress, would it be right for me to conclude that we failed miserably? Looking at science and how it manifested itself, not only at Typhoon Haiyan but also other events, like Katrina in the United States, the heat wave in France, the wildfires in Australia, and other extreme events occurring after observed increased warming, should we not be all ashamed being here?" asked Ms. Sering. The conference continues through Friday. The group hopes to lay the groundwork for a 2015 climate agreement. North Korea has detained visiting U.S. war veteran By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
North Korea is reported to have detained an 85-year-old U.S. citizen and Korean War veteran who had entered the country on a valid visitor's visa. Media reports say North Korean authorities removed Merrill Newman of California from the plane on which he was about to leave the country Oct. 26. His son, Jeff Newman, told CNN it was his father's life-long dream to see the North and its culture, after serving in the South as a U.S. infantry officer in the 1950s. He said his father arranged the trip through a North Korea-approved Chinese tour company and had all the proper visas. Newman was traveling with a neighbor, Bob Hamrdla, who lives in the same retirement home. Hamrdla was allowed to return home. He later called the incident a terrible misunderstanding and expressed hope Pyongyang will release Newman for humanitarian reasons. North Korea, which is also holding a U.S.-Korean Christian missionary on charges of subversion, has not commented on Newman's case. It is not known if he has been charged with a crime. Officials at the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Beijing say they are aware of the reports, but did not comment further. However, Tuesday, the State Department tightened the U.S. travel warning to North Korea. The updated warning now reads, "U.S. citizens crossing into North Korea, even accidentally, have been subject to arbitrary arrest and long-term detention.” Newman's detention comes almost a year after the arrest of another U.S. citizen, Kenneth Bae. The Korean-American missionary, detained Nov. 3 last year, was convicted of state subversion and sentenced to 15 years hard labor. The 45-year-old was detained after entering North Korea as a tour operator. His family says he has diabetes and is in ill health. It is not uncommon for North Korea to arrest foreigners on suspicion of spying or conducting illegal religious activities. The Communist country's leadership views both as a threat to its hold on power. In a separate case, North Korea said earlier this month it had arrested a South Korean spy who was engaged in plot-breeding activities. Wednesday, reports in the French news agency and South Korea's Dong-A Ilbo identified the man as 50-year-old Kim Jeong-Wook. His family and other Christian activists told the news outlets that Kim is a missionary who was helping North Korean refugees who had escaped from their homeland to China. They say Kim was arrested after traveling to Pyongyang to check on the well being of several refugees who had been repatriated by Beijing. North Korea has been accused of using foreign detainees as bargaining chips in negotiations with Western countries over its controversial nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang has detained at least six Americans since 2009. While some were given harsh prison sentences, all were eventually released. In most cases, their release followed visits by high-ranking former or current U.S. officials. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 231 | |||||||||
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 Judicial Investigating Organization photo
The woman involved in the
vehicle is under arrest.Five held in
documents case
involving impounded cars By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Judicial investigators have detained five persons in what is being described as an extortion attempt involving impounded vehicles. One of the persons detained is a lawyer in Alajuela. Another, a woman, is a specialist in handling motor vehicle violations. Three other persons, all men in their 20s, also were detained. The Judicial Investigating Organization said that the crime centered around vehicles that had been impounded because of traffic infractions. Judicial agents allege that the lawyer issued false documents nominating other persons to recover the vehicle. The documents were in the name of the real owner and the young men are accused of impersonating the owners to obtain the vehicle. Once in possession of the vehicle from the government impound lot, the vehicle owner would be contacted and asked to pay a fee to get it back, said agents. The amount ranged from 80,000 to 100,000 colons, about $160 to $200, said agents. Banda de San José plans free concert at museum By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Banda de San José presents a free concert Sunday in the Museo Nacional at 11 a.m. Among other works, the band will perform "Hungarian Overture" and several Costa Rica pieces. The band is preparing to leave to Colombia where it will participate in the XVII Encuentro Internacional de Medellín next week. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| From Page 7: Hotel will celebrate slow food with luncheon Special
to A.M. Costa Rica
Steven Farrell, owner and general manager of Finca Luna Nueva Lodge in San Isidro de Peñas Blancas and a member of the Slow Food Convivium of San José, will celebrate and host the third Slow Food in the Rainforest for Terra Madre Day Dec 8. The festivities begin at 10:30 a.m. in Casa Luna where the participants can enjoy coffee, tea, juice, or chocolate tea made from the shells of cacao before the tour of the extensive gardens. Lunch will be served poolside at 12:30 p.m. The menu will consist almost entirely of food items produced on the hotel farm such as pastured pork, a variety of fruits, roots, vegetables, and salad greens, with many of the featured dishes also incorporating turmeric, ginger, and cacao, said Farrell. Food items not produced on the farm will be procured from other providers in the zona norte, he said. There is a charge for the lunch and reservations may be made at the hotel's Web page. The location is between San Ramón and La Fortuna. Terra Madre Day is a worldwide celebration of local food held every year on or around December 10. The basic premise of slow food is good, clean and fair, and this philosophy applies to agriculture, food production, and gastronomy. Slow food is defined by three interconnected principles, said Farrell: GOOD a fresh and flavorsome seasonal diet that satisfies the senses and is part of our local culture; CLEAN food production and consumption that does not harm the environment, animal welfare, or our health; and FAIR accessible prices for consumers and fair conditions and pay for small-scale producers. This worldwide food movement has grown to more than 100,000 members with a Slow Food group in almost every country on the globe, he added. |
