 |
|
||||
 |
 |
 |
||
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
  Click here to find us on our Facebook page! |
|||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
|
Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for more details |
 |
A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
|
|
|
San
José, Costa Rica, Friday, Nov. 21, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 231
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
|
 Judicial Investigating Organization
photo
Agents found these sets of car
keys in the suspect's home.Agents grab
suspect in vehicle robberies
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Motorists are at their most vulnerable when they have to leave their vehicle to open the gate to their household parking spot. That is when bandits strike and take the vehicle. Sometimes the motorist is left injured or worse. The Judicial Investigating Organization said Thursday that its agents had detained a 24-year-old man in Barrio Mercedes de Aserrí and accused him of committing at least four such crimes. They are called bajonazos in Spanish. That's when someone sticks a pistol in the face of a motorist and tells him or her to get down out of the vehicle. The man detained Thursday also faces an allegation of attempted murder. Agents suspect that there are victims who have not reported the crime. They said they encouraged them to do so. Milanes investors say 'That's our hotel' By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Investors who are involved in a court case with Luis Milanes Tamayo are mystified why his lawyer said the Hotel Europa would be used as collateral to pay off fired employees. The investors own the hotel via a court-approve trust. Some of the investors said they were surprised that the lawyer for Milanes, Hugo Navas, could spin the story so well to other news outlets. Navas told some newspapers that Milanes was closing the casino at the Hotel Europa due to high costs. Actually, Milanes and his casino are the subject of an eviction process instigated by the investor's trust. Some also noted that Milanes closed the Royal Dutch Casino on Avenida 2 after he had failed to pay the rent there for months. Milanes also closed down his casino in the Hotel Europa. Some 250 employees were fired, and they expect to obtain their mandatory Christmas bonus, pay and severance. Milanes had been paying rent to the trust for the use of the Hotel Europa. Police in Escazú collar two suspects By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Policía Municipal de Escazú said they managed to collar two robbery suspects in the late afternoon Thursday. The pair were suspects in a stickup of a store in Bebedero de San Antonio de Escazú. The robbers fled in a vehicle, and police gave chase. They were detained in the center of Escazú, police said. Quake reported near Quepos By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A 4.3 magnitude quake rocked the Pacific coast south of Quepos three and a half minutes before 11 p.m. Thursday. The Laboratorio de Ingeniería Sísmica estimated the epicenter to be inland some 3 kilometers north of Savegre de Aguirre. That would be at a point close to the Costanera coastal highway. Police confiscate more alcohol By the A.M. Costa
Rica staff
The Fuerza Pública said that its officers confiscated two loads of alcohol in Golfito. The value was about 6.9 million colons, about $12,600. There were several thousand bottles involved. In both cases the untaxed alcohol was in vehicles that were stopped by police.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes R¡o Colorado S.A.
2014 and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
|
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Nov. 21, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 231 | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| Full legislature rejects 3.8 per cent cut in the 2015
national budget |
|
|
By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Four political parties in the legislature rejected plans Thursday night that the budget submitted by the president be cut 3.8 percent. Instead, some 25 lawmakers voted to go ahead with the original 7.9 trillion-colon ($14.6-billion) 2015 budget. A legislative committee proposed the cuts amounting to 300 billion colons, some $555 million. Voting to reject the reduction were the Movimiento Libertario, Frente Amplio, Accesibilidad Sin Exclusión and the bulk of Acción Ciudadana lawmakers in the Asamblea Legislativa. President Luis Guillermo Solís ran on the Acción Ciudadana ticket. Otto Guevara Guth, the long-time leader of Movimiento Libertario, broke with his party to support the cuts. He said current law prohibits financing current expenses with debt. Under the budget 3.7 trillion or $6.9 billion will be financed with |
debt. Only 4.2
trillion ($7.8 billion) will come from government income. In addition,
the budget calls for 1.7 trillion colons to be paid as debt service on
prior loans. That's $3.2 billion. The Solís budget is 19 percent higher than the previous year's, and it contains more spending on social programs. After the legislative budget committee voted to make the 3.8 percent reduction, a number of ministries and special interests launched campaigns to restore the cuts. They predicted damage to their missions if the cuts were not restored. Meanwhile the Ministerio de Hacienda, the budget agency, said Thursday that the national deficit increased in October to 4.4 percent of the gross national product. The deficit in October 2013 was 4.1 percent. The central government hopes to improve the financial picture with a series of new levies, including a 15 percent value-added tax to replace the current 13 percent sales tax. But these measures face tough going in the legislature. |
 Ministerio de Gobernación,
Policía y Seguridad Pública photo
|
Fuerza Pública officers are formed up in Parque Central for a pep talk before embarking on the Christmas protective project. |
| Police kick off the Christmas season with a show of force
downtown |
|
|
By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The security ministry kicked off the Christmas season Thursday with a display of force involving some 300 officers. This is the annul effort to safeguard downtown shoppers and protect those who have received their annual Christmas bonus, the aguinaldo. |
Police officers
formed up in ranks at Parque Central just west of the
Catedral Metropolitana for a pep talk. Officials said that the patrols will involve motorcycles, bicycles, and police cars. Police will pay special attention to automatic teller locations, bus stops and wherever groups of people congregate, officials said. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2014 and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
 |
|
||||
| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Nov. 21, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 231 | |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| In the face of a virus threat, Kenya seeks to dump modified
crop ban |
|
|
By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
With a virus threatening the crops of up to 70 percent of Kenya's maize farmers, a number of lawmakers are calling for the country’s controversial ban on genetically modified organisms to be lifted for the sake of food security. If there is one thing almost guaranteed to be found in a Kenyan kitchen, it is corn, known locally as maize. Corn is roasted by the side of the road, boiled with beans or ground into flour to make ugali, a Kenyan staple. Agricultural researcher Simon Gichuki explains that for many Kenyans, maize is an irreplaceable part of their diet. “They eat maize almost every day. There are people who eat it for lunch, and they also eat it for dinner and breakfast. So when there is no maize in Kenya, we usually say there is famine," said Gichuki. "Even when the other crops are doing well - like bananas, cassava, sweet potatoes - we say there is famine.” This is why the past several years have been so alarming for Kenyans. The country’s cereal-growing heartlands have been ravaged by a virus called maize lethal necrosis disease. The Cereal Growers Association has said the disease could cut production this year by almost a third, with up to 70 percent of maize farmers affected. According to Kipkorir Menjo, head of the Kenya Farmers Association, the virus could be a threat to food security. Genetically modified organisms have been banned in Kenya since 2012, when a study found that modified maize caused cancer in rats. The study was later discredited and pulled from the scientific journal that had published it. But in Kenya Genetically modified organisms are still illegal. |
Gichuki, who runs
the biotechnology unit at the Kenya Agricultural and
Livestock Research Organization, says Kenyan scientists are already
talking to foreign universities to start work on a lethal necrosis
disease-resistant maize. Several other types of genetically modified
maize have been harvested already, including one crop in October. Menjo says that among farmers themselves, opinions on genetically modified organisms are mixed. But a number of lawmakers have been speaking out in favor of lifting the ban. “The pressure is from the MPs because they know the benefits, and why this kind of GMOs are necessary as far as food security is concerned," said Menjo. "Because every now and then we have been having challenges of having enough food to feed the nation.” Genetically modified organisms are still controversial in Kenya, and although Menjo supports legalizing them, he says many people are concerned about their potential side effects. “You find that the unintended results is what most people fear. Because who is controlling to ensure that we have the positive results coming in and not the negative side of it? That is basically what makes people to be a bit skeptical," said Menjo. But Gichuki is convinced it will not be long before he and his team of scientists will be able to distribute their newly-created genetically modified organisms seeds to farmers. “The government is very serious about food security, so I don’t see any reason why this ban is going to be there for long. It will definitely be lifted," said Gichuki. "And we in research are not just waiting - we are moving on, preparing, because we are confident that it will be lifted.” Kenya’s genetically modified organisms ban can only be lifted by the cabinet, which has yet to make a decision. |
Here's reasonable medical care
Costa Rica's world class medical specialists are at your command. Get the top care for much less than U.S. prices. It is really a great way to spend a vacation. See our list of recommended professionals HERE!amcr-prom
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2014 and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
|
A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
news page
|
||
 |
 |
|
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Nov. 21, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 231 | |||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
 |
| Obama calls his proposal a common-sense approach By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
President Barack Obama has bypassed Congress on immigration reform, saying the country can no longer wait to fix a broken system. The president unveiled his plan during a televised prime time address, in which he outlined a plan to temporarily protect as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation, allowing parents whose children are U.S. citizens or in the U.S. legally to qualify for work permits. "What I’m describing is accountability — a common-sense, middle-ground approach: If you meet the criteria, you can come out of the shadows and get right with the law. If you’re a criminal, you’ll be deported," he said. "If you plan to enter the U.S. illegally, your chances of getting caught and sent back just went up." Many Republicans have expressed outrage over Obama's decision to use an executive order to put forth his plan, instead of the usual congressional legislative process. Republicans have also described the shielding of illegal immigrants from deportation as an act of granting amnesty to criminals. Obama acknowledged that criticism directly. "Leaving this broken system the way it is" ... "that's the real amnesty," he said. He then called mass amnesty unfair and "mass deportation ... both impossible and contrary to our character." Obama has waited more than a year for House Republican leaders to put an immigration reform plan to a vote after the Democrat-controlled Senate passed one. Despite disagreements on how to resolve the immigration problem, the glut of unaccompanied children on the Texas border earlier this year convinced Americans that the issue no longer can wait, a point Obama emphasized in his message. Officials say the president is acting legally and that he is still willing to work with Congress. Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, soon to be Senate majority leader, says his party will consider a number of options to thwart the president. Some Republicans are threatening another government shutdown, while others want to ban funding for Obama's immigration plan. McConnell also said the president's plan was aimed at securing his political legacy. "The action he's proposed would ignore the law, would reject the voice of the voters and would impose new unfairness on law-abiding immigrants, all without solving the problem," McConnell said. Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, said Obama's plan goes far beyond similar action taken by former president George H.W. Bush. "This is millions of people. It’s a hundred times larger than a similar thing that advocates are pointing to that the first President Bush did," said Krikorian. Some analysts, such as Klaus Larres, professor of international relations at the University of North Carolina, say the Republican threat will remain rhetorical. “There will be lots of verbal attacks on the Obama administration, on the president personally, but once the new Congress is in office and has settled in, I don't think that any counter-action to Obama's plan will be taken that will be effective,” said Larres. Toward the end of the address, Obama called on Congress to pass legislation. "To those members of Congress who question my authority to make our immigration system work better, or question the wisdom of me acting where Congress has failed, I have one answer: Pass a bill,” he said. Obama is also expected to expand an executive order he signed in 2012, known as the Dream Act, that protects young immigrants who came to the United States as children from deportation by lifting the age restrictions on people who qualify. The parents of these children, however, would not be eligible for delayed deportation. Undocumented immigrants eligible for these protections would not be entitled to receive federal benefits, including subsidies to obtain health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Obama will sign the order Friday in Las Vegas, Nevada, which has a large Hispanic population. Thursday, as details of the plan circulated, immigration lawyers warned that Obama's televised address may prove the easiest part of his controversial plan. Implementing it will be difficult and many people may never benefit, some lawyers said. Immigration advocacy groups say they don't have sufficient resources to provide legal services to their existing clients, never mind the millions of potential new ones. Obama's proposal is not expected to provide federal funding for attorneys to guide immigrants through the process. Karla McKanders, who runs the immigration law clinic at the University of Tennessee College of Law in Knoxville, told Reuters, “If the past is any indication, it's going to be a significant increase in people asking for legal assistance." Also, immigrants who have lived illegally in the United States for many years can be afraid to sign up or lack the proper documentation to back up their claims, said Jacqueline Rishty from the Immigration Legal Services Program of Catholic Charities in Washington. The lack of immigration lawyers also opens the door for self-described legal experts who give bad advice or even scam clients out of thousands of dollars. The American Bar Association has warned of fraudsters offering legal services in Spanish-speaking communities. U.S. presidents through the years have decreed a variety of changes through executive action, decisions that often attract little public attention. Just since July, Obama has issued 10 executive orders, none of them controversial. Among other things, they established an advisory council for U.S. businesses in Africa, revised a list of communicable diseases and set the terms for hiring alcohol, tobacco and firearms agents. But some executive orders have played prominent roles in shaping U.S. history and often were controversial at the time or proved to be when examined with the passage of time. President Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order that forcibly transferred Japanese-Americans to internment camps during World War II, an act for which the country has subsequently apologized and paid reparations to the victims. Later, president Harry Truman abolished racial discrimination in the U.S. armed forces with a 1948 executive order and nationalized all steel mills during a 1952 labor strike. President Dwight Eisenhower decreed an end to racial segregation in the country's public schools in 1957. Through the years, other presidents have issued many more executive orders than Obama. Several executive orders have been overturned in court challenges, including Truman's steel mill decree. New presidents can also override their predecessors' orders with new directives, while Congress can attempt to undo the orders through legislation. U.S. cyber security chief predicts foreign attacks By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The head of the U.S. National Security Agency, Admiral Michael Rogers, said China and one or two other countries have the ability to launch a cyber attack on the U.S. power grid and other vital infrastructure. Rogers, who is head of the U.S. Cyber Command, did not name the other countries because, he said, it is classified information. But he told a congressional hearing Tuesday that America's enemies are carrying out reconnaissance missions to discover how these networks function -- those that operate electrical systems, chemical plants, water treatment facilities, and other critical infrastructure. Rogers said it is a matter of when something dramatic will happen, not if. He said the Obama administration is looking at what kind of a cyber-attack would be considered an act of war. Five from Guantanamo transferred to Europe By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U. S. officials have transferred five prisoners, four of whom are Yemenis, from Guantanamo Bay to Europe as part of a renewed effort to close the detention center on the U.S. Navy base in Cuba. The Pentagon announced Thursday that three Yemenis were sent to Georgia and that the other Yemeni and a Tunisian were moved to Slovakia, reducing the number of detainees at the prison to 143. This is the first time any Yemeni has been transferred from the prison since 2010. More than half of the remaining detainees are from Yemen. President Barack Obama vowed to close the detention center at Guantanamo when he took office in 2009. But his efforts were thwarted by Congress, which prohibited sending any prisoner to the U.S. for any reason and imposed restrictions that brought releases to a halt. The Center for Constitutional Rights, which represented one of the Yemenis, Abd Al Hakim Ghalib Ahmad Alhag, criticized the Obama administration's refusal to release other Yemeni detainees. It said 54 of them had already been approved for transfer. "As we welcome Mr. Alhag's resettlement, we are reminded that the remaining Yemeni men should be sent home or resettled without further delay," Wells Dixon, the center's senior attorney, said in a statement. Last week, the Republican congressman who heads the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Buck McKeon of California, cited an increase in Pentagon notifications of upcoming transfers of detainees out of Guantanamo. He did not quantify them but, in a sign of continued pressure from Congress to halt releases, called the remaining detainees the worst of the worst and pointed to concerns that former Guantanamo detainees might join Islamic State fighters who seized large parts of Syria and Iraq. Race on to engineer better ebola protection By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A team from a university in Maryland is working to improve protective equipment for health professionals battling the ebola epidemic. 329 of them have died of the disease to date, according to the World Health Organization. The ebola virus is transmitted through contact with an infected person's bodily fluids. To protect themselves, doctors and nurses must wear special suits that isolate them from the virus. But in some cases, said Rich Lamporte, vice president of the global health organization Jhpiego, the suit is part of the problem. “We found it to be of much higher risk than they need to be, primarily because of the process of taking it off puts the health care workers at risk,” he said. Lamporte said safe removal of the current suit requires about 20 steps, which creates opportunity for error. And West Africa's hot, humid climate makes it uncomfortable for health workers to spend more than 40 minutes inside the airtight suit. So the call went out from Jhpiego and Johns Hopkins University for a better, safer, more comfortable design. More than 70 people took part in the Ebola Design Challenge, students, health professionals, even a wedding gown designer. "The wedding gown and the ebola suit have a lot more in common than one would think," said Jill Andrews, the wedding gown expert. "They both are multilayered garments that require a lot of diligence to remove. Being a person that is a pattern maker and also knowing how garments are made and constructed, I knew that I can contribute." That's the idea behind the challenge, said Youseph Yazdi, executive director of the Johns Hopkins Bioengineering Innovation Center in Baltimore. “To solve the problem, you need all different perspectives at the table," he said. "If we just address it from an engineering or technical perspective, the design will be a failure.” The Hopkins team entered a design based on ideas in a separate ebola suit competition sponsored by the U.S. government. It was recently chosen as a semifinalist. One of the team's improvements was to the headset, which currently requires goggles and two surgical masks. Tim Campbell, a Hopkins researcher, said the team "wanted to minimize the amount of face touching that went on in the removal or doffing process. So we switched to this version with a head covering system. We installed the vents in the side of the mask.” Hopkins bioengineering student Erin Reisfeld said she was excited to be on the volunteer team. “Our program has a global health aspect, too, already," she said. "So a lot of us are very passionate about helping out the developing world.” The Hopkins team's goal is ambitious: to create a new, low-cost ebola suit in a matter of months, not years. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2014 and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
|
||||||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Nov. 21, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 231 | |||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
||
|
 Ken Hansraj graphic
Graphic shows how different
positions produce different weights.Smartphone neck
stresses the spine
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Imagine hanging four 10-pound bowling balls around your neck. According to new research, that’s essentially what persons do when they hunch over and look at their smartphones. Ken Hansraj, the chief of spine surgery at New York Spine Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine, said we’re at the beginning of a wave of degenerative back and neck problems caused by poor posture while using smartphones. Hansraj first became interested in the issue after seeing more and more young people come in with pain. In one case, a young man came in with neck, back and leg pain. Surgery improved the leg, but Hasraj said the man still had back and neck pain. “That’s when we found he was spending four hours a day on his iPad playing games,” he said. “Look around. Everyone has their heads down.” Some have coined the term text neck to describe the condition. Hansraj said that in a neutral position, the human head weighs 10 to 12 pounds. Lower the head 15 degrees, almost triples that weight, he said. At 30 degrees, it’s 40 pounds, at 45 degrees, it’s nearly 50 pounds and at 60 degrees, it’s 60 pounds. People with smartphones typically spend between two and four hours a day with their heads tilted toward the device, the research said. That totals between 700 and 1,400 hours a year with additional stress on the spine. Teens could be worse, spending up to 5,000 hours a year hunched over, Hansraj said. “Kids today are just not aware that they have their heads down 45 to 50 degrees,” he said. To get an estimate of the potential scope of the problem, it is estimated that nearly 60 percent of Americans own a smartphone. According to Hansraj’s research, the best thing people can do is try to look at their smartphones with a neutral spine, meaning keeping the ears over your shoulders with shoulders drawn back. Also, in place of lowering the head, they can look down with the eyes to avoid stressing the spine, he said. “It’s not a military drill,” he said. “Don’t get in that position and stay there. The more you do it, the more the muscles build and ligaments strengthen.” Hansraj said he’s a great fan of technology, but recommends smartphone users to be aware of their head positions. The study was published in the National Library of Medicine and will appear next month in Surgical Technology International. |
| Costa Rican News |
AMCostaRicaArchives.com |
Retire NOW
in Costa Rica |
CostaRicaReport.com |
| Fine Dining
in Costa Rica |
The CAFTA Report |
Fish
fabulous Costa Rica |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2014 and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
| From Page 7: Costa Rica wins trade treaty appeal By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Costa Rica has won its arbitration appeal under the Central American Free Trade Treaty against El Salvador. The Ministerio de Comercio Exterior said Thursday that the arbitration panel decision puts an end to a year-long controversy and opens the way for Costa Rican products to enter the Salvadorean market with preferential import duties. This is the first free trade treaty ruling involving cases between two governments. El Salvador declined to allow preferential duties on Costa Rican products, including juices. The government there contended that the trade agreement only involved products from the United States. In fact, the treaty covers all of Central America, too, as well as the Dominican Republic. |
