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A.M. Costa Rica
Your daily English-language news source Monday through Friday |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page | |||||||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Nov. 26, 2012, Vol. 12, No. 235 | |||||||||
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More pedestrian
bridges
in works to span Ruta 27 By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Highway officials said Friday that work is starting on three pedestrian bridges over the heavily traveled Ruta 27, the Caldera highway. The bridges will be at the Forum office centers, at Balsa de Atenas and at Coyolar de Orotina. The jobs are expected to be completed in January, said the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes. The jobs are being done by the concession holder on the highway, Autopistas del Sol S.A. Each bridge will have ramps to comply with laws to provide access for the disabled, the ministry noted. A similar ramp already has been constructed at Parque la Sabana The ministry also said that also
planned are turnouts so that buses can discharge passengers safely. One
will be at the Forum.
Vehicle runs over
couple
on road near Puerto Viejo By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A Puerto Viejo resident is facing investigation after his vehicle ran over two persons and killed one in Hone Creek on the Caribbean coast Sunday. Dead is a woman with the last name of Acosta. She was walking in the company of a man with the last name of Madrigal when the driver of the vehicle, identified as a Swiss auto mechanic who has lived in the area for eight years, swerved to avoid someone on a bicycle, judicial investigators said. The driver tested positive for alcohol at the scene, so he was taken to Limón Centro for a blood test, agents said. The weekend was hard on drivers of motorcycles. A 26-year-old on such a vehicle died Saturday afternoon when his vehicle collided with a parked tow truck in San Antonio de Puriscal. Another motorcyclist died at Hospital San Juan de Dios Saturday afternoon where he was taken after a mishap in La Bota in Laurel de Corredores. The man, identified by the last name of Farrier, was on a motorcycle that collided with another vehicle. Judicial agents investigated the death of another presumed motorcycle driver whose body was found alongside a highway Sunday. The man was identified by the last name of Espinoza. No one saw the accident, but agents presume the man was driving at night and his motorcycle hit a utility pole between Upala and Cañas. Both he and the motorcycle went off the road into high grass, agents presume. Our reader's opinion not just here in Costa Rica Dear A.M. Costa Rica: Judy Griffith Gill has it pretty well correct when she reflects on unreported crime in Costa Rica. This is, however, a worldwide phenomenon that's hardly unique to either Costa Rica or Latin America. Whenever the police agencies are perceived by the people to be ineffective at solving crimes, for whatever reasons, crime goes underreported. What's the point? But this same thing happens in under-policed areas of the United States, too. It's been a well known fact for decades that, especially in poorer neighborhoods, policing is less effective, less aggressive, than in more affluent neighborhoods, and crime reporting goes down. Until people have confidence in the police' investigative performance, what indeed is the point? Ms. Gill also rightly reflects upon an apparent anomaly of Costa Rican law. If the rules of evidence in Costa Rica's Napoleonic legal system exclude consideration of recovered stolen property, again what's the point? Why make a big effort to recover it? The resolutions for both these problems are to give the investigative arm of Costa Rican law enforcement, the Judicial Investigating Organization, more resources and to make their findings admissible at trial. Until then, the problem will persist. David
C. Murray
Grecia, Alajuela
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado 2012 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, Monday, Nov. 26, 2012, Vol. 12, No. 235 |
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| Costa Rica figures in study to adjust
fossil and ecological data |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Costa Rica figured in a major scientific advance that is overturning the conception experts have of past climates. The finding is the degree that leaves shrink when they dry, something no one had documented previously. A University of Arizona graduate student and a university research lab undertook this first systematic study of how much plant leaves shrink when they dry out, said the Tucson institution. The results are published in the November issue of the American Journal of Botany, a top publication in the botanical sciences, the university said. Also involved in the study were about 40 middle school students. The doctoral student is Benjamin Blonder. “Our simple observation that leaves shrink when they dry out has very important consequences for our understanding how ecosystems work,” said Blonder, a student in the university's department of ecology and evolutionary biology. “Many studies in ecology, especially reconstructions of past climate, depend on knowing how big leaves are. By relying on measurements of dried leaves, a very large number of climate and ecology studies may have obtained biased conclusions.” When leaves dry out, they shrink about 20 percent on average, the team discovered, said the university. In the most extreme case, the leaves of the mountain meadow-rue (Thalictrum fendleri), an herb from the Rocky Mountains, shriveled down to one-fifth of the original size, it added. Blonder said in an email that he was part of a study team from the university that made a month-long expedition to forests on the Pacific slope of Costa Rica. A research associate at the university, Brad Boyle, led the team. Brian Enquist, an associate professor and Blonder's dissertation adviser, also was on the expedition. ""We made systematic surveys of tree diversity in undisturbed areas near the Río Savegre drainage," said Blonder. They worked from almost sea level at Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio to treeline at Cerro de la Muerte, he said, adding that the team was interested in how species diversity and function, for example, the shrinkage, changed with climate, "Our fieldwork involves hiking to remote areas with surveying equipment and plant collecting materials, such as long metal poles for trimming leaves, spikes for tree climbing, plant presses, measuring tapes." The Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad in Heredia supported the work here, he said. Surveys also were done in Hawaii and Colorado. When scientists reconstruct climate and precipitation in the past to figure out whether an area was subjected to droughts or whether it was wet, they often turn to fossilized leaves, Blonder said. The specific area of a leaf in relation to its mass also is a very useful parameter in predicting how much |
 Benjamin Blonder photo
Brad Boyle, the research
associate who led the time, is up atree in the Río Savegre watershed. carbon a plant can capture from the atmosphere, he added, said the university in a summary of the work. If leaves undergo dramatic changes in size during fossilization, the conclusions are likely to be off, he noted, adding that the same effect would be expected when researchers use dried leaves from museum collections for their calculations. An unusual aspect of the research is that students in the sixth through eighth grade at a local middle school were involved. Almost half of the participating students completed the necessary prerequisites and assignments to qualify as co-authors on the scientific paper that resulted from the study, said the university. “At the beginning, we thought there would be a very simple explanation,” Blonder said in a university report. “But it turned out that we ended up with many variables that determine the amount of shrinkage in a leaf of a given species. We used data from hundreds of species, yet there is no simple answer.” The group did find that the amount of structural investment a plant puts into its leaves is a crucial factor determining how much a leaf will shrink when it dries out, according to the study. “The more mass and tissue the plant invests into its leaves in terms of components that provide mechanical strength, the less shrinkage will occur,” Blonder was quoted as saying. |
Do you know this man? He is a suspect in taking a laptop computer. He is pictured putting what appears to be a computer into his bag. The theft took place at a San José hotel. |
 Kaps
Place security photos
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| Theft suspect at San José hotel
first had a cup of coffee |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A sneak thief who may have been a Canadian tricked an employee at a San José hotel and eventually made off with a laptop computer Friday. The victim, Karolina Bermúdez of Kaps Place in Barrio Aranjuez, released security photos of the man that included his arrival, his discussion with an employee in reception and his theft of the computer. The man likely has stolen items using the same ploy elsewhere: |
The man arrived Friday morning and
said he wanted to rent a room. He said he was waiting for his belongings to arrive and made himself at home in the lobby area of the hotel. He even enjoyed a cup of coffee. When the emloyees were not paying attention, he grabbed a computer from the reception area and quickly left. The man identified himself as a Canadian, and Ms. Bermudez said he had blue eyes. |
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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 |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado 2012 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 Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Nov. 26, 2012, Vol. 12, No. 235 | |||||
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| Automation
proposed to track overweight vehicles By
Aaron Knapp
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff Roadway and infrastructure regulators plan to implement an automated weigh-station system on several major roadways. The Consejo Nacional de Vialidad announced Thursday that it will invest 8.7 billion colons or about $17.4 million in the system over five years, using services from the public Internet service provider Radiográfica Costarricense S.A., known as RACSA. The Consejo will start by building stations on the Autopista General Cañas, which officials plan to have in operation by February, according to a press release from the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes. Consejo officials said that the automated system will eliminate the need for employees to staff weigh stations as well as the possibility that corrupt employees will let overweight vehicles pass. Officials noted said that the Consejo collected about 300 million colons in fines in 2011, but spent about 71 billion colons to repair roads. The Consejo estimates that it could have collected nearly 2 billion colons last year with automatic weigh stations, according to the press release. The announcement came just over two weeks after a bailey bridge collapsed on Autopista General Cañas when a driver tried to cross it with an 84-ton crane. At that time construction crews had nearly completed the repairs on that section of the highway, which had collapsed into a sinkhole in June. The Consejo said that the automatic weigh stations will be equipped with cameras that can detect heavy vehicles. These cameras will take photos of license plates on the trucks which will automatically be sent to police. Eventually, the system will send fines to owners of the vehicles directly through email, the press release said. Vehicles that pull into the weigh station and are found to be overweight will also receive fines, and will be kept at the station until another vehicle arrives to take some of the load off. The Consejo will start by upgrading the weigh stations on Autopista General Cañas on the way into San José as well as stations in Búfalo in Limón. Next, the Consejo will upgrade stations in Esparza and Ochomogo going towards San José. These stations will be upgraded by February, officials said. Employee held in fire at Ecuadorian Embassy By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Judicial investigators arrested a woman Friday who they suspect intentionally set the Embassy of Ecuador in San José on fire Wednesday. The suspect is María de los Angeles Solano Bustos, who worked as a secretary at the embassy, a Judicial Investigating Organization spokesperson confirmed. The only reason investigators gave as to why Ms. Solano is suspected of having started the fire was due to problems that she was having with coworkers. The alert came in for the fire at 5:05 a.m. on Wednesday for the building in Rohrmoser. A.M. Costa Rica reported Thursday that investigators found four points where separate fires were started in addition to crumpled newspaper dipped in flammable substances. This led investigators to suspect that the fire was arson. The judicial bulletin said that Ms. Solano entered the offices at around 5 a.m. even though employees were not supposed to enter before the work day begins three hours later. The bulletin also said that Ms. Solano called her boss from the office to say that she had heard footsteps on the second floor before she left the office and pulled the fire alarm. Investigators estimate that about 50 percent of the building suffered damage, mostly on the second floor of the two-story building. Multiple murder suspect sent for trial in Panamá By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Local International Police Agency staffers handed over to Panamanian authorities Friday a man, who is suspected of drug trafficking and being involved in at least 10 murders in numerous countries. The suspect is 36-year-old Christian Hernández Quintero, who was being held in Costa Rica as a suspect in eight murders that took place on Costa Rican soil, said a Judicial Investigating Organization spokesperson. According to INTERPOL’s Web site, Hernández turned 36 the day before the transfer. According to a judicial bulletin, Hernández was given to officials in Panama to be tried for two murders and three attempted murders he is suspected of committing there. The report said that Hernández is accused of kidnapping all five of those people on Panamanian soil in December of 2007 and of trying to execute them. Three of them escaped. The report also said that Interpol and Costa Rican police captured Hernández in Ciudad Neily, Corredores Aug. 18. Raids net seven suspects in lottery office robbery By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Police arrested seven people Friday in connection with the robbery of a public lottery office in Alajuela in October, according to a bulletin from the Judicial Investigating Organization. The robbery occurred on Oct. 2 at an office of the Junta de Protección Social in downtown Alajuela where armed, masked robbers took 18 million colons ($36,000), 12 million lottery tickets and an employee’s car, A.M. Costa Rica reported. Police took five men and two women into custody in seven raids in Alajuela, Heredia and San José, the report said. Four of the men have previously been arrested for violent crimes, a judicial spokesperson said. Investigators have concluded that no employees of the office assisted in the robbery, the bulletin said. At the time of the robbery, police reported that three men performed the robbery. However, five men and two women were arrested on Friday in connection with that crime. Investigators noted that four men have been arrested on prior occasions for kidnapping, extortion, trafficking and bank robbery. Investigators believe that Jorge Moreno Lunes headed the operation. The other accomplices with violent pasts are Jimmy Douglas Rivera Pérez, Rigoberlo Alguilar Gorro and Walter Valverde Montero, agents said. Police did not specify what roles that they suspect Hazel Vargas Castro, María Yocanda Rodríguez Fernandez and Byron Umaña had to play in the operation. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado 2012 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 |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Nov. 26, 2012, Vol. 12, No. 235 | |||||||||
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| Rights
campaigners worry about use of lethal robots By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Technology is moving fast when it comes to autonomous systems — intelligent machines that perform tasks with little or no human guidance. In modern warfare, drones and other unmanned vehicles are playing an increasing role, with militaries embracing a technology that they say makes war safer and more effective. But human rights campaigners fear what might be to come — fully autonomous weapons that could select and engage targets without human intervention — and they want a new global treaty to stop that from happening. In Israel, the country's missile defense system, the Iron Dome, autonomously senses the threat of an incoming rocket and sends a warning to an operator, who then gives the command to fire a missile. During the recent cross-border violence between Israel and Gaza, Israeli officials said the defense system had an 80-90 percent success rate. Unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, have also played a growing military role, especially in U.S. campaigns. They provide surveillance, identify targets, and can deliver lethal force — but only if an operator gives the go ahead. But David Mepham, the United Kingdom director of Human Rights Watch, said within decades technological advances could write the human operator out of the equation. "Drones are not fully autonomous weapons," Mepham said. "They involve human intervention in terms of their targeting and the decision to strike, but that has been an increasing trend in the way Western militaries, in particular, have been going in recent years. This will be several technological steps beyond that. It will be a weapons system that takes the human beings out of the loop." Human Rights Watch has jointly published a report with the Harvard Law School's International Rights Clinic arguing that within 30 years militaries could be armed with autonomous killer robots. They said such weapons would be inconsistent with international humanitarian law and would increase the risk to civilians during armed conflict. In order to prevent a move in that direction, the campaigners are pushing for a global deal that would prevent the use of such weapons, similar to agreements banning the use of land mines and cluster bombs. "One of the things that holds us back from barbarism in contexts of war is this distinction between combatants and civilians," said Mepham. "And we are worried about a robotic weapon of the future not being able to tell the difference between a child holding out an ice cream and someone holding a weapon." The U.S. and other militaries have said they have no plans to remove human supervision over the decision to use lethal force, despite advances in technology. New treatment for asthma can be life changer for some By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A new treatment at the Cleveland Clinic shows promise in helping those with severe asthma. The procedure has been used in clinical trials for several years, and the outcome can be life changing for many patients who have it. Life with severe asthma is hard. In order to prevent an asthma attack, Karen Ecker needed to live like a shut in. "I couldn’t go outside without a mask. I was pretty much a hermit in my house," Ms. Ecker said. People with severe asthma often need to take powerful medications to open their airways. But sometimes even these medications aren't enough. "Any type of triggers like perfumes or lotions or air fresheners would send me into a pretty major asthma attack, and with that I would end up having to go to the emergency room," Ms. Ecker said. Ms. Ecker could only work from home. But the toughest part was not being able to provide the care she wanted for her daughter. "She was 2 when I got sick. I couldn’t read her a bedtime story. I couldn’t sing with her without coughing," Ms. Ecker said. Now, Ms. Ecker can enjoy being outdoors with her daughter and their new dog. All because of a non-drug treatment called bronchial thermoplasty. Sumita Khatri, a physician from the Cleveland Clinic, explains. "It involves the use of heat which is applied to the lining of the lungs, the airways to try to reduce the thickness of the muscle around those airways," Khatri said. During bronchial thermoplasty, a tube is inserted into the patient's airway, and a catheter is threaded through so heat can be applied to the muscle. Bronchial thermoplasty is performed in three separate visits. Each procedure treats a different part of the lungs. Even before the third procedure, many of the patients feel better. "Does that mean that their asthma's gone? No. Does it mean that they never have an asthma flare? No. Often they still do have asthma flares but we've noticed that the severity of the flare is less and the duration of the flare is less," Khatri said. |
Your place to stay here As high season approaches, we like to feature our advertisers who offer long- and short-term rentals for expats and tourists.
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado 2012 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 |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Nov. 26, 2012, Vol. 12, No. 235 | |||||||||
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Latin America news |
Gasoline prices
are headed
downward for December By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Gasoline prices are going down by as much as 62 U.S. cents a gallon. The nation's regulatory agency approved December prices that cut the per-liter cost of super gasoline by 81 colons and the per-liter cost of plus gasoline by 71 colons. Diesel will be reduced by 27 colons per liter. The new per-gallon prices will be $5.29 for super, 5.11 for plus an 4.92 for diesel, based on A.M. Costa Rica computation. There are about 3.8 liters in a U.S. gallon. The agency, the Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos, said the major reason for the decrease in price was the drop in petroleum prices. There were lesser reductions in other petroleum produces, such as aviation gasoline and jet fuel. Liquid petroleum gas will go up 13 colons per liter, according to a report from the agency. Many Costa Ricans use this type of fuel for cooking. Separate blazes claim lives of two persons By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Two persons died in separate fires Saturday night. The first was reported in Paso Ancho about 10 p.m. about 100 meters north of the Circunvalación highway in San José. There a man with the last name of Madrigal appears to have lighted some incense in his home, and the blaze got out of control. The home was destroyed. The second fire was in San Ramón de Río Claro in Golfito. A neighbor called in the alarm when he saw an adjacent home ablaze, said investigators. Agents were not able to determine immediately if the victim of the blaze was the man who rented the dwelling. U.S. citizen dies in fall at Manuel Antonio hotel By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Investigators confirmed that a U.S. citizen died after she fell down a flight of stairs while on vacation in Manuel Antonio early Thursday morning. The woman, Debra Ann Sines, 59, was on vacation with her mother and brother, a spokesperson of the Judicial Investigating Organization said. She fell down the stairs at around 3 a.m. at the Tulemar Hotel in Manuel Antonio and died at the scene, the spokesperson continued. Investigators believe that the fall was accidental. |
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