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San
José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 234
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U.S. and Costa
Rica plan
to sign tax agreement today By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Costa Rica is scheduled today to sign an agreement with the United States over the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. This is the U.S. law that targets tax non-compliance by U.S. taxpayers with foreign accounts, according to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. It also is controversial because of the paperwork involved. There has been no announcement what the agreement between the two countries will mean, but almost certainly the pact would give U.S. tax investigators access to Costa Rican banking information. The law requires banks there and other financial entities to withhold 30 percent of any proceeds due foreign banks who do not agree to the U.S. demands. The law also requires U.S. citizens and others who pay taxes there to report their assets over a certain amount along with the annual tax return. This requirement is different than the report of foreign bank accounts. The agreement today is due to be signed at the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Cultro. The United States is one of a few countries that taxes its citizens on money earned overseas. There is a $95,100 exemption for earned income, but investment and capital gains are not exempted. The U.S. also is trying to find money stashed overseas by its citizens. Despite the law and the aggressive effort by U.S. tax officials to obtain this information, Americans here have said that the agency almost never follows up on reports of illegalities. Some expats have tried to claim a reward for turning in tax cheats. Their efforts have generally been unsuccessful, and some complained they never even got responses from the Internal Revenue Service. The Criminal Investigating Division also has failed to respond to letters from A.M. Costa Rica on certain newsworthy cases here.  Consejo Nacional de Vialidad
photo
New asphalt goes down in the
Guápiles area.Road agency is
investing
$1 million in new asphalt By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The nation's road agency is investing $1 million to put new asphalt down on roadway in the Guápiles area. The latest effort is on Ruta 247 from Campo Dos to Las Palmitas. The work is being done between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m., and there may be delays. The road agency, the Consejo Nacional de Vialidad, said that the job should be done by the middle of December. Workers are putting down five centimeters of new asphalt, some two inches. In total, the agency said that it was investing 3 billion colons, some $6 million, in highway projects in Pococí, Guácimo and Siquirres. Phone company begins marketing a 4G hookup By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad began offering its 4G mobile service Monday. The system has been tested in a pilot program, and the company promises a connection 10 times faster than current systems. The company said that Costa Rica is the first country in Latin America to begin this type of service. The firm said it had 170 cell towers ready to handle the system. More information is available at the company's Web site Guard at Sabanilla condo shot down by gunman By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A guard at a condominium complex in Sabanilla suffered fatal wounds about 9 a.m. Monday when an unidentified man fired on him and a companion. Dead was a man identified by the last name of Silva. The Judicial Investigating Organization said he was 42. The companion suffered gunshot wounds too. Suspect detains in robbery of Caja offices in Puriscal By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Investigators have made an arrest in the robbery of the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social in Puriscal Thursday. A man with the last name of Venegas has been jailed for preventative detention. The robber also took the firearm of a guard during the heist, said investigators. Zelaya's wife appears to be in second place By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Honduras' electoral court has declared an irreversible trend in the presidential vote count that will make Juan Orlando Hernández the winner despite a declaration of victory from his closest rival. With about 68 percent of the nation's votes counted after Sunday's vote, a spokeswoman for the electoral court said Monday that the ruling Partido Nacional's Hernandez, with 34 percent of the vote so far, will most likely triumph over the left-wing Libre Party's Xiomara Castro, who has 29 percent. So far, Castro has continued to maintain that she is the winner of the election. Her husband, former president Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in 2009, has said she does not accept such a result and alleges there were inconsistencies in the voting process. The U.S. ambassador to Honduras and the head of a European Union election observer team says the balloting process was conducted without irregularities, and urged the candidates to respect the results. Ms. Castro's party has vowed to take legal action. Russian president signs law banning ads about abortion By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law banning advertisements for abortion, the Kremlin said Monday, a step activists said would infringe on the reproductive rights of women. Putin has made stemming a post-Soviet population decline a priority during 14 years in power and struck a conservative tone in his new term, praising what he calls traditional values and holding up the Russian Orthodox Church as a moral guide. He has drawn fire from the West for a law he signed earlier this year that critics say discriminates against homosexuals. Wider availability of contraception and a resurgence of religion after the 1991 Soviet collapse have reduced Russia's abortion rate, but it is among the highest in the world and termination is a top method of birth control. The government has funded advertising campaigns and offered financial incentives for couples to have multiple children. The law banning advertising "is not the beginning of the restriction of women's [reproductive] rights, but rather the continuation of a process begun in 2011,'' said women's rights activist Olgerta Kharitonova. She was referring to legislation that barred abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy in most cases and establishing a waiting period of at least 48 hours. A recent proposal submitted to lawmakers would prohibit coverage of abortion by health insurance.
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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 S.A. 2013 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 234 | |
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| Police begin the annual Christmas
holidays show of force |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The first wave of some 14,000 police officers took to the streets Monday in the security ministry's effort to keep the holidays safe. The Fuerza Pública will be highly visible until Jan. 5. The police will be using metal towers to keep an eye on the crowds. Some have been up all year. They also have more than 100 vehicles patrolling the streets, said officials. In Alajuela there is a special program to beef up patrols at local banks. The blue-uniformed Fuerza Pública has as a priority the prevention of crime. For years the police agency flooded the streets with officers during the holiday season. This year there are two classes from the police academy that will be on patrol. |
To support the street police, the
Ministerio de Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad
Pública has eight mobile command posts that will be placed in
strategic locations. These are mainly large vans with communication gear and other police necessities. Officials also promise that the police will be monitoring residential areas, too. This is a time when many Costa Ricans go on vacation and their homes are targets of burglars. Police also are confronting major activities and large crowds. One is the Festival de la Luz that brings as many as a million people to the streets of San José for a Christmas parade. This year it is Dec. 14. Police also are on high alert for the annual festival in Zapote, which begins Christmas Day. |
| Folklore festival with 50 groups begins
Saturday in Escazú |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The annual folklore festival starts Saturday in Escazú for an eight-day run. This is the Festival Internacional Folclórico Escazú 2013 that will attract groups from Chile, Panamá, México, Holland and China, as well as local participants. Organizers, which include the Ministerio de Cultura y Juventud and the Municipalidad de Escazú, promise up to 50 different groups, mainly folkloric dancers. The formal inauguration is at 2 p.m. Saturday with a parade through principal streets of the canton. Then there are folkloric presentations starting at 8 p.m. in the Parque Central. The full schedule is HERE! |
 Ministerio de Cultura y Juventud photo
A scene from a previous year. |
| Teatro Nacional to inaugurate its
nativity scene Saturday |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
In a break with tradition, the Teatro Nacional will inaugurate its portal Sunday at 5 p.m. The event usually is held on a Friday evening. The portal is the life-size nativity scene that the theater puts up every year. The theme this year is still a secret, said a theater spokesperson Monday. That usually is the case, and theater designers surprise with variations. One year, the nativity scene was in a rain forest. There are no advanced clues because the construction of this year's portal still is within the workshops of the theater, the spokesperson said. |
The portal is a tourist draw and the
subject of many photos during the holiday season. Visitors from
elsewhere sometimes are surprised by the mixing of church and state
with a religious display on public property. They would be surprised further to know that most public offices have their own nativity display, and some retire the display in January with a religious service and songs. There are songs promised Saturday, too, at the Teatro Nacional. No program is available yet, but the inauguration has seen youth choirs singing from the balconies of the theater and an orchestra on a stage constructed in front of the theater. Of course, attendance is free. |
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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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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 234 | |||||
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| Uncovered temple places the birth of the Buddha to about 600
B.C. |
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By
the National Geographic news service
Archaeologists working in Nepal have uncovered evidence of a structure at the birthplace of the Buddha dating to the sixth century B.C. This is the first archaeological material linking the life of the Buddha and thus the first flowering of Buddhism to a specific century. Pioneering excavations within the sacred Maya Devi Temple at Lumbini, Nepal, a World Heritage site long identified as the birthplace of the Buddha, uncovered the remains of a previously unknown sixth-century B.C. timber structure under a series of brick temples. Laid out on the same design as those above it, the timber structure contains an open space in the center that links to the nativity story of the Buddha himself. Until now, the earliest archaeological evidence of Buddhist structures at Lumbini dated no earlier than the third century B.C., the time of the patronage of the Emperor Asoka, who promoted the spread of Buddhism from present-day Afghanistan to Bangladesh. “Very little is known about the life of the Buddha, except through textual sources and oral tradition,” said archaeologist Robin Coningham of Durham University, who co-led the investigation. Some scholars, he said, have maintained that the Buddha was born in the third century B.C. “We thought ‘why not go back to archaeology to try to answer some of the questions about his birth?’ Now, for the first time, we have an archaeological sequence at Lumbini that shows a building there as early as the sixth century B.C.” The international team of archaeologists, led by Coningham and Kosh Prasad Acharya of the Pashupati Area Development Trust in Nepal, say the discovery contributes to a greater understanding of the early development of Buddhism as well as the spiritual importance of Lumbini. Their peer-reviewed findings are reported in the December 2013 issue of the international journal Antiquity. The research is partly supported by the National Geographic Society. To determine the dates of the timber shrine and a previously unknown early brick structure above it, fragments of charcoal and grains of sand were tested using a combination of radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence techniques. Geoarchaeological research also confirmed the presence of ancient tree roots within the temple’s central void. “UNESCO is very proud to be associated with this important discovery at |
 National Georgrpahic photo
Archeologists contemplate the
temple site at Lumbinione of the most holy places for one of the world’s oldest religions,” said Director-General Irina Bokova of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. She urged “more archaeological research, intensified conservation work and strengthened site management” to ensure Lumbini’s protection. “These discoveries are very important to better understand the birthplace of the Buddha,” said Ram Kumar Shrestha, Nepal’s minister of culture, tourism and civil aviation. “The government of Nepal will spare no effort to preserve this significant site.” Buddhist tradition records that Queen Maya Devi, the mother of the Buddha, gave birth to him while holding on to the branch of a tree within the Lumbini Garden, midway between the kingdoms of her husband and parents. Coningham and his colleagues postulate that the open space in the center of the most ancient, timber shrine may have accommodated a tree. Brick temples built later above the timber shrine also were arranged around the central space, which was unroofed. |
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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, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 234 | |||||
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| Free shopping applications keep track of online deals By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Shoppers who want to avoid long lines to nab a deal during Black Friday can download new apps that will let them shop for bargains from the comfort of their home. Whether it is getting notifications about items going on sale, shopping from print magazines and flyers, or turning email promotions into shopping magazines, apps are helping shoppers find deals. Shop It To Me, a new free app for the iPhone, allows shoppers to track when their favorite clothing items or brands go on sale in their size at online retailers. “On Black Friday, every store is going to shove sales in your face, and it can be so overwhelming that you might miss out on an item you actually want,” said Charlie Graham, chief executive of San Francisco-based company Shop It To Me, referring to the Friday after Thanksgiving and the start of Christmas shopping. Shop It To Me acts like a personal shopping assistant, constantly scouring hundreds of online retailers, such as Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's, Banana Republic and J.Crew, for the latest deals based on the shoppers' preferences and sizes. Graham said good deals, free shipping, more variety and less hassle are luring more consumers to shop online. Hukkster for the iPhone also lets shoppers track their favorite items and sales. With a new feature on the free app users worldwide can also put in the style number of items they find in stores and track when they go on sale. ShopAdvisor, a free app for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone, tracks items consumers find in print and tablet magazines. “What we've seen is that Black Friday is not necessarily the best day to go shopping anymore. Often we'll see deals online prior to and after Black Friday that can be just as good, if not better, than those we see in stores,” said Karen Macumber, chief marketing officer of ShopAdvisor, based in Boston. After scanning a product in a magazine readers can click on an ad to buy the item, or be notified when it goes on sale. Ms. Macumber said the aim of the app is to reach consumers as soon as they discover a new product and to make magazines a part of the shopping experience. Another app called Sift takes a different approach, letting users browse through promotions in their email inboxes. When users connect with their email account the app creates a catalog of promotions. “People's email is filled with shopping promotions. Some of our users receive as many as 3,000 to 4,000 shopping emails a year,” said Saurin Shah, CEO of Sift, based in Burlingame, California. The free app also learns about shoppers' preferences from their emails to help them discover new products in the company's database of more than a million products. “We use what we know about them to bring what they think will be most interesting in to the front. We do all the heavy sifting,” said Shah, who added that the app can also be used to shop for other people. Food stamp cutbacks hitting working poor at Thanksgiving By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The American holiday of Thanksgiving celebrates bountiful harvests with traditional family feasts. This year it comes just as the government assistance food stamps program is reducing benefits to millions of people. Volunteer organizations are increasing donations in the short term, but advocates warn that philanthropy alone cannot feed all who are in need. At the Capital Area Food Bank in Washington, D.C., volunteers are preparing to distribute 50 percent more food this month than last, in part to compensate for the recent $5-billion cut to the food stamp program. While increased private donations may help poor families make it through Thanksgiving, Brian Banks, the organization’s policy director, said they cannot sustain a major increase in giving over the long term. “The Capital Area Food Bank cannot reach enough donations to fulfill that cut. The food banks across the nation cannot reach enough donations to fill the cut. What we can do is make sure we are purchasing food, that we are taking donations and we are getting out to the community as fast as possible,” said Banks. The food stamps cut is technically not a cut, but an end to a temporary stimulus increase passed during the economic recession. While the U.S. economy has improved, unemployment remains high and the number of people receiving food stamps has risen to more than 47 million. Still the U.S. Congress is considering cutting up to $40 billion more in nutrition aid over 10 years to reduce the government deficit. Conservatives like Rachel Sheffield, a policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation, say more must be done to reduce fraud and abuse, and decrease the growing dependency on government handouts. “It should be reformed to promote work so that able-bodied adults work, prepare for work, to at least look for work in exchange for receiving assistance. That’s fair to the taxpayers and it is also in the best interest of the recipients,” said Ms. Sheffield. Advocates for the poor say most people on food stamps do work, but their wages are not enough to provide for their families. The large department store Walmart came under criticism recently for holding a Thanksgiving food donation drive for its own employees in need. Banks says it is not surprising that many working families still need food stamps, which are provided under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program called SNAP. “The majority of people who use the SNAP program, they work nine to five every single day. They’re working families. They’re the working poor. They need help and assistance. For some this is their last step to getting back on their feet,” said Banks. Sandy Hook killer's motives remain unknown, report says By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The man who killed 26 people including 20 children in an attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School almost a year ago acted alone and his motive may never be known, according to an investigative report released on Monday. The state attorney's report said that the criminal investigation into the shooting by 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who murdered his mother before attacking the school and ended the rampage by turning his gun on himself is now closed and no charges will be brought. Investigators said there was evidence that Lanza planned his rampage, but did not discuss his plans with others. “The obvious question that remains is: 'Why did the shooter murder twenty-seven people, including twenty children?' Unfortunately, that question may never be answered conclusively,” the report said. While the large informal memorials that arose in this town of 27,000 residents in the days after the shooting have long been removed, small commemorations are sprinkled throughout the sprawling town. Last year, on the morning of Dec. 14, Lanza shot and killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, in her bed in their Newtown home, and then forced his way into Sandy Hook, which he once attended. In a series of emails to Newtown parents last week, John Reed, the town's interim schools superintendent, addressed the report's release and cautioned parents to be mindful of their children's' emotional well-being. “By supporting one another, we will work our way through these challenging circumstances,” Reed said. A Connecticut law passed earlier this year said that some evidence from the state's investigation will never be made available to the public. The law, passed in response to the shooting, prohibits the release of photographs, film, video and other visual images showing a homicide victim if they can “reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy of the victim or the victim's surviving family members.” Snowden may have bombshell hidden in a computer cloud By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
British and U.S. intelligence officials say they are worried about a doomsday cache of highly classified, heavily encrypted material they believe former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has stored on a data cloud. The cache contains documents generated by the NSA and other agencies, and includes names of U.S. and allied intelligence personnel, according to seven current and former U.S. officials and other sources briefed on the matter. The data is protected with sophisticated encryption, and multiple passwords are needed to open it, said two of the sources, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. The passwords are in the possession of at least three different people and are valid for only a brief time window each day, they said. The identities of persons who might have the passwords are unknown. Spokespeople for both NSA and the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment. One source described the cache of still unpublished material as Snowden's insurance policy against arrest or physical harm. U.S. officials and other sources said only a small proportion of the classified material Snowden downloaded during stints as a contract systems administrator for NSA has been made public. Some Obama administration officials have said privately that Snowden downloaded enough material to fuel two more years of news stories. “The worst is yet to come,” said one former U.S. official who follows the investigation closely. Snowden, who is believed to have downloaded between 50,000 and 200,000 classified NSA and British government documents, is living in Russia under temporary asylum, where he fled after traveling to Hong Kong. He has been charged in the United States under the Espionage Act. Cryptome, a Web site which started publishing leaked secret documents years before the group WikiLeaks or Snowden surfaced, estimated that the total number of Snowden documents made public so far is over 500. Given Snowden's presence in Moscow, and the low likelihood that he will return to the United States anytime soon, U.S. and British authorities say they are focused more on dealing with the consequences of the material he has released than trying to apprehend him. It is unclear whether U.S. or allied intelligence agencies or those of adversary services such as Russia's and China's know where the material is stored and, if so, have tried to unlock it. One former senior U.S. official said that the Chinese and Russians have cryptographers skilled enough to open the cache if they find it. Snowden's revelations of government secrets have brought to light extensive and previously unknown surveillance of phone, email and social media communications by the NSA and allied agencies. That has sparked several diplomatic rows between Washington and its allies, along with civil liberties debates in Europe, the United States and elsewhere. Among the material which Snowden acquired from classified government computer servers, but which has not been published by media outlets known to have had access to it, are documents containing names and resumes of employees working for NSA's British counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters, according to sources familiar with the matter. The sources said Snowden started downloading some of it from the classified Web site, known as GC-Wiki, when he was employed by Dell and assigned to NSA in 2012. Snowden made a calculated decision to move from Dell, Inc., to another NSA contractor, Booz Allen Hamilton, because he would have wide-ranging access to NSA data at the latter firm, one source with knowledge of the matter said. Glenn Greenwald, who met with Snowden in Hong Kong and was among the first to report on the leaked documents for the Guardian newspaper, said the former NSA contractor had “taken extreme precautions to make sure many different people around the world have these archives to insure the stories will inevitably be published.” “If anything happens at all to Edward Snowden, he has arranged for them to get access to the full archives,” Greenwald said in a June interview with the Daily Beast Web site. He added: “I don't know for sure whether he has more documents than the ones he has given me... I believe he does.” In an email exchange, Greenwald, who has said he remains in contact with Snowden, affirmed his statements about Snowden's “precautions but said he had nothing to add. Officials believe that the doomsday cache is stored and encrypted separately from any material that Snowden has provided to media outlets. Conservative British politicians, including Louise Mensch, a former member of Parliament, have accused the Guardian, one of two media outlets to first publish stories based on Snowden's leaks, of “trafficking of GCHQ agents' names abroad.” No names of British intelligence personnel have been published by any media outlet. After U.K. officials informed the Guardian it could face legal action, the newspaper disclosed it had destroyed computers containing Snowden material on the Government Communications Headquarters, but had provided copies of the data to the New York Times and the U.S. nonprofit group ProPublica. Sources familiar with unpublished material Snowden downloaded said it also contains information about the CIA, possibly including personnel names, as well as other U.S. spy agencies, such as the National Reconnaissance Office and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which operate U.S. image-producing satellites and analyze their data. U.S. security officials have indicated in briefings they do not know what, if any, of the material is still in Snowden's personal possession. Snowden himself has been quoted as saying he took no such materials with him to Russia. Obama aides still work to shore up health care site By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The Obama administration on Monday announced a plan to help HealthCare.gov visitors cope with online glitches if traffic surges after the troubled Web site is working smoothly for most people this weekend as promised. Warning that the federal healthcare Web site will still be plagued by delays and outages in the weeks to come, an administration official said people who log on to shop or apply for subsidized health coverage will join a new queuing system if traffic exceeds a benchmark of 800,000 visitors. “Consumers may not immediately be able to complete the application. But they will be queued in order to ensure a smoother process,” said Julie Bataille, communications director for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency responsible for HealthCare.gov. The faulty site at the center of the rocky Obamacare rollout crashed during its Oct. 1 launch, when 2.8 million visitors flooded the site. Most received error messages or found themselves stuck waiting for pages to load. But if volume becomes a problem this time, the new queuing system will enable consumers to see educational material while they wait or allow them to submit an email address where they can be notified later once the system is back up, according to Ms. Bataille. HealthCare.gov is an online portal to a new insurance marketplace that offers subsidized private health coverage to millions of uninsured Americans in 36 states. But its troubled rollout has been a major political problem for President Barack Obama and the healthcare law known as Obamacare, his signature domestic policy. After weeks of emergency fixes, the administration has pledged to have the Web site working smoothly for 80 percent of visitors by Nov. 30. But with less than a week to go before the deadline, the administration appears to be preparing the public for problems. “It is likely that as we move forward, we'll find additional glitches and experience intermittent periods of suboptimal performance,” Ms. Bataille told reporters after HealthCare.gov's application and enrollment software went down for an hour on Monday. “The system will not work perfectly on Dec. 1. But it will operate much better than it did in October,” she said. President untrustworthy, majority in U.S. tell pollsters By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A growing number of Americans doubt President Barack Obama's ability to manage the nation, according to a CNN/ORC poll released on Monday that reflects the possible larger impact of his administration's fumbled rollout of its healthcare law. The poll also found that 53 percent of those polled said Obama is not honest or trustworthy, marking the first time that the CNN/ORC polling found a clear majority questioning the president's integrity, CNN said. Forty percent of the 843 U.S. adults surveyed in the telephone poll early last week said Obama can manage the government effectively, down 12 percentage points from June. The poll was conducted Nov. 18 to 20 amid ongoing problems plaguing the president's signature domestic policy achievement, the healthcare law widely known as Obamacare. HealthCare.gov, the administration's web portal for offering private health coverage to uninsured Americans in 36 of the 50 U.S. states, has been at the center of a political firestorm over technical problems that overwhelmed its Oct. 1 launch and have dogged the system ever since. In addition, insurance companies have canceled millions of existing insurance policies because of the law, raising questions about Obama's promise that people would be able to keep their policies if they were happy with their coverage. The pollsters said the survey, conducted by ORC International with a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points, recorded the worst scores for Obama during his five years in office in key categories. It found that 56 percent of respondents said they did not admire Obama, disagreed with him on important issues and said he does not inspire confidence, while 53 percent said they do not see him as a strong and decisive leader, CNN said. But the poll also found that the majority of those surveyed said the president still has a vision for the country's future and cares about average people. Seventy percent said he is likable. Another poll conducted by the Gallup organization put Obama's overall job approval rating at 41 percent, according to the latest weekly findings for Nov. 11 to 17, down from 45 percent in September, before the healthcare law rollout. |
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| A.M. Costa
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 234 | |||||||||
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 Teatro Nacional photo
The group Metamorfosis in action.Acrobatic contemporary dance on agenda at Teatro Nacional By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Contemporary dance is the theme for the Teatro al Mediodía today in the Teatro Nacional. The group Metamorfosis will perform, starting at 12:10 p.m. This is the popular weekly event that takes place each Tuesday at the theater. Admission is just 1,500 colons, about $3, with discounts for seniors and students. Today's performance marks the end of the season. Metamorfosis contains five dancers and a poet. The dancers perform routines that are highly acrobatic. Apple buys manufacturer of 3-dimensional chips By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Apple, Inc. has bought Israel-based PrimeSense Ltd, a developer of chips that enable three-dimensional machine vision, the companies said Monday. An Apple spokesman confirmed the purchase but declined to say how much it spent. Israeli media said it was about $350 million. “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” an Apple spokesman said in an e-mail. A spokeswoman for PrimeSense said: “We can confirm the deal with Apple. Further than that, we cannot comment at this stage.” It was the second acquisition of an Israeli company by Apple in less than two years. Apple bought flash storage chip maker Anobit in January 2012. PrimeSense's sensing technology, which gives digital devices the ability to observe a scene in three dimensions, was used to help power Microsoft's Xbox Kinect. Apple's interest in PrimeSense was first reported in July by Israeli financial newspaper Calcalist. The paper last week noted that PrimeSense has raised $85 million from some of its investors such as Israeli and U.S. venture capital funds Canaan Partners Global, Gemini Israel and Genesis Partners. |
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| From Page 7: Deal with Iran is good for the world's markets By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
World stock prices mostly rose and oil prices fell Monday after world powers reached an agreement that eased tensions over Iran's nuclear development program. Key stock indexes in the United States and Europe advanced and markets in Asia were mostly higher after Tehran agreed over the weekend to curtail its nuclear program in exchange for limited relief from sanctions that have hobbled its economy. One global stock index reached its highest level since 2008, at the start of the world economic downturn. Prices for Brent oil, the benchmark for half the world's crude, fell as much as 2.7 percent in London, while U.S.-produced oil dropped 1.5 percent. But analysts said the falling prices may not last, and they could be based more on optimism for future world oil trading, rather than an immediate increase in Iranian oil exports. Iran's agreement with the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China continues to limit its oil exports to one million barrels a day. But the six-month pact could make it easier for Iran to market its oil and lead to further exports, if the world powers can reach a long term agreement over its nuclear program. If a long-term deal is struck in the coming months, Iran's oil exports could add another one million barrels a day to the global market. That is enough to meet the expected increase in the global demand forecast for 2014 by the International Energy Agency. |
