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A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
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José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 244
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Judicial agents detained Tuesday nine suspects who are accused of being members of a gang that plundered stores in the community of Nuevo Arenal last Aug. 23. The ages of the suspects range from 20 to 45. Arrests were made in Ciudad Quesada and La Fortuna de San Carlos. The gang of armed men descended on the community of Nuevo Arenal, cut the power to part of the town and began to plunder. The gunmen overwhelmed a service station attendant and two security guards. The victims were tied up and put in the lubrication pit of the service station. The crime happened at 3:30 a.m. that Saturday. The community had recently lost police protection, and the theory at the time was that the bandits had local knowledge. La Fortuna is near Nuevo Arenal. The El Colono hardware store, the local Importadora Monge outlet and the gasoline station were burglarized. The bandits got about 2 million colons (about $3,700) and electronic devices, said agents. Residents later collected money to reopen the police station. Two of the suspects already were in prison for other crimes, said judicial agents. Judicial agents in Nicoya, Liberia, Santa Cruz and San Carlos participated in the investigation and arrests. In all, the suspects face allegations stemming from five robberies. Chikungunya virus cases mount up By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The health ministry is now calling the wave of chikungunya virus cases an outbreak. The Ministerio de Salud confirmed Tuesday that there are 40 cases of the mosquito-born disease that are believed to have been contracted on foreign soil. But there also are seven that have been contracted in Costa Rica. There is one each in Parrita, Costa de Pájaros, Chomes and Tamarindo. There are three in Manzanillo. In addition there are 185 probable cases mainly around Abangares, the ministry said. There also are 1,962 cases of suspected dengue so far this year. A high incidence of the dengue cases are in three cantons. They are Santa Cruz with 315, Nicoya with 155 and Carrillo with 90, the ministry reported. All are in Guanacaste. To counter the spread of these diseases, the ministry reported it was taking some steps, including canceling the vacations of some ministry workers who are involved in spraying and control. The ministry also called on municipalities to increase their efforts against the mosquitoes. The same mosquito species carries both diseases. Quake reported at mouth of gulf By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Laboratorio de Ingenieria Sismica said that a magnitude 4.0 earthquake took place today at 1:06 a.m. some 23.7 kilometers east southeast of Montezuma de Cóbano, Puntarenas. That location estimated by the Universidad de Costa Rica lab would put the quake at the mouth of the gulf of Nicoya. This is a highly active area. Monitoring devices suggest that the quake was felt moderately in Jacó across the gulf and in Paquera on the peninsula. Mexican investment being sought there By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The nation's commerce minister and other foreign investment experts were seeking to impress Mexican business operators this week in the capital of México. The minister of Comercio Exterior, Alexander Mora, and Jorge Sequeira, the director general of the Coalición Costarricense de Iniciativas de Desarrollo, were involved with six meetings with potential investors. The ministry reported that the sectors involved were energy, aviation, services and telecommunications. The two men also are trying to find outlets for Costa Rican goods and services in México, the ministry reported. President Luis Guillermo Solís will join the commercial campaign today. He has been in Veracruz at the Iberian Summit.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 244 | |
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| Expats are definitely not Scrooge when it comes to keeping
Christmas |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
If there is one word that describes expats in Costa Rica it is generous. Across the land expats dig down to help their neighbors, their employees and their Tico friends. This is not required, but so very often a little bit of extra money goes a long way toward improving a life. That goes double at Christmas. Expats are quick to set up parties and gift-giving for locals. Of course, Costa Ricans do, too. The Poder Judicial just delivered a mountain of toys to the Asociatión Obras del Espiritu Santo. The Costa Rica Tennis Club is accepting toys as the price of admission at a ballet event Sunday for the same organization. In Jacó, Lynn Gensemer of Chungo Interior Design and friends will once again go to the mountains Christmas day to deliver food staples and toys. "This project started from my personal desire to reach out to Costa Rican families that are not able to enjoy the holiday season for whatever reason," she said by email. "It has grown with the help of Jim Gray, various local individuals and vacationers. A donated stock truck is loaded with coffee, sugar, rice, beans and other food items as well as toys for children of all ages. The day is spent traveling mountain villages dispersing joy and happiness. The reward to all who participate is priceless." Further down the Pacific coast Brendan Ryan of Rich Coast Realty has hosted holiday parties in the past for youngsters, too. In fact, editors would like to hear about other such projects. Expats are encouraged to send a note, perhaps with photos, to editor@amcostarica.com. For those who wish to make donations, there are dozens of legitimate organizations that could use the help. |
 Lynn Gensemer photo
Jacó mountain
delivery
brought joy to these kids in 2013. |
| Volcán Turrialba once again does not disappoint its
many fans |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Volcán Turrialba caused its neighbors to sit up and take notice again Monday night. The volcano erupted again and sent wind-born ash as far west as Desamparados and Tres Ríos. That was at 9:24 p.m., and emergency officials know for sure because the mountain is being monitored closely. Staffers from the Red Sismológica Nacional at the Universidad de Costa Rica, the Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico at Universidad Nacional and emergency commissions were collecting data and evidence of the ash in the vicinity Tuesday. The national park that surrounds the mountain continues to be closed, and an alert is posted for the cantons of Turrialba and Alvarado. The area is east of San José. The Comisión Nacional de Prevención de Riesgos y Atención de Emergencias has an evacuation plan posted. Residents continue to live near the mountain. Many are dairy farmers who graze their herds on the flanks of the mountain. The animals are the ones most affected by the ash. Cattle sometimes spend the day with their backs covered with the fine, gritty material. |
 Comisión
Nacional de Prevención de Riesgos
y Atención de Emergencias photo Cows
near volcano are getting a little grit with the grass.
Scientists
study the ash to determine its composition. Ash that has
come from magma deep inside the volcano portends more eruptions.
Reports on the latest eruption will be made known later in the week.
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 244 | |||||
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| Plastic bag prohibitions prompt debates over effectiveness |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
As consumers drive the holiday shopping season, they typically carry new purchases home in plastic shopping bags. The bags used this holiday season, which often become a nuisance, dotting unkempt landscapes and polluting waterways, represent only a fraction of the huge number of disposable sacks used for packing groceries and other items throughout the year. “They get caught in bushes and trees, in storm water systems, they end up clogging up sewers,” says Janet Larsen, director of research for the Earth Policy Institute in Washington. In an effort to reduce the environmental impact, California on Sept. 30 became the first state to ban businesses from providing new plastic bags for customers. Other states and cities have already adopted similar legislation, charging a small fee for every bag handed out in order to encourage people to bring their own bags when they go shopping. Municipalities in Michigan, Kansas and Arizona are currently debating similar laws. But Mark Daniels, senior vice president for environmental policy at South Carolina-based Hilex Poly — one of the country’s largest plastic bag manufacturers and recyclers — says shoppers should get new plastic bags for free. “Every single scientific litter study that has been done always show that plastic retail are a fraction of one percent,” he said, calling the thin plastic sacks a good environmental choice. Noting the claim by environmentalists that plastic bags are clogging landfills, Daniels points to a study by the Environmental Protection Agency that refutes that. “All plastic bags, not just retail bags, are four tenths of one percent of the waste stream,” he said. Despite that statistic, Washington, D.C., imposed a five-cent fee on every plastic bag given out by businesses in the city. The money is being used to clean up the local Anacostia watershed, and, according to one city official, the effort is making a difference. Brian Van Wye, head of Stormwater Program Implementation at the D.C. Department of the Environment, says once people were required to pay for the bags, they used fewer of them and, subsequently, fewer bags ended up in the water. |
“The stream
clean-up groups are telling us that they’ve seen a
60-percent reduction in disposal bags they find while they’re doing
stream cleanups," he said, adding that the five-cent tax has helped
save aquatic life. “We also know that plastic bags, they break down over time," he said. "It's something aquatic life will consume and ingest and that can cause serious harm and potentially death for aquatic life like fish and turtles.” But customers who say they need shopping bags aren’t happy about paying for them. At a Washington restaurant, Bill Ford says he has to use a bag to carry out his lunch. “I don’t know why some people need to pay because a small minority of people are throwing stuff into rivers and waterways,” he said. But Carol Powers, who also paid for a bag, is in favor of the D.C. program. “It seems kind of silly to pay five cents for a bag but if that’s what it takes to help save the environment then it’s a good idea.” However, instead of taxing or banning bags, Daniels of Hilex Poly says recycling the bags is a better alternative. “We reprocess it, we clean it, we shred it, we make new post-consumer recycled products and put that back into the manufacturing of new bags,” he said. But Larsen doesn’t think that’s the answer. “The plastic bag industry has often used recycling as a deterrent for communities that, even when residents are saying, 'we want to limit these,'" she said. "It really doesn’t help to minimize the problems. “What we would advocate for would be a washable, reusable bag to take the place of all those plastic bags.” Bags like the reusable grocery tote — many of which are made of recycled materials — that Carol Chastang uses to carry her lunch. “This is my contribution to keeping the environment cleaner and safer,” she said. More than 18 million Americans now live in communities that tax or ban plastic bags, and that number is expected to go up again next year. |
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2014 and may
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 244 | |||||||
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| CIA interrogations report refuels long-term debate By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The United States has released a long-awaited report detailing how the Central Intelligence Agency employed extreme interrogation methods on suspected terrorists following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Senate Intelligence Committee disclosed a lengthy summary Tuesday of the CIA's interrogation techniques, including confinement in small places, sleep deprivation and waterboarding, which simulates drowning. All are methods that CIA critics and human rights organizations consider torture. The report said the agency also used ice baths; rectal rehydration, a form of feeding through the rectum; and threats that suspects' relatives would be harmed. One suspected extremist froze to death while in captivity. The report said that the interrogations were far more brutal than the CIA had said and that the agency had misled Congress and the White House about its activities. When he took office in 2009, President Barack Obama banned use of the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, which had been authorized by his predecessor, George W. Bush, in the aftermath of the 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. The report noted, however, that Bush did not know the details of what the CIA was doing. The Senate report is the first public documentation of the CIA's alleged use of torture on al-Qaida suspects during what the Bush administration called a global war on terror. Tuesday Obama vowed that harsh U.S. interrogation methods would not take place on his watch, saying the techniques did significant damage to American interests abroad without serving counterterrorism efforts. Obama issued a written statement in response to the Senate report: "Rather than another reason to refight old arguments, I hope that today's report can help us leave these techniques where they belong — in the past.'' The report "reinforces my long-held view that these harsh methods were not only inconsistent with our values as a nation, they did not serve our broader counterterrorism efforts or our national security interests," he added. U.S. diplomatic facilities and military installations overseas were under increased security Tuesday leading up to the release of the report, even though general information about the interrogation techniques has been known for years. In announcing the release of the report, Diane Feinstein, a Democratic senator from California and the committee chairwoman, said, “Under any common meaning of the term, CIA detainees were tortured." The senior national security counsel at U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, Laura Pitter, welcomed the report. "It was important for the United States to acknowledge wrongdoing, understand what happened, and hopefully these are the first steps towards some kind of accountability," she said. CIA Director John Brennan, in responding to the study’s release, said, “We acknowledge that the detention and interrogation program had shortcomings and that the agency made mistakes." "The most serious problems occurred early on and stemmed from the fact that the agency was unprepared and lacked the core competencies required to carry out an unprecedented, worldwide program of detaining and interrogating suspected al-Qaida and affiliated terrorists," Brennan said. The review indicates that interrogations of detainees on whom enhanced interrogation techniques were used did produce intelligence that helped thwart attack plans, capture terrorists, and save lives, he added. But U.S. Sen. John McCain, who was tortured while held captive by the North Vietnamese four decades ago, rejected that view. "Torture produces more misleading information than actionable intelligence," the Arizona Republican said. Brennan said the CIA also disagreed "with the study’s characterization of how CIA briefed the program to the Congress, various entities within the executive branch and the public.” He rejected what he characterized as the study's inference that the agency “systematically and intentionally misled each of these audiences on the effectiveness of the program," and he also took issue with the manner in which the Senate committee investigated the detention and interrogation program. “No interviews were conducted of any CIA officers involved in the program, which would have provided members with valuable context and perspective surrounding these events," he said. Secretary of State John Kerry, in a statement, noted that the period under review is “more than five years behind us, so we can discuss and debate our history — and then look again to the future." “I want to underscore that while it’s uncomfortable and unpleasant to re-examine, it's important that this period not define the intelligence community in anyone's minds," Kerry said. In defending CIA personnel, he said, "Every single day, the State Department and our diplomats and their families are safer because of the men and women of the CIA and the intelligence community. ... The awful facts of this report do not represent who they are, period." When asked about the report's findings, Stephane Dujarric, spokeswoman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said that Ban has previously stated his position against torture and the need for accountability. On Sunday, former vice president Dick Cheney defended the agency's actions in a interview with The New York Times. Cheney, one of the program's strongest supporters, said he never believed the CIA withheld information from the Bush administration, and he noted that the program had been authorized by the Justice Department. He said the CIA officers who ran the program should be decorated, not criticized. Former CIA officials disputed the report's findings, as did Senate Republicans, whose written dissent accused Democrats of inaccuracies, sloppy analysis and selective use of evidence to reach a predetermined conclusion. George Tenet, CIA director when the 2001 attacks occurred, said in defending the agency, “We know that the program led to the capture of al-Qaida leaders and took them off the battlefield, that it prevented mass casualty attacks and that it saved thousands of American lives.” Former CIA director Michael Hayden denied the CIA lied about its program. He said releasing the report will make it less likely that countries that cooperated in the past with Washington in the fight against terrorists will do so in the future. The former CIA veteran in charge of the interrogation, Jose Rodriguez, wrote in The Washington Post last week that the claim the interrogation "brought no intelligence value is an egregious falsehood. It is a dishonest attempt to rewrite history." Peace Prize winners back support for children's rights By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The Indian and Pakistani winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize have called on political and religious leaders to make children’s rights a priority and to improve the lives of millions of children caught in a cycle of poverty, child labor and lack of education. The Peace Prize winners told an Oslo news conference that the Nobel Committee’s decision has put a global spotlight on children’s issues. Seventeen-year-old Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan was nearly killed by the Taliban two years ago for her advocacy for girls’ education. Sixty-year-old Kailash Satyarthi of India founded a charity that frees bonded child laborers and provides them with training and education. Malala had invited the prime ministers of the two countries to Wednesday’s award ceremony, but they have not responded. “I would have thought of it as a big opportunity to ask them to have good relationships and to make education together their top priority and work on it together,” she said. Satyarthi issued a broader appeal. “I would definitely urge all the religious leaders in the world, and all the religions in the world, that if you really want to worship God and want to see a better world, begin with the children,” he said. Satyarthi’s charity operates in 144 countries and has rescued thousands of children, many of them in his home country, India. He said Tuesday the Nobel Peace Prize has already brought welcome attention on the plight of poor, uneducated and enslaved children worldwide. “When we are talking here, and addressing this press conference, millions of children cannot talk in freedom, cannot enjoy the freedom and smile as a child. We have to work for them,” said Satyarthi. Malala Yousafzai campaigned for girls’ education in northern Pakistan, after the Taliban moved into the area and closed schools. An alleged Taliban militant shot her in the head. “There are so many countries where children are not asking for any iPad or computer or anything else," she said. "What they are asking for is just a book and just a pen. So why can’t we do that? Why can’t we just give a book and a pen? Why can’t we just give a school to children, which can really change their future, really change their world?” Malala said people like her attacker, who think Islam forbids educating women, were themselves uneducated. “In Islam, education is not only a child’s right, but it is their duty. There is a hadith from the Prophet that you should get education, you should get knowledge. It’s not just limited to men,” she said. Much has been made of the fact that the Nobel Committee gave the Peace Prize to an Indian and a Pakistani, a Hindu and a Muslim. On Tuesday, Satyarthi said he considered Malala his daughter. And Malala said just because India and Pakistan had a border between them, they didn't have to hate each other. View from overseas shows shootings hurt U.S. image By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Race relations in the United States are back on the global agenda after recent decisions not to indict police officers in the deaths of two African Americans in two separate cases: one in Missouri and the other in New York. Some people say the cases have hurt the image of the United States and maybe its ability to project its values. The decisions in Ferguson, Missouri, and in New York City sparked widespread protests and global news coverage. Protests continued for days all around the United States, and inspired support across the world. At London’s King’s College, American studies students have been talking about the issue in their classes. “It’s not a good thing,” said Xiang Yingchao, a 23-year-old economics student from China, who has studied in the United States. “A lot of Chinese press, they said, like, ‘Oh, in the U.S. they always advocate human rights, but look at them. It’s like they have two standards of human rights.’” These students study America, and all have visited. They see the incident in New York as a clear case of unpunished police brutality, but view the Ferguson incident as less clear cut. But 53-year-old masters’ degree student Paul Zimmerman of London said the details are not as important as the broader point. “There’s an assumption that somehow there’s something that has gone on that isn’t quite right. Maybe they’ve come up with the right conclusion, but in a sense that doesn’t really matter,” he said. 24-year-old classmate Mark Eastwood from northern England agreed. “I would say it’s exposed a broader issue. It’s more, for me, the story of Ferguson and what’s happened in New York in the last week or so, is more about the issues of structural racism,” said Eastwood. There’s also a sense of disappointment that the election of Barack Obama does not mean all of America’s racial issues have been solved. “Electing a black president, in theory, is transformational but there’s a lot that needs to happen to correct many, many years of systemic unfairness,” said Zimmerman. “One black president cannot change these things. They have to change their justice system, even their laws,” said Xiang. Their teacher, Joshua Simon, said some of his students see two aspects to the stories from Ferguson and New York. “They’re thinking of it as a pretty shocking demonstration of the remaining racial injustices in the United States and a pretty encouraging sign that the population in the United States isn’t going to take these events lying down," said Simon. The emotional scenes of the funerals added to the public reaction overseas. Simon said many people give the United States well-deserved credit for progress on race relations. He said the recent incidents, though, have shifted the focus to how much work remains to be done, while also making the U.S. aspiration to be a moral leader more difficult. Texas leads U.S. in cases applying the death penalty By the A.M. Costa Rica
wire
services
When executions are carried out at the prison facility in Huntsville, Texas, death penalty opponents are usually on hand to protest. Texas carries out more executions than any other state — 16 last year. And polls show most Texans support the punishment. One is self-described death penalty advocate Dudley Sharp, who argues that executions ensure killers do not kill again and deter others from doing so. “The evidence that the death penalty deters no one does not exist," he said. "The evidence that the death penalty deters some people is overwhelming.” Sharp said most families of murder victims want proportional justice, but they find no joy in an execution. “All of this is in the context of losing an innocent life to an unjust murder, so none of it is good,” he said. Houston attorney Pat Monks opposes the death penalty, contending that it's carried out within a flawed judicial system. “It assumes that the system is perfect in one instance, maybe just in one instance, and it is not,” he said. Monks cites cases in which new evidence has led to the release of prisoners on death row. He calls capital punishment an archaic practice that the United States inherited from a country that has now abandoned it. “It is from England, the common law system in which the king owns all of us, we are all subject to the king, and so the state," he said. In early December, an appeals court issued a stay in the planned execution of convicted murderer Scott Panetti, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Houston attorney Kathryn Kase of the Texas Defenders Service, who represents Panetti, says the nationwide attention this case has received is encouraging. “What we see in the stay is this emerging awareness in the United States that we don’t want to execute people with serious mental illness,” she said. The state of Texas contends Panetti meets its standard of competence. But Kase says executing such a delusional person does not serve the purpose most people associate with the death penalty. “We are supposed to be reserving the death penalty for the worst of the worst," she said. "The problem is that when we get into choosing who that is, we are not consistent.” Surveys show that younger respondents tend to favor life imprisonment for murderers over the death penalty and that fewer than half of all respondents favor executing the mentally ill. |
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2014 and may
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| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 244 | |||||||||
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Special to A.M. Costa Rica
The Venezuelan supreme court’s administrative policy tribunal has rejected a lawsuit filed by Espacio Público, a non-profit civic organization, that sought information from the government on blockages and restrictions imposed on several informational Web sites earlier this year, among them twin.com, pastebin.com, bit.ly and the app zello.com. Relying on constitutional clauses on the right to information, Espacio Público called on the Ministry of Popular Power for University Education, Science and Technology to explain the reason for the blockage of the Internet in Táchira state last February. Given repeated denials of information by the ministry, it filed a lawsuit Sept. 18 with the supreme court. The court issued an unexpected ruling by not accepting the lawsuit, and said that “the requestor will have to expressly give the reasons for requiring the information and justify the request being in proportion to the use that it seeks to make of it.” The Inter American Press Association condemned the ruling which it said contravened constitutional principles on freedom of expression and transparency, and amounted to “judicial censorship contrary to the people’s right to information about matters of public interest.” Association President Gustavo Mohme declared that “precisely the principles on access to information, on which laws on such access in the entire world have been based, establish that no one has to justify how he or she will use the information, while the government has the obligation to provide it, any time a member of the public requests it.” Mohme, editor of the Lima, Peru, newspaper La República, added, “This current ruling ends up becoming judicial censorship, and contrary to the people’s right to information about matters of public interest.” The Inter American Press Association said it noted the trend in Latin America and the Caribbean to adopt laws on access to public information and governmental transparency. Besides Venezuela, such laws do not exist in Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador. Blood test a possibility for breast cancer By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A simple blood test that detects a form of the metal zinc soon may become available to diagnose breast cancer at its earliest and most treatable stages. Researchers at Oxford University in Britain found that breast tumors absorb a light form of zinc, meaning that a heavy form of the metal might be detectable in higher concentrations in the blood of people with early cancers. To measure how the human body processes zinc, the researchers adapted techniques normally used for analyzing trace metal isotopes in the study of climate change and planetary formation. It's been known for more than 10 years that there are high concentrations of zinc in cancerous breast tumors, according to Fiona Larner of Oxford's Department of Earth Sciences. But Ms. Larner, who led the research, said the molecular mechanisms that cause this have not been known. Murder suspect caught on local bus By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A pedestrian walked up to a 27-year-old man who was outside his own home and shot him fatally Monday night. Then the assailant entered the home and killed a 17 year old who was there. This happened about 6 p.m. in San Martín de Guápiles. The older victim was identified by the last name of Calderón. Fuerza Pública officers detained a 23-year-old man a short time later on a local bus. They said he was the suspect. |
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| From Page 7: New hotel opens in Playa Hermosa By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Hotel Tramonto and its restaurant have opened their doors. The hotel is styling itself as a surfer paradise. It is in Playa Hermosa de Jacó. In addition to the nearby sea, the hotel has a 30-meter swimming pool. The location is seven kilometers from Jacó. The hotel has 76 rooms and can accommodate 250 guests, according to a release. The management also boasts of its chef, Luca Barnocchi, who was one of the founders of the Panne e Vino chain. The native Italian is the current owner of the Mozzarella restaurant. The menu appears to be a mix of traditional Italian dishes and also Costa Rican, such as gallo pinto. |
