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| A.M. Costa Rica Second newspage |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, June 4, 2010, Vol. 10, No. 109 | |||||||||
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| Costa Rica Expertise Ltd http://crexpertise.com E-mail info@crexpertise.com Tel:506-256-8585 Fax:506-256-7575 |
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Another use
explored
for Costa Rican coffee By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
At the Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, one of the nation's four public universities, a researcher, Patricia Arguedas, is working with a project to produce a fermented beverage from coffee. The coffee liquor took a prize from the Centro Nacional de Innovaciones Biotecnológicas, and the researcher will have financial support for 18 months as well as needed equipment for the idea. The product is said to be akin to wine, although the university said that they were not calling it that because wine comes from grapes. However, there are various types of non-grape wines, such as Japanese rice wine, saki. The product is expected to be less alcoholic than that of the well-known Café Rica, the coffee liquor produced by the Licorera Nacional that is 63 proof. Night raiders blast away at cattleman's Upala home By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Assailants threw two homemade bombs and perforated an Upala home with some 40 bullets shortly after midnight Thursday. The couple and child inside were not injured seriously. The home is in Santa Clara de Upala in northern Costa Rica. The Judicial Investigating Organization said that four men began blasting away at the home. Inside were a man with the last name of Murillo, who is 50, and his 28-year-old wife and 11-year-old daughter. The assailants punctuated the gunplay with two homemade bombs they threw into the home. The subsequent damage was reported to be substantial. Murillo suffered bullet wounds in January when someone fired on his vehicle while he was traveling in Santa Cecilia de Upala. He is a cattleman. All three residents suffered superficial bullet wounds and were treated in the Hospital de Liberia. Police collected 40 shell casings, some from heavy weapons. Tribunal road show ready to provide youth cédula By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones is opening an office to Puriscal June 25 and in Golfito July 26 so that minors there have a chance to apply for their Tarjeta de Identidad de Menores, a youthful version of the cédula carried by those over 18. The identity card for minors is obligatory for those from 12 to 17, the tribunal noted, as it announced its pilot program in the two communities. There are 13 regional offices of the Tribunal, but none is in Pursical or Golfito. Artist will meet visitors at Liberia gallery opening Special to A.M. Costa Rica
Art lovers can meet artist Johnny Aguirre Saturday at the Hidden Garden Art Gallery in Liberia. He is a visual artist who started to study photography in 2000. He works with both old and new techniques, such as oil, hand-tinted photography, canvas, and photography woodcarving, in order to explore the different art expressions of fine art photography, fractal art, and expressionism, said the gallery. The title of Costa Rica's show is "Nature Magic." Bard still working his magic with U.S. juvenile offenders By the A.M. Costa Rica wire service
For most American teens, performing Shakespeare is an optional activity. For some teens in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, the course is mandatory. "Some people are here for worse reasons than others. I'm here because of assault and battery," says Tim, 15. Tim is among 12 teens sentenced by a juvenile court judge to participate in the Shakespeare in the Courts program. "The judge sentenced me here, so my first thoughts were, 'Shakespeare is not my thing. I'd rather not.'" Kevin Coleman is director of education for Shakespeare and Company theater in Lenox, Massachusetts. He was first approached to develop a theater program for students more than 30 years ago by Paul Perachi, the principal of a local high school. Perachi later became the first presiding juvenile court justice in Berkshire County. "When I became a judge," Perachi says, "I thought, these are the same kinds of kids I saw as a principal, they just come before me under different circumstances." He thought that working with professionals at Shakespeare and Company would help them develop self esteem, communication skills and manage their anger. The first group of teens went through the program 10 years ago. Since then, more than 200 kids have been sentenced to Shakespeare, and the program has received wide-spread recognition.
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| A.M. Costa Rica third newspage |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, June 4, 2010, Vol. 10, No. 109 | |||||||||
| Despite tourist exodus, central Pacific returning to normal |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Tropical waves, which have been an abstract meteorological concept, became all too real for the central Pacific coast. The region from Golfito to Jacó took it on the chin Tuesday night as one wave passed through. High winds downed trees and telephone lines and probably did millions of dollars of damage to the tourism industry. That was tropical wave #8. Then #9 came through Wednesday bringing more rain and even some to the Central Valley. The region was not expecting a strong Tropical Wave #10 that hit the area about 2 p.m. Thursday. More trees went down and emergency crews that were trying to restore lights and telephones found they had more work to do. Now the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional says that Wave #11 is en route. These waves are troughs of low pressure aligned in a north-south direction that sweep across the tropical latitudes from east to west. Generally they do not bring heavy downpours and tree-breaking winds. Despite the latest wave, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad reported it had restored electrical service to 11,460 customers by 4 p.m. Thursday. Still without power were about 4,540 customers, the company said. A portable power generating station has been installed near Quepos to augment the grid. The principal work areas were in Quepos, Parrita and |
Manuel Antonio.
The company said that it expected to have service restored to the
Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio by midnight. The park, a key
tourist
attraction, has been closed because of the downed lines and damaged
trails at least until Monday. With the park closed and highways a mess, tourists quickly abandoned the area leaving the local tourism operators wringing their hands. The situation was better in Jacó where the electric company said it restored power to 4,540 customers within 24 hours of the first storm. In the last report from the company at 5 p.m. it said that 3,100 land line telephone customers still were without service and that 750 Internet users still were disconnected. Some customers were without service simply because workmen could not reach them. The company reported access problems in Los Santos, Mastatal, Zapatón, La Juana and La Gloria de Puriscal between Puriscal and Parrita. The weather institute said that Tropical Wave #10 was continuing to affect the region through the early morning hours. The national emergency commission said that Wednesday night and Thursday morning there were incidents of flooding in Barrio San Martín de Nicoya and in Nandayure on the Nicoya Peninsula. There also was another wave of flooding in Gofito. A weather alert continues in force. |
| Batán chemical blaze results in massive killing of
fish |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A building and tanks at an agricultural mixing plant in Batán burned in a spectacular, smoky blaze Wednesday, but the real damage was not obvious until Thursday. Thousands of fish, most of them small, in the surrounding streams died because the chemicals at the plant entered the surface water. Firemen reported they had a tough time battling the blaze because the chemicals changed into poisonous fumes and they had to put on protective gear. |
There was about 42,000 liters of
several kinds of fungicides that were
released by the fire. Firemen said they believe the blaze started from
a welder's torch. Environmental ministry workers walked the various
streams that were fed
by water sources near the plant Thursday. Many of these small streams provide protection for young fish before they are large enough to go into the nearby Caribbean Sea. The extent of the damage has not yet been assessed. |
| The café goes downhill, but the transportation is
looking up |
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| More than once I
have lamented the fact that San José lacks sidewalk cafes.
They have them at the beach communities, but in the Central Valley they
are few and far between. However, there has been a sidewalk
café just a block from my apartment, a small soda with
six tables on the slightly slanted tile patio in front. I used to
stop by occasionally for lunch or to pick up a piece of chocolate cake
from the choices of goodies in their display case. That was a few
years ago. It has changed ownership several times since then with
each new owner/cook less talented than the last one with business
reflecting the situation. Remembering that I used to do most of my writing at sidewalk cafes, I decided I should at least try it again. I was hoping for a midmorning cappuccino and croissant (or equivalent) to supplement my fruit breakfast. Unfortunately they served only café con leche and a choice of a typical Tico breakfast of eggs, frijoles and potatoes or rice or the ubiquitous ham and cheese sandwich. Gone were all those tempting goodies that the first owners featured. I wish I’d known that. There was one other person sitting at a nearby table having a coffee when I ordered my café con leche, settled myself at a small table and took out my pen and pad. The highlight of the morning was seeing a tiny white car turn the corner. On the side of the car was printed "electric." The young man at the other table and I both smiled (hard not to when you see the car) and I commented that it was the first electric car I had seen in Costa Rica. He said that he had seen several in Curridabat and that they were imports from India. I later learned that the embassies of Switzerland and the United Kingdom are using them to run errands in and around the city. It would be a good idea if ICE, the national electric company, would substitute them for their fleet of cars. More electric cars in the city would means less pollution and less noise. Most of the electricity in Costa Rica is generated by its own clean energy producers like wind, water and steam. It’s nice to know that. But I was happy to see that Costa Rica, which may lag in many areas on its way to being a developed country, is moving along with the big guys when it comes to things |
like transportation, the illnesses caused by smoking, recognizing that obesity is a problem here and the importance of recycling including the waste products of technology that are contaminating the waters and threatening the health of its fish and people. However, there is one modern idea where Costa Rica has been in the vanguard, and that is the realization that the wealth of a country starts with and depends upon the good health and education of its people, not vice versa. And that war is neither an effective way to settle differences, nor (except for a military industrial complex) is it healthy or profitable for its people. (This does not mean that Costa Rica is free of violence or deaths perpetrated by people living within the country.) I was with a group, all expats, this week when the talk came around to moving to Costa Rica. For some of us, high on the list of reasons we moved here was the fact that Costa Rica does not have a military. And we laughed when we discovered that when we mentioned this to people from our own country, the question always arose, “What will Costa Rica do if it is attacked?” or “Sure Costa Rica doesn’t need an army because the U.S. will come to its defense.” Our answers were also the same: “Why would anyone invade Costa Rica?” Later I decided to investigate how many times Costa Rica has been invaded by a foreign country. Other than a brief undeclared war between Nicaragua and Costa Rica in the 1970s, the only country since the beginning of the 20th century that has invaded any Central American or Caribbean country has been the United States. I didn’t know that. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, June 4, 2010, Vol. 10, No. 109 | |||||||||
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| Three events will mark U.N. World
Environment Day |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The U.N. World Environment Day is being celebrated in Costa Rica in Puntarenas, San José and San Pedro. In Puntarenas, young volunteers of the Cruz Roja will be at work early Saturday cleaning beaches and receiving material for recycling. The estimated 50 volunteers will be getting help from Universidad Nacional students. In Montes de Oca, the observance will be for two days, today and Saturday. The Colectivo Consumo y Comunicación Alternativa plans a festival beginning today with the showing of films that discuss the mining industry and the pineapple production. The films are in the auditorium of the Universidad de Costa Rica law school. Saturday the same group is putting on an outdoor event starting at 9 a.m. in front of the Colegio Vargas Calvo. There will be face painting, clowns, a presentation by the Fundación Internacional Capoeira Angola and discussion of sustainable agriculture. The most ambitious event is a three-day one in San José. It begins today with a presentation on global climate change at 4 p.m. in the auditorium of the Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones. |
 Saturday, organizers plan a large planting of trees in the Parque Los Conejos in Rohrmoser. The purpose of the tree planting is to assist Costa Rica in reaching its goal of carbon neutrality by 2021, said organizers. An outdoor final day, a festival, is planned for Sunday on Paseo Colón. President Laura Chinchilla will be present Sunday morning. The festival has the support of many government and non-government organizations. |
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| Acosta sex scandal sweep results in the
arrest of 11 males |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Investigators say that eight or more men and three juivenile males took sexual advantage of two teen sisters, now 11 and 14, for more than a year. The eight, ranging in age from 14 to 45, were detained in El Tablazo de San Ignacio de Acosta Thursday, More arrests are possible. The Judicial Investigating Organization said that the two girls were frequently home alone because both parents worked. The men would meet them at a nearby river, |
agents said.
Investigators were tipped off by a teacher at the girls' school last
August. The Poder Judicial identified the adults by the names of Rivas Araya, Mora Navarro, Arias Fallas, Ramírez Mora, Araya Ríos, Rojas Padilla, Mora Navarro and Mora Garro. The girls are now under the care of the Patronato Nacional de la Infancia. There was no indication that the girls were molested against their will. Because of their ages that does not make a difference. |
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| Coffee effects dismissed as being just an illusion By the University of Bristol news service
The stimulatory effects of caffeine may be nothing more than an illusion according to new research, which shows there is no real benefit to be gained from the habitual morning cup of coffee. Tests on 379 individuals who abstained from caffeine for 16 hours before being given either caffeine or a placebo and then tested for a range of responses showed little variance in levels of alertness. The study, published online in the journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, reports that frequent coffee drinkers develop a tolerance to both the anxiety-producing effects and the stimulatory effects of caffeine. While frequent consumers may feel alerted by coffee, evidence suggests that this is actually merely the reversal of the fatiguing effects of acute caffeine withdrawal. And given the increased propensity to anxiety and raised blood pressure induced by caffeine consumption, there is no net benefit to be gained, researchers said. Peter Rogers, from the University of Bristol’s Department of Experimental Psychology and one of the lead authors of the study, said: “Our study shows that we don't gain an advantage from consuming caffeine — although we feel alerted by it, this is caffeine just bringing us back to normal. On the other hand, while caffeine can increase anxiety, tolerance means that for most caffeine consumers this effect is negligible.” Approximately half of the participants were non/low caffeine consumers and the other half were medium/high caffeine consumers. All were asked to rate their personal levels of anxiety, alertness and headache before and after being given either the caffeine or the placebo. They were also asked to carry out a series of computer tasks to test for their levels of memory, attentiveness and vigilance. The medium/high caffeine consumers who received the placebo reported a decrease in alertness and an increase in headache, neither of which were reported by those who received caffeine. However, their post-caffeine levels of alertness were no higher than the non/low consumers who received a placebo, suggesting caffeine only brings coffee drinkers back up to 'normal'. The authors also found that the genetic predisposition to anxiety did not deter coffee drinking. In fact, people with the gene variant associated with anxiety tended to consume slightly larger amounts of coffee than those without the variant, suggesting that a mild increase in anxiety may be a part of the pleasant buzz caused by caffeine.
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Latin American news Please reload page if feed does not appear promptly |
faces new charge in Perú By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The young Dutchman linked to the disappearance of an American teenager five years ago has been detained in Chile in connection with the murder of a woman in Peru. Chilean officials say 22-year-old Joran van der Sloot was taken into custody Thursday while traveling by taxi from Santiago toward the coastal area of Vina del Mar. Van der Sloot entered Chile earlier in the week. Chilean authorities say they are awaiting instructions from their Peruvian counterparts on how to proceed. The young man, who traveled to Peru last month for a poker tournament, is suspected in the death of 21-year-old Peruvian Stephany Flores. Her body was found Wednesday in a Lima hotel room registered to him. Police have a videotape showing them together at a Lima casino late Saturday. In the United States, federal prosecutors in Birmingham, Alabama Thursday filed a criminal complaint against van der Sloot on charges of wire fraud and extortion. The complaint accuses him of trying to extort $250,000 in return for promising to reveal the location of the body of Natalee Holloway, the Alabama teenager who disappeared May 30, 2005 while visiting the Caribbean island of Aruba. The complaint against van der Sloot does not name the person paying the money. The extortion charge carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence. Van der Sloot was twice arrested in the highly publicized disappearance of Holloway, who was 18. Her body has never been found. Prosecutors said they did not have enough evidence to charge anyone. Investigators say the woman in Peru was killed exactly five years after Holloway vanished during a school trip to Aruba. The Peruvian's father, Ricardo Flores, welcomed van der Sloot's arrest and blamed the Dutchman for her killing. A funeral service was held for her Thursday in Peru. Jail asked in drive-by killing By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The juvenile prosecutor in Alajuela has asked the Juzgado Penal Juvenil to jail a youngster for two months while an investigation continues in a May 28 murder. The victim, Eliécer Brown Vega, 27, suffered the wounds in San Rafael de Alajuela when someone shot him from a moving car. The victim was talking with friends at the local soccer field at the time, agents said. |
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