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A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Wednesday,
July 30,
2014, Vol. 14, No. 149
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Authorities continue the 24-hour search for the lost American, 27-year-old Roman Dial Jr., who they say has not been seen since July 22. He is presumed to be in the lush jungle of Parque Nacional Corcovado because he emailed his father, a National Geographic explorer, that he would be entering the park to kayak. Marlon Guitiérrez Matarrita, the chief of police in Puerto Jiménez, said Tuesday afternoon that his search team worked through the early morning and would be on break until resuming its efforts again today. Another group of officers and Cruz Roja workers were taking the night shift to continue the search. Guitiérrez said a team of officers continues to camp out in the rugged mountains of Corcovado and overhead helicopter searches are planned again for today. He added that the missing man's father, Roman Dial, Sr., is still in Costa Rica helping officers and that he has been their biggest source of information up to this point. No scraps of evidence that could point searchers towards the younger Dial's location have yet been found, Guitiérrez said. Over the weekend Red Cross confirmed that Dial was in the El Tigre sector near the park on July 22, after a local taxi driver claimed to have recognized his picture. They also found out that he had checked out of a Puerto Jiménez hotel July 18, according to search organizer Gilberth Dondi. The park is on the Osa Peninsula in southwestern Costa Rica. The Dials are from Anchorage, Alaska. President prepares his 100-day report By Michael Krumholtz
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff Luis Guillermo Solís' presidency will hit the 100 day mark in mid-August, and Costa Rica's head of state will make a report on his administration's progress. At his weekly press conference Tuesday, Solís said the review is about 95 percent complete and that he has asked to present it to legislators at the Asamblea Legislativa as early as Aug. 18. The report consists of individual updates from each Costa Rican ministry and public institution. In terms of immediate improvements left to be made, Solís mentioned that he wants to shut down the country's roadway agency, the Consejo Nacional de Vialidad, but that he must first meet with officials from the parent Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes. Tuesday Solís, alongside the minister of Presidencia, Melvin Jiménez, also announced a long agenda planned for the Asamblea Legislativa. According to the nation's Constitution, the president can set the agenda for certain periods when the assembly is called to meet. Topics that the president plans to discuss with legislators include social security, poverty reduction, agriculture, energy usage, education, and the environment, among others. “These projects reflect a viewpoint shared with other political forces and sectors that understand the urgency of moving forward with a shared agenda that fulfills the needs of Costa Ricans,” Solís said. Jiménez said that after hearing citizens' perspectives, the government considers these projects to be of extreme importance. He and the president are pressing these documented issues on to policy makers for immediate legal action and reform. He said the president decided to call a special session into effect after hearing complaints and suggestions from a range of citizens in a recent meeting. “The call for the special session was made after meeting with legislators and with social representatives, business people, producers, and academics,” Jiménez said.  Smithsonian Tropical Research Center
photo
Snorkel-perfect coral reefs in
calm, mangrove-fringed waters of Bocas.Coral in Bocas
expected to be hard hit
By the Smithsonian Tropical Research Center
news staff
Snorkel-perfect coral reefs in the calm, mangrove-fringed waters of the Bocas Del Toro Archipelago are expected to be among the hardest hit by warmer temperatures that lead to coral bleaching and mortality, a new study finds. These shallows in Panama’s Caribbean are characterized by low water flow, allowing water to reach precariously high sea surface temperature when compared to areas with greater water movement. Angang Li and Matthew Reidenbach of the University of Virginia tapped into a wealth of long-term monitoring data collected by Smithsonian Tropical Research Center scientists around the Bocas Del Toro Research Station, including coral bleaching records. Their models were published in the journal Coral Reefs. “By 2084, almost all coral reefs are susceptible to bleaching-induced mortality, except for a region of relatively lower thermal stress along the outer boundary of the archipelago,” they write. “By 2084, only corals exposed to open ocean currents are predicted to survive.” There are some caveats. The key to heat-induced coral bleaching is not a single blast of hot water, rather long-term exposure to above-threshold temperatures. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts widespread bleaching and significant mortality under conditions determined in the study. Some coral species may adapt to higher temperatures. The study’s models predict that areas flushed by cooler water will have a higher chance at surviving well into the future. Li and Reidenbach studied modern water-flow patterns, simulated heating scenarios for the 2020s, 2050s and 2080s, and quantified local thermal stress on coral reefs. While previous studies have looked at impact on corals at a large scale, the researchers focused on a much smaller spatial scale, which is less common. The fine scale of their work better lends itself to the creation of mitigation strategies for marine protected areas in Bocas. “Our findings are also likely applicable to many coral reef regions worldwide, and in particular reefs that are found in shallow and partially enclosed coastal regions with long water retention times,” they conclude. Limón students get their manatee wish By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Students at the Escuela de Limoncito, de Limón finally got their wish Tuesday. Lawmakers declared the manateeee (Trichechus Manatus) or sea cow to be the maritime symbol of Costa Rica. Fro several years students from the school have been visiting lawmakers encouraging the designation. The manatee is found at the Refugio de Vida Silvestre Barra del Colorado and in the Parque Nacional Tortuguero, They also can be found along the Caribbean coast. The animals can weight up to 1,200 pounds. They are susceptible to injury from boats and their propellors. The decree is supposed to give the animals absolute protection and regulate access to where they live. The legislative vote Tuesday was the second and final one.
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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 A.M. Costa Rica.com Ltda. 2014 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, July 30, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 149 | |
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| Survey provides good look at those who make the Cartago
pilgrimage |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Academics in Cartago wanted to find out exactly who participated in the annual pilgrimage to the Basilica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles. So last year they designed a statistical approach to do so. Surveyors stationed themselves at one of six specific points around the basilica and set out to question every fifth person from July 31 to Aug. 2. The result was data from 600 pilgrims that the researchers are 95 percent confident represents the estimated 2.5 million people who make the pilgrimage every year. The effort was by the Centro de Investigación en Administración, Economía y Gestión Tecnológica of Tecnológico de Costa Rica, the local university. There were not a lot of surprises. More than 97 percent said they were Catholic, and 54 percent said they attend Mass every Sunday. Some 62 percent said that they prayed to the Virgen de los Ángeles every day, and half of these said they knew someone who had received a miracle through her intercession with God. Less than 10 percent said they participated in the pilgrimage or romería, as it is called, for other than religious reasons. These other reasons were not specified but some participate in the pilgrimage to accompany significant others or boy or girl friends. Only about 12 percent of those questioned said they walked to Cartago alone. Some 5 percent said they walked for more than 10 hours to reach the basilica. The majority said they walked from two to six hours. The highest percentages came from San José, Cartago Centro and La Unión, said the survey report. One person who will not be walking this year is President Luis Guilermo Solís. The president said Tuesday that he will go to the basilica in Cartago Saturday for Mass but will not be taking part of the pilgrimage. Though he recalled his father and grandparents actively |
 Telefides photo
Basilica de Nuestra
Señora de los Ángeles at night.worshipping the
Virgen de los Ángeles, he told reporters he has never taken part
in the
popular pilgrimage but that he respects the worshippers who do.
“I didn't go on the pilgrimage as a citizen, and I won't be going as president,” Solís said. By contrast, former president Laura Chinchilla made highly visible pilgrimages every year she was in office. The pilgrimage will get good international coverage. The local Catholic television station Telefides said that it will feed the event Friday and Saturday by satellite to the Catholic network EWTN. The transmission begins at 9 p.m. Friday and ends with a firework show at the basilica. The coverage continues at 9 a.m. Saturday and ends when Solís finishes his speech. The local station representatives estimated viewers at about 400 million worldwide. |
| Tourist police are quick to rescue an injured sloth at
Dominical |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
An injured sloth was found near Dominical with an apparent broken left arm. When driving along a public road Tuesday afternoon tourist police officers said they saw a foreigner trying to help the injured animal, which required immediate medical care. A Fuerza Pública spokeswoman said authorities do not know the sloth's current condition, as it had since been taken to a veterinary clinic. The foreigner, who wanted police to only refer to him as “Mike,” paid all medical costs for the sloth's hospitalization, according to a police report. Such animals are prone to injuries because they are unaccustomed to being on the ground. They spend much of their life in the trees where they feed on leaves. There are sloth recovery centers on both coasts where the animal may end up. |
 Ministerio de Gobernación,
Policía
Injured animal is on the way to
the vet.y Seguridad Pública photo |
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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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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, July 30, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 149 | |||||
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| Many
misconceptions abound over gluten-free food, study shows |
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By
the University of Florida news staff
While necessary for some, many people eat gluten-free diets because they believe they’ll gain certain health benefits, but these beliefs are not all supported by research, a University of Florida nutrition expert says. Those with celiac disease, or about 1 percent of the U.S. population, must follow a gluten-free diet because it’s the only treatment for their condition, said Karla Shelnutt, a University of Florida assistant professor. But gluten-free diets can lack essential nutrients if a person does not eat a balanced diet and or take a multivitamin supplement. Unlike their conventional counterparts, refined gluten-free foods, for the most part, are not enriched or fortified with essential vitamins and minerals. “If I’m a college student, and I want to lose weight, and I read on the Internet that a gluten-free diet is the way to go, I may start avoiding products that contain essential nutrients such as those found in cereal grains fortified with folic acid,” Ms. Shelnutt said. “The problem is you have a lot of healthy women who choose a gluten-free diet because they believe it is healthier for them and can help them lose weight and give them healthier skin.” The $10.5-billion gluten-free food and beverage industry has grown 44 percent from 2011 to 13 as the rate of celiac disease diagnoses increases along with awareness of gluten-free foods, according to Mintel, a market research company. Mintel estimates sales will top $15 billion in 2016. One of Ms. Shelnutt’s doctoral students, Caroline Dunn, wanted to know if gluten-free labeling has any impact on how consumers perceive the foods’ taste and nutrition. In a one-day experiment on the university campus in Gainesville in February, 97 people ate cookies and chips, all gluten-free. Half were labeled gluten-free. The other half labeled conventional. Participants then rated each food on a nine-point scale for how much they liked the flavor and texture. They also filled out a questionnaire, said Ms. Shelnutt. About a third of the participants said they believed gluten-free foods to be healthier than those labeled conventional, a figure Ms. Shelnutt |
 University of Florida/Tyler L. Jones
Supermarket shelves are full of
gluten-free products.said she thought would be much lower. While avoiding gluten-containing foods can reduce carbohydrate intake, thus helping some lose weight, many health experts say a gluten-free diet is no healthier than a conventional diet except for those with celiac disease. Although such a small sample cannot be generalized to the public, Ms. Shelnutt said the experiment gives researchers insight into how the public views gluten-free foods. For example, 57 percent of participants believed gluten-free diets can be used to alleviate medical conditions, and 32 percent said doctors prescribe them for weight loss. Thirty-one percent said they believed gluten-free diets improve overall health, 35 percent said they believed them to improve digestive health and 32 percent said they felt that eating them would improve their diet. Gluten, a protein, is found in grains such as wheat, barley, rye and triticale, a cross between wheat and rye. A gluten-free diet is prescribed for those with celiac disease, a condition that can damage the lining of the small intestine. The experiment’s results are published in the current edition of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. |
Here's reasonable medical care
Costa Rica's world class medical specialists are at your command. Get the top care for much less than U.S. prices. It is really a great way to spend a vacation. See our list of recommended professionals HERE!amcr-prom
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, July 30, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 149 | |||||||
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| Business consultants in China face informational barriers By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Next week a court in China will hear a high-profile case against two foreign business consultants, each charged with illegally obtaining personal information on Chinese citizens. Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court said on Tuesday Briton Peter Humphrey and his American wife and business partner, Yu Yingzeng, would go to trial Aug. 8. The couple is charged with having illegally obtained private information on Chinese citizens through their risk consultancy firm, ChinaWhys. The case highlights how Chinese authorities are increasing enforcement of the country’s privacy protections, making it difficult for companies to research potential business partners and investments. According to its Web site, ChinaWhys helped foreign companies avoid land mines in the Chinese market. That included background checks on business partners and employees, as well as anti-fraud investigations. Prosecutors allege that a lot of the information the firm gathered over the years was illegally obtained: bought from Chinese investigators or through secret photography, infiltration or tailing after someone. But there is also speculation that their prosecution has political undertones. One of ChinaWhys' most recent clients, pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline, had hired the couple to investigate a former employee, someone rumored to have powerful political connections. The British pharmaceutical giant wanted to know whether the employee had reported to senior management - and to Chinese authorities - evidence of widespread corruption at the firm. In an interview broadcast on state TV, Humphrey confessed to the charges and referenced the GSK job. "They requested me to investigate the background of their suspected informer and make an assessment of the informer. I offered to investigate GSK China's internal businesses to determine if the alleged corruption did exist, but they turned me down,” Humphrey said. Chinese authorities started investigating the pharmaceutical company’s practices in China last year, around the time Humphrey agreed to investigate the company’s concerns over the alleged leak. In May, GlaxoSmithKline China executive Mark Reilly was formally accused of overseeing a network that bribed doctors to boost sales of the company’s products. Instead of focusing only on the GSK job, Chinese prosecutors have charged Humphrey and Yu for information breaches that span many years. The charges include illegally obtaining and re-selling phone, bank and real estate records, business and vehicle registrations, and other private documents. Attorney Steve Dickinson, an attorney at law firm Harris Moure in Tianjin and co-author of the China Law Blog, advises foreign companies about the Chinese market. “Various people in China they want to know things about their potential business partners, they want to know things about their commercial opponents. They want to know things about government officials," Dickinson said. "Well, great, but it is illegal to obtain that information. Should it be illegal? That is a different question," he added. In recent years, authorities have updated provisions on privacy protections in an effort to avoid serious information breaches, said Liu Deliang, professor of law at Beijing Normal University. “In December 2012 there has been a decision by the National People's Congress which showed the importance that the new government in China put on information safety online,” Liu said. “Obviously there has also been more awareness on the part of the public about the protection of their rights. I believe that in the future there will be more cases like this being discovered and prosecuted.” But the breadth of some provisions have raised concerns the laws might be used arbitrarily and could curb due diligence investigations, such as the ones ChinaWhys worked on. In an article Humphrey wrote months before he was detained last year, Humphrey described a U-turn in his field. Companies' filings at local business bureaus were no longer accessible, and authorities had started arresting hundreds of investigators and their sources. “I find this a very dark day for due diligence and forensics work,” he wrote. Some analysts, including Humphrey, connected the clamp down on public records with foreign media investigations detailing the wealth of some of China's top leaders. Dickinson said five foreign consulting firms he was familiar with got out of the business because of the apparent danger. “They saw all their contacts going to prison. They said 'We are next if we don't stop,' so they stopped,” he said. Daniel Roules, a mergers and acquisition lawyer at the law firm Squire Sanders in Shanghai, said that for years he advised potential foreign buyers to buy detailed reports on Chinese companies from a local firm. "It was a tremendous wealth of information available at a quite reasonable price, that company today is still in service but it provides only the minimum information that is provided by the company registered, the kind of information that any of us could get,” Roules said. That, Roules said, is an example of how the playing field has been changing in China. If found guilty, Humphrey and Yu face up to three years in prison. Former top security chief under investigation in China By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
China has announced it is investigating a man who used to be one of the country's most powerful politicians, former domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang. The investigation is likely to boost already growing public support for Chinese President Xi Jinping's widening anti-corruption drive. A brief announcement of the decision came late Tuesday from China's Xinhua news agency. In its report, Xinhua said the party's top investigating body, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, had begun an investigation into Zhou Yongkang's suspected serious disciplinary violations. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology political scientist David Zweig says the decision to go after Zhou is perhaps the biggest investigation since the Gang of Four at the end of the Cultural Revolution. "This is a big deal and many, many people would worry that if you can go after people, you know members of the politburo standing committee after they stepped down, than many many people would be vulnerable," Zweig said. For months, China has been anticipating the announcement of an investigation into Zhou Yongkang. Since late last year there have been numerous unconfirmed reports in foreign media that Zhou was the focus of a corruption probe. But when an official announcement did not come in March when the Communist Party held top-level meetings in Beijing, some began to question Chinese President Xi Jinping's commitment to stamping out corruption. The Communist Party says it is in a life or death struggle against corruption, a problem that not only threatens the party and state, but also prospects for much needed reform. Zweig says that while Xi most likely needed to get a lot of people to agree with the decision to go forward with the investigation, it is easy to understand why it is necessary. Zhou is a classic example of someone who had too much power, he says. "He had so much political and legal power being the head of the legal affairs leadership group of the Communist Party, he just was an enormous powerful position to be able to do what he wanted, when you got that kind of power over police courts, who gets shot, who gets executed that is just an enormous amount of power in a totally un-transparent system," he said. Although the announcement of the party's investigation into Zhou marks a big step forward, it is not necessarily a guarantee that he could face criminal charges, says Hong Kong Baptist University political scientist Jean-Pierre Cabestan. "In China it is up to the party whether a case should be transferred to the judiciary or should be dealt with within the party apparatus," Cabestan explained. " If there are serious crimes suspected to having been committed by Zhou Yongkang, which is likely, the case will probably be transferred to the judiciary, if not this will be dealt with within the party." Since taking over as China's leader, President Xi has carried out a highly publicized crackdown on government corruption. Zhou is a close ally of former rising political star Bo Xilai, who was sentenced to life in jail last year. The anti-corruption drive has won Xi much praise, but some are also concerned it is just political infighting. "I think there is a lot of cynicism around, so a lot of Chinese know it very well, it is also a political case and it is not going to accelerate reform or let alone political change in China," Cabestan said. "What they see is that Xi Jinping is getting more and more powerful and is centralizing power in his own hands, for the better or maybe for the worse." Zhou rose up within China's ranks serving in several key posts that contributed to his power and influence and that are also likely to be key focuses of the corruption investigation. He previously served as the head of the state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. and as a Sichuan provincial party secretary. Sichuan province and the petroleum corporation have already been shaken by corruption investigations, many into individuals closely linked to Zhou. While Zhou served as China's security chief, overseeing domestic intelligence, paramilitary police, judges and prosecutors, the country's domestic security budget began outpacing spending for national defense. NCAA allocates $70 million for athletes' head injuries By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The National Collegiate Athletic Association — better known as the NCAA — will establish a $70 million fund to test college athletes for brain injuries. The NCAA agreed Tuesday to settle a brain injury class action lawsuit against it by creating the fund and implementing procedures for how athletes may be returned to the field after a blow to the head. If approved, the deal will pay for medical testing for thousands of college athletes who believe they sustained brain injuries on the field. The terms of the settlement provide testing for NCAA team members past, present and for those 50 years into the future — who believe they have brain trauma resulting from an incident during a game or practice. The agreement also commits the NCAA to prevent student athletes from returning to the field the same day as they have received a blow to the head. The NCAA has faced tough questions over compensating amateur athletes who receive scholarships, but who are otherwise not paid for their roles in college athletics. Stowaway died in flight from Africa to Germany By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. military officials say the body of a young male stowaway was found in the wheel well of an Air Force cargo jet that had landed in Germany after a routine mission in Africa. The Pentagon press secretary, Navy Rear Admiral John Kirby, told reporters Tuesday that the boy's body was found Sunday during a routine post-flight inspection of the aircraft when it landed at Ramstein Air Base. Kirby said the stowaway was a black male who may have been of African origin. The plane was on a routine mission in Africa and had made stops in Senegal, Mali, Chad, Tunisia and Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily, before arriving at Ramstein. As concerns swell over an outbreak of the deadly Ebola disease in several African countries, the military also confirmed that the body was tested for communicable diseases. Those tests came up negative. “The cause of death, as well as the other circumstances surrounding this incident, remains under investigation,” Kirby said, adding the body had been taken to a German facility for an autopsy. A stowaway aboard a military plane is a significant security breach, but Kirby said he had no information about how well-guarded the plane was during the Africa stops or how the boy managed to get into the compartment. Kirby said the cause of death has not yet been determined. In April, a Somali immigrant survived a flight from San Jose International Airport, California to Hawaii, while stowed away in the wheel well of a Boeing 767 commercial airliner. Skin cancer is declared major U.S. health menace By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Acting U.S. Surgeon General Boris Lushniak has declared skin cancer a major public health problem in the United States and has called on federal and local officials to step up prevention. A new report says the number of deadly melanoma cases has skyrocketed 200 percent since 1973. The report blames what it says is a generation of sun worshippers who associate a suntan with good health. Lushniak is urging authorities to provide more shade at public parks, encourage schools to have children wear hats and sunscreen, and call on colleges to ban tanning beds on campuses. Melanoma is the most deadly form of skin cancer, killing about 9,000 people in the U.S. each year. But skin cancer is easily preventable and treatable if caught early. Excess exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun and artificial light used in tanning beds are the major causes of skin cancer. Partly effective vaccine developed against malaria By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A pretty good malaria vaccine is on track to be the first to market. It only prevents infection about one-quarter to one-half the time, so it’s not as good as most vaccines. But for a disease like malaria, which kills 600,000 people a year, “pretty good” may be good enough. GlaxoSmithKline has applied for regulatory approval for its RTS,S vaccine. A new 18-month study in the journal PLoS Medicine shows the vaccine prevented 46 percent of malaria illnesses in children 5 to 17 months old and 34 percent of severe cases, the kind most likely to kill. “It’s a pretty good vaccine,” said medical epidemiologist Mary Hamel of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and one of the authors of the new study. “We were looking for 30 percent or higher.” Most vaccines against childhood illnesses are 80-90 percent effective or better. But, she said, “the burden of malaria is so high across sub-Saharan Africa that even with modest efficacy numbers like these, you can get a pretty high impact.” For example, Hamel says children contracted malaria an average of five times per year each at the western Kenyan study site where she worked. At that location, for every 1,000 children who got the shots, the vaccine prevented about 2,400 cases of malaria, and 40 severe cases. The study found the vaccine was less effective in infants 6 to 12 weeks old. It prevented 27 percent of illnesses but had no impact on severe cases. And the vaccine lost much of its punch more rapidly than one would hope over the course of the 18-month study, Hamel said. One of the next steps is to see if a booster shot can improve long-term efficacy. Still, many experts say it is an important step forward. “We don’t really have a silver bullet,” said Chris Plowe at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “This is a first-generation vaccine,” he added. “We’d all like to see a vaccine that has 100 percent protective efficacy, but in the context of other tools and how we expect to do with a really tough disease like malaria, this is actually pretty good and reason for some celebration, I would say.” “There’s not a single licensed, efficacious vaccine for any human parasitic infection on the planet,” noted Jonathan Kurtis at Brown University. But he said there will be questions about whether a vaccine that prevents relatively few deaths will be worth the cost. “Who is going to pay to deliver this vaccine, which is not a cheap vaccine to manufacture?” he asked. “Will they pay to stop 20 cases per 1000 participants per year and a half? I can’t answer that.” Tulane University vaccine expert Nirbhay Kumar worries the vaccine will raise hopes beyond what it can deliver. “While we expect there will be some benefit from deploying this vaccine, I think having high expectations and not fulfilling those expectations might do more damage than the benefit that we could see,” he said. GlaxoSmithKline has not disclosed what the price of the vaccine will be, but it says it will cover the cost of manufacturing plus 5 percent, which will be re-invested in vaccine research. The company has submitted the vaccine to European regulators for approval, which could come by the end of next year. The goal set by the health nonprofit organization PATH and other major international donors calls for a vaccine that is 50 percent effective against severe disease and death in the first 12 months. The GlaxoSmithKline vaccine met that goal for older children but not infants in an earlier study. There is “still a lot to learn before we decide exactly how it’s going to be introduced,” according to PATH vice president for product development David Kaslow. And, he added, those decisions will ultimately be up to the affected countries themselves. PATH is also supporting other research efforts, but none is as close to approval as this one. “For the foreseeable future, this is what we have,” Kaslow said. “Is it perfect? No. But is it a good start? Yes.” |
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| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by A.M. Costa Rica.com Ltda. 2014 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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 Smithsonian Tropical Research Center/Kevan
Mantell.
Gigantic creature now has some protection
Eight
countries will protect whale shark
By the Smithsonian Tropical Research Center
Representatives from Panamá, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic have signed a binding agreement protecting whale sharks in Eastern Pacific and Caribbean waters that took effect on July 1. This conservation plan was drafted based on research by Smithsonian staff scientist Hector M. Guzman. The largest fishes in the world, whale sharks grow to 40 feet (12.65 meters) and weigh up to 47,000 pounds (21.5 metric tons). The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists these gentle giants as vulnerable. According to a study by Guzman’s research team in which they tagged nearly 50 sharks with satellite tracking devices, whale sharks travel oceanic and coastal routes through waters under the jurisdiction of several countries in the region. Recognizing that the most effective solution would involve integrative conservation efforts, the Regional Unit for Fish and Aquaculture of the Sistema de la Integracion Centroamericana drafted the international accord. Mario González Recinos, regional coordinator of the Sistema, said that the legislation “is binding and the result of the interaction between civil society, the scientific sector, fishermen, national authorities and regional authorities, and a new fructiferous example of the process of Central American integration.” In addition, Panama’s environmental authority created a whale shark sanctuary in Coiba national park based on Guzman’s evaluation of habitat range for the species in the Gulf of Chiriqui and established strict guidelines for tourist and scientific whale shark watching. Israel Tejada, the person in charge of the department of biodiversity and wildlife, emphasized “this legal tool will be key to regulating activities and the operators that organize groups to watch this species.” He also noted that “this initiative is a result of the way the scientific sector advises and orients Coiba national park’s executive committee for the management and conservation of biodiversity in this protected area.” “The whale-shark watching chaos in Panama prompted us to contribute information to this urgently needed policy to handle visitors and tourists as well as operators. In only three months, in 2014, two operators working between Santa Catalina on the mainland and Coiba Island have hit animals 27 times,” said Guzmán. Whale sharks, Rhincodon typus, are slow-moving filter-feeders that eat algae, plankton, krill and crab larvae. |
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| From Page 7: Salary list finally ready for employers By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The increase in minimum wages for the second half of 2014 is more complex than previous years. Instead of decreeing a single percentage for all salaries, the Consejo Nacional de Salarios decided to give higher percentages of wages to those making less money. The percentages range from 4 percent to 4.09 percent to 4.22 percent. Other job categories got just a 2.35 percent raise. So employers need to get a copy of the list produced by the Ministerio de Trabajo. That list is HERE! The ministry finally came out with the list after mid-month salaries had to be figured. So some employers are going to have to make adjustments with their salaries. Meanwhile, government officials negotiation wage hikes for public employees seem prepared to accept more than 4 per cent. |
