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San
José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 183
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Two more bodies
add to record murder toll
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Two more as yet-unidentified individuals have been added to the country's record list of murder victims. The two men were found in their underwear and bound hand and feet in a vehicle in Dos Cercas de Desamparados. Each had been dispatched with a bullet to the head. The Judicial Investigating Organization said that neighbors heard shots about 4 a.m. They were followed by a crash. Upon investigating, the neighbors found a car smashed against a metal post in front of a corner store. The two bodies were inside in the rear seat, said agents. They said they are hoping that a tattoo on one of the men will lead to his identity and then to the identity of his fellow victim. The security minister, Gustavo Mata, told legislators last Aug. 27 that 2015 may end with 537 murders due to organized crime organizations operating here. That number would be nearly 19 percent higher than last year when investigators reported 453 murders. Law enforcement blames the drug trade and wars among distributors for the record number of slayings. However, a 32-year-old man died at Hospital Calderón Guardia early Sunday, the victim of what appears to have been a dispute. The man suffered three knife wounds in San Vicente de Moravia, said agents. The man identified by the last name of Brooks became involved in an argument as he was returning home Sunday morning from work. The man with whom he had the discussion in the street appears to have followed him into his garage where the fatal attack took place, said agents. Security cameras are being checked for clues, said agents. Cow virus linked in study to breast cancer By the University of
California-Berkeley news staff
A new study establishes for the first time a link between infection with the bovine leukemia virus and human breast cancer. In the study, published this month in the journal PLOS ONE and available online, researchers analyzed breast tissue from 239 women for the presence of bovine leukemia virus, comparing samples from women who had breast cancer with women who had no history of the disease. They found that 59 percent of breast cancer samples had evidence of exposure to the virus, as determined by the presence of viral DNA. By contrast, 29 percent of the tissue samples from women who never had breast cancer showed exposure to the virus. “The association between BLV infection and breast cancer was surprising to many previous reviewers of the study, but it’s important to note that our results do not prove that the virus causes cancer,” said study lead author Gertrude Buehring, a professor of virology in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at the University of California-Berkeley’s School of Public Health. “However, this is the most important first step. We still need to confirm that the infection with the virus happened before, not after, breast cancer developed, and if so, how.” Bovine leukemia virus infects dairy and beef cattle’s blood cells and mammary tissue. The retrovirus is easily transmitted among cattle primarily through infected blood and milk, but it only causes disease in fewer than 5 percent of infected animals. A 2007 U.S. Department of Agriculture survey of bulk milk tanks found that 100 percent of dairy operations with large herds of 500 or more cows tested positive for the viral antibodies. This may not be surprising since milk from one infected cow is mixed in with others. Even dairy operations with small herds of fewer than 100 cows tested positive for the virus 83 percent of the time. What had been unclear until recently is whether the virus could be found in humans, something that was confirmed in a study led by Professor Buehring and published last year in Emerging Infectious Diseases. That paper overturned a long-held belief that the virus could not be transmitted to humans. “Studies done in the 1970s failed to detect evidence of human infection with BLV,” said Professor Buehring. “The tests we have now are more sensitive, but it was still hard to overturn the established dogma that BLV was not transmissible to humans. As a result, there has been little incentive for the cattle industry to set up procedures to contain the spread of the virus.” The new paper takes the earlier findings a step further by showing a higher likelihood of the presence of bovine leukemia virus in breast cancer tissue. When the data was analyzed statistically, the odds of having breast cancer if bovine leukemia virus were present was 3.1 times greater than if bovine leukemia virus was absent. “This odds ratio is higher than any of the frequently publicized risk factors for breast cancer, such as obesity, alcohol consumption and use of post-menopausal hormones,” said Professor Buehring. There is precedence for viral origins of cancer. Hepatitis B virus is known to cause liver cancer, and the human papillomavirus can lead to cervical and anal cancers. Notably, vaccines have been developed for both those viruses and are routinely used to prevent the cancers associated with them. Obama to host Xi amid many concerns By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Chinese President Xi Jinping next week will make his first state visit to the U.S., a White House statement confirmed Tuesday, a trip that comes at a time of increasing disagreement between Washington and Beijing. President Barack Obama "will host Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China, at the White House for an official State Visit on September 25, 2015," according to the late Tuesday statement. The prestigious visit, which follows Obama's trip to Beijing in November, will include a lavish State Dinner at the White House that will be attended by the spouses of both leaders, said the statement. The visit offers a chance "to expand U.S.-China cooperation on a range of global, regional, and bilateral issues of mutual interest, while also enabling President Obama and President Xi to address areas of disagreement constructively," it added. Recently, the areas of disagreement have threatened to overshadow areas of cooperation. One of the main areas of friction is what U.S. officials call a barrage of China-based cyberattacks on American government and business targets. Obama last week called the cyberattacks "unacceptable." White House spokesman Josh Earnest said he expects Obama to discuss cyberattacks during his meeting with Xi, acknowledging it is something the president is quite concerned about. Another increasingly sore point in relations is China's behavior in the East and South China Seas, where Beijing has territorial disputes with many of its neighbors. The U.S. says it does not officially take a position on the sovereignty disputes. But Washington has constantly criticized China for its aggressive behavior toward its smaller neighbors and developed closer military ties with many of China's rival claimants. The most recent U.S. concern has focused on China's building and military development of numerous artificial islands in the South China Sea's contested Spratly Islands. A report this week by the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies pointed to satellite photos that suggest China has built a third airstrip on the man-made islands. The islands are seen as a way for China's military to exercise de facto control of the area surrounding the Spratly Islands, parts of which are also claimed by Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei. Rights groups are also urging Obama to make human rights a priority during Xi's visit. A letter signed by the heads of nine human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, expressed deep concern about the significant erosions to rights during President Xi’s tenure. |
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 183 | |
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 Ministerio de Educación
Pública photo
The Banda de San José is ready
to step off for the independence day parade.
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| Mother Nature shines on a day full of patriotic ceremonies
and parades |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Mother Nature was kind to Costa Ricans who celebrated the Día de la Independencia Tuesday. Parades took place under partly cloudy skies, and in the metro area, rain was scare. The day began at Parque Nacional in San José where President Luis Guillermo Solís and others placed a floral offering at the Monumento Nacional. The monument depicts the Central American nations in the persona of women driving out U.S. filibusters William Walker. The independence day ceremony always is held there. |
Then students
from 12 schools and their bands marched through the downtown. There was
a similar parade in Heredia. Two vehicle mishaps marred the holiday. In Piedra Azul en Ujarrás about 7 a.m., a 6-year-old kindergarten student died under the wheels of a truck. The Judicial Investigating Organization said that the truck swerved to avoid hitting the victim's brother who had darted across the road. In Guápiles, a student returning from an independence celebration lost a leg when a vehicle pinned him against a tree. |
| Universities here not highly ranked in world survey by
London firm |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Major Costa Rican universities got so-so rankings from an international educational rating company, and they are not likely to improve much. Some 40 percent of the ranking is based on academic reputation, which is why Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology fare so well. Massachusetts Institute of Technology retained the top spot in the QS World University Rankings for the fourth year running, with Harvard University climbing two places to rank second, followed by the University of Cambridge and Stanford University in joint third, said the firm, QS Quacquarelli Symonds of London. The Universidad de Costa Rica was 601 worldwide and tops in this country with a Latin American ranking of 21st place. Two other Costa Rican universities, the public Universidad |
Nacional in
Heredia and the Universidad Latinoamericana de Ciencia
y Tecnología shared a 701st ranking worldwide. The Universidad
Nacional
was 55th in Latin America, and ULACIT was 79th. Academic reputation is measured using a global survey in which academics are asked to identify the institutions where they believe the best work is currently taking place within their own field of expertise, said the firm, which added that it received nearly 76,800 responses over five years. This is the12th annual survey. In addition to academic reputation, the other indicators are employer reputation, student-to-faculty ratio, research based on citations of faculty members in academic papers, international faculty ratio and international student ratio. Since the firm is also is engaged in student study abroad, the number of international faculty members and students is important to its managers. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 183 | |||||
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| Arctic sea ice extent reported to be the fourth lowest on
record |
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By the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration
and Goddard Space Flight Center news staffs The 2015 Arctic sea ice minimum extent is the fourth lowest on record since observations from space began, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration satellite data. The analysis by NASA and the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder showed the annual minimum extent was 1.70 million square miles (4.41 million square kilometers) on Sept. 11. This year’s minimum is 699,000 square miles (1.81 million square kilometers) lower than the 1981-2010 average. Arctic sea ice cover, made of frozen seawater that floats on top of the ocean, helps regulate the planet’s temperature by reflecting solar energy back to space. The sea ice cap grows and shrinks cyclically with the seasons. Its minimum summertime extent, which occurs at the end of the melt season, has been decreasing since the late 1970s in response to warming temperatures. In some recent years, low sea-ice minimum extent has been at least in part exacerbated by meteorological factors, but that was not the case this year. “This year is the fourth lowest, and yet we haven’t seen any major weather event or persistent weather pattern in the Arctic this summer that helped push the extent lower as often happens,” said Walt Meier, a sea ice scientist with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “It was a bit warmer in some areas than last year, but it was cooler in other places, too.” In contrast, the lowest year on record, 2012, saw a powerful August cyclone that fractured the ice cover, accelerating its decline. The sea ice decline has accelerated since 1996. The 10 lowest minimum extents in the satellite record have occurred in the last 11 years. The 2014 minimum was 1.94 million square miles (5.03 million square kilometers), the seventh lowest on record. Although the 2015 minimum appears to have been reached, there is a chance that changing winds or late-season melt could reduce the Arctic extent even further in the next few days. “The ice cover becomes less and less resilient, and it doesn’t take as much to melt it as it used to,” Meier said. “The sea ice cap, which used to be a solid sheet of ice, now is fragmented into smaller floes that are more exposed to warm ocean waters. In the past, Arctic sea ice was like a fortress. The ocean could only attack it from the sides. Now it’s like the invaders have tunneled in from underneath and the ice pack melts from within.” |
Some analyses
have hinted the Arctic’s multiyear sea ice, the
oldest and thickest ice that survives the summer melt season, appeared
to have recuperated partially after the 2012 record low. But according
to Joey Comiso, a sea ice scientist at Goddard, the recovery flattened
last winter and will likely reverse after this melt season. “The thicker ice will likely continue to decline,” Comiso said. “There might be some recoveries during some years, especially when the winter is unusually cold, but it is expected to go down again because the surface temperature in the region continues to increase.” This year, the Arctic sea ice cover experienced relatively slow rates of melt in June, which is the month the Arctic receives the most solar energy. However, the rate of ice loss picked up during July, when the sun is still strong. Faster than normal ice loss rates continued through August, a transition month when ice loss typically begins to slow. A big hole appeared in August in the ice pack in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, north of Alaska, when thinner seasonal ice surrounded by thicker, older ice melted. The huge opening allowed for the ocean to absorb more solar energy, accelerating the melt. It’s unclear whether this year’s strong El Niño event, which is a naturally occurring phenomenon that typically occurs every two to seven years where the surface water of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean warms, has had any impact on the Arctic sea ice minimum extent. “Historically, the Arctic had a thicker, more rigid sea ice that covered more of the Arctic basin, so it was difficult to tell whether El Niño had any effect on it,” said Richard Cullather, a climate modeler at Goddard. “Although we haven’t been able to detect a strong El Niño impact on Arctic sea ice yet, now that the ice is thinner and more mobile, we should begin to see a larger response to atmospheric events from lower latitudes.” In comparison, research has found a strong link between El Niño and the behavior of the sea ice cover around Antarctica. El Niño causes higher sea level pressure, warmer air temperature and warmer sea surface temperature in west Antarctica that affects sea ice distribution. This could explain why this year the growth of the Antarctic sea ice cover, which currently is headed toward its yearly maximum extent and was at much higher than normal levels throughout much of the first half of 2015, dipped below normal levels in mid-August. Starting next week, NASA’s Operation IceBridge, an airborne survey of polar ice, will be carrying science flights over sea ice in the Arctic, to help validate satellite readings and provide insight into the impact of the summer melt season on land and sea ice. |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 183 | |||||||
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| Francis to speak in Spanish for most of his U.S. visit By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
When Pope Francis visits the United States next week on a three-city tour, he will deliver only four of his 18 planned speeches in English. The native of Argentina is most comfortable speaking in Spanish, a spokesman for the Vatican told The Associated Press, although the pontiff also speaks German and Italian fluently. The pope's remarks at the White House and Congress, the first ever by a pope, will be among those made in English. The 78-year-old Francis faces a packed schedule on his first trip to the U.S., arriving Tuesday for two days in Washington, following a visit to Cuba. He has never before been to the U.S. or Cuba. He then will attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York and the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia before returning to Rome Sept. 27. Francis spoke mostly English on recent trips to Asia. A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the 78-year-old Argentine pope is more comfortable, though, using Spanish to express himself. Lombardi also said security would be especially stringent on this trip, particularly in New York, since the pope's arrival takes place during the U.N. General Assembly gathering of world leaders, which attracts a large crowd of people by itself. Lombardi noted that Francis would have just several occasions to greet crowds from his open-sided popemobile. Raúl Castro also is expected to attend the United Nations gathering. Polls favor two newcomers ahead of the political pros By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Two political novices, billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump and former neurosurgeon Ben Carson, top the latest survey as the choice of U.S. Republicans for the party's 2016 presidential nomination. As the 16-candidate Republican field gets set for another round of debates tonight, the CBS/New York Times poll released Tuesday shows the flamboyant Trump with 27 percent support and the much more reserved Carson trailing with 23 percent. None of a large group of current and former governors and senators seeking the nomination reached double digit figures in the poll that was conducted in the last few days. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, the son and brother of two former U.S. presidents, was third at 6 percent, less than half of the 13 percent figure he recorded in an early August poll. Carson's support surged since then, jumping from 6 percent. Neither Trump nor Carson have held elected office before, but both are winning support from Republicans for their anti-Washington rhetoric and conservative positions on such social issues as abortion and gay rights. They also have aimed attacks at both Democratic President Barack Obama, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term, and leaders of the Republican-controlled Congress, who they view as too willing to compromise with more liberal Democrats on key issues. The first voting in the long journey to picking presidential nominees in the U.S. is not scheduled until Feb. 1, at caucuses in the rural state of Iowa, and voters often change their minds about their preferred candidates. The CBS/New York Times poll said that only 37 percent of the Republicans surveyed said their minds are made up, with 63 percent saying it was still too early to commit to a choice. In another recent poll, The Washington Post and ABC News found that 56 percent of U.S. registered voters do not consider Trump qualified to be president. Established Republican politicians have been stymied so far in their efforts to combat the popularity of Trump, who has built skyscrapers and casinos and hosted a television reality show. He has routinely taunted his opponents as losers, while vowing to evict more than 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. from the country and build an impenetrable wall on the U.S.-Mexican border to keep out more migrants. At a rally Monday, he called the U.S. a dumping ground for the rest of the world. The soft-spoken Carson, with staunch conservative views, has gained support as an alternative to Trump's bluntness on the campaign trail. Before retiring as a physician, Carson was the first surgeon to successfully separate conjoined twins joined at the head. Former secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues to lead national surveys in the Democratic presidential nomination contest, over a Democratic socialist, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. But Clinton's support has dipped sharply amid questions about the handling of classified U.S. documents on a private email server she used during her four-year tenure as the country's top diplomat. Vice President Joe Biden is also considering a late entry into the race for the Democratic nomination. European nationalists worry refugees are really invaders By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Mustafa, a Syrian Kurd from the border town of Kobani and father of seven, is planning to join thousands of other refugees from Syria making the perilous journey to Europe. Within days he will say goodbye to his family, hoping that if he makes it safely to Germany, he eventually will be able to arrange for them to join him legally. His eldest daughter, a 22-year-old, has been pleading with him to let her accompany him, not wanting him to endure the risks of flight alone. But already fearful of the dangers for himself of traveling to Europe from southern Turkey, he has refused her entreaties. “She wants to come,” he says. “I will be lonely in Germany without any of my family with me — but I worry about taking her on such a trip,” he adds. Mustafa is not unusual among the refugee fathers, husbands and sons placing their lives in the hands of people smugglers and making the short, but dangerous, sea crossing alone from Turkey to Greece, and then enduring a long and uncertain slog on land up through the Balkans or Hungary via Austria to Germany. He has been watching the television news showing Hungarian and Macedonian border guards beating refugees and has heard stories from relatives who have made it to Europe of running the gauntlet of brutal traffickers and getting robbed on the road. The images and stories have confirmed his view that the trip is not one his daughter should share. According to the U.N. refugee agency, the majority of those from the Mideast streaming into Europe are men, prompting some anti-immigrant and anti-Islam campaigners to argue that the continent is not facing a simple refugee crisis, but a migration designed to Islamize Europe. As far as they are concerned, the gender imbalance is highly incriminating. They ask where are the women? At far right rallies in Germany, that imbalance is highlighted by anti-immigrant speakers and protesters alike as clear evidence that the migration crisis in Europe is a jihadist plot that will end up changing the face of European culture. Far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders has labeled the crisis an Islamic invasion, warning that the security, culture and identity of Europe is under threat from the asylum seekers. Last week during a raucous debate in the Dutch parliament, he conjured up a picture of young men with beards singing Allahu Akbar across Europe. The charge has been echoed by one of the most controversial anti-Islam campaigners in the U.S., Pamela Geller. Writing on her blog, Ms. Geller maintained: “This al hijrah is a Muslim invasion.” But rights groups, immigrant advocates and war refugees themselves say this rhetoric is designed to inflame nativist fears of the continent being overrun, and exploits concerns about the long-term consequences for their countries. Rights groups say there are very good reasons that men are a higher proportion of those entering Europe illegally, and it has nothing to do with jihad. The journey’s dangers with the risk of drowning at sea while crossing on overcrowded boats persuades many male refugees to leave women behind. More than 2,600 migrants and refugees have drowned in the Mediterranean this year alone, trying to reach Greece or Italy, the International Organization for Migration says. “Many men who go by themselves who we've spoken to say that they want to go ahead, that they do not want to risk the dangerous journeys for their wives or families," says Gauri Van Gulik, Amnesty International's deputy Europe director. They plan to arrange family reunions once they have been settled. But she cautions against accepting the statistics at face value and adds that the gender imbalance may not be so pronounced. More than 500,000 migrants were detected at the EU's borders between January and September, compared to 280,000 detections for the whole of last year. That 500,000 figure is an estimate by international agencies. It does not include the many who enter Europe undetected. And there is a time lag on the data that is shared by European Union member states with the European border agency FRONTEX, whose data is also used by other international agencies. Ms. Van Gulik says, “This is a very diverse group of people. There are families, single men, kids on their own.” The conflicts raging in Syria and Afghanistan, and abuses in Eritrea, are major drivers of the migration. Many men are leaving to avoid being drafted into the Syrian army, if they live in areas controlled by the Assad regime. Young men have to decide before they reach military age either to leave or learn to kill or be ready to be killed. Others fear being pressured to join a rebel militia, if they live in insurgent-held provinces. The far right rhetoric and the migration crisis is fueling a dramatic jump in violent attacks on immigrants in some countries. In Germany, there has been a fourfold rise in attacks and fire-bombings on refugee centers, 306 this year so far alone. And 2014 saw a three-fold increase, according to German officials. They say it remains unclear whether the assailants are angry locals or members of Neo-Nazi and far right groups mounting highly organized attacks. Republicans and Democrats agree that help is due Syrians By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. senators of both major political parties say the United States must help address Syria’s humanitarian crisis and the massive outpouring of migrants from the war-ravaged country. “As a nation we bear some responsibility for what’s happening,” said Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican of Tennessee, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “The Europeans have been very good in stepping up, but we are going to have to also,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, a Democrat. “We are going to have to take in refugees here.” The Obama administration last week announced plans to admit 10,000 Syrian migrants to the United States. Tuesday, President Barack Obama said, “The United States feels it is important for us to also take our share of Syrian refugees as part of this overall humanitarian effort." To that end, Obama urged cooperation among European nations, the United States and the international community. “That’s a start,” Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said of the administration’s plan. “When you compare that with what Lebanon is doing, housing over a million, Turkey over 2 million, Jordan a million, I just think there is a lot more we can do.” He is a Democrat. Kaine added, “Let’s create a safe zone in Syria where people who want to be in their home country can return to live safely.” Corker sounded a note of exasperation at the mention of a Syrian safe zone. “We were advocating for this a year ago or longer. It was something that Turkey was advocating for. But our administration did not want to do something that was viewed as countering Assad directly,” Corker said, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. A fellow Republican senator, Susan Collins of Maine, also laid blame for the Syrian crisis at Obama’s feet. “The problem is that the president has completely lacked a strategy for solving the problem at its root,” said Sen. Collins. “I see this only getting worse. I don’t see how a country like Jordan can take more refugees, or Lebanon. They are overwhelmed already.“ Leahy pointed to a different culprit. “Enormous responsibility is the head of Syria, who probably is facing a special place in hell when he dies for what he has done to that country,” he said. Flash floods hit Utah town and at least 15 persons die By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A small town near the Utah-Arizona border was in shock and mourning Tuesday after a flash flood killed at least 15 people. Officials in Hildale, Utah, said 12 of the victims drowned when the unexpectedly powerful water washed away two cars. At least one person was still missing. Three others died and four went missing when a group of explorers got caught in the same flood in a canyon in Zion National Park, about 32 kilometers north of Hildale. Rescuers, assisted by the National Guard and hundreds of volunteers, were searching for the missing and working to push the thick mud and tons of debris out of the small city. Extremely heavy rains caused rivers and streams to overflow, prompting the sudden flood. Hildale residents said they had seen flash floods pour through the canyons and town before, but not with such strength. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said Tuesday that he was heartbroken and pledged the state's full resources to help with the cleanup. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 183 | |||||||||
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Vitamin D
might slow dementia onset
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Over the next 50 years, it's expected that Alzheimer’s disease and dementia will strengthen their grip on older adults worldwide. Researchers are studying vitamin D to see if it can slow the onset of dementia. Vitamin D comes from the sun and from some foods like nuts, lentils and fatty fish. Researchers have found that low levels of vitamin D could be related to dementia and Alzheimer's disease, one of the most common forms of dementia. Alzheimer's can be exhausting for caregivers and frightening to those who have it. "The worse thing that I found was I was getting lost in the car, not just forgetting where I was going. I wouldn't know where I was," said dementia sufferer, Chris Roberts. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 47 million people suffer from dementia, with about 60 percent of them in low- and middle-income countries, countries with the least ability to cope. U.S. researchers studied older adults and measured both their vitamin D levels and their cognitive ability: that is, the ability to remember things and to process thoughts. “Some of the subjects had outright dementia, some had mild cognitive impairment and some had what we would call normal cognitive functioning,” said Joshua Miller of Rutgers University. The researchers found that about 60 percent of the group was low in vitamin D. “Those who had dementia also had lower vitamin D status than those who had mild cognitive impairment or who had normal cognitive functioning,” Miller said. Those low in vitamin D showed more short-term memory loss, as well as less ability to organize thoughts, prioritize tasks and make decisions. “They were declining about two-and-a-half times faster than those who had adequate vitamin D,” Miller said. While this study shows that vitamin D seems to play a role in slowing the onset of dementia, more studies are needed to see if vitamin D supplements can help slow this decline. The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Ban on incinerator proposed for country By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Opponents of trash incineration say they are working on a proposal to submit to the legislature that would prohibit that type of garbage treatment in Costa Rica. The issue is developing in the canton of León Cortes where the Grupo Ecologista León Cortés opposes the municipality's decision to install an incinerator. Current law and a recent decree by President Luis Guilermo Solís allow the construction of incinerators. The activist groups claim that the incinerators are bad for the environment. They also are calling on government agencies to reject the plans for incineration. The organizations generally favor recycling and one said that an incinerator in León Cortes would destroy current recycling efforts there. |
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| From Page 7: GE blames Congress for outsourcing 500 jobs By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
General Electric, a major U.S. industrial conglomerate, said Tuesday that it would be moving 500 jobs to China, France and Hungary because the U.S. Congress blocked a government program allowing foreign companies to borrow money to buy American products. Authorization for the lending programs at the U.S. Export-Import Bank ended July 1, when attempts to renew funding for the agency failed. Some conservative Republicans in Congress object to the bank, saying it benefits large corporations like General Electric that can find funding for their products in private markets and do not need government help. GE, as the company is known in the U.S., said that 100 jobs at a gas turbine manufacturing plant in Houston, Texas, would be moved to Hungary and China next year. General Electric said both those countries have lending options available for customers wanting to buy its turbines. In addition, GE said, 400 jobs will be moved to France, where the French export credit agency Coface supports global power projects. General Electric's customers secured almost $1 billion in credit from the Export-Import Bank last year. The company said it had tried to avoid the job shifts out of the U.S., but that "Congress left us no choice when it failed to reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank this summer." |
