Source: Wikimedia Commons Arsenal.com News Release - Joel Campbell says his fine recent performances are a result of an upturn in confidence. The Costa Rica forward has impressed since establishing himself in the Arsenal team towards the end of 2015, scoring his first three goals for the club and producing a series of hardworking displays. That run of form has led to praise from Arsène W...

Source: Banco Central New York, February 08, 2016 -- Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) has today changed the outlook on the Government of Costa Rica's Ba1 issuer rating to negative from stable. At the same time, Moody's has affirmed Costa Rica's Ba1 senior unsecured and issuer ratings. The decision to change the outlook reflects Moody's expectation that the lack of political consensus to ...

Source: YouTube One of the most talked-about commercials aired during Super Bowl 50 was the blistering trailer for the upcoming Jason Bourne, the fifth sequel in the successful film franchise. Actor Matt Damon returns to the starring role, which he last portrayed in 2007 with the Bourne Ultimatum.   Acclaimed British filmmaker Paul Greengrass is also back in the director’s chair, wh...

Source; FEDEFUTBOL Press Release by the International Sports Press Association - MIAMI, February 3, 2016 - The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) today announced that Costa Rica will host the CONCACAF Futsal Championship 2016, to be played May 8-15 in San Jose. In confirming the site of the Championship, CONCACAF also announced the official dr...

Indeed.com AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE) -- Indeed announced today it started 2016 with record unique visitors, with more than 200 million over the past 31 days. Indeed also announced it added eight additional markets where job seekers will have access to the most jobs on the web. The announcement builds upon a strong 2015, which solidified Indeed’s position as the number one job site in the ...

Source: CINDE CINDE Press Release - The Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE) will be participating at this year's MD&M West event in Anaheim, California. Learn more and identify key investment opportunities in Costa Rica to gain competitive advantages for your business. When: Feb. 9 - 11 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. Where: Booth 1647- Hall D....

Source: Johnny Araya Monge Facebook Who needs a strong political platform when you have a shining personality to support the agenda you feel is best for your constituency? According to early counts from cantonal polling centers, the powerhouse National Liberation Party (Spanish initials: PLN) dominated municipal elections in Costa Rica; however, former Mayor of San Jose Johnny Araya proved ...

Source: Pixabay Commons Concerns about the fast spread of the Zika virus in the Americas are keeping public health officials on their toes, and discussion about the often uncomfortable topic of sexual tourism is emerging as a sort of side effect. As recently reported by The Costa Rica Star, the first endemic case of the Zika virus in our country appears to have been contracted by a tourist ...

Areli Arevalo Facebook On Saturday afternoon, geologists at the Observatory on Volcanology and Seismology at the National University of Costa Rica (Spanish acronym: OVSICORI) reported a new eruption at the Turrialba Volcano, the most active colossus in our country. The volcanic event took place about ten minutes before 2:00 pm during a warm, yet extremely windy, afternoon. The seismographic...

San Francisco, Feb 7 (EFE; local reporting by The Costa Rica Star).- Security is tight at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, where the Carolina Panthers will take on the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 50 on Sunday evening. Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies will be out in force at the facility in the San Francisco Bay Area in the wake of the terrorist attacks late last year...

OAS and TSE reps sign accord before elections OAS Media Release - The Electoral Observation Mission of the Organization of American States (OAS/EOM) headed by the former Uruguayan Deputy Minister Edgardo Ortuño, began its activities earlier this week in preparation for municipal elections to be held on Sunday, February 7th in Costa Rica. Today, the Chief of Mission and the President of the Su...

Wikimedia Commons Many dental tourists who choose to get treatments in Costa Rica are often interested in implantation procedures. Dental implants are prosthetic devices used to replace missing teeth; essentially, a dental implant is an artificial tooth that is permanently affixed to maxillary tissue by means of a root.   Dental implants are very popular among dental tourists, but t...

Upper left: Ringed kingfisher. Bottom left: Strawberry poison-dart frog. Center left: A bunch of bananas and a black-cheeked woodpecker. (Aforementioned photos by Kenshiro Imamura.) Center-right top: Agouti. Center-right bottom: Baird's tapir. Right: Brown-throated tree-toed sloth. Source: JICA Japan International Cooperation Agency News Release - In the biodiversity hot spot of Costa Rica...

Source: Global Journeys CALABASAS, CA (PRWEB) FEBRUARY 05, 2016 - The PACT Institute's co-founders, Drs. Stan Tatkin, PsyD, MFT, and Tracey Boldemann-Tatkin, PhD, have announced four WIRED FOR LOVE and WIRED FOR RELATIONSHIP retreats, to be held in 2016. Like Dr. Stan Tatkin’s books Wired for Love and Wired for Dating, these retreats show participants how to create and maintain relationships tha...

Screenshot of MissTravel.com A young woman from the United States spent most of 2015 traveling to several exotic destinations around the world, and she did not spend any of her own money doing so. Monica Lynn is a 25-year old financial professional from Alabama whose story about going on lavish dates abroad has sparked considerable social media discourse since her story was published by Britis...

Dr. Mario Bonilla of New Smile Dental Group Oral restoration is the most popular procedure attracting dental tourists to Costa Rica, particularly when it comes from a desire to replace missing teeth. Although many dental tourists are driven by aesthetic motivations, this is not their sole impulse; according to the dental professionals at the New Smile Dental Group of Costa Rica, not all of the...

The Bark Suite at El Mangroove Miami, Florida - February 3, 2016 - Autograph Collection Hotels, Marriott International’s growing collection of strikingly independent hotels, is celebrating further expansion across the Caribbean and Latin America, and the brand’s second hotel in Costa Rica, with the addition of El Mangroove. Exactly like nothing else, El Mangroove, located off the Gulf of Pa...

The growth of medical and dental tourism in modern society is worthy of socioeconomic research, which is precisely what investigative journalist Sasha Issenberg has accomplished in a new book. When it comes to dental tourism, Costa Rica is the darling of the Americas. In Europe, Costa Rica's counterpart nation is the Republic of Hungary, where dental tourists from across Western Europe flock to...

Source: Mireya Zamora Facebook Former legislator and current mayoral candidate Mireya Zamora Alvarado is very upset over a hacked Facebook account and a leaked sex video that purportedly features her in an intimate act with her romantic partner. The commotion started earlier this week after a social media update on the candidate's Facebook Timeline showed a pornographic clip, which showed a...

Cristina Vargas claims Dr. Vargas Scott severely deformed her buttocks after injecting her with a toxic substance known as PMMA. (ICR / CRS Archive) Several years after charges were initially filed, a Costa Rican doctor is set to face trial in the case of a botched cosmetic procedure that left a former Costa Rican model’s buttocks severely deformed. The Criminal Court of Pavas decided on Ja...

Microcephaly, a birth defect which causes babies to be born with unusually small heads and brains, is linked to the Zika virus. (Photo by Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters) (VOA) A county in the southwestern state of Texas reported what appears to be the first case of the Zika virus being transmitted in the United States by sexual contact. Officials in Dallas County said Tuesday the patient was infe...

(Archive / Stock) Some 500,000 people living in the San Jose metro area can expect to begin experiencing water rationing of up to 12 hours per day beginning this month, the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (AyA) said Tuesday during a press conference. The San Jose suburbs of Escazu, Santa Ana, Salitral and Desamparados are expected to be the most affected. Some 150,000 people i...

Wikimedia Commons Although it may seem as if Costa Rica has always been the leading nation for dental tourism in the Americas, many of us tend to forget that Venezuela once held the title as one of the best Latin American nations for medical and dental tourism, at least until the late 1980s.   There are good reasons to believe that Venezuela could still be the medical and dental tou...

Source: Crave CANCUN, MEXICO (PRWEB) FEBRUARY 02, 2016 - The in-room tablets from Crave Interactive – the European market leader supplying tablet- and app-based solutions to the hospitality industry – have been installed in AMResorts’ new Secrets Papagayo in Costa Rica, Breathless Cabo San Lucas Resort & Spa in Mexico and Secrets Playa Bonita in Panama. Further installations are scheduled in...

Source: FEDEFUTBOL Not even the lone goal of the match between the National Men’s Football Teams of Costa Rica and Venezuela could salvage the night at La Carolina stadium of Barinas, the home state of the late Hugo Chavez, former leader of the Bolivarian Revolution.   The friendly international match was not sanctioned by FIFA, and that was probably a good thing. Both National Team...

Jason-3 is the latest in over twenty years of ocean-monitoring satellites. Image credit: NASA LOS ANGELES (VOA) Scientists from the U.S. and Europe have a new eye in the sky monitoring the world's oceans. The Jason-3 satellite, launched on January 17, is the latest satellite to monitor rising sea levels. Scientists say data collected by satellites over the last two decades shows sea levels ris...

Wikimedia Commons BOGOTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance has announced its first confirmed speakers for its annual Global Summit, which will be held in Bogota, Colombia (April 26-28 2016). A recent report published by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), titled “Working Together to Connect the World by 2020” notes that only 3.2 billion people are online, while 4.2 ...

(Stock / Archive) COSTA RICA STAR NEWS BRIEF A tourist from the United States drowned Monday afternoon in Playa Villa Leonor, in Osa, Puntarenas on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, the Costa Rican Red Cross confirmed. Authorities identified the victim as 67-year-old Daniel Joseph Miller. According to witnesses, Miller struck his head on a rock after being hit by a powerful wave. Family ...

Wikimedia Commons The USAID/OFDA Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) Regional Office in Costa Rica is seeking one individual for a Secretary position. Please see the posting for this job at the website of the United States Embassy in Costa Rica. VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER: 2016-001 OPEN TO: All Interested Candidates POSITION: Secretary, FSN-6; FP-08* OPENING DATE: January 22, 201...

Baltimore, MD (PRWEB) February 01, 2016 / Many factors come into play when considering a retirement abroad. Cost of living, prices of rents and real estate, and healthcare options are main concerns. But quality of life for retirees moving abroad also depends in large part on being able to fit in quickly, learn the ropes, and mix well with the locals in their adapted communities. Language, culture,...

Alfredo Guzman Twitter LIMA, Peru — Mexican authorities will be looking into how the daughter of captured druglord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was able to trademark his nickname. Local media reported this week that one of the Sinaloa cartel leader’s daughters, Alejandra Gisselle Guzman, had successfully registered the term “El Chapo” with the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property. It… (m...

Flickr Commons COSTA RICA STAR NEWS BRIEF A criminal court in Osa, Puntarenas sentenced on Friday a 29-year-old Costa Rican man to 66 years in prison for the multiple rape of a French tourist in Dominical de Osa, Puntarenas in November 2014.   The court sentenced Javier Secundino Cortés Espinoza to a total of 66 years – 11 years each on six counts of rape.   However, u...

Wikimedia Commons In recent years, the idea of Costa Rica being a very expensive country has been widely reported in news headlines. Many North American expats who moved to Costa Rica believe that this is possibly the most expensive country in the world; nonetheless, this is not an assertion held by MoveHub, an online information exchange website for professionals and families who relocate int...

Wikimedia Commons An attempt to plant transgenic cotton for research purposes in Costa Rica is being challenged in court. According to a news report recently filed by Carlos Arrieta Perez of online news daily El Pais, a legislator from Frente Amplio (Broad Front) and a few non-profit groups dedicated to environmental protection claim that the transgenic cotton seeds contain traces of Agent Ora...

TORONTO, ON and NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - February 01, 2016) - Scotiabank announced today that it has acquired Citigroup's consumer and commercial banking operations in Costa Rica and Panama. The signing of these acquisitions was announced in July 2015 and the transactions are valued at approximately USD$360 million. "These acquisitions align with our strategy to deepen relationships and inc...

Miravalles geothermal power plant WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With demand for clean electricity on the rise, international attention has turned to geothermal energy with a highlight being the declaration of 38 countries forming the Global Geothermal Alliance at the Paris Climate Conference. Building on this momentum, the Geothermal Energy Association's (GEA) U.S. and International Geothermal ...

LONG BEACH, Calif., Feb. 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Epson, a global leader in printing technology, today announced it will host its second annual Epson Digital Couture event on Feb. 9 in advance of Fashion Week in New York City. Showcasing 11 designers' collections from North and Latin America created using Epson's state-of-the-art textile printing solutions, this runway experience is built around th...

The Ministry of Public Health has confirmed two cases of the Zika virus in Costa Rica, and those two infections were enough for one traveler in from Minnesota to cancel an upcoming vacation in our country. According to a news report filed by Rochelle Olson of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, travel agents in that North American metropolis are warning their clients about the dangerous virus, which is ...

Atlanta, Georgia (PRWEB) January 29, 2016 / MobileRecharge.com, the global expat service provider, has recently introduced one more network to facilitate top ups to mobiles in Costa Rica. Friends and relatives who use Movistar Costa Rica phones are now ready to receive mobile credit from anywhere in the world. The online ordering form is simple and requires no contract, except to register on the w...

Source: Pixabay Commons NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fitch Ratings has affirmed Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad y Subsidiarias' (Grupo ICE) foreign- and local-currency Issuer Default Ratings (FC/LC IDRs) at 'BB+' and its National Scale ratings at 'AAA(cri)'. The Rating Outlook remains Negative. A complete list of rating actions follows at the end of this release. Grupo ICE's ratings a...