NEW YORK, Jan. 29, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Univision Mobile and Ultra Mobile, a nationwide mobile carrier offering competitive international telecom services, announced today that they have partnered to bring unlimited international calling and global text to the Univision Mobile base of customers. The wireless service will leverage Ultra's expertise in international telecom and UCI's unparalleled tr...

Founder and Senior Partner Marcela Gurdian Earlier this year, the pretty Caribbean nation of St. Lucia in the Windward Isles officially started accepting applications for its “citizenship by investment” program. Located to the south of Martinique and more than 2,500 kilometers from Costa Rica, St. Lucia is part of the Commonwealth of Nations, and is now the latest country to offer economic cit...

Flickr Commons U.S. Dept of Justice Press Release - Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Leslie R. Caldwell, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, announced today that ARTHUR BUDOVSKY pled guilty to running a massive money laundering enterprise in connection with his operation of Liberty Reserve, a virtual cur...

Rain forest in Costa Rica OSU Press Release. CORVALLIS, Ore. – As tropical forests become increasingly broken up by roads, farm fields, pastures and other developments, corridors of trees provide vital pathways for pollinators and contribute to a rich diversity of plant species, scientists have confirmed. A study at the Las Cruces Biological Station in Costa Rica shows that when forests are...

PuntaBocana.com (PRWEB) January 28, 2016 - Architect Abraham Valenzuela of Costa Rica talks about his latest project: To properly describe the grandeur of the landscape and the extraordinary potential of the Bocana site, we needed to find a name that would describe both its beauty and nobility. We felt that we needed to honor the first indigenous civilizations that inhabited the area and di...

Source: iCafe BioNovelus, a clean tech company that aims to offer a portfolio of green solutions for various applications, recently received positive results from lab and field trials showing BioNovelus’ technology as an effective, eco-friendly biopesticide against Hemileia vastatrix, the fungus named “coffee rust,” or “roya” in Central and South America. The company hopes to put this eco-f...

Lindblad's National Geographic Islander Seattle, Wash. (PRWEB) January 26, 2016 - Jensen Maritime, Crowley Maritime Corp.’s Seattle-based naval architecture and marine engineering company, was recently selected to provide detailed design and production engineering services for two, 100 passenger, U.S. flagged, coastal cruise ships for Lindblad Expeditions Holdings, Inc. The twin screw diese...

Source: Trombones de Costa Rica INSTITUTE, W.Va. – West Virginia State University (WVSU) will present the chamber music ensemble Trombones de Costa Rica, on Thursday, Feb. 4, at 7 p.m. in the F. S. Belcher Theater of the Davis Fine Arts Building located on the school’s Institute campus. The event is free and open to the public. Internationally acclaimed Trombones de Costa Rica will share...

H1N1 vaccine will be available in Costa Rica in March 2016. Source: Wikimedia Commons A 56-year old man from the Kingdom of the Netherlands has been listed as the 31st death caused by the H1N1 virus in Costa Rica since December. According to a news report filed by Angela Avalos of daily newspaper La Nacion, the announcement of the death was made by Minister of Public Health Fernando Llorca on ...

Wikimedia Commons Rio de Janeiro, Jan 27 (EFE).- The average annual percentage rate on Brazilian credit cards climbed to 431.4 percent in December, its highest level since that statistic began to be published in March 2011, the Central Bank said in a statement Wednesday. The average credit card APR rose by 16.1 percentage points in December compared with November and by 99.8 percentage poin...

Source: Diamond Resorts LAS VEGAS, NV--(Marketwired - January 25, 2016) - More travelers are expected to visit South America this year as the cost of long-distance travel is predicted to remain low with decreased fuel prices and the expansion of low-cost carriers. Popular tropical destinations such as Mexico, Costa Rica, and the Caribbean are likely to see a steady rise in vacationers over ...

Source: Marcopolo Flickr Marcopolo S.A. Press Release - Marcopolo has just signed a new contract for the export of buses to some of the main transport operators in Costa Rica. The vehicles with different characteristics, will be used for urban, tourism and interstate transportation. "For a long time we have dedicated ourselves to broaden our bus sales, mainly to other Latin American countri...

Pixabay Commons LA Galaxy Press Release - FOX Sports announced today that it has secured multi-platform media rights to the historic 2016 Copa America Centenario, a soccer tournament coming in June that features the national teams from Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and the United States. The Copa America Centenario, a once-in-a-lifetime soccer event, which honors 100 years of the Copa America t...

Mexican Soldiers at Checkpoint in 2009. Source: Wikimedia Chilpancingo, Mexico, Jan 27 (EFE).- Nine young people were kidnapped in different parts of the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, where a wave of violent crime has persisted despite the deployment of army soldiers and Federal Police, police sources said. Six people were abducted Tuesday by an armed group that burst into a motorcycl...

Source: News.co.,cr archives Berkeley, CA (PRWEB) January 26, 2016 - Does the couple who travel together, stay together? Backroads, the leading active travel company, sure thinks so. And a recent survey by the U.S. Travel Association backs up that theory: the study revealed that couples who travel together have better sex lives and more romance in their relationships than couples who stay home...

"Map of the Corn Islands (Nicaragua)" by Maximilian Dörrbecker (Chumwa) - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Commons The mortal remains of Sandra Mayela Chacón, born in Costa Rica but a longtime resident of the United States, laid in repose at Base Two of the Air Surveillance Service in the province of Alajuela, located next to the Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO). The lat...

C-130. Wikimedia Commons San Juan, Jan 25 (EFE; additional context by The Costa Rica Star).- Three French citizens who were sailing on a catamaran from the Dominican Republic to the island of St. Martin were rescued by Puerto Rican authorities when their boat began to founder. In a press release, the U.S. Coast Guard stationed in San Juan said that the trio sent out a distress call at 2 a.m...

Wikimedia Commons Las Vegas, Jan 25 (EFE; additional context by The Costa Rica Star).- The Carolina Panthers will take on the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 50 in Santa Clara, California, on Feb. 7. The Broncos won the American Football Conference championship by edging the New England Patriots 20-18 on Sunday, while the Panthers crushed the Arizona Cardinals 49-15 to claim the National Footb...

"Map of the Corn Islands (Nicaragua)" by Maximilian Dörrbecker (Chumwa) - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Commons The Nicaraguan Naval Force did not issue a warning to Corn Islands mariners on the day that the tour boat Reina del Caribe capsized off the Caribbean coast, resulting in the drowning deaths of 13 tourists from Costa Rica. Such was the statement made by Fermin Blandon, son...

Wikimedia Commons Sun Country Airlines Press Release - Trade white snow for white sand! Save on fights and vacation packages to Mexico, Costa Rica and the Caribbean. The white-sand beaches of Mexico, Costa Rica, and the Caribbean are within reach with these great deals on flight and vacation packages to some of our favorite warm weather destinations. To take advantage of all these great ...

NEW YORK /PRNewswire/ On January 20th, Michael R. Bloomberg  launched Bloomberg Philanthropies' 2016 Mayors Challenge, a competition to inspire Latin American and Caribbean cities to develop bold new ideas that solve major problems and improve city life – and that ultimately can be shared with other cities. The competition includes a $5 million USD grand prize and four $1 million awards to four ot...

Evonik headquarters SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, Jan. 19th, 2015 -  Evonik Industries, a leading global specialty chemical company based in Essen, Germany, announced today that it plans to open a financial shared services center in Costa Rica to serve the company’s operations in North and South America. Evonik will begin office construction and hiring during the first quarter of 2016 and expec...

FIle photo BALTIMORE, MD (PRWEB) JANUARY 20, 2016 - As healthcare costs and complexity in the U.S. continue to spiral upward, more and more retirees are asking, “Can I get high-quality healthcare for less if I move overseas?” The simple answer is yes. The Healthcare category of the 2016 International Living Global Retirement Index ranks the healthcare systems of the 23 most popular retirement l...

Source: Rythmia The Rythmia Life Advancement Center, a luxury resort in Costa Rica that made headlines in the past due to a controversial therapy that involved the use of a psychedelic substance, has reformed its operations and is now offering holistic vacations. As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, Rythmia was mostly known for its use of Ibogaine, a substance extracted from a few...

Source: ICE CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fitch Ratings has affirmed Reventazon Finance Trust's (RFT) US$135 million fixed-rate notes as follows: --US$135 million fixed-rate notes at 'BBB-'; Outlook Negative. The transaction is backed by a 100% participation interest in the Inter-American Development Bank's (IDB) B-Loan acquired through a participation agreement. Since IDB continues to be le...

Church in Grecia. Wikimedia Commons Smart Parking Press Release - World-leading provider of car parking technology and parking management services Smart Parking is partnering with Madrid based Viarium Technologies to deploy its SmartPark space finding solution in Costa Rica. Costa Rica is rapidly developing and increasingly recognized for its commitment to sustainability by ranking third in...

Source: Joel Campbell's Facebook Timeline Miami (Friday, January 22, 2016) – The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) announced today that Javier Hernandez and Carli Lloyd are the 2015 CONCACAF Male and Female Players of the Year, respectively, as winners in eleven different categories for the annual CONCACAF Awards were revealed. In an equal...

Happy children in Costa Rica Over the last few years, a lot of attention has been given to the importance of happiness as an intrinsic aspect of life. Many economists and sociologists agree on the concept of Gross National Happiness as a commitment to building a sovereign economy based on the affable well-being of the populace.   It so happens that Costa Rica has been recognized as ...

Orange County District Attorney Press Release - WESTMINSTER, Calif. – A “hard money” lender was convicted today of embezzling over $3 million from investors in a Ponzi real estate-mortgage investment fraud scheme. Thomas Franklin Tarbutton, 56, Newport Beach, was found guilty by a jury of 18 felony counts of grand theft, nine felony counts of forgery, 11 felony counts of using an untrue stateme...

During a meeting that took place on Thursday morning, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the establishment of a High Level Panel for Women’s Economic Empowerment, which will be co-chaired by President Luis Guillermo Solis of Costa Rica and by Ms. Simona Scarpaleggia, CEO of IKEA Switzerland under the UN Women entity.   Economic empowerment is a something that the UN ...

Source: Nayara NEEDHAM, Mass., Jan. 20, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TripAdvisor®,  the world's largest travel site*, today announced the winners of its Travelers' Choice™ awards for Hotels. Travelers' Choice award winners were determined based on the millions of reviews and opinions collected in a single year from TripAdvisor travelers worldwide. Now in its 14th year, the Travelers' Choice awards...

File photo EIU Press Release According to The Economist Intelligence Unit's latest Democracy Index one of the biggest threats to democracy is the anxious mood of our times The fearful era in which we live is not conducive to defending democratic standards or extending democracy's reach across the globe. The latest edition of The Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index reflects the sit...

Santo Domingo, Jan 20 (EFE).- Dominican Health Minister Altagracia Guzman Marcelino on Wednesday asked women to postpone getting pregnant this year due to the threat posed by the Zika virus, which has been linked to birth defects. Zika is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the same insect that carries dengue fever, Chikungunya and yellow fever. During a meeting of the National Commis...

Source; Banco Central de Costa Rica NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fitch Ratings has affirmed Costa Rica's Long-term foreign- and local-currency IDRs at 'BB+'. The Rating Outlook is Negative. The issue ratings on Costa Rica's senior unsecured foreign- and local-currency bonds have been affirmed at 'BB+'. The Short-term foreign-currency IDR has been affirmed at 'B' and the Country Ceiling at 'BBB-'...

Wikimedia Commons Women who contemplate breast augmentation typically face a dilemma in terms of needs vs. wants. For the most part, breast augmentation procedures are performed for aesthetic reasons related to a youthful and perky look that may have been lost due to breastfeeding and the physiological changes that come with aging. As one of the most popular destinations for medical tourism...

File photo DAVOS-KLOSTERS, Switzerland, Jan. 20, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Germany is viewed as the best country in the world, according to the inaugural Best Countries report, a joint rankings and analysis project of U.S. News & World Report, WPP's BAV Consulting and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Created to capture how nations are perceived on a global scale,...

The number of foreign visitors from China increased significantly in 2015, but the Tourism Board of Costa Rica (Spanish initials: ICT) would like to see even greater growth. According to a news report filed by Diego Perez Damasco of national newspaper La Prensa Libre, the year-over-year increase of Chinese tourists in Costa Rica was nearly 30 percent last year. Still, the overall number of tour...

Source: Blue Osa PUERTO JIMÉNEZ, OSA PENINSULA, Costa Rica (PRWEB) January 20, 2016 - Clean eating has grown significantly in popularity over the last year or so, encouraging people to ditch chemically enhanced and processed foods from their diet. Self-taught chef, Marie makes eating clean simple with her new cooking guide, “Eating Clean in Costa Rica.” Readers will be able to enjoy her int...

Pixabay Commons The Second Meeting of Signatories (MOS2) to the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Sharks will be held in the capital city of Costa Rica in mid-February. As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, our country became signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) with regard to shark conse...

Tourists who come to Costa Rica seeking affordable dental procedures are getting younger and more attuned to the idea of going abroad for treatment, and this is a trend that can be expected to expand this decade. As the North American members of the Millennial Generation join the workforce and the enterprise world, the dental industry is rushing to understand these young adults for the purpose ...