Press Release by Linda Negron of the TMF Group - The Costa Rican Department of Social Security (CCSS) has proposed an increase in total contribution to the Disability, Old Age and Death Fund (IVM) from 8.5% to 14%. They have also announced that early retirement will be phased out, while some changes are already in effect beginning this month. Many have cautioned that the Costa Rican pension sys...

Freedom House Press Release. Washington, November 20, 2015 - In response a growing number of Cuban migrants passing from through Ecuador and Central America, which has strained diplomatic relations between Costa Rica and Nicaragua and led to Nicaraguan authorities using force against more than 1,500 Cuban migrants, Freedom House issued the followed statement: “Nicaragua’s government should stop i...

John Lock Instagram Diehard fans of the hit television series Glee, which aired on the Fox network from 2009 to 2015, have recently taken to social media to investigate a possible cast member reunion happening in Costa Rica. Ostensibly, the reason for this impromptu reunion would be the marriage ceremony of one of Glee's stars in Tamarindo Beach, a destination that is known to attract celebrit...

Wikimedia Commons Sitting down to get x-rays taken is one of the dental procedures that most patients are familiar with. The use of radiography in dentistry dates back to the 20th century, and it helps dental health professionals determine the type of treatment a patient needs; in many cases, these x-ray images can also be used for forensic purposes in case a missing person needs to be identif...

Source: FEDEFUTBOL Seattle Sounders FC Press Release - SEATTLE, WASH. – The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) and the Copa America Centenario Local Organizing Committee (LOC) announced today the 10 U.S. metropolitan areas that have been selected to host matches during the historic Copa Ame...

Jones Snowboards working in the Costa Rica rainforest Transworld Business News Release - Truckee, CA (Nov 19, 2015) – Jones Snowboards is proud to announce a partnership with the non-profit rainforest reforestation project Association Community Carbon Trees (ACCT). ACCT has spent the last twelve years fighting against climate change by reforesting clear cut swaths of Costa Rican rainforest wit...

The cottages at Rancho Las Tilapias IBOSocial.com Press Release - Costa Rica, November 20, 2015 - A small resort community in Costa Rica is scheduled for grand opening on November 27, 2015. It is an institution that promises to mix nature and people unlike any other. Rancho Las Tilapias is offering a unique experience to its visitors. One can take pride in the quality of food offered by its...

Source: Gerardo Cruz Facebook Gerardo Cruz, a young man who became a folk hero in Costa Rica through his actions in public and on social media, passed away from a cardiac arrest at 6:18 pm on Thursday, November 19th. As reported by The Costa Rica Star in October, Mr. Cruz was a 22-year old man who confronted another man for filming an “upskirt” video in the capital city of Costa Rica. Two d...

US CBP Press Release - Additional Reporting by The Costa Rica Star / LOS ANGELES—U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agriculture specialists assigned to the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) seized 450 prohibited pork meat tamales discovered inside the luggage of a passenger arriving from Mexico, on November 2. The passenger, who was referred to agriculture examination, marked “YES” ...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Sunwing Canada Press Release - Sunwing Airlines is increasing the complimentary checked baggage allowance per passenger from 20 kg (44 lbs) to 23 kg (50 lbs) for travel as of November 01, 2015. Applicable on all services to Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America, along with Florida cruise packages, the enhanced 23 kg baggage allowance applies to the first piece of ...

Texas A&M University Media Release - Earlier this year, Texas A&M graduate student Christine Figgener traveled to Costa Rica to study ridley sea turtles for her doctoral dissertation. While examining one male turtle, she and her companions found a long plastic straw lodged in the turtle’s nostril. Her video of the team extracting the straw has received more than 5.5 million views on YouTub...

Indra Media Release - Indra has signed a contract with the Central American Corporation for Air Navigation Services (COCESNA) to renew the air traffic management systems in the San José Air Control Center and the main international airports in Costa Rica for 12 million dollars. The company will upgrade the systems in the center for the coordination of air traffic in Costa Rica and the towers th...

Source: FEDEFUTBOL The National Men's Football Team of Costa Rica scored a valuable victory last night at the Rommel Fernandez Stadium in Panama. Two goals by team captain Bryan Ruiz and striker Marco Ureña gave joy to the numerous fans of Costa Rica who traveled to Panama for the match, the final World Cup qualifier for La Sele this year. It was a challenging match for La Sele against Pana...

Shalom. Recently, the Hebrew faithful in Costa Rica invited influential clerics from other religions for an ecumenical remembrance of a terrible act of religious intolerance that shall never be repeated. With the recent atrocities perpetrated by ISIS against the good people of France as background, the Judaic and Christian communities of Costa Rica commemorated Kristallnacht (night of the broken g...

Source: Chica Surf Adventures LOS ANGELES, Nov. 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Now through June 2016, women looking for an empowering, once-in-a-lifetime travel experience are encouraged to join Chica Surf Adventures for a week in beautiful Costa Rica. The all-inclusive retreat in the community of Santa Teresa includes not only professional surfing lessons, but also an entire tropical vacation exper...

Shelley Lubben, right, at an adult industry expo in 2009 More than 20 people who lined up to hear a lecture by a former pornographic actress near San Jose were disappointed to learn that the long-awaited event was canceled at the last minute. According to a news report filed by entertainment reporter Ariel Chaves Gonzalez of daily tabloid Diario Extra, those who were stood up by the former adu...

University of Oxford Press Release - Both Costa Rica and El Salvador launched a national Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) on the same day, October 29th. Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) co-founder John Hammock and Outreach Technical Director Adriana Conconi participated in these launches, John Hammock in Costa Rica’s capital, San Jose, and Adriana Conconi in San Salv...

Star triathlete Beth Gerdes and child enjoy a tender family moment Endurance Sportswire - PLAYA OCOTAL, Guanacaste, Costa Rica—RaceQuest, a travel and event management company focused exclusively on the unique training and travel needs of athletes and their families, announced the addition of champion professional triathletes, Luke McKenzie and Beth Gerdes to the star-studded lineup of the tra...

Source: Amazon.com SAN DIEGO (PRWEB) November 16, 2015 - Cleft lip and palate are birth defects that occur when a baby’s lip or mouth do not form properly during pregnancy. Author Maribel Moses is the Vice-President of the Smiles International Foundation, which helps children who suffer from this defect. Moses is an artist born and raised in Costa Rica. She has written her new children’s se...

Flickr Commons. User: puroticorico BOSTON, MA--(Marketwired - Nov 12, 2015) - Have you already noticed the Christmas lights and holiday decorations at local malls and stores? The snow hasn't even hit the ground and yet, like clockwork, the minute Halloween ends, Christmas begins. Planning for the holidays -- shopping, decorating, meal preparations -- can be fun, but it can also be stressful an...

Flickr Commons Popular mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Ronda Rousey suffered a major upset over the weekend in Australia, and United States presidential hopeful Donald Trump, for some reason, gloated over her loss. Ms. Rousey is known for her alluring looks, charisma and fighting prowess. She is a fighting star with a great record, a technician who specializes in submission and judo moves,...

Marti Noticias Twitter United States Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a veteran Florida Republican who is Chairwoman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, is not happy about the treatment received by hundreds of Cuban immigrants at the hands of Nicaraguan Army soldiers yesterday at the northern border of Costa Rica. Ros-Lehtinen went on Marti Noticias, an independent news outlet tha...

Flickr Commons Starting January 2016, all credit and debit cards in Costa Rica must be compliant with the smart chip and PIN technology known as EMV, which stands for Electron-MasterCard-Visa, an international initiative to prevent financial fraud at the consumer level. According to a recent report filed by Krissia Chacon Jimenez of business weekly El Financiero, the Central Bank of Costa R...

Sex Shop in France. Wikimedia Commons Herbal Viagra is one of the most popular products sold in sex shops across Costa Rica these days. Male customers who take these products, which are sold over-the-counter to any adult, report that herbal Viagra is very effective insofar as resulting in long-lasting erections and pleasant feelings of excitement and euphoria. According to a recent report f...

Press Release by The Costa Rica Star – November 15, 2015 – Quality of life and stability are just two of the factors that make Costa Rica very attractive for those interested in relocation and immigration. There are various options for residency and citizenship in this Central American nation and one law firm stands ready to assist foreigners as they embark on the voyage of residing in Costa Rica'...

Rachel Brathen at the Envision Festival. Source: Instagram Envision Festival Press Release – The Envision Festival in Costa Rica announces a world-class music, yoga, and speaker lineup for their sixth annual gathering, taking place on the majestic shores of Uvita, Costa Rica from February 25th to 28th, 2016. With the goal of creating a festival that represents the harmonious blending of many d...

A resolution by the Legislative Assembly on the long-standing, contentious and tiresome issue of foreign military aircraft, specifically from the United States, entering Costa Rica airspace and landing in our country was recently issued. The President of the Legislative Assembly, Rafael Ortiz Fabrega, representative of Alajuela for the opposition Christian Social Unity Party (Spanish initials: ...

Source: Wikimedia Commons WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Representative Eliot L. Engel, the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, today released the following statement praising Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General Luis Almagro for his recent letter to the head of Venezuela's National Electoral Council Tibisay Lucena urging her to level the playing field to make t...

FreeStockPhotos.biz A recent health data study published by a New York research firm estimates that a little more than one third of the adult population of the United States is obese, including 17 percent of youths and adolescents. The study was requested by public health officials in the Empire State, and the results will be used to for planning of future programs to control this health condi...

Source: Olas Verdes TransWorld Business Press Release - PLAYA GUIONES, Costa Rica – Olas Verdes, a Costa Rican boutique hotel in Playa Guiones, Nosara is thrilled to announce its opening as the world’s first LEED certified surf hotel. Tucked away from the coastline alongside the jungle, Olas Verdes provides immediate access to serenity and adventure. Native plants blend with the amenities of t...

Flickr Commons In the wake of the recent atrocities committed against the good people of France, the Presidential Office of Costa Rica released the following statement: The Office of the Presidency of the Republic of Costa Rica hereby sends heartfelt expressions of solidarity and support for the people and Government of France in this time of grief. Costa Rica expresses its deep condemnati...

Source: FIFA The road to the FIFA 2018 World Cup in Russia got started for the National Men's Football Team of Costa Rica, affectionately known as La Sele, last night with a nervous victory over the National Team of Haiti. For La Sele, this was not an easy match at all; the Caribbean team put up a formidable fight that could have easily resulted in a draw. The match took place at the Chines...

Andrea Calderon, former host and presenter of a youth-oriented television show, is at the center of a sordid investigation as to why several photos she thought were taken in an intimate setting are now going viral on various social networks. The latest updates on this scandal was revealed on Facebook and through an interview with a local entertainment reporter. Miss Calderon posted a cryptic up...

The legendary film director/producer duo of Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are often considered to be Hollywood royalty. Together, Howard and Grazer have made highly successful movies such as A Beautiful Mind, Rush and The Da Vinci Code, and their latest creation is of a scientific nature. The Age of Aging is a film that is broadcast as part of Breakthrough, a new National Geographic Channel serie...

Business Wire WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dole Food Company, Inc. announced today that its Costa Rican subsidiary Standard Fruit Company of Costa Rica S.A. received the prestigious “Social Responsibility in Action” award and was also recognized as a “Top Winner” in the Community category by the Costa Rican American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham). “Local communities would not re...

Source: Fuerza Publica A foreign woman was taken into custody on Wednesday by law enforcement officers assigned to the inauguration of City Mall, the largest indoor shopping center in Central America, located near the Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO) in the province of Alajuela. According to a press release issued by Fuerza Publica, the national police force of Costa Rica, the wo...

Starbucks News Media Release / The holidays are a special time at Starbucks with tastes and experiences that inspire the spirit of the season. The 2015 holiday season has arrived as Starbucks® stores around the world are now filled with a full assortment of seasonal food, beverages and merchandise. Starbucks Reserve® Christmas 2015: Select stores will offer this first-edition holiday coffee wit...

LAS VEGAS, Nov. 12, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Pure Hospitality Solutions, Inc., (OTC: PNOW) parent company of the Central American-Caribbean online travel Agency (OTA), Oveedia (www.Oveedia.com), announced today, that the Company is listing additional properties faster than expected – quickly growing its hotel database. Today, the Company welcomes Hotel Cerro Lodge as Oveedia's newest hotel listing. ...

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (PRWEB) November 11, 2015 - Today, Emerging Sports TV announces the nominees for the inaugural broadcast awards. Drawing from the events, sports, and athletes featured this season on Emerging Sports TV, nominees for Athlete of the Year, Sports of the year, Event of the Year, and Broadcast Moment of the Year have been named. “We had the privilege to produce television ...

Wikimedia Commons Football fans around the world are in shock over the sordid details involving star striker Karim Benzema of the stellar Real Madrid football club of the Spanish League. The French footballer, who is rated as one of the top offensive players in the world, is under investigation for an alleged conspiracy to extort and blackmail Mathieu Valbuena, a talented French midfielder who...