Barra Honda is unique among the National Parks of Costa Rica: its main attraction is a large, intricate system of limestone caverns, decorated with a multitude of capricious forms and figures. The nearly flat mesa of the Barra Honda hill looms 300 m above the Tempisque valley and has its highest peak at 450 m altitude. Its base consists of a former coral reef dating back over 60 million years. ...

https://vimeo.com/174540237...

Valeria Rees is an outstanding Costa Rican model, since she was 17 years old has toured Singapore, Mexico, Paris and Milan, working in commercial modeling agencies Carries Cal, Esee, Avenue, Contempo, 2morrow, Evidence and here in Costa Rica with IMM. Source:http://imm.co.cr...

Bogota, Oct. 7 — Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said Friday he was receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in the name of all Colombians and particularly the millions of victims of the decades-long armed conflict. "Colombians, this prize is for you. It's for the victims, so there won't be one more death" from the armed conflict, Santos said in a brief statement, accompanied by his wife, Maria C...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.  By Britt Nelson By most accounts vice-presidential candidate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence came across to voters better than Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine in their first and only nationally televised debate Tuesday. Coming up on Sunday evening in St. Louis will be the ...

LATIN AMERICA US/CUBA Thousands of Cuban in shelters across Costa Rica in 2015 and early 2016. (CIDH/Twitter) Panama City, Oct. 5 — Panamanian Vice President and Foreign Minister Isabel de Saint Malo said Wednesday that the United States still has not responded to the request made more than a month ago by nine Latin American governments to review its immigration policy vis-a-vis Cuba and th...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5  -- Apple enthusiasts quickly exhausted stock of a scented candle designed to smell like a new Mac computer. The "New Mac Candle" created by Twelve South, an online retailer specializing in Apple accessories, sold out from their online store within 24 hours. According to the product description, the $24 candle was Hand Poured in Charleston, SC using 100 percent Soy Wax and...

NOBEL PHYSICS Copenhagen, Oct. 4 — Three British scientists won the 2016 Nobel Prize for Physics, announced the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Tuesday. David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz were awarded the Prize for their research into exotic states of matter, which has paved the way for the development of innovative materials. "This year's Laureates opened the door...

Warsaw, Oct. 3  - Tens of thousands of black-clad women protested across Poland Monday against a proposed near-total abortion ban in the devoutly Catholic country, where the law is already among the most restrictive in Europe. Polish women take part in a nationwide demonstration against a proposed near-total abortion ban in the devoutly Catholic country in Warsaw on October 3, 2016. AFP Pro...

WIKILEAKS Wikimedia Commons Berlin, Oct. 4 — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said on Tuesday that his website will publish over the next few weeks significant documents about the U.S. election. The announcement comes on the 10th anniversary of the founding of WikiLeaks. In a video broadcast from Berlin, Assange denied speculations that the documents are meant to hurt Democratic candidat...

Havana, Oct. 4 — Hurricane Matthew, the most powerful storm to strike the Caribbean in nine years, made landfall Tuesday in southeastern Cuba packing sustained winds of up to 240 kph (149 mph), the island's Insmet weather service said. Hurricane Matthew beating Jamaica, from Facebook. Authorities ordered nearly 900,000 residents of the provinces of Camagüey, Granma, Las Tunas, Santiago, H...

The launch of Mexico's anti-trafficking hotline, from Facebook. Mexico City, Oct. 3 — Mexican authorities rescued 51 women from traffickers and arrested seven people, the capital district attorney's office said Monday. The suspects hired the women as dancers, but then forced them to perform nude and engage in prostitution at two bars in Mexico City's Cuauhtemoc borough, the office said in a...

MADISON, Mont., Oct. 3 -- A Montana man said he survived a double attack by a grizzly bear while he scouted hunting locations by playing dead and fooling the giant animal. Wikimedia Commons Todd Orr posted pictures of his bloody, punctured body and a full account of the attacks on Facebook Sunday after driving himself to the hospital, to the surprise of doctors who were impressed with his r...

NOBEL MEDICINE  Tokyo, Oct. 3 — Japanese biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi, who won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the mechanism of cellular autophagy, underlined Monday the importance of challenges. After hearing about his win, the 71-year-old scientist told media outlets the recognition by Stockholm's Karolinska Institute was an honor because his study was in basic m...

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) has completed the transition to a new governance model, ending the U.S. government's control over the Internet authority, reported Telecompaper today. The United States Department of Commerce and its National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) confirmed their management contract expired 30 September, leaving I...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.  By Britt Nelson Facebook meme. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is under attack from all sides since the Sept. 26th first debate with his Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton – the most watched political event in TV history. The mud-sling...

MEXICO PRESS Photo of Barbara McClatchie Andrews from her Facebook page Mexico City, Oct. 1 — Canadian photographer Barbara McClatchie Andrews was found dead on a highway in the southeastern Mexican state of Yucatan, local authorities reported Friday. She was 74. According to a bulletin issued by the Attorney General's Office of Yucatan, the woman's lifeless body was found Friday morning a...

COLOMBIA PEACE VOTE  Bogota, Oct. 2 — The president of Colombia late Sunday recognized the victory of the "No" side in the referendum on the peace agreement signed with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and said this result would open a new political reality which could be an opportunity for the country. Juan Manuel Santos, who had promoted the "yes" campaign, ordered governme...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Denmark's tax minister said the government will buy data leaked from Mossack Fonseca, the law firm involved in the Panama Papers scandal. Police officers stand guard next to a company list showing the Mossack Fonseca law firm outside their office in Panama City April 12, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso Taxation Minister Karsten Lauritzen said an anonymous of...

US ELECTIONS Wikimedia Commons Washington, Oct. 1 — The United States has invited the Organization of American States to observe its presidential election for the first time, finally taking that step after financing electoral observation missions in Latin America for more than half a century. The OAS regards this historic step as a very positive sign and believes the best way to consolid...

AUSTRALIA CLIMATE CHANGE Australia's oceans. Sydney, Sept. 27 — As climate change leads to the warming and acidification of water, the males of a marine crustacean species in Australia will become more attractive to the females of that species, according to a study published Tuesday. A group of researchers studied the behavior of the herbivorous amphipod, Cymadusa pemptos, that inhabit the...

BRUSSELS GRAFFITI (Report) Brussels' recent unidentified penis and vagina graffiti. Brussels, Sept. 23 — An anonymous artist is wreaking havoc on the streets of Brussels, a city whose authorities are flummoxed by the sudden appearance of a mysterious series of sexually-explicit graffiti showing human genitalia of gargantuan proportions. The third masterpiece in this unclaimed oeuvre, a 6-m...

US ACCIDENT Facebook post of Hoboken train crash, 7 Eyewitness News WKBW. New York, Sept. 29 — At least three people were killed and about 200 others injured in a train accident this morning in Hoboken, New Jersey, media reports said. Exact death and injury tolls are not yet available. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, or PATH, which operates the commuter train network in t...

CHINA TECHNOLOGY Anbot robot, from Facebook. Beijing, Sept. 26 — Shenzhen International Airport in southern China, one of the country's busiest airports, has employed robots to patrol one of its terminals, making it one of the first public places in China to do so. According to the official People's Daily, the Anbot robots are oval-shaped and resemble the Star Wars 'R2D2' robot or the Da...

Los Angeles (USA), Sept. 27 — More and more US companies are offering their workers health plans with the option of traveling to a Latin American country for medical treatment, as unveiled today during the "Latin American Health Tourism Summit" held in Los Angeles. “Five percent of US employers are offering their employees medical tourism plans. The growth in two years of these programs has bee...

If you’re visiting Costa Rica, check out Los Quetzales National Park for a chance to see the cloud forest. Even though it’s only a short distance from the Central Pacific, Los Quetzales offers travelers a whole different kind of experience. The climate is cool and fresh, and due to its location high atop the Talamanca mountains, the park is typically entrenched in a haze of thick clouds. Moss-cove...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMatXca_A8w&index=2&list=PLxd0bZ1RXEzspz9xJfdorVg_Vm9IGaApf...

PANAMA TOURISM Panama City, Sept. 27 — The Panamanian government hopes that an international advertising campaign to be launched at the end of this year will attract tourists from the United States, Europe, and South America, its main markets, Tourism Minister Gustavo Him said Tuesday. "We have great hopes for that campaign because we're going to move from having zero promotion to having a f...

NICARAGUA - U.S. A Russian T-72 battle tank, similar to those heading to Nicaragua. (CC) Managua, Sept. 27 — Nicaragua's vice president spoke out on Tuesday about a proposal in the U.S. Congress that would threaten Managua's access to funding from international lenders. "It's something that in this day and age provokes embarrassment. We're in the 21st century. I believe that some gentlem...

US CONGRESS FILE - Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are seen in the House of Representatives Chamber of the US Capitol after Pope Francis' address Sept. 24, 2015. (Reuters OMX) Washington, DC, Sept. 27 — Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked a bill to temporarily fund the federal government after Republicans refused to include funds in it to deal with the drinking water crisis in ...

BRITAIN SCIENCE Photo for illustrative purposes only. London, Sept. 27 — The United Kingdom saw the birth of the first baby in the world conceived by an assisted reproduction technique which used DNA from three different parents, revealed the British science magazine New Scientist on Tuesday. The publication noted that Abrahim Hassan, a five-month-old baby, was the result of a controvers...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.  By Britt Nelson As the dust settles from the first presidential debate between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton during Campaign 2016 it appears Trump won last night’s face off. Four informal polls released Tuesday show Trump won the d...

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 15 -- Celebrity choreographer Wade Robson filed court papers claiming Michael Jackson's companies were a front for a "child sexual abuse operation." Dancers from So You Think You Can Dance (Season 2) performing the Zombie dance or the "Ramalama (Bang Bang)" which won Wade his first Emmy in 2007. Robson, 33, who previously filed a claim against Jackson's estate in 2013, ha...

Interview with political analyst Juan-Manuel Garcia-Passalacqua by Democracy Now's Amy Goodman on the 10th anniversary of the FBI assassination of Puerto Rican nationalist leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios on Sept. 26, 2005 in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico. Mural of Ojeda in Puerto Rico, photo from Facebook. For the past four decades Filiberto Ojeda Rios had been a leading figure in the fight for Puer...

CUBA JAPAN (Report) Source: Discovery Havana, Sept. 23 — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wrapped up Friday his two-day state visit to Cuba, during which he paved the way for Japanese companies to do business on the Caribbean island, where the thaw in relations with the United States has sparked renewed interest in the Oriental economic power. Abe's presence in Cuba is the first visit ...

CHINA INCIDENTS Photo for illustrative purposes. Beijing, Sept. 24 — A Chinese girl aged 16 has been detained after she confessed to starving her mother to death, allegedly to avenge being sent by her parents to a notoriously harsh treatment center for Internet addiction, according to local media reports Saturday. The teenaged girl, identified by the police as Chen Xinran (not her real n...

Ximena Loranca 20 year old was discovered by the Independent International Model Management booker, with less than two years of modeling in the country, she is already facing the major fashion markets like Europe and the US. The Costa Rican model signed a contract with the agency Storm Models in London; Fusion Models in New York; Next, in Miami; Chic, in Australia, and MGM in Germany. She h...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.  By Britt Nelson What started out as a peaceful protest of another police-involved shooting death of an allegedly armed African-American suspect has turned Charlotte, NC into a racial-war zone complete with serious injuries and one death, looting, burning, t...

SPAIN PROSTITUTION  Alicante, Spain, Sept. 18 — The Spanish police have dismantled a group dedicated to human trafficking, prostitution and drugs, and managed to arrest six suspects. Police officials announced that this group is part of a criminal organization specialized in sexual exploitation of women of different nationalities to make revenues that have been transferred to Brazil. The ma...

JOLIE PITT  Madrid, Spain, Sept. 22 — The high-profile celebrity divorce between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie that sent shockwaves around the A-list world left Madrid Wax Museum curators with little choice but to re-arrange their displays on Thursday. Madrid's symbolic separation of the former Hollywood couple followed similar decisions taken at Madame Tussauds in London and Berlin. Museum ...