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 Politics or religion -- take your pick – both can boil your oil faster than anything else, bursting gaskets, and causing humanity to come apart at the seams. Both have been the basis for unending wars throughout the world li...

Los Angeles, Sep 3.- The story of the legendary motorcycle brand Harley-Davidson is coming to the small screen in a three-episode mini-series that aims to bring TV viewers the sounds and sights of the iconic American bikes. Produced by Discovery Channel, "Harley and the Davidsons" will premiere tomorrow, Monday September 5, in the United States, and features "Game of Thrones" actors Michiel Hui...

https://vimeo.com/179501297...

02/09/2016--18:36 GMT  Miami, Sep 2.- Residents of northern Florida could breathe a mild sigh of relief after reports that Hermine, which made landfall in that state early Friday as a Category 1 hurricane and is still a tropical storm threatening the rest of the U.S. Southeast, did not leave more victims or damage in its wake. In a brief statement to the media, Florida Gov. Rick Scott said a h...

According to Miranda, a total of three scenes were filmed on Costa Rican soil, all appear right at the beginning of the film when the character presentation June Moone, the archeologist played by Cara Delevingne. Miranda says one of the scenes was filmed at the Hacienda Sueño Azul in Horquetas de Sarapiquí. The location has a hotel and private reserve, the others on private property in and arou...

Puebla, Mexico.- The mummified body found in June 2015 on Pico de Orizaba, Mexico's highest mountain, is currently on display in a museum in the central city of Ciudad Serdan. Wikimedia Commons The identity of the mummy is not known, but the man was approximately 50, and may have died and been mummified more than 15 years ago, according to forensic testing performed over the past year. T...

Brasilia, Aug 31.- Brazil's Senate voted 61-20 on Wednesday to remove President Dilma Rousseff from office over budget irregularities. Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff smiles as she attends a meeting with jurists at Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, March 22, 2016. REUTERS/Adriano Machado The decision means that Michel Temer, who became interim president May 12, will serve the remaind...

Santa Clara, Cuba, Aug 31.- The first regularly scheduled commercial flight between the United States and Cuba since 1961 landed today, Wednesday, August 31, at this central city's Abel Santamaria airport at 10:57 a.m. local time (1457 GMT). U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuba's President Raul Castro shake hands during their first meeting on the second day of Obama's visit to Cuba, in Havan...

NIcaraguan forces. File photo By Patricia Pernas for EFE Governments in Central America, one of the world's most violent regions, are expanding the role of their militaries in civilian affairs and increasing their weaponry, thus posing a threat to democracy, an expert told EFE. "This strengthening of the armed forces does not come in response to national security problems," Alberto Mora,...

Source: Cristian Gamboa Twitter Celtic made official on Tuesday the signing of Costa Rican player Cristian Gamboa for the next three seasons. Gamboa, 26, arrives at the Glasgow side, current leaders of the Scottish Premier League, from West Bromwich Albion. "Celtic are delighted to announce the signing of Cristian Gamboa from English Premier League side West Bromwich Albion on a three-ye...

Cartoon by Clay Jones Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will head to Mexico on Wednesday to meet with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, the Mexican president and Trump confirmed today. "I have accepted the invitation of President Enrique Pena Nieto, of Mexico, and look very much forward to meeting him tomorrow," Trump tweeted Tuesday night. The Mexican presidency had ind...

By Jack Donnelly Mexican cuisine is one of the great culinary influences in the world today, along with Chinese, Italian, and others. Tacos, burritos, nachos, refried beans (an unfortunate mistranslation we will never get back: it should be well fried beans), pico de gallo, and many other Mexican dishes are found the world over. Costa Rica is no exception and, as in other countries, Ticos have ...

Cartoon by Clay Jones By Britt Nelson Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. All these Clinton emails are a slow bleed that cannot be stopped: drip, drip, drip... they keep coming. Hillary doesn’t have enough fingers to plug all the holes in the dike. Will her campaign sink, swim or sail to t...

Source: Pure Hospitality Pure Hospitality Solutions, Inc. (OTC PINK: PNOW), parent Company of the Central American-Caribbean Online Travel Agency (OTA) Oveedia, announced today, that the Company is launching an international, bi-lingual newsletter, in conjunction with the release of the next iteration of Oveedia. "Here in Costa Rica, we have a very strong following and somewhat substantial ...

Source; UNHCR Forced displacement caused by violence and organized crime is a problem that continues to be "invisible" for many in Central America's Northern Triangle, but it requires more attention and more effective protective mechanisms, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees representative Jose Samaniego said. Forced displacement is "a rather invisible phenomenon, the victims in ...

Source: New York Post Twitter Huma Abedin, one of Hillary Clinton's chief aides, announced that she is separating from her husband, former Congressman Anthony Weiner, after his latest "sexting" scandal. Weiner resigned his seat in Congress in 2011 after it became known that he was sending Internet messages with sexual content and photographs to different women, and in 2013 that same behavio...

Source: Kahookashii at Deviant Art The Asia Adult Expo (AAE) in Hong Kong was all about silicone, sex and simulation to stimulate a few senses, as hundreds of visitors converged Monday at the Convention and Exhibition Center in Wan Chai, an epa journalist reports. The expo brought together dozens of mostly-female vendors selling sex toys, fetish devices, condoms, clothing, and silicone sex ...

An electrical storm has caused the deaths of 323 reindeer living in a national park in southern Norway, authorities announced Monday. The animals' corpses were found Friday night by a ranger at Hardangervidda National Park in a small area with a diameter of between 50 and 80 meters (164 and 262 feet). "It is something very unique. I've heard of cattle killed by lightning before, but never in...

Photo by Jack Donnelly By Jack Donnelly Costa Rica is famous for many things as a tourist destination: beaches, national parks teeming with wildlife, zip lining, rafting, volcanoes, etc. Yet, so many of the country’s subdued treasures are often overlooked. Among these attractions are a few very nice archaeological sites. There are no sites to rival Teotihuacán, Copán, or Machu Picchu. St...

FEALAC archive photo Laos and Venezuela presented their candidatures to co-chair the Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC), the only body exclusively meant to enhance dialogue and cooperation between countries of the two regions. Their candidatures - to replace current co-chairs Guatemala and South Korea, whose term ends in 2017 - were one of the few outcomes of the 17th FE...

Wikimedia Commons Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Saturday that blacks will vote for him in the November elections because of tragedies like the way NBA basketball star Dwyane Wade's cousin was shot and killed while walking her baby in Chicago. "Dwyane Wade's cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago. Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will...

Cartoon by Clay Jones A court on Friday suspended the ban on Islamic burkini swimming costumes imposed by a French Riviera town in a ruling likely to set a precedent to be followed in France's other beaches. France's Council of State, the country's top administrative court, lifted the ban in the Cote d'Azur town of Villeneuve-Loubet. The ruling was expected to be adopted by 30 other muni...

Michael Temer with Dilma Rousseff By Manuel Pérez Bella for EFE Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is facing her most difficult moment yet in a long and storied political career: she now stands suspended from office, alone, surrounded by hostile forces and retaining scarce support from her once-loyal social base. The constant erosion suffered by her party's congressmembers has been refle...

Wikimedia Commons By Tânia Esteves for EFE No one knows for certain the reason why human beings need several hours of sleep every day, but a Portuguese neuroscientist has discovered the protein responsible for the mechanism regulating sleep. Diogo Pimentel, part of an Oxford University team studying the intricacies of sleep, is one of the lead authors of a paper recently published in "Na...

Imagine tiny bubbles of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — rising from the ocean floor, escaping into the atmosphere, playing havoc in heating up the planet and contributing to global warming and climate change. Yet certain rocks on the depths of the ocean floor host an interesting microbiological community, where microscopic organisms, or microbes, actually eat escaping methane to acquire energ...

The region of Tortuguero seems like a world apart from the mountains and waterfalls of central Costa Rica: only accessible by boat or plane, the namesake town and national park remain tucked away in an intricate, steamy tangle of fresh-water canals and tropical foliage. Sandwiched between a calm lagoon and the volcanic beaches along the Caribbean Sea, the area is home to a wide variety of wildlife...

Source: NIS A New Jersey nanotechnology firm that provides solutions for industrial clients now has a presence in Costa Rica. In a recent statement, Nanotech Industrial Solutions (NIS) explained that it continues to improve their clients' performance by offering integrated solutions in lubrication, which can only be achieved by having alliances with high standard companies. NIS has come to...

Wikimedia Commons By Igor G. Barbero for EFE He may not be able to close his fists perfectly yet, owing to a layer of warts that are still on his palms, but the "Tree Man" of Bangladesh is pleased with his new hands after a string of surgeries freed them of the burden of warts that resembled the bark of a tree. Now awaiting cosmetic touch-ups, 27-year-old Abul Bajandar, is thinking about...

Cartoon by Clay Jones By Britt Nelson Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. Reading America’s political pulse this year is kinda like trying to find a survivor at the county morgue. Likely voters repeatedly are saying the overall direction of the United States of America is pretty much de...

Nintendo - Niantic The death of a woman, who was killed after she was hit by a car whose driver was distracted playing Pokemon Go, is the first recorded fatality related to the popular smartphone game in Japan, media reported Thursday. Keiji Goo, 39, was arrested Wednesday after his van hit two women in Tokushima (southwest), killing one of them, aged 72. The other woman, aged 60, suffer...

By Mariluz Parga and Sandra Andraka, International Seafood Sustainability Foundation Incidental capture of sea turtles is a well-known impact of longline and other fisheries worldwide and one of several significant causes of the decrease in sea turtle populations. While effective alternatives to reduce incidental capture are studied and put in place, identifying methods to increase an animal’s ...

(Courtesy/WhatsApp) The world's most popular messaging service, WhatsApp, on Thursday announced it would begin to share users' numbers with social media giant Facebook with the aim of bringing companies and users closer together. The update in WhatsApp's terms and privacy policy was announced by the company on their official blog. The statement said that the move to strengthen ties with ...

Wikimedia Commons Social networks users have expressed their outrage on Wednesday in support of two women on the beaches in Nice and Cannes, who were confronted by French police and made to remove some of their clothing as part of a controversial ban of the burkini, the full-body swimsuit. U.K. newspapers published pictures on Tuesday night of one of the two women being surrounded by four m...

Source: RAI The old mountain village of Amatrice was obliterated by a 6.2 magnitude earthquake that hit early Wednesday morning, leaving nearly 200 people dead and at least 53 missing. From the ground, EFE could see that many houses collapsed and cars were crushed by the falling rubble. In this scene of destruction and pain, a man tried to cycle through debris-strewn streets with tears i...

Source: Boss Tweed, Flickr Commons Melania Trump, the wife of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, is preparing to take legal action against British daily The Daily Mail for an article about her past that she considers to be defamatory, her attorneys said on Monday. "Mrs. Trump has placed several news organizations on notice of her legal claims against them, including Daily Mail am...

Illustrative image. (Flickr Commons) A Japanese man, arrested last weekend for allegedly stabbing his 12-year-old son to death, told the police he did it because the child was not studying for his secondary level exams, the police said Tuesday.   The accused, Kengo Satake, 48, a transporter from Nagoya city was taken for interrogation after his arrest, a police spokesperson told loc...

Source: Joel Campbell's Facebook Timeline Arsenal agreed on Sunday to loan its Costa Rican striker Joel Campbell to Sporting Lisbon for one season. The Portuguese side announced the agreement on its social media accounts, while according to the local press; there is a final purchase possibility option for 10 million euros ($11.3 million). According to statements by the player publish by ...

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega (C) listens during an official meeting with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (R) and then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (L) during an official state visit by the Nicaraguan president to Iran in 2007. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif began his first Latin American visit Monday in Havana, where he met with Foreign Minister Bruno Rodrigu...

Cartoon by Clay Jones By Britt Nelson Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. In a surprising turn of events, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has a 2-point nationwide lead over Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton, according to a new poll released Sunday by the L.A. Times and t...

By Jose Antonio Pascual, EFE Brazil ended the curse of the Olympic Games, avenged Germany and avoided a Maracanazo ( "Maracana Blow" blow in English) version of Olympics thanks to its great success in the penalty shootout of the Rio 2016 final in which the magic of Neymar appeared insufficient for the Canarinhos to strike down the Germans neither during the 90 minutes nor in overtime. Wikim...