Cartoon by Clay JonesJust a day after the much awaited release of the latest smartphone game 'Pokemon Go' in Japan, some of the country's most popular tourist attractions have started urging visitors to use caution when playing or stop playing altogether at their facilities. The most emphatic protest came from the Izumo-taisha shrine, considered the second most sacred in Japan, which banned th...

Wikimedia CommonsFormer Panamanian dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega was taken Friday to the Legal Medicine Institute for the physical and psychiatric exams ordered by the court hearing the case against him for the death of union leader Heliodoro Portugal back in the 1970s. The defense attorney for Panama's one-time strongman, Ezra Angel, told EFE briefly this Friday that Noriega's examinations ...

Source: DVIDSBy Staff Sgt. Charles Martinez, New Mexico National Guard CUAJINIQUIL, Costa Rica - Eight hours of team work by the New Mexico National Guard’s 1st Platoon, 919th Military Police Company, was all it took to remove one month’s worth of jungle growth from the grounds of a school building in Cuajiniquil, Costa Rica July 20, 2016. Located in the Guanacaste province in the northwestern...

Cartoon by Clay JonesBy Lucia Leal U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto hailed this Friday the strength of bilateral relations and their belief they will continue even if Donald Trump comes to power in January, on the day after the magnate accepted the Republican presidential candidacy without ever abandoning his anti-immigrant rhetoric. In what was probably ...

Today's print cover of Tageszeitung -tz- tabloid from MunichFriday's assault at a Munich shopping mall was "probably" the work of a lone assailant who took his own life after fatally shooting nine people, German police said. "We found a man, who killed himself. We assume, that he was the only shooter," the Munich police said on Twitter shortly after authorizing the resumption of transit servic...

Johanna Solano Lopez born October 9, 1990 is a Costa Rican TV Host, model and beauty pageant titleholder who represented her country at Miss Universe 2011. ‪Since 2013 she started to practice way deeper into the triathlon. Currently competes in and out of Costa Rica, reaching different achievements and learning more and more of this beautiful and demanding discipline. Source: news.co...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMSqyo0RHlM...

1. It’s the world’s happiest country According to the most recent Happy Planet Index, which aims to measure human well-being and environmental impact, Costa Rica is the most satisfying place in which to live, with an HPI rating of 64 (placing it above Vietnam, Colombia and Belize). Britain, on the other hand, languishes on 47.9. 2. Perhaps because it’s got no army The constitution of this pea...

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. Against all odds, New York billionaire Donald Trump has done what most people said he could not do by being selected Thursday night as the Republican Party’s presidential nominee. At the start of this year’s politic...

Illustrative image. (Flickr Commons)Journalist Pedro Tamayo has been shot dead at his home in the Mexican Gulf coast state of Veracruz, the Aztec nation's deadliest for members of the media, officials said Thursday. Two assailants arrived late Wednesday in a vehicle at the crime reporter's home in the town of Tierra Blanca, fired at him in front of his family and then fled the scene. The 43...

2016 Rio Olympics Logo Brazilian authorities arrested 10 suspects Thursday in an anti-terror operation carried out 15 days prior to the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics, Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes said. "This was a suspected terrorist cell .. that went from exchanging suspicious messages online to making preparations" for a possible attack, De Moraes said at a news conference, ad...

Salty website Shooting on Antonio Banderas' new feature, "Salty," will conclude this week in the Chilean cities of Santiago and Valparaiso, the filmmakers said Thursday. The culture, people and landscapes of Chile made the country an ideal location for the film, director Simon West said in a statement. "Salty" tells the story of a decadent Spanish rocker and recovering sex addict (Banderas)...

The number of undocumented Cuban migrants arriving in the U.S. has quintupled over the past five years, increasing dramatically after the December 2014 announcement by Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro of a normalization of relations between Washington and Havana. Fewer than 8,000 Cubans reached the U.S. in the 2011 fiscal year, compared with more than 44,000 so far in fiscal 2016, which ...

Wikimedia CommonsBrazilian marines on Tuesday practiced riot control maneuvers on Flamengo beach, in southern Rio de Janeiro, in preparation for possible violent demonstrations during the 2016 Olympic Games to be held here starting two weeks from now. During the exercise, one ship deposited three troop transport trucks on the beach and another vessel put ashore 80 marines. Once they had dis...

President of Nicaragua Daniel OrtegaThe Sandinistas, members of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), on Tuesday celebrated the 37th anniversary of the revolution that ended the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua in festivities marked by the support of the country's president Daniel Ortega to his Venezuelan ally and counterpart Nicolas Maduro, one of his invitees. Ortega, who is runni...

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. During prime time, keynote speaker Melania Trump shined as bright as the sun itself as she spoke with grace and poise about her husband, New York billionaire Donald Trump, for the opening night of the Republican Nati...

Cartoon by Clay JonesGavin Eugene Long, the African-American former U.S. Marine accused of killing three police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, left several videos posted online in which he declared he wanted to "fight back" against police for the shootings of blacks. "You gotta fight back - that's the only way a bully knows to quit," Long said in one of his videos, using the pseudonym of ...

Illustrative image. (Flickr Commons)A black former US Marine today killed three police officers and wounded three others in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on his birthday, in an incident similar to the one ten days ago in Dallas, Texas, where another black former soldier killed five policemen. The perpetrator of this new police shooting was identified as Gavin Eugene Long, a former marine who turned 2...

Wikimedia CommonsIsraeli police on Sunday arrested a Palestinian man carrying explosives in his backpack as he was about to board a tram in the center of Jerusalem, a police spokesman said. The 20-year-old Palestinian, who lives in the West Bank, was arrested after raising the suspicion of a security guard near the light rail stop on Jaffa Road. The guard, who asked to check the contents of...

By Binod Ghimire and Moncho Torres Dinesh and Tarakeshwari Rathod claimed to be the first Indian couple to scale Mount Everest and even had photographs to prove it, but now they face a 10-year mountaineering ban in Nepal as they have been found to have used altered images and never actually reached the peak. "We have recommended the Tourism Ministry to take appropriate actions against the c...

(CRS Archive)Thousands of Nicaraguan public employees and supporters of the ruling democratic socialist Sandinista National Liberation Front, or FSLN, marched through the streets of this capital in support of President Daniel Ortega, who is seeking a third consecutive term in office in November's general elections. Friday's march, which was organized by the ruling party's official youth group,...

By Bro. Jeffrey Pioquinto, SJ - Flickr, CC BY 2.0 Wikimedia CommonsBy Helen Cook Philippine authorities have started making it compulsory for confessed drug addicts to attend Zumba classes to overcome the habit, as part of the country's recently launched war on drugs. "The main aim is to make them sweat as much as possible!" exclaimed an euphoric Roullette Folio, the monitor of the first Zu...

Turkey state TV headquarters after the coup attempt. Anadolu AgencyTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said the attempted coup was a "gift of God to cleanse the military". "This act is a great gift of God to us because the military will be cleansed," the president said at a press conference in Istanbul, adding that those behind the attempted coup would have to pay for their "tre...

Turkey's army claimed Friday that it has taken full control of the country with the aim of "restoring democracy." "All international accords will remain in effect. We expect to maintain good relations with all countries," the General Staff said in a statement. At the same time, the Anadolu news agency said that the army chief of staff, Gen. Hulusi Akar, had been taken hostage by a group of s...

Source: RFIAt least 77 people have died in the alleged terrorist attack on Bastille day by a truck driver in Nice, the mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi reported. French president Francois Hollande and prime minister Manuel Valls are now in the inter-ministerial crisis cell due to the attack. A spokeswoman for the Elysee Palace told Efe that Hollande went to the crisis cell in the Ministry of...

French President François Hollande. EFE/FileFrench President Francois Hollande defended himself on Thursday after he was criticized for having hired a personal hairdresser with a gross salary of 9,895 euros ($10,099) a month, noting that he has reduced the costs of the presidency as well as his salary by 30 percent since he came to the Elysee in May 2012. On the occasion of the French National...

Shirley Cruz Traña (born 28 August 1985 in San José) is a Costa Rican football player who plays for French club Paris Saint-Germain in the Division 1 Féminine. Cruz joined Lyon in January 2006 having previously played for the women's section of Costa Rican UCEM Alajuela and plays as a creative midfielder, often acting as a deep-lying playmaker. She is also a member of the Costa Rica women's na...

Cartoon by Clay JonesPresumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the resignation of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the standard-bearer of the high court's progressive wing who called him a "faker." On his Twitter account, Trump said that "Justice Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court has embarrassed all by making very dumb political statements abou...

Marino Ballena National Park is one of the best places to go whale watching in Costa Rica. Humpback whales are commonly seen out in the waters as both Northern and Southern humpback whales pass through this area, giving Costa Rica the longest humpback whale watching season in the world. Even though it is one of the youngest national parks in the country, Marino Ballena National Park is a belove...

Source: UC Blue Ash College By Pete Gemmer Saving a damaged sea turtle nest along the coast of Costa Rica was among a few of the life-changing activities students enjoyed this summer as part of two study abroad trips hosted by the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College. The Costa Rica Study Abroad trip was based on the Osa Peninsula, home to about 3 percent of the world’s biodiversity...

Wikimedia Commons A New Jersey resident who was gored as he ran with the bulls in Spain's famous San Fermin festival in Pamplona on Wednesday has described the experience as the highlight of his life. Matthew Levin, 39, had clambered onto a fence during his first ever running of the bulls when a charging bull slammed into him and his friends completely by accident, driving a horn into his l...

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 Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton Tuesday for President, thus leaving his supporters abandoned while Republican challenger Donald Trump surges in national and state presidential polls. “...

Wikimedia Commons A group of Costa Rican schoolchildren now have species of tiny wasps named after them, thanks to research to identify the species led in part by a University of Guelph professor. Prof. Alex Smith, Integrative Biology, was part of a team discovering and describing forest wasps found in a remote location in northwestern Costa Rica. The team found 20 previously unknown spe...

Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. Source: Wikimedia Commons Federal officials' decision to post a photograph of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman on social media to confirm that the Sinaloa cartel leader had not escaped from prison "shows the lack of credibility of our authorities," defense attorney Jose Refugio Rodriguez said Monday. Government Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio posted an ...

President of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega A former Contra guerrilla on Monday was chosen to be the presidential candidate for Nicaragua's Constitutional Liberal Party, or PLC, with an eye toward the November election, in which the main opposition coalition will not participate. Maximino Rodriguez, a former member of the Contras in the 1980s, was unanimously selected by the PLC party convention, ...

By Jack Donnelly Mexico and Central America gained their independence from Spain on September 15, 1821. The news did not reach Costa Rica until October 11th, but Independence Day is still celebrated here on September 15th. Actually, there is a small movement to change the date, but the 15th is still the official holiday.   It took some time for the Central American countries to sort ...

Wikimedia Commons Bolivian writer Oswaldo Calatayud, the winner of his country's 17th National Novel Prize for his work "La Guerra del Papel" (The Paper War), says that the "ultra-tech" world has reinforced human loneliness. In an interview with EFE, the author explained that nowadays "there is little contact between people because technology intercedes in everything. Being on the cellphone...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qITCeJG8umQ...

Supporters of President Maduro rally in Caracas EFE/AGENCIA VENEZOLANA DE NOTICIAS/ Some 25,000 Venezuelans, according to official estimates, crossed the border into Colombia on Sunday to buy food and medicines in the city of Cucuta after the Venezuelan government said it would open border crossings for 12 hours. People began crossing the Simon Bolivar international bridge, which links the ...

Source: PokerStars Tens of thousands of Portuguese crowded the Marques de Pombal square throughout the night to celebrate the country's first European Cup, 12 years after suffering the Euro 2004 final loss against Greece on home soil.   Passionate fans chanted "Portugal Allez" (Go Portugal), sang the Portuguese national anthem and emulated Ronaldo's characteristic "siiuhh" when he w...