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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 The whole world is watching as presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump take aim at each other, and for the next five months both of them will throw everything they have at each other to persuade voters that they are the best c...

By Britt Nelson   I was there when Coady was born I was there when Coady died. He was 26 years old. Coady died of a heroin overdose In Jaco Beach, Costa Rica, June 8, 2015.   He had accepted Jesus as his savior. Fifteen days before Coady died I saw him Baptized In the Pacific Ocean waves.   I did not know my son. During his adult years, There was always...

Keylor Navas has everything it takes to be an exceptional keeper. He demonstrated it in Brazil, where he only let in two goals in five matches and took Costa Rica to the quarter-finals for the first time in their history. Navas is the first ‘Tico‘ (nickname for Costa Ricans) to win the Champions League's title and the first Central American to take to the field in a Champions final. Sour...

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Archive San Salvador, Jun 7 (EFE).- The former director of El Salvador's penitentiaries, Nelson Rauda, was sent to prison on Tuesday for allegedly forming part of a network that authorized privileges and perks for imprisoned gang members during a truce with those groups from 2012-2014. Rauda, who had been a fugitive since early May - when authorities arrested 18 people, including top police...

Pixabay Commons Pasadena, California, Jun 8 (EFE).- Star midfielder James Rodriguez overcame a shoulder injury to lead Colombia to a 2-1 victory over Paraguay and a berth in the Copa America Centenario knockout phase, while the host United States got back on track by routing Costa Rica 4-0. Colombia grabbed the lead in its Tuesday night Group A round-robin game at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena ...

San José is the business and residential center of Costa Rica and there are plenty of things to see and do during the day and throughout the night. It’s possible go through the heart of downtown San José, exploring the museums, architecture, and culture of Costa Rica. Source: gobackpacking.com...

Source: Amazon Books 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. An explosive new book, Crisis of Character, about former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary will be released by Amazon Books on June 28. It’s written by a former U.S. Secret Service agent with extensive insid...

Illustrative image. (Flickr Commons) Caracas, Jun 6 (EFE).- The body of Italian diplomat Mauro Monciatti, an administrative official at Italy's consulate in Caracas, was found at his home in an eastern Caracas neighborhood, fellow diplomat Lorenzo Salinas confirmed to EFE on Monday. Monciatti, 60, died from blunt trauma to the skull, an official with the Cicpc criminal investigative unit, w...

Wikimedia Commons Port-au-Prince, Jun 6 (EFE).- Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council, or CEP, has invalidated last year's presidential elections and will hold new elections next Oct. 9 and Jan. 8. The head of the council, Leopold Berlanger, told a press conference Monday that on Oct. 9 the first electoral round will be held, while the runoff balloting will be on Jan. 8, 2017. In that wa...

Wikimedia Commons Morelia, Mexico, Jun 4 (EFE).- Legislators of the southwestern Mexican state of Michoacan have awarded a medal to the traditional music group "Jimenez Brothers and their Harp" which plays "narcocorridos" (narcotics + the traditional Mexican ballads known as "corridos") that glorify drug traffickers. At a solemn session held Friday night at the Legislative Palace of Morelia...

Beijing, Jan 5 (EFE).- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sent a clear warning to China on Sunday regarding Beijing's possible creation of an air defense identification zone in the South China Sea, saying such a move would be a "provocative and destabilizing act." The hypothetical declaration of an air defense zone, discussed in China's state-run press last week, "would automatically raise tens...

Trash buildup and waste go uncollected in Playa Ocotal, Guanacaste, Costa Rica By Maria Jose Brenes San Jose, Jun 5 (EFE).- Activist Stuart Coleman, who led the effort to make Hawaii was the first U.S. state to eliminate using plastic bags in grocery stores, is emphasizing the need for greater efforts by civil society and the private sector to help "cure" the environment in Costa Rica and e...

FARC guerrilla unit marching in 1998. Wikimedia Commons Medellin, Colombia, Jun 4 (EFE).- Colombia's hardline ex-president, Alvaro Uribe, launched a nationwide signature-gathering campaign here Saturday against the peace agreements reached by the current government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which he says entail impunity for the guerrillas. Under the initiative...

Source: Easy Diplomacy EasyDiplomacy.com Press Release - The meeting between the President of Costa Rica Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera with Italian entrepreneurs took place on Thursday 26th May at UnionCamere, on the occasion of his first visit to Italy. The goal is to foster investment opportunities in Costa Rica, which is considered one of the most competitive states in terms of corporate serv...

Photo: Activist Sergio Castillo, Twitter Mexico City, Jun 3 (EFE).- Police reinforced several points of the Mexican capital Friday to prevent hundreds of protesting teachers from following through on a threat to march to the international airport serving this metropolis, EFE confirmed. More than 4,000 police were taking part in the operation launched early Friday to contain the teachers, wh...

Pixabay Commons Santa Clara, California, Jun 4 (EFE; odds by IDSca.com).- Cristian Zapata and James Rodriguez scored first-half goals to lead Colombia to a 2-0 victory here over the host United States in the opening match of the Copa America Centenario. Friday night's win at Levi's Stadium was a critical one for Colombia in Group A, which also is made up of Costa Rica and Paraguay and has b...

Life magazine cover from Britt Nelson's personal collection 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. The brightest light in sports history went out late Friday night as boxing legend Muhammad Ali died in Scottsdale, Arizona at age 74. The whole world woke up Saturday morning...

Wikimiedia Commons Caracas, Jun 2 (EFE).- The Venezuelan military and police on Thursday used tear gas in Caracas to disperse several groups of protesters who were trying to approach Miraflores Palace, the seat of government, to demonstrate against the scarcity of food and medicine. A large contingent of heavily armed members of the Bolivarian National Guard and the National Police fired te...

"Stephen Curry 2" by Keith Allison from Owings Mills, USA - Stephen Curry. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons Oakland, California, Jun 3 (EFE).- The defending champion Golden State Warriors showed off their vaunted depth in a 104-89 victory here over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, cruising to the win despite uncharacteristically poor performances by their t...

(Prince pictured in a publicity photo / MSA) Los Angeles, Jun 2 (EFE).- U.S. musician Prince died of an opioid overdose, according to the results of the autopsy performed on April 22. The Midwest Medical Examiner's Office, located in Ramsey, Minnesota, said the artist died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl, adding in its report that the drug was self-administered. The artist had be...

Michael Temer with Dilma Rousseff Sao Paulo, Jun 1 (EFE).- A group of activists with the MTST homeless workers movement on Wednesday occupied the Sao Paulo office of the Brazilian presidency and confronted police in the heart of the country's largest city. The group invaded the offices of the presidency on Wednesday afternoon and painted it with messages such as "MTST People Without Fear" a...

Wikimedia Commons By Marina Villen Luxor, Egypt, May 30 (EFE).- Temples that are almost empty and docked cruise ships unlikely to sail the Nile anytime soon are elements of the image presented by the Egyptian cities of Luxor and Aswan, whose Pharaonic ruins wait impassively for tourists to return. The dispirited inhabitants of these historic sites dedicate themselves - or rather dedicate...

Wikimedia Commons 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 of this anger and disenchantment Americans are expressing toward the establishment government in Washington, DC is propelling both Republican New York billionaire Donald Trump and Vermont Senator Bernie San...

An Uber driver in Bogota. Wikimedia Commons San Juan, May 31 (EFE).- Traffic chaos prevailed in San Juan on Tuesday as taxi drivers and truckers protested the arrival in Puerto Rico of Uber, the private ride-hailing service, which links passengers and drivers via a mobile application. On Tuesday morning it was difficult to find taxis on the capital streets, while some tourist excursions had...

Wikimedia Commons By Drew Johnson The World Health Organization celebrates World No Tobacco Day by promoting policies that cause more smoking. Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. Tuesday, May 31 marks the World Health Organization’s World No Tobacco Day. The United Nations’ public healt...

Photo by Bill Damon, Flickr Commons Lima, May 30 (EFE).- A group of Peruvian shamans faced off Monday in a duel of rituals to bring an election victory either to Keiko Fujimori or to rival Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in the June 5 presidential runoff. The rituals were celebrated by six shamans, four in favor of Fujimori and two supporting Kuczynski, outside Lima's National Stadium. Empowered b...

Flickr Commons DOJ Press Release - SAN DIEGO – Just a few hours after murdering his girlfriend in Panama and chopping up her body with a machete, retired Marine Brian Karl Brimager sent an email to a friend: “Hey bro, whatcha up to? I got stories for days. I’m living on an island off the coast of Panama loving life and living semper free!!!!!!” A few days later, after he’d disposed of Y...

The Sweet Science Press Release - LAS VEGAS, NV (May 28, 2016) – Reigning WBO World Female junior middleweight champion HANNA GABRIELS meets KATIA ALVARINO in a unification match on June 18 at Domo Jose Maria Vargas de la Guaira in Maiqueita, Venezuela. The 10-round contest is sanctioned for Gabriels WBO title and for the vacant WBA World super welterweight title. The 33-year-old Gabriels (15-1...

Costa Rica National Theater Mural. Wikimedia Commons San Jose, May 29 (EFE).- Latin American cultural expression is being threatened by globalization and new technologies, which have serious consequences in that peoples are beginning to lose their separate identities, Silvia Rosa Martinez, a Peruvian expert in Intangible Cultural Heritage said. In an interview with EFE, the executive direct...

Source: City of Key West Miami, May 27 (EFE).- Investigations by authorities in Key West at the southern tip of Florida have succeeded in locating the owner of a car similar to the one used by the Flintstone family in the famous animated television series. The vehicle was about to be towed away because it was parked on a street where no parking was allowed "The owner has been located! Th...

Wikimedia Commons Santiago, May 27 (EFE).- Chile has completed the removal of an additional 31,000 land mines along its northern border with Peru, the Defense Ministry said. "The efficacy of the mine-clearance work by the armed forces is apparent in the numbers: out of 181,814 landmines planted in different areas of the national territory, 130,497 have already been destroyed in the existing...

Dengue, Chikungunya, and Zika are spread by the Aedes aegyptie mosquito (Wikimedia Commons) By Michele McDonald George Mason University researchers are on the front lines of Costa Rica’s defense against the Zika virus. Bordered by Panama and Nicaragua, the Central American country could be a natural laboratory for George Mason researchers, who have partnered with their counterparts at Co...

Wikimedia Commons Miami, May 28 (EFE).- Artists as diverse as Juan Gabriel, Enrique Bunbury, Andres Calamaro, Juanes, Los Lobos and Los Enanitos Verdes are coming together to record a disc that will go on the market in July as a Latin American tribute to the Creedence Clearwater Revival band. "Quiero Creedence" (I Love Creedence) is the title of the upcoming album with new versions of 14 CC...

Source: Wikimedia Milan, May 28 (EFE; additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star).- Real Madrid captured an unprecedented 11th Champions League title with a victory here Saturday night on penalties over crosstown rival Atletico Madrid, which had rallied to tie the final at 1-1 late in second half. In a rematch of the 2014 final of Europe's biggest club competition, the same team came out o...

Source: GoFundMe Important - A lengthy followup and update can be found here - After suffering a ruptured aneurysm during a conference in Costa Rica in April and later being put in a coma after several surgeries, a professor is stranded without the means to return to the United States. Associate professor of Science and Environmental Education Julie Lambert has spent the last six weeks in H...

(Wikimedia Commons) San Diego, May 28 (EFE).- The visit of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to San Diego sparked angry and nearly violent protests that resulted in at least a dozen arrests. The police chief of this Southern California city near the Mexican border, Shelley Zimmerman, said at a press conference that a minimum of 12 people had been taken into custody fo...

Source: Wikipedia Commons Madrid, May 27 (EFE).- U.S. filmmaker John Landis, known for directing "An American Werewolf in London" and the music video for the Michael Jackson song "Thriller," told EFE in an interview Friday that most of the films being made in Hollywood today are "crap." Landis said he was involved in three projects at the moment, although he declined to provide details, and...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, May 27 (EFE).- The gang rape of a 16-year-old girl by more than 30 men in a Rio de Janeiro shantytown has sparked an outcry for justice on social networks and from Brazil's political class, including suspended President Dilma Rousseff and interim head of state Michel Temer. Thousands of Internet users have inundated Twitter with messages expressing indignation...