Nearly the entire length of the massive tuber, measured some 18 inches in length and more than 3 inches, was lodged inside the patient's anal cavity.  A 55-year-old Costa Rican man who had to have an 18-inch long yuca (also known as cassava root) removed from his anal cavity in an emergency surgery at Costa Rica’s public San Juan de Dios Hospital in the capital San Jose could potentially file ...

Wikimedia Commons Santiago, Apr 6 (EFE).- The Chilean navy on Wednesday detected a huge gathering of uncounted thousands of jellyfish - some 16 kilometers (10 miles) long - off the coast of the South American nation. The navy said that the unusual phenomenon was discovered when the navy was making an overflight of a portion of the Chilean coast. Between San Pedro Bay and the Farellones L...

Source: CASSA Facebook Guatemala City, Apr 7 (EFE).- Visitors to a zoo in Guatemala will now be able to see Casa Sostenible, the first sustainable house built in Central America, a project that features renewable technologies. "With Casa Sostenible, we are trying to provide sustainable alternatives to the 1.2 million visitors who are welcomed each year by La Aurora Zoo," the attraction's ed...

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. Hillary Clinton is still in the driver’s seat, but when she looks in the rear-view mirror the sight of Bernie Sanders nipping at her heels keeps getting bigger. Vermont Sen. Sanders whipped former Secretary of State C...

(Pixabay Commons) Editor's note: This is a guest column by Patrick Goodness, CEO of The Goodness Company. I’m not one to air dirty laundry in public, but if you are a business owner in Costa Rica, this story is important enough to share.   About 6 months ago, our leadership team decided that our company was ready to invest for growth.  As an overworked CEO, I realized that we needed the ...

A 500-ton Mitaplas injection molder, starting bid just $1,000. There are also hundreds of items perfect for small or home workshops. SPONSORED A California firm with operations in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia has launched an online auction of a massive selection of industrial and shop equipment located in Costa Rica on behalf of Mabe, a Mexican-owned company which des...

Presidential Standard of Brazil. Wikimedia Commons Brasilia, Apr 5 (EFE).- The Brazilian crisis entered a new and confused phase on Tuesday with the decision by a Supreme Court justice to order Congress to take up the impeachment of Vice President Michel Temer even as lawmakers are deciding whether to impeach President Dilma Rousseff. Justice Marco Aurelio Mello's ruling is subject to appea...

(Wikimedia Commons) WASHINGTON (EFE) Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump says he will block remittances sent home by Mexican citizens in the United States if that country does not agree to pay for the wall he wants to build along the border between the two nations, according to a document his campaign released on Tuesday. The two-page memo dated March 31 and entitled "Compelling Me...

Source: Diego Reyna Facebok Toronto, Apr 4 (EFE).- A Mexican construction worker helping to build Trump Tower in Vancouver, British Columbia, placed his country's flag on the building to protest recent statements by U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump. Diego Reyna placed the flag over the weekend, Canadian media reported Monday, and he later posted a photo on the social media ...

Source: Alfredo Guzman Twitter Mexico City, Apr 4 (EFE).- A Mexican government contractor, a former CEO of state-owned oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, and an associate of notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman are some of the individuals whose names appear in the Panama Papers. Mexican media outlets Aristegui Noticias and Proceso magazine, part of the International ...

Source: Boxing Promotions Facebook San Juan, Apr 3 (EFE).- Young Puerto Rican boxer Alexander "El Pollo" de Jesus was shot multiple times and killed Sunday morning on a street in San Juan's Hato Rey district, where he lived. Police said that the body of the 33-year-old fighter was found on Belmonte Street after being taken by force from his home nearby. According to local dailies, a few ...

EFE/File Washington, Apr 3 (EFE).- The largest journalistic leak in history, which came to light on Sunday with the participation of the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, suggests that 140 politicians and officials from around the globe, including 72 former and current world leaders, have connections with secret "offshore" companies to escape tax scrutiny ...

Source: Wikimedia Barcelona, Apr 2 (EFE; betting context by IDSca.com).- Real Madrid stunned FC Barcelona with a strong late finish to Saturday's Clasico, getting a pair of goals over the last half hour of the match to defeat its arch-rival 2-1 at Camp Nou. Barça had hoped the match would be a fitting tribute to Johan Cruyff, a legendary Dutch player and manager who passed away on March 24 ...

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff speaks during a meeting with jurists at Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, March 22, 2016. REUTERS/Gregg Newton Brasilia, Apr 1 (EFE).- Members of the MST Landless Workers Movement told Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff Friday they would take to the streets to defeat a plan to oust her in a "coup," as they termed an ongoing impeachment effort in Congress. ...

Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, Apr 2 (EFE).- Six experts have concluded that at least 17 people were incinerated at a garbage dump in the southern Mexican town of Cocula and said more tests would be carried out to determine whether the bodies of all 43 students who went missing in 2014 could have been burned to ashes there, the latest development in a case that has garnered international atten...

New quick-action gesture iPhone 6s Austin, Texas, Mar 31 (EFE).- The FBI has agreed to unlock two Apple devices belonging to a pair of teenage murder suspects in Arkansas, the prosecutor in the case said. The bureau is providing that assistance after the Justice Department said Monday it had gained access to the iPhone used by one of the shooters in last December's San Bernardino, Californi...

Havana, Apr 1 (EFE).- Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev will arrive in Cuba on Saturday afternoon for an official visit that will include a meeting with Cuban counterpart Raul Castro, the Caribbean island's state-run media said. Prior to his meeting with Castro, Nazarbayev is expected to pay tribute to Cuban independence hero Jose Marti - a tradition for visiting heads of state and other di...

Source: Mozilla ASUNCION, MAR 31 (EFE). — Aguaratata, the Guarani version of Mozilla's Firefox browser, will be unveiled in Paraguay next week at Asuncion National University, the Language Policy Secretariat said Thursday. Aguaratata Firefox in Guarani took two years to develop and will be presented to the public on Monday. The Aguaratata browser will be an important tool for spe...

Ronald McDonald sits in the Netherlands. Source: Wikimedia Commons New York, Mar 31 (EFE).- McDonald's Corp. plans to open approximately 1,300 fast food restaurants in China over the next five years, CEO Steve Easterbrook said. The top exec at the U.S. multinational said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that the firm wants to make China its second largest market worldwide, behin...

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. The Independent voter has yet to speak. Presidential Campaign 2016 will be remembered as the year the Independent registered voter weighed in and turned the tides. The math is simple: Out of all registered voters acro...

REUTERS/Janine Costa By Anastasia Moloney BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The scale of sex trafficking around illegal gold mines in parts of Latin America - including Costa Rica’s northern neighbor, Nicaragua - is "staggering," and thousands of people working in the region’s gold mines are prey to labour exploitation by organised crime groups, a think-tank said on Wednesday. "When ...

(Wikimedia Commons) New York, Mar 30 (EFE).- Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump on Wednesday retracted comments he made about illegal abortion and said that doctors who perform such abortions are the ones who should be "legally responsible," and not the women who have them. The clarification came in an interview with MSNBC set to air Wednesday night but the announcement of which w...

Veracruz, Mexico, Mar 29 (EFE).- The alleged rape of a girl by four young men from wealthy families in the Gulf state of Veracruz has rocked Mexico, prompting people to take to the streets to protest the case's handling. The girl was leaving a disco in January 2015 in Boca del Rio when she was forced into a vehicle by college students Enrique Capitaine, Jorge Cotaita, Diego Cruz and Gerardo Rod...

Waco Mammoth Museum - Photo By Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 3.0 Washington, Mar 29 (EFE).- Archaeologists have found a mammoth skull and two tusk fragments in a sand pit in northeastern Oklahoma, media reports said. The Oklahoma Archeological Survey, or OAS, identified the animal as a Columbian mammoth, one of the last species of that giant mammal to inhabit both North America and Central Ameri...

Washington, Mar 29 (EFE).- Two suspicious packages found Tuesday at the U.S. Capitol forced police to evacuate a group of tourists and close off streets through the area, a congressional security spokesperson told EFE. The incident occurred after on Monday a man entered the Congressional Visitor Center, pulled out a pistol and caused chaos by pointing it at one of the officers directing tourist...

The U.S. Capitol building is shown on lockdown following a shooting incident at the buildings Visitors Center, in Washington, March 28, 2016. (N. Ardanza/VOA) (VOA) Police at the U.S. Capitol shot a man Monday after he pulled out a gun and pointed it at officers during a routine security screening at the entrance of the site's visitor's center. Authorities identified him as 66-year-old Larry Da...

Wikimedia Commons By Carol Blair Vaughn Older adults who exercise regularly could buy an extra decade of good brain functioning, suggests a March 23, 2016 study by Dr. Clinton Wright, a neurologist at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Cool.  Jog your memory AND your body. The study found that seniors who got moderate to intense exercise retained more of their mental s...

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. For now, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has two speeds – hot and sizzlin’ hot. Voters say they are starting to get “Bernie fever.” On Saturday, Sanders – in his quest to win the Democratic nomination for president -- sco...

Wikimedia Commons Aparecida, Brazil, Mar 28 (EFE).- Brazilian researchers have improved the delivery of a medication to fight Alzheimer's by using a nanofiber to regulate the compound's release, allowing long-term action in the fight against the disease. The project is being led by doctoral student Geisa Salles and professor Anderson Lobo, coordinator of Vale do Paraiba University's Researc...

Wikimedia Commons Miami, Mar 27 (EFE).- The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a group of 26 Cuban migrants on a raft near the Florida coast, seven of whom had bullet wounds, spokesmen for the force told EFE on Sunday. The group of Cubans was discovered on their raft near Key West, where they were attempting to land, on Saturday. Seven of the migrants had been shot and six of them were taken t...

Turismo Miramar Buenos Aires, Mar 27 (EFE). - Residents of Miramar, a coastal city in Argentina's Buenos Aires province, have built the world's tallest chocolate Easter Bunny, a creation that stands 5.2 meters (just over 17 feet) tall and weighs 3,000 kilos (3.3 tons), city officials told EFE on Sunday. "In the past six years, around this time, we have made giant Easter eggs, but since othe...

Source: Rolling Stones Twitter By Sara Gomez Armas Havana, Mar 26 (EFE).- A sea of cellphones lit up the night in this capital's Coliseo de la Ciudad Deportiva sports complex from the first chords of "Jumpin' Jack Flash," with many in attendance eager to capture an image of The Rolling Stones taking the stage for their much-anticipated free concert in Cuba. "We know that years back it wa...

"Rolling Stones 26" by Gorupdebesanez - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons By Yeny Garcia Havana, Mar 25 (EFE).- The legendary Rolling Stones spent their first night in Cuba getting to know the island's celebs from the realms of art and culture, who did not disguise their enthusiasm at meeting their "Satanic Majesties" after the rock band landed in Havana to give a historic f...

US Special Forces. Pentagon file photo Washington, Mar 25 (EFE).- The United States believes it has killed the Islamic State's second-in-command, Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said at a press conference Friday morning, confirming earlier media reports. "We are systematically eliminating ISIL's Cabinet. Indeed, the U.S. military killed several key terrori...

By Ministério da Defesa - Solenidade de passagem de cargo dos Comandantes da 2ª Região Militar e da 2ª Divisão de Exército no QG do Comando Militar do Sudeste (CMSE), CC BY 2.0 Rio de Janeiro, Mar 25 (EFE).- Brazil's military will abide by the nation's constitution and laws amid its severe ongoing "political, economic and ethical-moral" crisis, army commander Gen. Eduardo Villas Boas said. ...

By Jack Donnelly Ujarrás is a wonderful place you should not run off to visit. You should plan a trip to several attractions in the area and spend some time in Ujarrás as part of your trip, maybe a nice picnic lunch. The Ruins of Ujarrás are not well known, even though they were declared a National Monument of Costa Rica by executive decree in 1985. They lie east of Paraíso (Cartago), just o...

Pixabay Commons Washington, Mar 24 (EFE).- U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Thursday announced an investigation of seven Iranian hackers, who have been charged with attacking the U.S. financial system and a small dam in New York at the behest of the government in Tehran. "The attacks were relentless, systematic and widespread," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said at a press conference...

U.S. President Barack Obama and Argentina's President Mauricio Macri visit the Parque de la Memoria (Remembrance Park) where they will honor victims of Argentina's Dirty War on the 40th anniversary of the 1976 coup. (REUTERS OMX) (VOA) U.S. President Barack Obama said the United States was slow to speak out on the atrocities committed during Argentina's former dictatorship but says his adminis...

People flee from the Brussels airport in this image taken from video, shot by a bystander in the the immediate aftermath of blasts at the airport near Brussels, Belgium, March 22, 2016. REUTERS/Asher Gunsberg/Handout via Reuters TV 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. Clinto...

Panama Canal Panama City, Mar 23 (EFE).- The long-delayed inauguration of the expanded Panama Canal will take place on June 26, the administrator of the interoceanic waterway said Wednesday. "After passing some critical tests this past weekend, we concluded that the inauguration date would be June 26 of this year," Panama Canal Authority, or ACP, Administrator Jorge Quijano said. Panaman...