Source: Alfredo Guzman Twitter Mexico City, Feb 25 (EFE).- Drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman is willing to plead guilty if extradited by Mexico to the United States in exchange for "a reasonable sentence" to be served at a medium-security prison, one of the Sinaloa cartel leader's lawyers said Thursday. Attorney Jose Refugio Rodriguez told Radio Formula that he discussed this opt...

Justin Bieber performs in 2011. Wikimedia Commons San Jose, Feb 25 (EFE).- A Costa Rican animal rescue center invited singer Justin Bieber to visit it, learn the importance of letting wild animals live free and stop buying monkeys. Vanessa Lizano, who heads the Rescue Center in Tilaran, in northern Costa Rica, told EFE on Thursday that she does not know if Bieber will accept her invitation,...

Source: Sea Shepherd BAJA CALIFORNIA, Mexico – Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has launched a video of this weekend's rescue of a humpback whale, entangled in an illegal gillnet. The video received over 113,000 views on Facebook after its first day, almost 4,000 shares and hundreds of excited comments from fans. In total, over 543,000 people have been exposed to the video on Facebook. The Se...

Wikimedia Commons Washington, Feb 24 (EFE). - The presidents of the countries of the Northern Triangle of Central America met here Wednesday with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden to move forward on the Alliance for Prosperity plan for the region, and they agreed on a new action framework for 2016. Biden met with Salvadoran President Salvador Sanchez Ceren, Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales an...

Flickr Commons Washington, Feb 23 (EFE).- Fourteen activists were arrested Tuesday in front of the White House in a protest on behalf of the rights of Central American immigrants and against the deportation of the undocumented to countries with high rates of violence. More than 50 activists gathered with a large poster reading "President Obama, you have blood on your hands," a reference to ...

//TRW// By Greg Flakus Illustrative image. (Creative Commons) HOUSTON, TEXAS (VOA) World oil prices are likely to remain relatively low over the next year, but a new medium-term market report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) — the world's oil consumer body — predicts a big increase after that, with prices at around $80 a barrel, double what they are now. The report’s authors...

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton (rear) applauds his wife, Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, as they appear with their daughter Chelsea (R) at Mrs. Clinton's caucus night rally in Des Moines, Iowa February 1, 2016. REUTERS/Adrees Latif By Britt Nelson Editor's note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertis...

Wikimedia Commons Havana, Feb 22 (EFE).- Cuba announced Monday a plan of action to deal with the Zika virus, dengue and Chikungunya, which includes mobilizing 9,000 members of the armed forces and 200 police officers to combat the mosquito that transmits these diseases. In a statement published in official media, President Raul Castro urged Cubans to make the fight against the Aedes aegypti...

Wikimedia Commons Washington, Feb 22 (EFE). - The federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) puts at risk the safety of thousands of Central American youngsters who cross the southern border into the U.S. while they wait for immigration court authorities to rule on their cases, according to an official study released Monday in Washington. The Government Accountability Office (GAO), which ...

David, Panama, Feb 21 (EFE).- More than 100 Cuban migrants from among the 1,300 stranded in Panama on Sunday received immigration permits that early next week will allow them to travel legally to Mexico, where they will be able to continue their land journey to the United States. The deputy commissioner of the Panamanian Immigration Service, David Rios Duran, told EFE that 145 people are being ...

Source: Flickr Commons Washington, Feb 21 (EFE; additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star).- Michigan police on Sunday arrested the prime suspect in a series of shootings in the city of Kalamazoo that killed at least six people and wounded two others. Kalamazoo resident Jason Dalton, 45, was arrested in a search and capture operation on Sunday morning, Lt. Dale Hinz told the daily Kalamaz...

San Jose, Feb 18 (EFE; additional context by The Costa Rica Star).- Government representatives and environmentalists attending the second meeting of signatories to the United Nations Environment Program's Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Sharks, or Sharks MOU, agreed to work to enlist coastal communities in protecting the marine predators. A total of 22 species of sh...

Caracas, Feb 20 (EFE).- The majority of the approximately 3 million inhabitants of Caracas are without drinking water this weekend, after several weeks of partial suspensions due to the maintenance work currently underway, state-run Hidrocapital said Saturday. "The maintenance work being done on the principal pipelines of the Tuy II drinking water production system" is part of "the action being...

Gallito de arracache in Costa Rica. Jack Donnelly By Jack Donnelly   Eat like an Inca! You can enjoy one of the culinary delights of the ancient Incas of Peru right here in modern Costa Rica. It’s a dish that still thrills my palate.   It is called arracacha in English and arracache in Costa Rican Spanish. In fact, in Quechua (the Inca language, still widely spoken in Per...

Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. Source: Wikimedia Commons Miami, Feb 19 (EFE).- The wife of imprisoned Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman has broken her silence and spoken out in defense of her husband in an exclusive interview with Telemundo, saying she fears for his life and that he is being denied his basic human rights. The U.S. Spanish-language broadcaster uploaded some clips...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Washington, Feb 20 (EFE).- Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is calling on U.S. consumers to boycott Apple's products until the tech company unlocks an iPhone used by one of the perpetrators of the December 2015 San Bernardino, California, terrorist attack, which left 14 dead. Trump was referring to Apple's refusal to comply with a court order secured ...

Victoria's Secret model Candice Swanepoel has posted a sexy photo from the set of a photo shoot in Costa Rica. A naked Candice lays on the beach, with her chest covered in sand, in the saucy photo, which was taken by photographer Jerome Duran for a Victoria's Secret photo shoot in Costa Rica. The blonde beauty covers her chest and coyly gazes into the camera. Candice has been sharing a number...

Guatemala City, Feb 18 (EFE).- Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis announced Thursday that some 4,100 Cuban migrants remain in his country awaiting transportation to the United States. In response to reporters' questions after meeting in this capital with his Guatemalan counterpart, Jimmy Morales, Solis expressed his wish that "in a few weeks" all the Cubans will have been able to travel...

File photo Caracas, Feb 18 (EFE).- The former presidents of Costa Rica and Poland - Oscar Arias and Lech Walesa, respectively, both of whom are Nobel Peace Prize winners - are in Venezuela to support political prisoners and on Thursday participated in a special session of parliament at which they criticized the country's economic model and urged lawmakers to work together to get out of the cur...

"Rolling Stones 26" by Gorupdebesanez - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons Rio de Janeiro, Feb 18 (EFE).- The front man for the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger, said Thursday that he is happy to return to Rio de Janeiro, where the iconic British rock band will offer its fourth concert on the weekend, 10 years after giving a free performance here that attracted 1.2 million fans. "...

Wikimedia Commons Aboard the papal aircraft, Feb 18 (EFE).- Pope Francis said Thursday that he did not meet with relatives of 43 trainee teachers kidnapped 18 months ago in southern Mexico because he had received multiple requests from different groups, "including ones at odds with one another." The Argentine pontiff made the remarks to international media, including EFE, while flying back ...

When it comes to deciding on the premier vacation destination, Costa Rica, the little country with a big personality, is never far from your thoughts. Source: culture.oasiscollections.com...

(Apple press photo) "The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand," read the opening paragraph of an open letter posted by Apple CEO, Tim Cook on Tuesday. Apple computers is resisting a U.S. government order to unlock its encrypted ...

(Creative 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. Fallout from the unforeseen death of U.S Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia will have profound effects on this year’s campaign for president as the Republican controlled U.S. Senate vows to block any nomination to the...

Rio de Janeiro Sao Paulo, Feb 16 (EFE).- Real estate prices fell between 15 percent and 20 percent in Brazil last year and the sector will remain "under pressure" until mid-2017, credit rating agency Moody's said Tuesday. Brazil's real estate industry has been in a cyclical downturn since 2012, with the slump coming after a period of rapid growth, Moody's said. The downturn has intensifi...

Santiago, Feb 16 (EFE).- Chile's judiciary issued a warrant Tuesday for police to search the Queen Mary II, set to dock this week in the Andean nation, in order to discover the circumstances surrounding the death of a Chilean man who worked on the cruise ship as a chef. Favio Oñate, 26, leaped overboard before dawn on Aug. 15 as the vessel was sailing off the Canadian coastline. The procedur...

YouTube/Google under Creative Commons 2.0 Bogota, Feb 16 (EFE).- Deputy Interior Minister Carlos Ferro resigned on Tuesday a few hours after he was linked with an alleged male prostitution network extending into Colombia's National Police, official sources told EFE. Ferro's resignation was seen as part of an internal restructuring of the Interior Ministry, the sources said. Earlier Tuesd...

Messi with teammate Neymar. Wikimedia Commons Barcelona, Feb 14 (EFE).- Lionel Messi was outstanding on Sunday in Barcelona's 6-1 drubbing of a hapless Celta Vigo at Camp Nou, a victory that kept the Catalan club atop the Spanish First Division soccer standings. It was Messi getting the home squad on the board first in the 28th minute on a fabulous left-footed direct free kick, but then Swe...

Quito, Feb 14 (EFE).- A Mexican man who tried to smuggle 11 iguanas out of Ecuador's Galapagos Islands has been sentenced by a judge to serve two years in prison and pay a fine of $20,000, Galapagos National Park said in a Twitter post Sunday. Gustavo Eduardo Toledo Albarran was arrested last year when he tried to smuggle the marine and land iguanas out of Santa Cruz Island. "The judge from ...

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, Feb 13 (EFE).- Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff led this Saturday the National Day of Mobilization for the Fight against the Aedes Aegypti, a day during which more than 200,000 members of the armed for...

Wikimedia Commons New York, Feb 13 (EFE; odds by IDSca.com).- The New York Yankees and Cuban star closer Aroldis Chapman agreed to a one-year, $11.3-million contract, avoiding salary arbitration. The Yankees will pay Chapman, whom they acquired this offseason from the Cincinnati Reds, $11,325,000 in his first season in the Bronx, Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal said. Chapman, who turns 28 this...

Panama Canal Panama City, Feb 13 (EFE).- The Panama Canal Authority, or ACP, said a successful test was conducted on a section of the new third set of locks where cracks were discovered last year. The test by the GUPC consortium responsible for the new locks, led by Spanish construction group Sacyr Vallehermoso, consisted of gradually raising the water behind Gate No. 6 of the Cocoli locks ...

Washington, Feb 12 (EFE).- The U.S. government announced Friday the upcoming signing of a memorandum of understanding with Cuba in the field of civil aviation that will pave the way for direct commercial flights by fall of this year. Up to 20 direct flights daily will be permitted from the U.S. to Havana, and 10 more to another nine international airports in Cuba, including those at Santiago de...

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton (rear) applauds his wife, Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, as they appear with their daughter Chelsea (R) at Mrs. Clinton's caucus night rally in Des Moines, Iowa February 1, 2016. REUTERS/Adrees Latif By Britt Nelson Say goodbye to Republican candidates for president -- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Hulett-Packard CEO C...

/TRW / FILE (Reuters OMX) - Members of the Oregon State Troopers and FBI are seen as in Burns, Oregon Jan. 31, 2016. Four armed occupants remain at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns. WASHINGTON (EFE) The last occupiers of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon surrendered peacefully on Thursday after occupying the site for 40 days. Three of the militants who remained at the si...

Traders work at their desks in front of the German share price index, DAX board, at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, February 9, 2016. REUTERS/Staff/Remote By Sam Forgione NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock indexes worldwide tumbled on Thursday on fears over the health of the global economy, with banking shares slumping on both sides of the Atlantic, while safe-haven 10-year Treasury yield...

By Mar Centenera Buenos Aires, Feb 8 (EFE).- The Aedes aegypti mosquito is considered "a perfect virus-spreading machine" by scientists at Argentina's Center for Plagues and Insecticides Research, or Cipein, which studies the insect's preferences and phobias to fight it and contain dengue, Zika and Chikunguña epidemics. Females of the species, able to lay an average of 100 to 300 eggs, bite ...

(Archive image for illustrative purposes. 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. Cheers could be heard loud and clear in Jaco Beach, Costa Rica, Tuesday night as the first votes were being counted in the USA’s New Hampshire presidential primary. Next comes t...

Washington, Feb 9 (EFE).- Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump on Tuesday finally put a price to one of his most controversial proposals, building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border paid for by the latter, claiming that it would cost $8 billion. "The wall is probably $8 billion, which is a tiny fraction of the money that we lose with Mexico," said Trump in an interview on MSNBC. The...

FBI arrests ISIS suspects in New York. 2015 EFE file photo. Washington, Feb 9 (EFE).- U.S. intelligence services on Tuesday said that the Islamic State "probably" will try to stage direct attacks on U.S. territory in 2016, and it warned that the terrorist group has infiltrated the masses of refugees fleeing the armed conflicts in Iraq and Syria. The IS probably intends to carry out more att...