It's become common lore (and accepted by some) that it takes 21 days for an individual to form new habits. With that in mind, the team at Passage, a new travel organization dedicated to immersive experiences—has built a 21-day excursion to the Puerta a La Vida retreat in the Costa Rican wilderness. More info at: passage.to...

Central American bombshell Juliana Herz is not your typical model. This McDonald’s-eating, duck face-making, tee shirt-wearing girl has already exploded into an industry-wide name to know.Juliana Herz is the first model in Costa Rica that is signed with Elite Model Management in Miami, LA & NYC. But also has more agencies that represent her in several countries like: Models 1 London, UNO ...

Panama Canal Panama City, Jan 25 (EFE).- The Panama Canal is operating normally and was not affected by the sinking of a Venezuelan-flagged cargo ship that collided with another vessel at the Caribbean entrance to the interoceanic waterway, administrators said Monday. "The sinking of this vessel is not affecting the operations or traffic in the aquatic waterway," said the Panama Canal Autho...

Wikimedia Commons Miami, Jan 25 (EFE).- A team armed with picks and metal detectors that was searching the former Miami Beach mansion of late Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar found a locked safe this Monday weighing some 600 pounds (270 kilos), media outlets reported. The safe was discovered under the foundation of the Miami Beach house once owned by Escobar, who was gunned down in a 1993 ...

Source: Flickr Commons Ensenada, Mexico, Jan 25 (EFE).- Four people, including two children, were killed and 15 others wounded in a shooting at a cockfight in Ensenada, a city in the northwestern Mexican state of Baja California, over the weekend, prosecutors said. Several masked gunmen entered the Palenque Poker building looking for a man they were ordered to kill, the Baja California Atto...

Wikimedia Commons Rio de Janeiro, Jan 24 (EFE).- A group of women removed their bikini tops on Rio de Janeiro's Ipanema beach on Sunday to raise awareness of breast cancer in Brazil and challenge a ban on topless sunbathing. A conviction for violating the law banning topless sunbathing could land the women in prison for between three months and a year. The "Topless in Rio" project drew a...

Wikimedia Commons Cleveland, Jan 23 (EFE).- David Blatt has confirmed that the Cleveland Cavaliers fired him as their head coach, a position that his assistant, Tyronn Lue, will now occupy. Blatt led the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals last season and coached the team to an Eastern Conference-best 30-11 record through the halfway point of 2015-2016, but, according to U.S. media outlets, his ina...

Wikimedia Commons Washington, Jan 23 (EFE).- Chevron Corp. hailed a District Court of The Hague ruling in favor of the U.S. energy supermajor in its legal battle with Ecuador, which had sought to nullify arbitral rulings handed down against the country in connection with a multi-billion-dollar pollution judgment. "Today's decision reinforces the integrity of the arbitral proceedings and ens...

Alan Gross with his wife Judy, attorney Scott Gilbert, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. watch television on board a U.S. government plane headed back to the U.S. as the news breaks of his release, Dec. 17, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson) By Lucia Leal Washington, Jan 23 (EFE).- U.S. citizen Alan Gross believes the C...

By Tamara Gil Beijing, Jan 22 (EFE).- Chinese human rights lawyers were targeted initially and then Hong Kong-based book publishers, two of them holders of European passports, and now Chinese authorities have arrested the Swedish co-founder of a non-governmental organization. These are but the latest in a long list of individuals persecuted by the Chinese government in a crackdown that has c...

Wikimedia Commons Port-au-Prince, Jan 22 (EFE).- Haitian election officials on Friday indefinitely postponed this weekend's presidential runoff election, but the move did not bring a halt to violent incidents in this capital and cities in the country's northeast involving thousands of demonstrators opposed to the vote. "There are people wounded, but we don't have the number yet," a Haitian ...

Photo by Cohen.Canada. Flickr Commons Washington, Jan 21 (EFE).- The U.S. government on Thursday toughened the requirements for entering this country from Syria, Iraq, Iran and Sudan for citizens of the 38 countries belonging to the Visa Waiver Program, though the new guidelines make allowances for journalists, aid workers and members of international organizations. The increased requiremen...

Wikimedia Commons VANCOUVER, BC - Vancouver Whitecaps FC confirmed today that defenders Jordan Smith and Kendall Waston have been called up to the Costa Rican national team for an upcoming training camp and friendly versus Venezuela. Smith and Waston will join the Ticos when they hold camp from January 18 to 20 in San Rafael de Alajuela, Costa Rica, after which they will report to Whitecaps...

Source: NASA00 Washington, Jan 19 (EFE).- NASA published photographs of the first flower grown on board the International Space Station as part of a 2-year experiment to raise plants in space. Although astronauts had grown lettuce and other vegetables in their space garden, this is the first time that flowers - zinnias, in particular, which are edible - have bloomed outside Earth's gravity....

By Alfonso Fernandez Washington, Jan 19 (EFE; additional context by The Costa Rica Star).- One of every five people in Latin America between the ages of 15 and 24 is neither in school nor working and two-thirds of them are women, according to a World Bank study released Tuesday. The figure represents more than 20 million people in the region and the problem is especially acute in Central Ame...

Source: Kate del Castillo Twitter Mexico City, Jan 18 (EFE).- Mexican actress Kate del Castillo, who met with Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman late last year while he was a still a fugitive, will be summoned by Mexican authorities to testify about her links to the powerful drug lord, a federal government source told EFE Monday. "Yes, they're going to call her to testify," the source said ...

ALMA instrument array in Atacama, Chile Santiago, Jan 18 (EFE).- International astronomers in Chile on Monday began a hunt for an Earthlike exoplanet, focusing their efforts on the closest star to the Solar System, Proxima Centauri, using the 3.6-meter La Silla telescope at the European Southern Observatory in the Atacama desert. The observatory is located at an altitude of 2,400 meters (ab...

By Ivonne Malaver Miami, Jan 18 (EFE).- The first Cuban migrants - who had been stranded in Costa Rica - began arriving in Miami on the weekend distressed over their ordeal, but also grateful to the Central American country for its "incredible humanitarian consciousness" after Nicaragua closed its border to them, temporarily halting their trek to the United States. Odalanier Diaz, 27, was re...

Peninsula Papagayo, Costa Rica’s premier 5-star residential resort destination. Undoubtedly the country’s best and most respected location for luxury private residences. Source: sarcoarchitects.com...

Karina Ramos Leiton (July 14, 1993, Heredia, Costa Rica) is a Costa Rican TV Host, model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Costa Rica 2014 and represented her country at Miss Universe 2014. ...

"Ejercito de colombia" by Mrnico1092 - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons Bogota, Jan 17 (EFE).- The 17 fishermen kidnapped by the National Liberation Army, or ELN, guerrilla group were rescued in an operation conducted by the Colombian army, President Juan Manuel Santos said Sunday. The ELN, Colombia's second-largest leftist rebel group, kidnapped the fishermen on Saturday. ...

Celine Dion and her late husband. Wikimedia Commons New York, Jan 16 (EFE).- Just two days after Canadian singer Celine Dion lost her husband to cancer, her older brother Daniel died Saturday of the same disease. He was 59. Daniel Dion, one of the artist's 13 siblings, died Saturday in Montreal of the brain, tongue and throat cancer he had been fighting, TMZ online entertainment news report...

File photo Washington, Jan 16 (EFE).- U.S. President Barack Obama signed Saturday an executive order to lift economic sanctions on Iran, the White House said. Obama signed the order after the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, confirmed that Iran has met all the commitments it made last July in Vienna to reach a historic nuclear accord and have international sanctions on that coun...

Flickr Commons Mexico City, Jan 16 (EFE).- The arrest in Spain of a former chairman of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has roiled the political scene in Mexico, where the main opposition parties demanded that President Enrique Peña Nieto's administration take legal action against the politician. The center-right National Action Party, or PAN, insisted that the "full we...

A Walmart store in Escazu, Costa Rica. File photo Washington, Jan 15 (EFE; additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star).- U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. on Friday announced plans to close 269 stores and lay off 16,000 employees, 6,000 of them outside the United States. In a news release, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said it would close 154 stores in the United States and...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Caracas, Jan 15 (EFE).- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's administration, using constitutionally granted decree powers, on Friday declared a 60-day, nationwide state of economic emergency. The measure, extendable by an additional 60 days, is intended to "protect the people from existing threats," the country's vice president for the economy, Luis Salas, said af...

Washington, Jan 15 (EFE).- Two helicopters of the U.S. Armed Forces collided in mid-flight with 12 people aboard off the coast of Oahu in Hawaii, and up to now no survivors have been reported, the Coast Guard said Friday. Coast Guard official Sara Mooers told local media that each of the two choppers carried a crew of six, and that wreckage from the collision was found 2 miles off the north coa...

Beijing, Jan 15 (EFE).- China's central bank said Friday it had extended 100 billion yuan ($15.18 billion) in loans to nine financial institutions, 10 days after announcing a similar operation to boost liquidity in the market. The injection of funds, which comes amid a slowdown in China's economy, was carried out via medium-term loans (six-month maturity) with an interest rate of 3.25 percent a...

Due to it’s geographical position, Costa Rica is one of the most consistent surf zones in the World. Being so close the Equator and facing, unobstructed into the Pacific Ocean results in Costa Rica receiving swells from both the Northern Hemisphere (November – March), and swells from the Southern Hemisphere (pretty much year-round) Check more info at: surfcamppeaksnswells.com ...

Wikimedia Commons By Maria Clara Montoya Lima, Jan 13 (EFE; additional context by The Costa Rica Star).- Scientists at Peru's International Potato Center, or CIP, are working on a project to explore the possibility of growing potatoes on Mars. The idea for the project came from researcher Julio Valdivia, who is conducting studies for NASA and found that the soil in an area in southern Pe...

Wikimedia Commons San Juan, Jan 12 (EFE).- As the sun rose Tuesday on the statues of U.S. presidents outside Puerto Rico's capitol building, four of them were seen to be painted with aerosol, an act of vandalism coinciding with a congressional hearing in Washington that could be key to the island's ability to declare bankruptcy. The suspects, of whom three have been arrested, sprayed red pa...

Source: Mercedes-Benz By Julio Cesar Rivas Detroit, Jan 12 (EFE).- More than 40 vehicles will make their debuts at the North American International Auto Show, or NAIAS, the most important event of its kind in the United States and one of the most prominent in the world, in Detroit. The new offerings at the show, which opens its doors on Monday, will be introduced over the first two days,...

...

Houston, Jan 10 (EFE; odds by IDSca.com).- The Kansas City Chiefs rolled to a 30-0 win over the Houston Texans, while the Pittsburgh Steelers rallied to beat the Cincinnati Bengals 18-16 in the American Football Conference wild card playoff games. Quarterback Alex Smith led the Chiefs to their first playoff win in 22 years. Kansas City will play the New England Patriots on Jan. 16 in the div...

Alfredo Guzman Twitter Mexico City, Jan 10 (EFE).- Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman's sons, Ivan Archivaldo and Alfredo Guzman, confirmed in Twitter posts on Sunday the authenticity of the photograph showing their father meeting with actor Sean Penn, who interviewed the Mexican drug lord for Rolling Stone magazine. "Short, but always with the best posture," Alfredo ...

Source: Powerball.com Washington, Jan 10 (EFE).- The Powerball lottery hit $1.3 billion on Sunday, making it the richest lottery prize ever up for grabs in the United States, where lottery fever has afflicted millions of people. No one won the Powerball drawing on Saturday night, with the prize money rolling over to the next drawing. Hundreds of millions of dollars were wagered on Friday...

Panama Canal Panama City, Jan 9 (EFE).- The consortium responsible for the main Panama Canal expansion project is the subject of a criminal complaint in the Central American country for allegedly inflating its cost overrun claims. National Bar Association Vice President Juan Carlos Arauz filed the complaint, to which EFE gained access, on Thursday with Panama's Attorney General's Office. ...

Wikimedia Commons International Sports Desk, Jan 9 (EFE; additional context by The Costa Rica Star).- Serbian world No. 1 Novak Djokovic trounced Rafael Nadal 6-1, 6-2 in Saturday's final of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open to capture the 60th title of his career and edge ahead of the Spaniard in their career head-to-head for the first time. Nadal fought hard to make the match competitive but was ...

Source: Red Cross of Costa Rica Miami, Jan 8 (EFE; additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star).- Mayor Tomas Regalado warned Friday that Miami does not have the necessary funds to deal with all the Cuban refugees expected to arrive in South Florida from Central America over the coming weeks. The municipal administration up to now has not been notified by the federal government about any pl...

Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. Source: Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, Jan 9 (EFE).- Mexico's attorney general said marines were able to recapture Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman due partly to their discovery that the fugitive Sinaloa cartel kingpin had contacted people in the film industry about making a movie about his life. "An important aspect in determining his location was having discovere...