Justin Bieber performs in 2011. Wikimedia Commons Cancun, Mexico, Jan 8 (EFE).- Singer Justin Bieber was thrown out of the Tulum archaeological site on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula after his security personnel got into an argument with the guards of the pre-Columbian location. Adriana Velazquez, regional delegate of the National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH, told EFE that the a...

By Riley Brands Press Release from the Office of U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX-28) and Congresswoman Kay Granger (R-TX-12), as well as U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica S. Fitzgerald Haney and Costa Rican Ambassador to the United States Román Macaya, traveled last week to the Costa Rican border with Nicaragua to see firsthand how Central America is dealing wit...

Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, Jan 7 (EFE).- Three fugtives wanted on criminal conspiracy, drug, sexual abuse and homicide charges by U.S. federal courts were extradited to the United States, the Mexican Attorney General's Office said. "The Foreign Relations Secretariat cited the corresponding agreements under which the government of our country granted the extradition requested by U.S. aut...

Wikimedia Commons Paris, Jan 7 (EFE).- Michel Platini, who was suspended last month from world soccer for eight years, said Thursday he was ending his bid for FIFA's presidency to focus on his defense against corruption allegations. "I withdraw my candidacy" for the Feb. 26 election, Platini, head of European soccer's governing body, UEFA, since 2007 and member of FIFA's executive committee...

Taking a surf lesson or a series of surf lessons while on vacation is a great introduction to a sport the whole family can enjoy! Source: playagrandesurfshop.com...

Leonora Jiménez Monge (born 1983 in Santa Ana, Costa Rica) is a Costa Rican beauty pageant titleholder and the original winner of 2005 Miss Asia Pacific International. In 2008 she released the second cycle for the Latin American version for America's Next Top Model, called Super Model Centroamérica. She has done photo shoots for Loeve and Chanel and for the magazines, Elle and Telva. She has wor...

H1N1 vaccine will be available in Costa Rica in March 2016. Source: Wikimedia Commons San Jose, Jan 7 (EFE).- At least 14 people, including an expat woman from India, have died from the H1N1 flu virus since December in Costa Rica and 22 others remain hospitalized in serious condition, the Health Ministry said. Northern Costa Rica's San Carlos hospital had the highest number of fatalities, w...

Source: Trump Tower Montevideo, Jan 5 (EFE).- The luxurious residential tower being built in the Uruguayan coastal town of Punta del Este by the real estate group headed by U.S. billionaire and presidential candidate Donald Trump will be "the best building in South America," Eric Trump, one of the businessman's sons and a promoter of the project, told EFE. When the seaside skyscraper that h...

Wikimedia Commons Guatemala City, Jan 6 (EFE).- Three officers of Guatemala's PNC national police are being held hostage at an indigenous community in the western province of Solola, where locals burned two patrol cars during disturbances sparked by the slaying of a resident by an off-duty cop, authorities said Tuesday. A PNC spokesperson told EFE that talks were begun on Tuesday in an atte...

Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. Source: Wikimedia Commons By Raul Cortes Mexico City, Jan 6 (EFE).- The spectacular escape of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman from prison last July had all the ingredients for a movie and a feature film chronicling his breakout will hit Mexican theaters on Jan. 15, the distributor told EFE. "Chapo. El escape del siglo" (Chapo: The Escape of the Centur...

Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, Jan 5 (EFE).- Police officers in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas rescued 45 migrants from Guatemala and Honduras in Reynosa, located across the Rio Grande from McAllen, Texas, the Tamaulipas Coordination Group said. State police officers responding to a tip from the public went to a house in the border city's Puertas del Sol district, where people...

Flickr Commons Denver, Jan 4 (EFE).- Veteran quarterback Peyton Manning came off the bench in the third quarter, replacing Brock Osweiler and helping lead the Denver Broncos to a 27-20 win over the San Diego Chargers that secured the top playoff seed in the American Football Conference. "I've just never been through anything like that before," the 39-year-old Manning said. "I've never misse...

Wikimedia Commons Guatemala City, Jan 4 (EFE).- Massive detentions of migrants by U.S. authorities will not stop migration, Guatemala's foreign minister said Monday as he confirmed the detention of 26 of his fellow citizens last weekend. Carlos Raul Morales said in an interview on Emisoras Unidas radio that before Christmas, U.S. authorities expressed concern that the number of unaccompanie...

Wikimedia Commons By Jairo Mejia Washington, Jan 4 (EFE).- The United States could start a "gold rush" with a new space exploration law covering bodies orbiting in the Solar System's asteroid belt. Just as lawmakers in Washington provided a legal framework for the California Gold Rush in the mid-1800s, Congress and the administration have given the green light to encourage space mining. ...

Seoul, Jan 3 (EFE).- North Korea could be preparing to test its ability to produce a hydrogen bomb, the South Korea intelligence services said Sunday based on recent military activity by Pyongyang. The announcement comes a month after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un mentioned for the first time that his country has an H-bomb, although at the time experts doubted that the Asian pariah state coul...

Panama Canal Panama City, Jan 2 (EFE).- President Juan Carlos Varela said Saturday that the inauguration of a newly expanded Panama Canal would take place in May in the presence of several heads of state and government, while also calling on the consortium responsible for the third-locks project to stop waging a media battle with his government. "Sometime in May 2016, our country will once ...

Confederate flag flies in Columbia, South Carolina. Flickr Commons London, Jan 2 (EFE).- Film director Quentin Tarantino sees the Confederate flag as "some American swastika" and said, in an interview published Saturday in The Daily Telegraph, that it's about time that his country questioned why it is still displayed. The moviemaker, who presented in Britain his new film, "The Hateful Eight...

Flickr Commons Madrid, Jan 2 (EFE; odds by IDSca.com).- Atletico Madrid moved into first place in La Liga with a 1-0 win here Saturday night over Levante, a victory only secured in the 81st minute with a goal by Ghanaian midfielder Thomas. The match at Vicente Calderon Stadium appeared to be a mismatch on paper, as the Valencia side sits at the bottom of the table with just 11 points while ...

Wikimedia Commons Los Angeles, Jan 1 (EFE).- The traditional Rose Parade in Pasadena was followed Friday by a march organized by supporters of Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders as a protest against immigration raids and deportations. "We wish to denounce the continuing injustice toward immigrants, with the always possible deportations of Central American refugees by the authori...

Wikimedia Commons Miami, Jan 1 (EFE).- A record 41 endangered Florida panthers were killed in 2015, mostly as a result of collisions with motor vehicles, state authorities said Friday. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, or FWC, said the new record was attributable to the state's growing human population, a demographic trend that is leading to greater contact between peop...

"Stephen Curry 2" by Keith Allison from Owings Mills, USA - Stephen Curry. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons Houston, Jan 1 (EFE; odds by IDSca.com).- Shooting guard Klay Thompson lifted the Golden State Warriors in the absence of his superstar backcourt mate, scoring 38 points in a 114-110 victory here over the Houston Rockets. The Warriors (30-2) suffered just their second...

Caribbean News Service By Desmond Brown, Caribbean News Service (CNS) SAN JOSE – In mid-December, technical officers from six Caribbean countries traveled to Costa Rica to learn about new ways of adding value to cassava production and modern technologies for processing the vegetable, in order to boost the industry, promote the diversification of markets, and improve the chain’s competitiven...

Source: Archiv.is Washington, Dec 31 (EFE; additional context by The Costa Rica Star).- Ian Murdock, the founder of Debian, a member of the Linux Foundation and one of the top promoters of free software, died this week, according to the blog at the open software developers' platform Docker. He was 42. "With a heavy heart Debian mourns the passing of Ian Murdock, stalwart proponent of Free O...

Jack Donnelly By Jack Donnelly Article 75 of the Constitution states that Costa Rica is a Catholic country. That sounds more theocratic than the reality. The majority of Ticos will readily affirm they are Catholics, but many are rather laid back in their approach to observance and dogma. This is especially true in the areas of relationships, marriage, divorce, birth control, etc. There is a...

Source: Wikimedia Commons New York, Dec 31 (EFE).- A 25-year-old man was arrested in New York state for allegedly intending to commit a terrorist act on New Year's Eve, inspired by the Islamic State jihadist group, authorities said Thursday. The man was identified as Emanuel L. Lutchman of Rochester, a convert to Islam with a criminal record and mental problems, and he said he was instructe...

Wikimedia Commons By Carol Blair Vaughn Costa Rica is called by many “The Happiest Place on Earth”, including the Happy Planet Index which rated us #1 in 2015, and the U.N.’s World Happiness Report, which rated us #12. We came in behind Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, and The Netherlands – such cold places!! But is this ranking scientific, or just a tourist label from those wanting...

Wikimedia Commons Washington, Dec 30 (EFE).- A court set bail of $1 million for U.S. comedian Bill Cosby on Wednesday after charges were filed against him for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman in 2004. Cosby appeared briefly in a courtroom in Elkins Park, a suburb of Philadelphia, after the District Attorney's Office charged him with "aggravated" sexual assault. The actor, who had to...

Wikimedia Commons Brussels, Dec 30 (EFE).- Brussels Mayor Yvan Mayeur decided Wednesday to cancel all fireworks displays and other public festivities planned for New Year's Eve, local media reported. The mayor made the decision after it became known on Tuesday that Belgian security forces had foiled - by arresting the presumed terrorists - a possible attack on "several emblematic sites" pla...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Rio de Janeiro, Dec 29 (EFE).- Rio de Janeiro firefighters are beginning to use drones equipped with cameras and floating life preservers for quicker rescues and to prevent people from drowning at beaches like Ipanema and Copacabana, authorities said Tuesday. A drone's camera will be able to transmit the exact position of a person in danger and its life preserver c...

Bogota, Dec 29 (EFE).- Colombian police in this capital arrested a 58-year-old man and charged him with illegally stockpiling and selling radioactive material, authorities said Tuesday. The man, whose identity was not released, had been illegally storing chemical elements such as Iridium-192 and depleted uranium in a house in Engativa, a town close to Bogota's El Dorado international airport, p...

Wikimedia Commons Washington, Dec 28 (EFE).- President Barack Obama, Pope Francis and controversial magnate Donald Trump are, in that order, the most admired men this year in the United States, according to an annual survey published Monday by Gallup. According to the survey, carried out on Dec. 2-6 among 824 adults nationwide, 17 percent of those interviewed say their "most admired man" is...

Source: Flickr Commons San Juan, Dec 28 (EFE).- Three police, two of them women, were shot and killed Monday in Puerto Rico by a fellow officer during a heated argument at the Police Command in Ponce, a city on the south side of the Caribbean island. Police reported that Lieut. Luz Soto, Maj. Frank Roman and patrolwoman Rosario Hernandez were gunned down by Candelario Rivera, a fellow offic...

Guatemala/San Jose, Dec 28 (EFE).- The Central American Integration System agreed on Monday to carry out an initial "pilot humanitarian transfer" of thousands of Cuban migrants from Costa Rica to El Salvador, and later to Mexico, in January, after they were stranded in the region during their attempts to travel to the United States. The move was agreed to after a working group was set up that w...

Candice Susan Swanepoel born 20 October 1988, is a South African model best known for her work with Victoria's Secret. In 2012, she came in 10th on the Forbes top-earning models list. At age 15, she was spotted by a model scout in a Durban flea market. In 2013, Swanepoel was named the cover model of the coveted Victoria's Secret Swim Catalogue. Like fellow model Christy Turlington, Swanepoe...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiy7WQYQyhY...

Tamarindo likes to have fun and that is certainly reflected in its vibrant nightlife. There is always something going on after the sun has set. The Tamarindo night time entertainment is about as varied as Tamarindo's restaurant scene. Bars, clubs and lounges offer dance nights, live music and DJs. A few bars have karaoke, big screen TVs and games like ping pong and pool, and nearly every bar in T...

Messi Poster in Buenos Aires Barcelona, Dec 27 (EFE).- FC Barcelona on Sunday returned to its training routine here to prepare for its Dec. 30 matchup against Betis at Camp Nou, although Lionel Messi was absent because he was in Dubai to be honored as the world's best soccer player at a 2015 gala. The team enjoyed several days of vacation after defeating River Plate 3-0 for the Club World C...

Wikimedia Commons By Julia Talarn Rabascall Santiago, Dec 28 (EFE).- Bacteria surviving under extreme conditions in Antarctic glaciers synthesize fluorescent nanoparticles that could be used to tag tumor cells and track the metastasis in different types of cancers, scientists said. These nanoparticles are produced by microorganisms able to resist high exposure to ultraviolet light, lack ...

Wikimedia Commons Beijing, Dec 27 (EFE).- The first direct flight between China and Cuba took off on Sunday from the international airport in Beijing for Havana, with state-owned carrier Air China aiming to promote Chinese tourism in Latin America and the Caribbean. The route is the first direct one linking China, the world's second-largest economy, and the Caribbean, as well as the first r...

San Jose, Dec 26 (EFE).- Costa Rica's Immigration Department said Saturday that a total of 56 Cubans who entered the country illegally will be deported in the coming days. The Immigration Department's press office told the media that those immigrants failed to obtain a Costa Rican visa legally and are being held in San Jose's Hatillo district. Since Nov. 14, Costa Rica has issued almost 8,00...