Flickr Commons Managua, Sep 29 (EFE).- The Managua city government has approved W2E Eco Energy Investment Nicaragua S.A.'s proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant at the La Chureca landfill, on the shores of Lake Xolotlan, that will turn plastic bags into synthetic fuel. The city council granted a 30-year operating permit to the company, which plans to invest $17 million in the plant, Man...

Source: Discovery By Yeny Garcia Havana, Sep 28 (EFE).- Over the past three months, Cuba has experienced an unprecedented, albeit limited, increase in access to the Internet, with 35 new Wi-Fi hot spots popping up, thrilling Cubans and enticing many people to find creative ways to provide services by finding a way around the rules. Many "bisneros," as street vendors are known, are taking...

University of Nebraska Press By Carol Blair Vaughn It’s not often in this era of greed and recklessness that a New Age David and Goliath story unfolds, and there is an author onsite to capture the moment. Such is the story of Jeremy Evans' new book, The Battle for Paradise: Surfing, Tuna, and One Town’s Quest to Save a Wave (University of Nebraska Press), which comes out on Oct. 1, 2015, an...

San Juan, Sep 28 (EFE).- St. Lucia's government said Monday it planned to allow hunting of three endangered sea turtle species exceeding specific weight limits from Oct. 1 until Dec. 31. Hawksbill turtles weighing 27 kilos (60 pounds) or more and green and loggerhead turtles weighing more than 34 kilos (75 pounds) can be taken during the period, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement. ...

Houston, Sep 28 (EFE; additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star).- Nothing can stop the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots (3-0), who crushed the Jacksonville Jaguars (1-2) 51-17 over the weekend in the third week of the NFL season, with six other teams still undefeated. Quarterback Tom Brady, placekicker Stephen Gostkowski and running back LeGarrette Blount led the Patriots to their lo...

Rio de Janeiro, Sep 28 (EFE).- One of Rihanna's bodyguards started throwing punches at photographers in Rio de Janeiro this Sunday as the Barbadian songstress was leaving a restaurant, local media reported while airing a video of the brawl. The bodyguard's fists started flying when he found a crowd of paparazzi milling around the door to the restaurant where Rihanna had dined. The photograph...

Wikimedia Commons San Juan, Sep 27 (EFE).- A total of 1,000 soldiers are ready to be deployed along the border with Venezuela in case of aggression by Caracas amid a territorial dispute over Esequibo region and the Cuyuni River, Guyana Defense Force commander Brig. Gen. Mark Phillips said. Resorting to the use of arms is "necessary to safeguard peace, and not just to provoke a war," Phillip...

Source: FEDEFUTBOL Madrid, Sep 26 (EFE).- Cameroonian goalkeeper Carlos Kameni played the game of his life to lead Malaga to a 0-0 draw here Saturday against mighty Real Madrid, which had not been shut out at home since September 2013. The Blancos started the day in first place but now trail surprising league-leader Villarreal, a 1-0 winner Saturday night over Atletico Madrid, and second-pl...

Souce: Lionsgate By Antonio Martin Guirado Los Angeles, Sep 26 (EFE).- Benicio Del Toro is again riding the crest of the Hollywood wave thanks to his memorable performance in "Sicario," a film about the war on drugs that places him squarely in the race for an Oscar and for which a sequel is already in the works, though the film itself has had only a limited premiere in the United States. ...

By Mario Villar United Nations, Sep 26 (EFE).- Cuban President Raul Castro made his debut in the United Nations Saturday demanding an end to the U.S. embargo on the island, which he considers "the chief obstacle to the economic development" of his country. In his first speech at the U.N., Castro said the renewal of diplomatic ties between Cuba and the United States plus the changes decreed b...

Pixabay Commons Washington, Sep 25 (EFE).- U.S. President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that he has reached an accord with China, according to which neither of the two countries will carry out or knowingly support the theft of intellectual property or business secrets in cyberspace, a source of great tension between these world powers. "Today, I can announce that our two countries have rea...

Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, Sep 24 (EFE).- Mexican authorities' "reckless handling" of the investigation into the disappearance of 43 teacher trainees a year ago exposes "a scandalous cover-up orchestrated by the highest levels of government," London-based human rights group Amnesty International said. In a statement Wednesday, AI's Americas director, Erika Guevara-Rosas, said the case h...

Wikimedia Commons Rio de Janeiro, Sep 25 (EFE).- A Brazilian court has ordered the seizure of assets totaling 188.8 million reais (some $47 million) from soccer star Neymar to ensure payment of alleged unpaid taxes related to his signing by FC Barcelona, judicial sources said Friday. In a Sept. 11 ruling, Judge Carlos Muta of the Sao Paulo-based Regional Federal Court of the 3rd Region orde...

Wikimedia Commons Miami, Sep 24 (EFE).- A luxury penthouse in the heart of Miami Beach was bought for $60 million, substantially exceeding the old record price of a mansion sold in 2012 for $47 million in the South Florida tourist city, local media reported Thursday. The price for the penthouse, located in the new oceanfront Faena House condominium broke the previous sales record for any si...

Source: Flickr Commons Mexico City, Sep 24 (EFE).- Two journalists were found dead of still-unknown causes at a hotel in the southeastern Mexican state of Tabasco, sour ces with the state Attorney General's Office confirmed to EFE on Thursday. The institution identified the victims Wednesday night on Twitter as Jose Joaquin Perez Morales and Aurelio Hernandez Herrera, whose lifeless bodi...

Wikimedia Commons Washington, Sep 24 (EFE).- U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, will meet next week on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting to discuss the situations in Ukraine and Syria, the White House and the Kremlin confirmed Thursday. In a statement sent to EFE and other media outlets, a top U.S. official explained that the req...

There are plenty of beach bars and simple restaurants.The town of Puerto Viejo is a kick-back-and-relax surfer town with a unique Afro-Caribbean vibe, due to its Rastafarian culture. Surfers come for the Best waves in Costa Rica, called Salsa Brava. Source: truenomads.com...

Taipei, Sep 23 (EFE).- The dengue epidemic in Taiwan has caused 42 deaths and resulted in 14,590 confirmed cases since the beginning of May, the Centers for Disease Control, or CDC, said Wednesday. The death toll is the highest in a dengue epidemic in 14 years and could rise because 29 other deaths with symptoms similar to dengue are being examined, the CDC said, adding that total infections co...

Santiago, Sep 23 (EFE).- Soki, Chile's first electric car, with room for two people and a 60-kilometer (37-mile) range between charges, will be introduced with a $12,000 price tag, one of the vehicle's creators said. "This electric car has room for a passenger along with the driver, and it is an update of vehicles we designed previously," Daniel Pavez, one of Soki's designers, told EFE. "It is ...

Source: Correos de Costa Rica San Francisco, Sep 22 (EFE).- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday began his first state visit to the United States in Seattle, the first stop on his U.S. tour that will include New York and Washington, where he will meet with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama. Xi will spend three days in Seattle, where he will hold meetings with business and technology lead...

Mete Sohtaoglu, Twitter Beijing, Sep 22 (EFE).- The Chinese government said Tuesday it was working with Chile to provide reconstruction assistance and ship humanitarian aid to the South American country, which was hit by a magnitude-8.4 earthquake last week. The Sept. 16 temblor killed 13 people, forced more than 9,000 others from their homes and caused extensive damage. "We can particip...

Source: Univision Miami, Sep 20 (EFE).- With tears in his eyes, iconic television host Don Francisco bade farewell on the weekend to the program "Sabado Gigante" after 53 years on the air, a broadcasting run that turned it into a world TV landmark. In his last appearance before the cameras on the extraordinarily popular program, the 75-year-old Chilean received the prerecorded congratulatio...

Flickr Commons By Cristina Terceiro Buenos Aires, Sep 21 (EFE).- Girls in the 5-13 age group are increasingly inviting friends to parties at spas, a booming fad in Argentina that child psychologists warn can lead to the "early sexualization" of young females. Spa time in special rooms or at girls' homes features makeup and hair styling, massages, manicures and pedicures, and fashion show...

Source: Flickr Commons By Martha Delgado Managua, Sep 21 (EFE).- The killing of a high school student by a classmate has focused attention in Nicaragua on the bullying many children experience in schools. President Daniel Ortega's administration announced workshops, outreach programs and other measures to prevent bullying after a 19-year-old student was stabbed to death. In Nicaragua,...

Washington, Sep 21 (EFE; additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star).- Video-calling and online messaging service Skype said Monday it was trying to fix a problem that was preventing users around the world from logging in or using some of its applications. "We are working to fix an issue which is preventing some users from logging in & using Skype. We apologize for any inconvenience," Skyp...

Source: FEDEFUTBOL Madrid, Sep 19 (EFE).- Karim Benzema's goal early in the second half proved to be enough scoring in Real Madrid's 1-0 victory here Saturday over Granada, which put up a battle at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium but was unable to get the ball past Costa Rican net minder Keylor Navas. The visitors' goalkeeper, Andres Fernandez, was nearly as stingy on the other side of the field,...

A simple man: Pope Francis. Source: Wikimedia Commons Havana, Sep 20 (EFE).- Cuban President Raul Castro met in Havana with his Argentine counterpart, Cristina Fernandez, who traveled to the island to attend the Mass that Pope Francis will celebrate in the Cuban capital on Sunday, state television reported. Castro and Fernandez met on Saturday and discussed the state of bilateral relations ...

Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, Sep 19 (EFE). - Amnesty International once again slammed the Mexican government over its response to the chilling case of 43 teacher trainees who disappeared nearly a year ago, saying its claims that the remains of a second student have been identified despite assertions to the contrary by forensic experts "reek of desperation." The London-based human rights g...

Free Syrian Army forces fighting in urban terrain. Source: Flickr CC. Washington, Sep 18 (EFE).- U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter spoke by telephone Friday with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoygu, about the situation in Syria and insisted that no military reinforcements be provided for the Damascus regime. "The secretary (of defense) emphasized the importance of pursuing such consultat...

Geneva, Sep 17 (EFE). - FIFA on Thursday announced the suspension of Secretary-General Jerome Valcke, saying he was being released from his duties effective immediately. Valcke was suspended because soccer's world governing body "has been made aware of a series of allegations involving the secretary-general and has requested a formal investigation by the FIFA Ethics Committee," according to a b...

"Flickr Whitney Houston performing on GMA 2009 7" by Asterio Tecson - Flickr: Whitney Houston - Central Park, NYC September 1, 2009. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons Los Angeles, Sep 17 (EFE).- Singer Whitney Houston, who died in February 2012, will "give" a concert next year in the form of a hologram, the Billboard entertainment Web site announced. The hologram of the cele...

Rio de Janeiro By Manuel Perez Bella Rio de Janeiro, Sep 17 (EFE).- A Catholic church in Rio de Janeiro has become a welcoming shelter along the flight routes of Syrian refugees who leave their country because of the ongoing civil war there and move to Brazil. Stories of bombardments, of families separated by war and fleeing on foot across international borders are exchanged among the ni...

New York, Sep 15 (EFE; additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star).- Hewlett Packard on Tuesday announced that it intends to lay off up to 30,000 workers to help cut costs by some $2.7 billion. The tech giant made the announcement in a communique issued from San Jose, California, which listed a series of measures to be taken to restructure the business group. The move was announced during a...

Wikimedia Commons Los Angeles, Sep 16 (EFE).- The Mexican rock group Mana on Wednesday called on undocumented immigrants to unite to fight for immigration reform and to halt the avalanche of Republican attacks. During their participation in an event in Los Angeles to motivate the Latino community to vote in the 2016 presidential election, the band exhorted Latinos to go to the polls and sup...

Mete Sohtaoglu, Twitter Santiago, Sep 16 (EFE; additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star).- Chilean authorities on Wednesday issued a tsunami alert along some 4,000 km (2,400 miles) of the country's coastline after reporting a 7.2-magnitude earthquake, while the U.S. Geological Survey said the quake measured 8.3 on the Richter scale. The Chilean Navy's SHOA oceanographic service issued th...

However, it is also the most popular park to visit. It is located on the central pacific coast, in the province of Puntarenas. There is a paved road from Quepos which leads you to the center of the village and the main beach. From there you can enter park by walking behind the souvenir shops, crossing a bridge, and paying a small fee at the park entrance. The trails inside the park are very well m...

Jairo Zelaya - Pixabay Commons Washington, Sep 15 (EFE).- The proportion of Hispanics in the United States who were born in other countries has dropped progressively over the past few years from 40 percent to 35 percent, according to a report released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center. The report by the Washington-based center shows that 64.1 percent of Hispanics in the United States have ...

Pixabay Commons Mexico City, Sep 14 (EFE).- Mexico's government said Monday that it presented Egypt with a diplomatic note protesting the killings of Mexican tourists by the security forces in an airstrike during a counterterrorism operation in the desert near Cairo and demanded an "expedited, exhaustive and far-ranging investigation" of the incident. The Egyptian government has confirmed t...

A wooden wedding bed carved with 138 figures from the Kama Sutra and a murder weapon shaped like a penis from the Stanley Kubrik film "A Clockwork Orange" are some of the pieces on show at the World Erotic Art Museum, or WEAM, the second-largest of its kind in the world, in Miami Beach. The museum has more than 4,000 erotic objects and artworks by such iconic artists as Rembrandt, Pablo Picasso...

Wikimedia Commons Athens, Sep 13 (EFE).- The death toll in the sinking of a boat crammed with refugees and migrants off the coast of the Greek island of Farmakonisi stands at 28, 14 of whom were children, according to the most recent information provided by the Greek coast guard. Rescue teams have recovered the bodies of six women and eight men, as well as four babies and 10 other children ...