Walter Tavares Instagram Las Palmas, Spain, Jul 2 (EFE).- Cape Verdean center Walter Tavares will become the first player from that island nation to play in the NBA after the Atlanta Hawks agreed to terms with their 2014 second-round pick, who played the past three seasons with Spanish-league club Herbalife Gran Canaria. "A bittersweet day for me: today I have to say goodbye to the club tha...

Flickr Commons Bogota, Jul 2 (EFE).- A committee of experts at a hospital in the central Colombian city of Pereira on Thursday authorized the first mercy killing in the country in the case of a patient with terminal cancer whom several days ago the hospital ceased treating for legal reasons. Ovidio Gonzalez, 79, suffers from an aggressive cancer in his face that can no longer be productivel...

Playa Grande Playa Grande, Costa Rica, July 1, 2015 – The Hotel RipJack Inn located in Playa Grande, province of Guanacaste, is excited to announce that they are now compliant with all rules and regulations supporting disabled customers. "We are proud to be a fully compliant with Costa Rica’s new rules and regulations regarding access for people with disabilities," stated Annie Corredor the...

"Xiaomi Redmi 2" by Vernon Chan - https://www.flickr.com/photos/vernieman/16161508853/. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons Sao Paulo, Jul 1 (EFE).- China's Xiaomi, the world's No. 5 producer of smartphones, is entering Brazil, where it plans to open its first plant outside Asia. Xiaomi, known as "China's Apple," is making its Redmi 2 smartphone available at its online store to B...

An Uber driver in Bogota. Wikimedia Commons Sao Paulo, Jul 1 (EFE).- Members of a militarized state police force will be enlisted to help prevent the Uber ride-sharing service from operating in Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest metropolis, a city official said. "Only taxis can provide individual public transportation" services, Sao Paulo Transportation Secretary Jilmar Tatto said during a meeting...

Washington, Jun 30 (EFE).- The United States and Cuba are preparing to announce that they have reached an agreement to reestablish diplomatic relations and open embassies in each other's capitals, White House officials said Tuesday. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry will speak about the matter very soon, a White House official who requested anonymity told reporters. Th...

Wikimedia Commons Washington, Jun 29 (EFE).- The U.S. government is not planning a federal bailout for Puerto Rico although the island is having severe financial problems and says its debt is unpayable, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday. "There's no one in the administration or in D.C. that's contemplating a federal bailout of Puerto Rico," Earnest said at his daily press confe...

Victoria Xipolitakis Facebook Buenos Aires, Jun 29 (EFE).- Famous Argentine model Victoria Xipolitakis denied, through her attorney, any responsibility for her presence in the cabin of an Aerolineas Argentinas airliner and announced that she plans to file suit against the pilot and copilot for sexual harassment. "(Xipolitakis) was not responsible, there were people who did not do what they ...

Wikimedia Commons Brasilia, Jun 29 (EFE).- Some 3,350 Web sites have been set up to promote sex tourism in Brazil, press reports said. The top city for sex tourism is Rio de Janeiro, which will host the Summer Olympics next year, the O Globo newspaper reported, citing a study by consulting firm Axur. "Unforgettable erotic vacations amid the beauty and enchantment of Rio de Janeiro, on th...

For illustrative purposes. Pixabay Commons. By Douglas Marin San Jose, Jun 29 (EFE).- Costa Rican heads of state tend to receive gifts of all kinds from citizens, but rarely are they given animals, much less a pig, as happened to President Luis Guillermo Solis last week, who now has a rather peculiar pet. Hundreds of farmers including pig and fowl breeders from around the country went to...

Source: Space X Washington, Jun 28 (EFE).- The unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station, or ISS, exploded less than 10 minutes after liftoff Sunday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, NASA said. "After liftoff, an anomaly occurred. SpaceX is evaluating the issue," NASA said in a Twitter post. The last information received from the rocket was sent two...

Source: Flickr Commons Rabat, Jun 28 (EFE).- A Moroccan woman strangled her three children, ages eight months to five years, in their apartment on Sunday before being arrested by police, Moroccan media reported. According to the MAP news agency, the woman's husband, from whom she was separated, reported the crime - which was evidently carried out early Sunday morning - to the police. Upo...

Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, Jun 27 (EFE).- Nine months after 43 trainee teachers went missing in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, their parents said here they will continue their struggle to find them and that the truth of their whereabouts will soon come to light. "We're telling this murderous and corrupt government that no matter what they do they won't succeed in dividing the p...

Source: Kevin Roldan Twitter Santiago, Jun 27 (EFE).- Colombian reggaeton rapper Kevin Roldan, known for performing at the birthday party of Real Madrid soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, was freed in Chile after being arrested for allegedly attacking a woman, the artist said Saturday. "Goodnight thank God I'm well and with a clear conscience," the artist wrote on his Instagram profile. "God...

Confederate flag flies in Columbia, South Carolina. Flickr Commons Washington, Jun 27 (EFE).- A female African American activist was arrested Saturday after taking down the Confederate battle flag from the State Capitol in South Carolina as part of the protests against the massacre last weekend of nine black worshippers at a church in Charleston by a young white supremacist. The young woman...

ISIS fighters in Iraq. Source: Wikimedia Commons Washington, Jun 26 (EFE).- The United States condemned "in the strongest terms" the terrorist attacks that occurred Friday in France, Kuwait and Tunisia, and following the aggression offered the three countries "any necessary support." "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of these heinous attacks, their loved ones, and the people of...

Wikimedia Commons Miami, Jun 25 (EFE).- Spanish-language television network Univision on Thursday announced that it is breaking relations with Donald Trump's beauty contest business because of offensive comments about Mexicans made by the Republican presidential hopeful. "Today, the entertainment division of Univision Communications Inc. announced that it is ending the company's business re...

By Anett Rios Havana, Jun 25 (EFE).- Cuba's government is looking to promote a higher birth rate and providing funding for fertility treatments, as the Communist-ruled island tries to rescue itself from an aging population. A phenomenon that once had been restricted to academic and scientific circles has in recent years entered the public discourse and the agenda of the Council of Ministers,...

Mexico City, Jun 24 (EFE).- Mexican soldiers executed 11 of the 22 civilians who died in a June 30, 2014, incident in the central state of Mexico that has become known as the Tlatlaya massacre, La Jornada daily reported, citing reports by state and federal prosecutors. Obtained via a freedom of information request, the reports indicate that several of the victims were killed by soldiers at poin...

Source: Pixabay Commons Los Angeles, Jun 23 (EFE).- After the recent announcement by competitor Apple Music, Google on Tuesday answered back by launching its own free music service, a gratis version of Google Play Music, designed to attract more customers to its subscription service and provide artists with another income stream. In its official blog, the firm explained that the service is ...

Wikimedia Commons La Paz, Jun 22 (EFE).- The "air bridge" used by smugglers to move cocaine from Peru into Bolivia has been dismantled, thanks to joint efforts by La Paz and Lima, the official ABI news agency reported. "As part of this fight, the air bridge established by drug traffickers to smuggle cocaine coming from ... Peru and using Bolivia as a transit country, has been neutralized," ...

National Museum of Costa Rica By Maria Jose Brenes San Jose, Jun 22 (EFE).- The San Jose Museum Walking Tour, which goes on for less than a kilometer (about half a mile) through the Costa Rican capital, reveals the sounds, origins, use and morphology of the musical instruments that sounded in pre-Columbian communities. Under the title "Ancestral Echoes," the Central Bank Museum of Costa ...

Temuco, Chile, Jun 21 (EFE).- The Peruvian national soccer team held off the Colombian attack here on Sunday, fighting it out to a scoreless draw on the last day of the Copa America group phase and qualifying for the quarterfinals. The Peruvians remained ahead of Colombia in the Group C rankings, as the match between Brazil and Venezuela ended up with the Selecao winning 2-1 and finishing the f...

Washington, Jun 21 (EFE).- Charleston's historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church reopened its doors Sunday and held its first service four days after a 21-year-old white man gunned down nine black church members in one of the worst tragedies of its kind at a U.S. religious institution. "A lot of folks expected us to do something strange and to break out in a riot. Well, they just don't...

Source: FEDEFUTBOL San Jose, Jun 21 (EFE).- Real Madrid's Costa Rican goalkeeper, Keylor Navas wed Andrea Salas on the weekend in a Catholic church in this capital where a huge crowd - along with a large number of media personnel - gathered to see the couple enter the building. The ceremony, presided at by Father Sergio Valverde, was held in the church in Santa Ana, a small community in the...

Wikimedia Commons Los Angeles, Jun 20 (EFE).- A Hollywood studio considered eliminating Latino actress Zoe Saldana from a film because her pregnancy was an inconvenience for the production, she said in an interview published in the daily USA Today. The U.S. artist, 36, born of a Dominican father and Puerto Rican mother, gave birth Nov. 2014 to twin baby boys Cy and Bowie from her relations ...

Wikimedia Commons Miami, Jun 16 (EFE).- Bolivian engineer Carlos Tamayo has proposed a solution for the sea level rise caused by climate change that has earned him an award in the Global Impact competition organized by Silicon Valley's Singularity University. "Definitely, there is a problem with rising sea levels that affects cities like Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale," Tamayo said in an i...

President Putin hunting tigers in 2008 By Jose Antonio Vera St. Petersburg, Jun 20 (EFE).- Many say, perhaps rightly, that Vladimir Putin is as cold as ice, but it's also certain that on occasions the president of Russia can be much less frigid than he appears. He can put on an almost permanent smile and actually laughs at times. He also gesticulates non-stop and raises the index finger ...

Wikimedia Commons Panama City, Jun 18 (EFE).- Foreign direct investment (FDI) totaled $1.7 billion in Panama in the first quarter, up 32.2 percent from the same period in 2014, the National Institute of Statistics and Census, or INEC, reported. Foreign capital flowed mainly into hotels, banks, real estate, electricity generation, commerce and manufacturing, the INEC said. Some 65 percent...

The Crow original film poster. Wikimedia Commons Los Angeles, Jun 16 (EFE).- The remake of "The Crow" being readied by Relativity Studios has lost its leading man for a second time due to a scheduling conflict and, if at one time it was Luke Evans who had to jump ship, this time it's Jack Huston. "Jack Huston is unfortunately unavailable to continue with us on 'The Crow,'" the film's direct...

Reserva Tariquia. Wikimedia Commons La Paz, Jun 18 (EFE).- Eight of the 22 national parks in Bolivia will be opened for oil exploration, officials said. "We're talking about eight parks, but it's not a new thing because there's been exploration in prior years," Deputy Environment Minister Gonzalo Rodriguez told Erbol radio. Oil exploration will begin next year at the Iñau, Carrasco, Ambo...

Wikimedia Commons New York, Jun 16 (EFE).- Real estate mogul Donald Trump said Tuesday that he is seeking the 2016 Republican Party presidential nomination. "So, ladies and gentlemen, I am officially running for president of the United States, and we are going to make our country great again," he said during an event at New York's Trump Tower. Five years ago Trump analyzed the possibilit...

The magnificent Caral. Wikimedia Commons By David Blanco Bonilla Lima, Jun 11 (EFE).- Caral, the Americas' oldest civilization, located north of present day Lima, Peru, faced a grave crisis as a result of climate change some 4,000 years ago, archaeologists said. "Droughts were so severe that they could have lasted between 60 and 130 years, which could explain why there were social crises...

Over the weekend, two shark attacks that resulted in amputations shook up the coastal community of Oak Island in the state of North Carolina. The first attack occurred about 15 minutes after 4:00 pm, and it involved a 13-year old girl. Less than an hour later, a 16-year olf boy was attacked at the same beach. According to a news report filed by Stephanie Doyle of the Fox 8 television news stati...

Flickr Commons By Olga Guerrero Miami Beach, Jun 15 (EFE).- Almost seven decades after legendary gangster Al Capone died at his Miami Beach mansion, the fully restored waterfront property is being made available as a set for television, film and even commercial shoots. The mailbox of the house on Biscayne Bay no longer keeps any secrets. Any passerby who gets to No. 93 on posh Palm Is...

President Perez Molina of Guatemala. Wikimedia Commons Guatemala City, Jun 13 (EFE).- Hundreds of Guatemalans protested in the streets Saturday to demand once again the resignation of President Otto Perez Molina, who is under investigation by a congressional commission after being accused of corruption before the Supreme Court of Justice, or CSJ. Meanwhile, dozens of the faithful gathered d...

"Rosetta - Philae close-up" by DLR, CC-BY 3.0. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 de via Wikimedia Commons Paris, Jun 14 (EFE).- The Rosetta mission's Philae lander has sent signals that it has resumed operating after a seven-month hibernation period on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the European Space Agency, or ESA, said in a Twitter post. "For 85 seconds, Philae 'spoke' with its t...

Source: Flickr Commons Mexico City, Jun 14 (EFE).- A 19-year-old Russian woman confessed that she murdered her mother and 12-year-old sister, whose dismembered bodies were found at their house in Tijuana, a border city in northwest Mexico, media reports said. Anastasia Lechtchenko Masney, who was the prime suspect in the murder case, was found and arrested in Sinaloa, another northwestern s...

Managua, Jun 14 (EFE).- Thousands of people took to the streets of Juigalpa, a city in central Nicaragua, for a march against the inter-oceanic canal being built by China's HKND Group. People from across Nicaragua, the majority of them peasants, traveled to Juigalpa for Saturday's march. The protesters demanded that President Daniel Ortega's administration cancel the project because it will ...

Wikimedia Commons Washington, Jun 13 (EFE).- The Pentagon considers sending up to 5,000 soldiers, heavy artillery and tanks to Eastern Europe in response to Russian support for Ukrainian separatists, the New York Times said Saturday. If carried out, this will be the first time since the Cold War that the United States sends mechanized infantry to NATO's extended borders in Eastern Europe as...