President Solis KANNAPOLIS, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Costa Rica and the North Carolina Research Campus (NCRC) are signing an education cooperation agreement that will allow training opportunities for Costa Rican scientists at the NCRC. The signing of this agreement is part of one of the objectives of the investment promotion tour headed by President Luis Guillermo Solis, the Minister of Forei...

Wikimedia Commons Bogota, May 6 (EFE).- Colombia's first organic puree brand, which boasts chemical- and preservative-free ingredients and environmentally friendly packaging, is looking to compete in Latin America's baby-food market, having already begun expanding to the neighboring countries of Ecuador and Panama. Baby Faves Organics has been sold since last year by Colombia-based Odaco Gr...

AOL New York, May 12 (EFE).- Telecom giant Verizon Communications Inc. said Tuesday it was acquiring digital content provider AOL Inc. for $4.4 billion. Verizon is paying $50 per share for AOL, a premium of 17.4 percent over the stock's closing price of $42.59 on Monday. "Verizon's vision is to provide customers with a premium digital experience based on a global multiscreen network plat...

By Francisco Pescatori Buenos Aires, May 11 (EFE).- Argentines and foreign tourists alike are patronizing Bitcoffee, a downtown Buenos Aires coffee shop that boasts of being the first business of its kind in Latin America to accept the virtual bitcoin currency. "This is a coffee shop like the type you find in the United States, but with Argentine style," Matias Caputi, a founding partner o...

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight specialist within Deutsche Post DHL Group, announces it is teaming up with industry experts for the eighth consecutive year on its DHL University program. The program, which included the participation of more than 310 customers in 2014, is designed to engage logistics professionals in academic discussions and provide industry...

Source: Access LIVERMORE, Calif., May 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Rob Alston, CEO of Access, has announced the company's recent expansion in Costa Rica and its entrance into Panama as well as Trinidad and Tobago. In October 2014, Access acquired Datasafe, a leader in document management based in Panama City,Panama, from Semah Investments. W. Price Brannon, CIO of Access and its Chief Operating ...

Wikimedia Commons JAMPRO/Go-Jamaica -- Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, the Honourable G. Anthony Hylton and Costa Rica’s Minister of Foreign Trade, Alexander Mora signed an agreement last week in Costa Rica to cement a trading partnership between both nations. The Jamaican and Costa Rican governments seek to take advantage of the countries’ close locations, improve their exis...

STOCKHOLM--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Millicom (NASDAQ:MICC) (STO:MIC), today issued the following statement regarding the status of its proposed merger with Telecable Costa Rica which was announced in December 2014. Millicom, trading as Tigo in Costa Rica, has confirmed that its petition to merge with TeleCable Económico TVE, S.A has not been sanctioned by regulators Superintendencia de Telecomunicacion...

Source: Flickr CC Now that Costa Rica has been formally invited to go through the process of becoming a candidate nation worthy of joining the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), financial advisors and legal professionals are starting to ponder how their clients will be impacted by this new chapter in our country's fiscal history. For Costa Rica, membership in the ...

Gorilla Logic Hackathon BOULDER, Colo., Apr 29, 2015 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Gorilla Logic, announced today its support and participation in Nexus 2015 at the Apella Event Space at Alexandria Center on April 30th. Nexus is the annual, executive-level conference for the thriving Nearshore IT and BPO marketplace. It is designed to generate dialogue about the opportunities, risks and advantages of dev...

RADNOR, Pa., April 28, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The law firm of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP announces that a shareholder class action has been filed against ForceField Energy, Inc. (Nasdaq: FNRG) ("ForceField" or the "Company") on behalf of purchasers of the Company's common stock between September 16, 2013 and April 15, 2015, inclusive (the "Class Period"). For additional information ab...

Source: Wikimedia Commons It is not a secret that people in Costa Rica (colloquially known as Ticos) are gaining weight at a gradual and steady pace, which is due in great part to the adoption of sedentary habits, the increase of car culture and the proliferation of fast-food outlets. To this effect, a veritable industry centered on weight loss and fitness is beginning to emerge, and some busi...

Source: Wikimedia Commons (US Justice Dept. Press Release) – Richard St. Julien, the Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of ForceField Energy Inc. (ForceField), a publicly traded company whose common stock was listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol FNRG, was arrested late Friday evening on charges of securities fraud conspiracy. The arrest occurred as St. Julien was preparing to...

By Jorge Mederos Chicago, Apr 21 (EFE).- Private prisons that have contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, spent millions of dollars lobbying Congress to keep a steady population of 34,000 migrants detained at all times, a study by the Austin, Texas-based Grassroots Leadership group found. Grassroots Leadership researched detention conditions across the country and c...

Guanacaste, Costa Rica (PRWEB) April 20, 2015 - With a 128% increase in inquiries and sales over the first 90 days of 2015 vs. 2014, the exclusive Hacienda Club, a luxury fractional Private Residence Club at Hacienda Pinilla in Guanacaste, Costa Rica has set the bar for fractional Residence Clubs in Latin and Central America. The Hacienda Club, launched in 2013, has seen a dramatic increase in ...

CIMA Hospital in San Jose is often visited by medical tourists A citizen from the United States, who is suspected of having pulled off a spectacular real estate flimflam in Costa Rica, was arrested by the National Police of Nicaragua during Holy Week after a daring escape from a private hospital where he was in custody. According to a news report filed by Fatima Torres Gonzalez of El Nuevo ...

Wikimedia Commons New York, Apr 16 (EFE).- Rupert Murdoch is putting his 3-story New York apartment on the market for $72 million. The 84-year-old communications magnate, who was born Australian but became a nationalized U.S. citizen, has decided to move from the Manhattan apartment, with its 637 square meters (about 6,850 square feet) of floor space, to a Greek Revival townhouse in the cen...

By Alfonso Fernandez. Washington, Apr 15 (EFE).- The World Bank said Wednesday that the economic slowdown in Latin America could become "permanent" if structural reforms are not made to adapt the growth model to an international scenario in which China will also slow down economically and the prices of raw materials will remain at low levels. "In the absence of growth-friendly structural ref...

Source: OVSICORI PRLog - April 2, 2015 - SAN JOSE, Costa Rica – A few weeks ago, specifically during the 12 and 13 March 2015 weekend, the Turrialba Volcano in Costa Rica showed significant activity, putting on alert not only the people in surrounding towns but even people in cities as far as Heredia and San José due to high concentration of volcanic ashes flowing far and wide. What worries pe...

SAN FRANCISCO, April 7, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Face it! Men want to look good and feel good, from head to toe, and are looking for better choices for their shave and skin care. With the sales of all natural and organic personal care products expected to grow to $13B by 2019 driving the growth of the overall personal care category and a population of 101.6 million men in America between 15 – 64 shopp...

Screenshot of stratusoffshore.com Halifax - The Nova Scotia Securities Commission has issued a temporary cease trade order  (PDF) against Stratus Financial Group International (Stratus), Stratus Offshore, Magnus Torgenson and John Westbrook. The Commission received three complaints from Nova Scotia residents saying they were cold called by the company’s representatives pressuring them to in...

Panama City, Apr 10 (EFE).- U.S. President Barack Obama and Panamanian counterpart Juan Carlos Varela were on hand for a ceremony here Friday in which Panama's Copa Airlines and Chicago-based plane maker Boeing finalized an order for 61 jets. The $6.6 billion deal for 61 Boeing 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 airplanes was signed ahead of the inauguration of the April 10-11 Summit of the Americas in this c...

San Jose, March 31, 2015 (CINDE). The services sector company, Akamai, plans to expand its operations in Costa Rica in the coming months due to the Costa Rican human talent and the quality of exported services. The company dedicated to improving the speed and safety with which people access Internet services, plans to increase its payroll by 60 new positions by 2016 and will expand its current off...

Source: Vestas Vestas, a leading Danish manufacturer, seller, installer, and servicer of wind turbines, recently signed a firm and unconditional order with Fila de Mogote, a subsidiary of US-based Hunt Energy Horizons (Hunt Oil), for the 21 MW Mogote wind power plant in the province of Guanacaste, Costa Rica. According to a press release by Vestas, the company will supply and install seven ...

Source: Ad Astra March 30, 2015 (NASA Press Release) - Building on the success of NASA’s partnerships with commercial industry to date, NASA has selected 12 Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) to advance concept studies and technology development projects in the areas of advanced propulsion, habitation and small satellites. Through these public-private partnershi...

Former President Chinchilla at IBM function New York, Mar 31 (EFE; additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star).- Technology giant IBM announced Tuesday that it will invest some $3 billion over the next four years to create a new unit dubbed the Internet of Things, or IoT, based on the interconnection of everyday objects with the Web. The company, as it explained in a communique, seeks to m...

Carvechi Tech MIAMI, Mar. 26, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Carvechi Technology (CT) is a premier minority owned systems integrator and solutions provider servicing private and government based customers throughout the Americas. CT specializes in Near Shore software development, Enterprise Networking Solutions from Cisco, IBM and Extreme Networks. Positioned as a global systems integration provider...

Wikimedia Commons Pressbox UK - While it seems that so much of the premium cigar industry is turning to Nicaragua for its tobacco, Philip Wynne, owner of the Felipe Gregorio cigar brand, is looking to Costa Rica. He's contracted 80 acres of land in Costa Rica to grow tobacco, built a factory and reblended three of his brands with nothing but Costa Rican leaf. It isn't a leap of faith nor me...

Pressbox UK (Press Release) - Costa Rica is not only popular for her tourism attractions; the country is gaining popularity for professional software development services as well. Many businesses from across the Americas decide to opt for software outsourcing in Costa Rica services. If you are operating from a neighbouring country and thinking whether software development can be done inhouse or wh...

Beach house in Costa Rica The ongoing economic recovery of the United States is having a positive impact on select housing markets in Costa Rica.   Whereas real estate development was particularly strong last year in the province of Guanacaste, analysts are seeing greater construction activity in the province of Puntarenas, particularly in the Central and Southern Pacific Coasts. Ac...

Pixabay Commons Panama City, Mar 18 (EFE).- Europe is concerned about its loss of influence in Latin America and China's growing presence in the region, one of the co-presidents of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly, or Eurolat, said here. "We worry about no longer being the big economic partner that Europe has been for many Latin American countries, and about being replaced by ...

Source: Sub Zero Jaco, Costa Rica (PRWEB) March 03, 2015 - Bernard Trade Group is proud to announce that Sub Zero Ice Cream and Yogurt has leased a location in the New City Mall in Alajuela, Costa Rica. City Mall is on track to open in November 2015 and is located next to the Juan Santamaria International Airport. City Mall will be the largest shopping center in Costa Rica ever built in a sing...

The Economist Intelligence Unit recently released a new Country Report for Costa Rica. This new report, which is available in electronic format through Research and Markets, covers economic activity for the months of January and February 2015. As expected, the highlight of the report is the ongoing inflation, which has been increasing at a very fast clip during the administration of President Luis...

Source: UK Trade & Investment Two major projects from the Ad Astra Rocket Company, the celebrated aerospace firm from Costa Rica that founded by NASA Hall of Fame Astronaut Franklin Chang Diaz, have recently run into roadblocks. First of, there's the breakup between Ad Astra and RECOPE, Costa Rica's state-owned fuel refinery monopoly, over future development of hydrogen production in our c...

Source: iTunes App Store Mobile app Wigo has become a hot topic of discussion among college students and it is the pet project of Ben Kaplan, the 23 year old college dropout. Wigo (Who is Going Out) is an application that helps college students to find out where their friends are going to meet up (study, meet up and do anything). Students have to sign up on the products website and download the ...

U.S. tech giant Apple will replace telecom titan AT&T in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the company that compiles that stock market index said Friday. EFE/File New York, Mar 6 (EFE).- U.S. tech giant Apple will replace telecom titan AT&T in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the company that compiles that stock market index said Friday.   Apple's inclusion in the select cl...

Flickr Commons How can I develop the skills of a successful entrepreneur? This is a question that gets repeatedly asked in business circles in Costa Rica and anywhere else in the world. This question refers to the skills needed to be learned to become a successful entrepreneurship wizard. It is trickier to learn the soft skills of successful entrepreneur since these are not found in textbooks ...

U.S. oil company Occidental Petroleum, or Oxy, has agreed to compensate five Peruvian Amazon Indian communities for damage resulting from oil production activity. EFE/File Lima, Mar 5 (EFE).- U.S. oil company Occidental Petroleum, or Oxy, has agreed to compensate five Peruvian Amazon Indian communities for damage resulting from oil production activity. Leaders of the Achuar people from the ...

Beach house in Costa Rica Washington, Mar 4 (EFE; additional context by The Costa Rica Star).- The pace of new home sales in the United States increased 0.2 percent in January to an annual rate of 481,000 units, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. In Costa Rica, the first quarter of 2015 indicates strong interest in new construction and the mortgage markets. Here's the Real Estate S...

Source: Pixabay Commons The Criminal Division Tribunal at the Pavas Courthouse has sentenced attorney Moises Vincenzi to a five-year prison term for his role in a scheme to defraud an elderly Canadian couple in Costa Rica. According to a report by Evelin Andino of daily tabloid Diario Extra, the amount of money scammed by Mr. Vincenzi is close to $8 million. The expats who were ripped off b...