Source: Wikimedia Commons Bogota, Mar 11 (EFE).- Colombian authorities arrested in Bogota 10 employees of Avianca airlines as part of an international operation against drug trafficking and money laundering, the company said in a statement. Avianca said the 10 taken into custody as part of Operation Pajaro Azul (Bluebird) were turned over to the appropriate authorities, but gave no further ...

Mexico City, Mar 9 (EFE).- Mexican authorities say they have located a container of industrial radioactive material that was stolen in late February. The vehicle used to transport the container of Iridium-192 - stolen on Feb. 27 in San Juan del Rio, a city in Queretaro state - was found in the neighboring state of Mexico, Luis Felipe Puente, who heads up the Government Secretariat's national em...

Wikimedia Commons Asuncion, Mar 8 (EFE).- Paraguayan media reported Tuesday that Madeleine McCann, the British girl who suddenly went missing in Portugal in 2007, has been found in the South American nation, though the Asuncion office of Interpol told EFE they know nothing about the private investigator said to have tracked down the girl. The case of the missing girl caused a stir in the me...

(FILE / White House photo) //TRW// HAVANA (Reuters, with additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star) Cuba said it would welcome President Barack Obama to Havana later this month, but the Communist government had no intention of changing its policies in exchange for normal relations with the United States. In a long editorial on Wednesday in Communist Party newspaper Granma and other off...

Mexico City, Mar 7 (EFE).- Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Monday lamented and condemned remarks on immigration and Mexico by Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, saying that they "hurt" bilateral relations. "I condemn these kinds of statements. It seems to me they hurt a relationship that Mexico has sought with the United States of bridges, of dialogue, of rapprochement, of se...

Guatemala Police. Wikimedia Commons Guatemala City, Mar 6 (EFE).- A bomb evidently triggered by a cellphone exploded on a public bus in Guatemala, killing at least one person and injurin 17 on Sunday. The incident occurred early Sunday morning in San Jose Pinula, a town located 22 kilometers (14 miles) from the capital. Investigators with the National Civil Police and the Public Ministry...

Wikimedia Commons archive photo Mexico City, Mar 5 (EFE).- Mexico's National Protected Natural Areas Commission, or Conanp, has reported the sighting of an albino whale in waters of the El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve that was last spotted by Mexican authorities more than five years ago when it was still a calf. During the annual whale census taken by Conanp in that northwestern area of the c...

Source: MSP Officers from the Costa Rica Drug Control Police (Spanish initials: PCD) dismantled various indoor marijuana growing operations this week, and two expats from the United States were arrested during the law enforcement operation.   According to a press release from the Ministry of Public Security (Spanish initials: MSP), the PCD officers had enough information from confid...

Wikimedia Commons Lima, Mar 4 (EFE).- A Frenchman, 28, and an Englishman, 23, were arrested by Peruvian tourism police for taking nude pictures of themselves at the ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchu in the Cuzco region in the southeastern part of the country, police authorities said. Culture Ministry guards alerted tourism police last Wednesday to the presence of two tourists in the agri...

Wikimedia Commons Buenos Aires, Mar 2 (EFE).- A total of 23 Franciscana dolphins have been found dead in recent days on different beaches in Argentina, prompting an investigation. That figure was confirmed to EFE Wednesday by the Mundo Marino foundation, which received reports of the dolphin deaths and has arranged for studies to determine why the animals lost their lives. "They've appea...

Illustrative image. (Flickr) Mexico City, Mar 1 (EFE).- The bodies of the five young people who disappeared on Jan. 11 in Tierra Blanca, a town in the Mexican Gulf state of Veracruz, were burned, grounded down and thrown into a river, officials said Tuesday, citing a statement given by former police officer Ruben Perez, one of the suspects in the case, to investigators. "Based on the inform...

Flickr Commons Sao Paulo, Mar 1 (EFE).- The vice president of Facebook for Latin America was arrested here Tuesday for repeated non-compliance with court orders, Brazil's Federal Police said. Diego Dzodan, an Argentine citizen, was arrested in Sao Paulo on a warrant handed down by a judge in the northeastern state of Sergipe. Judge Marcel Maia Montalvao ruled that the executive failed to...

Wikimedia Commons Charlotte, North Carolina, Feb 29 (EFE).- The 55 immigration courts in the United States have handed down 10,142 deportation orders for Central American youngsters who came to this country unaccompanied by an adult since 2014. Data from the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review indicate that, between July 2014 and Jan. 26, 2016, 8,912 repatriation or...

Panama Canal Panama City, Mar 1 (EFE).- GUPC, the consortium building the new Panama Canal locks, said that in the next two months it would conduct more than 2,000 trials in the Pacific and Caribbean sectors of the expanded waterway, focusing on gates, valves, electric power and control systems. Some systems are already being operated from the control towers and the buildings where machines...

Source: James Harrison Instagram Miami, Feb 28 (EFE).- A cruise ship on the weekend rescued 16 Cuban migrants trying to sail to the United States on a homemade raft, the U.S. Coast Guard told EFE Sunday. The rafters were taken on board the Carnival Sensation before being turned over to authorities in Cozumel, Mexico, the Carnival Sensation's next port of call after setting sail from Miami o...

  "Força Nacional de Segurança - Luziânia" by Fábio Rodrigues Pozzebom/ABr - http://www.agenciabrasil.gov.br/media/imagens/2007/10/21/1625FP4021.jpg/view. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 br via Wikimedia Commons Sao Paulo, Feb 28 (EFE).- About 1,500 taxi drivers took to the streets of Sao Paulo on Sunday to demand a peaceful debate on ride-sharing service Uber and other transportation compani...

Supporters of President Maduro rally in Caracas EFE/AGENCIA VENEZOLANA DE NOTICIAS/ By Daniela Castro Molina Caracas, Feb 26 (EFE).- The shortage of food, medicines, household goods and personal hygiene products that Venezuela has suffered for several years has created new "jobs" in this country for those who profit from the crisis by speculating on it. Citizens known as "bachaqueros" (n...

Source: Alfredo Guzman Twitter Mexico City, Feb 25 (EFE).- Drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman is willing to plead guilty if extradited by Mexico to the United States in exchange for "a reasonable sentence" to be served at a medium-security prison, one of the Sinaloa cartel leader's lawyers said Thursday. Attorney Jose Refugio Rodriguez told Radio Formula that he discussed this opt...

U.S. DOJ Press Release - SAN DIEGO - Over four years after the disappearance and death of Yvonne Baldelli, Brian Karl Brimager pleaded guilty in federal court today to her murder, admitting that he fatally stabbed Baldelli in the back with a knife, dismembered her body with a machete and disposed of her remains in a remote jungle on the Panamanian island where they lived as a couple for two months...

Source: Sea Shepherd BAJA CALIFORNIA, Mexico – Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has launched a video of this weekend's rescue of a humpback whale, entangled in an illegal gillnet. The video received over 113,000 views on Facebook after its first day, almost 4,000 shares and hundreds of excited comments from fans. In total, over 543,000 people have been exposed to the video on Facebook. The Se...

Wikimedia Commons Havana, Feb 22 (EFE).- Cuba announced Monday a plan of action to deal with the Zika virus, dengue and Chikungunya, which includes mobilizing 9,000 members of the armed forces and 200 police officers to combat the mosquito that transmits these diseases. In a statement published in official media, President Raul Castro urged Cubans to make the fight against the Aedes aegypti...

David, Panama, Feb 21 (EFE).- More than 100 Cuban migrants from among the 1,300 stranded in Panama on Sunday received immigration permits that early next week will allow them to travel legally to Mexico, where they will be able to continue their land journey to the United States. The deputy commissioner of the Panamanian Immigration Service, David Rios Duran, told EFE that 145 people are being ...

Caracas, Feb 20 (EFE).- The majority of the approximately 3 million inhabitants of Caracas are without drinking water this weekend, after several weeks of partial suspensions due to the maintenance work currently underway, state-run Hidrocapital said Saturday. "The maintenance work being done on the principal pipelines of the Tuy II drinking water production system" is part of "the action being...

Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. Source: Wikimedia Commons Miami, Feb 19 (EFE).- The wife of imprisoned Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman has broken her silence and spoken out in defense of her husband in an exclusive interview with Telemundo, saying she fears for his life and that he is being denied his basic human rights. The U.S. Spanish-language broadcaster uploaded some clips...

Guatemala City, Feb 18 (EFE).- Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis announced Thursday that some 4,100 Cuban migrants remain in his country awaiting transportation to the United States. In response to reporters' questions after meeting in this capital with his Guatemalan counterpart, Jimmy Morales, Solis expressed his wish that "in a few weeks" all the Cubans will have been able to travel...

File photo Caracas, Feb 18 (EFE).- The former presidents of Costa Rica and Poland - Oscar Arias and Lech Walesa, respectively, both of whom are Nobel Peace Prize winners - are in Venezuela to support political prisoners and on Thursday participated in a special session of parliament at which they criticized the country's economic model and urged lawmakers to work together to get out of the cur...

"Rolling Stones 26" by Gorupdebesanez - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons Rio de Janeiro, Feb 18 (EFE).- The front man for the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger, said Thursday that he is happy to return to Rio de Janeiro, where the iconic British rock band will offer its fourth concert on the weekend, 10 years after giving a free performance here that attracted 1.2 million fans. "...

Wikimedia Commons Aboard the papal aircraft, Feb 18 (EFE).- Pope Francis said Thursday that he did not meet with relatives of 43 trainee teachers kidnapped 18 months ago in southern Mexico because he had received multiple requests from different groups, "including ones at odds with one another." The Argentine pontiff made the remarks to international media, including EFE, while flying back ...

FILE - Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are seen in the House of Representatives Chamber of the US Capitol after Pope Francis' address Sept. 24, 2015. (Reuters OMX) //TRW// (VOA) Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz slammed U.S. President Barack Obama for his reported plans to visit Cuba next month. Speaking at a town hall Thursday in South Carolina, th...

Washington, Feb 18 (EFE; additional context by The Costa Rica Star).- U.S. President Barack Obama announced Thursday that he planned to visit Cuba in March, making him the first sitting U.S. head of state to visit the island in 88 years. EFE On Thursday morning, the White House Press Office confirmed President Obama's intention to make the historic visit. The visit to Cuba will be part of an of...

(Nicaragua state media) Eight leaders of a massive religious cult in Nicaragua that attracted some 650 followers from Nicaragua as well as Honduras and El Salvador to live in “subhuman” conditions in a mountainous area in the municipality of El Viejo, in Nicaragua’s Chinandega department, were sentenced to more than seven years in prison on Monday. According to local media reports, the reli...

Rio de Janeiro Sao Paulo, Feb 16 (EFE).- Real estate prices fell between 15 percent and 20 percent in Brazil last year and the sector will remain "under pressure" until mid-2017, credit rating agency Moody's said Tuesday. Brazil's real estate industry has been in a cyclical downturn since 2012, with the slump coming after a period of rapid growth, Moody's said. The downturn has intensifi...

Santiago, Feb 16 (EFE).- Chile's judiciary issued a warrant Tuesday for police to search the Queen Mary II, set to dock this week in the Andean nation, in order to discover the circumstances surrounding the death of a Chilean man who worked on the cruise ship as a chef. Favio Oñate, 26, leaped overboard before dawn on Aug. 15 as the vessel was sailing off the Canadian coastline. The procedur...

YouTube/Google under Creative Commons 2.0 Bogota, Feb 16 (EFE).- Deputy Interior Minister Carlos Ferro resigned on Tuesday a few hours after he was linked with an alleged male prostitution network extending into Colombia's National Police, official sources told EFE. Ferro's resignation was seen as part of an internal restructuring of the Interior Ministry, the sources said. Earlier Tuesd...

San Jose, Feb 11 (Prensa Latina; additional context by The Costa Rica Star) Journalists, diplomats and representatives of alternative media and social movements in Costa Rica stressed here today the importance of the Latin American News Agency Prensa Latina (PL) for covering the international situation, especially in Latin America. The role of this agency was the focus of a meeting held at the ...

(Photo courtesy of Casa Presidencial) Chinese loans to Latin American and Caribbean governments and the region's state-owned firms climbed sharply in 2015 despite the slowing Chinese economy, rising to US $29 billion and focused once again on Venezuela, Brazil and Ecuador, the Inter-American Dialogue public policy think tank said in its annual report issued this month. From nuclear power pl...

Nicaragua’s Momotombo volcano ended a 110-year period of inactivity with a fiery eruption on December 2, 2015 (Photo courtesy of INETER, Dec 2 2015) Authorities in Nicaragua activated emergency plans after explosions occurred at both the Momotombo and Telica volcanoes on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Masaya volcano has also witnessed an increase in seismic activity in recent days. According t...

Quito, Feb 14 (EFE).- A Mexican man who tried to smuggle 11 iguanas out of Ecuador's Galapagos Islands has been sentenced by a judge to serve two years in prison and pay a fine of $20,000, Galapagos National Park said in a Twitter post Sunday. Gustavo Eduardo Toledo Albarran was arrested last year when he tried to smuggle the marine and land iguanas out of Santa Cruz Island. "The judge from ...

By Ministério da Defesa - Solenidade de passagem de cargo dos Comandantes da 2ª Região Militar e da 2ª Divisão de Exército no QG do Comando Militar do Sudeste (CMSE), CC BY 2.0 Rio de Janeiro, Feb 13 (EFE).- Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff led this Saturday the National Day of Mobilization for the Fight against the Aedes Aegypti, a day during which more than 200,000 members of the armed for...

Wikimedia Commons New York, Feb 13 (EFE; odds by IDSca.com).- The New York Yankees and Cuban star closer Aroldis Chapman agreed to a one-year, $11.3-million contract, avoiding salary arbitration. The Yankees will pay Chapman, whom they acquired this offseason from the Cincinnati Reds, $11,325,000 in his first season in the Bronx, Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal said. Chapman, who turns 28 this...