Garcia Marquez. Source: Flickr Commons Bogota, Jul 22 (EFE).- Brazilian journalist Dorrit Harazim was awarded the Gabriel Garcia Marquez Journalism Prize for career excellence on Wednesday in honor of her coverage of international events spanning a half-century, award organizers said. The 72-year-old Harazim, a native of Croatia, is currently a columnist for the Rio de Janeiro daily O Globo...

Washington, Jul 18 (EFE).- More than 35,000 Cubans for whom deportation orders have been issued could be repatriated to the Caribbean island as a result of the renewal of relations between the two countries, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, told EFE. According to ICE data, deportation orders have been issued for 35,106 Cuban nationals in the United States, of whom 162 are curre...

PRBuzz - For a golf getaway with beautiful beaches and an international flavor, Unlimited Vacation Club (UVC) members can now book the Dreams Las Mareas Golf Package during their stay at Dreams® Las Mareas Costa Rica. Dreams Las Mareas, part of the elite Unlimited Vacation Club (UVC) by AMResorts portfolio, welcomes members with this package that includes a round of golf at Guacalito Golf Cours...

Wikimedia Commons New York, Jul 18 (EFE).- Mexico is a corrupt country that should be subject to a U.S. "boycott," Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump said in an interview to be broadcast Sunday by a New York radio station. Trump, whose remarks were published on Saturday by several media outlets, cited Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman's escape from the Altipl...

Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, Jul 17 (EFE).- A baby boy died of the bites he suffered in an attack by two pit bull terriers in the central Mexican city of Leon, police told EFE on Friday. The victim, identified as 21-month-old Matias Reynoso, was attacked Thursday afternoon, according to witnesses in the Arboledas de San Hilarion neighborhood. Neighbors heard the toddler's mother scream...

Havana, Jul 15 (EFE).- Cuba's Raul Castro insisted Wednesday that "it's not possible to conceive of" normal relations with the United States as long as the "blockade" of the island remains in place and said he hopes that President Barack Obama uses "his executive authority" to dismantle aspects of the 53-year-old economic embargo. "We hope that (Obama) continues using his executive authority to...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Bogota, Jul 14 (EFE).- Colombian police reported Tuesday the arrest of five people who were riding in an ambulance as if on a medical mission, while the true purpose of their trip was to transport 214 kilos (470 pounds) of cocaine to the northern part of the country.   "Inside the ambulance, assigned to the southwestern municipality of Puerto Caicedo, was t...

Photo: James De Mers, Pixabay Commons Mexico City, Jul 14 (EFE).- A dromedary, or Arabian camel, that was being sold at a street market in the central Mexican city of Almoloya de Juarez has been seized, the Profepa federal environmental protection agency said. Profepa inspectors went to the San Bernabe street market at the request of the State Public Safety Commission in Mexico state, which...

Wikimedia Commons Panama, 03-JULY-2013 (WireService.co)– 2Bet Bob is pleased to announce that their headquarters have been moved to the country of Panama, due to unexpected red tape in Costa Rica. This move will not affect the excellent customer service which is a feature of the betting site. The pay per head feature allows the company to provide 24-hour betting every day. 2Bet Bob uses the PP...

Wikimedia Commons Guadalajara, Mexico, Jul 11 (EFE).- Residents of the Mexican hamlet of La Yerbabuena were evacuated after an explosion was registered inside the Colima Volcano, emergency management officials told EFE. The inhabitants of that small community on the side of the volcano, which straddles the western states of Colima and Jalisco, were taken to La Becerrera, a town three kilome...

Source: Discovery Miami, Jul 9 (EFE).- The Discovery en Español television channel starting July 13 will air the "Cuban Chrome" docu-series about classic automobiles, filmed exclusively in Cuba and narrated by Cuban-American actor William Levy, the company announced Thursday. The production explores the culture of vintage automobiles on the Caribbean island through "the men and women who pu...

Source: Riverside BT San Jose, Jul 5 (EFE).- A video game developed in Costa Rica aims to raise awareness in Latin America of the need to protect the Amazon river dolphin, or pink dolphin, and other river species, such as the manatee, that are threatened by illegal fishing and habitat loss. The game, titled "Apu, el espiritu del rio" (Apu, the Spirit of the River), takes players on a journe...

US NSA Headquarters. Source: Wikimedia Commons Sao Paulo, Jul 4 (EFE).- Whistle-blower Web site WikiLeaks on Saturday published the names of more than 29 members of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's administration who were spied on by the U.S. National Security Agency at the start of her first term in office, which began in January 2011. The release of the list of phone numbers linked to...

New York, Jul 3 (EFE).- JetBlue made its first weekly flight Friday between New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and Havana's Jose Marti International Airport as part of the measures taken in recent months to restore relations between Cuba and the United States. According to a communique from the airline, JetBlue becomes the first large U.S. airline to serve this route since restric...

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...

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 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...

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...

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The draconian sentencing in the Silk Road criminal case and the quixotic Nicaragua Interoceanic Canal project have something in common; something other than their connection to Costa Rica, their respective controversy, and their collective absurdity. Recent reports suggests that the respective governments handling the two controversial situations mentioned above have imposed measures to silence...

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...

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 ...

The fall of the Third Reich and the Nazi movement. Wikimedia Commons Guadalajara, Mexico, Jun 12 (EFE).- Mexican teenagers have sparked controversy with a video showing them flaunting Nazi symbols during a dance contest in this western metropolis. The three-minute clip was shot by a dance enthusiast during the Cheerdance ACMX competition held May 31 in Guadalajara, but was only posted this ...

Panama City, Jun 8 (EFE).- Emergency management services in Panama found two French tourists alive on Sunday in the western jungle of Bocas del Toro after they were given up for lost the day before, an official said. A spokesperson for the Sinaproc emergency management agency told reporters that the Frenchmen Elliot Nakache and Herve Dupied, who were on a hiking expedition, were found Monday mo...

Lagrimita. Source: Facebook Guadalajara, Mexico, May 31 (EFE).- Lagrimita the clown can run for mayor of Guadalajara, the capital of the western Mexican state of Jalisco, the TEPJF electoral court said. "We are revoking the resolution of the Jalisco Electoral Institute's General Council under which the independent mayoral candidacy for Guadalajara of the ticket headed by Guillermo Cienfuego...

Source: Volaris Costa Rica is currently the subject of an invasion by budget airlines, which are fighting each other for market share in the lucrative segment of flights between North and Central American destinations. As recently reported by The Costa Rica Star: Data compiled by the Directorate of Civil Aviation in Costa Rica indicates that low-cost airlines transported 9.2 percent of 4.2 mi...

Source: UNHCR Costa Rica, May 26, International Organization for Migration - To help vulnerable migrants at the Paso Canoas border crossing between Panama and Costa Rica, IOM and the authorities of both countries have opened two specialized information hubs that will provide migrants with reliable information about their rights and services available to them. “These assistance hubs will add...

Source: Flickr Commons In Mexico, violence and disregard for human life are spreading throughout society, and three recent incidents involving children underscore how much of a widespread and worrisome problem this has become. The following reports are provided courtesy of Agencia EFE, the wire news service partner of The Costa Rica Star.   Minors who killed boy in Mexico facing confi...

An Uber driver in Bogota. Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, May 25 (EFE).- Hundreds of taxi drivers in Mexico City protested Monday against Uber and the authorities failure to do anything about what they consider an "illegal" service - which the U.S. company answered by offering free rides to customers throughout the day.   Groups of taxi drivers from different parts of the city gather...

Preferred weapon of guerrillas and drug cartels. Mexico City, May 24 (EFE).- Investigators continue gathering evidence at the ranch in the western Mexican state of Michoacan at which 42 suspected drug traffickers and a Federal Police officer died in a shootout. The bodies of the cartel gunmen were removed from the ranch by National Human Rights Commission, or CNDH, and coroner's office pers...

Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, May 23 (EFE).- Members of the campaign team of the conservative PAN's candidate for governor of the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, Jorge Camacho, came under fire while riding in a vehicle near the town of Petatlan. The campaign SUV was targeted Friday night after it was used to drive former Government Secretary Santiago Creel to the Zihuatanejo airport fo...

Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, May 19 (EFE).- Leftist politician Valentin Gonzalez Bautista, who is running for mayor of the central Mexican city of Nezahualcoyotl in the June 7 elections, is using an automobile like Batman's Batmobile to get his message out to voters. "Exhibiting the Batmobile, the photographs that interested people take and the requests they make are a good way to get the...

Rio de Janeiro, May 19 (EFE).- Brazilian police are investigating the murder of investigative reporter Evany Jose Metzker, who was found decapitated earlier this week in the town of Padre Paraiso, in Minas Gerais state, authorities said Tuesday. Commissioner Fabricia Nunes, who is in charge of the case, is pursuing two investigative lines, that it was either a crime of passion or that it was carr...

Unidentified U.S. federal agent during the seizure of Elián González from his uncle's residence on April 22, 2000. Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography. Photograph taken by Alan Diaz of the Associated Press. Wikimedia Commons Fair Use.  Miami, May 18 (EFE).- Young Cuban student Elian Gonzalez, who as a child was rescued at sea in 1999 by two U.S. fishermen, said in an interview Monday ...

Crocodile Man Tour at the Tarcoles River near Jaco, Costa Rica Mexico City, May 14 (EFE).- Five crocodiles were returned to their natural habitat and a sixth is undergoing treatment for wounds at a wildlife center following trapping operations in populated areas in Mexico's Tamaulipas, Guerrero and Tabasco states, the Profepa federal environmental protection agency said. Three crocs were tr...

Mexican soldiers fighting the Drug War. Wikimedia Commons Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, May 13 (EFE).- Six people were killed when suspected drug traffickers shot down a small plane in Urique, a city in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, state officials said Wednesday. The victims were aboard an air taxi that was on its way from the northwestern state of Sinaloa to Chihuahua when it was shot...

Managua, May 12 (EFE).- Nicaragua hopes to lure European tourists with tours of active and inactive volcanoes, nature preserves, pristine forests, archaeological sites and colonial cities, as well as the chance to see wild birds or whales. Sustainable tourism, deemed the best fit for a country with unexplored regions and the lowest crime rate in Central America, has given Nicaraguan officials a...

Aedes aegypti mosquito, known dengue carrier. By Fabio Agrana Panama City, May 9 (EFE).- Panama's Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health, or ICGES, found in a recent study that genetically modified mosquitoes can be used to combat dengue with a high degree of effectiveness, scientists involved in the project said. The director of the ICGES study, Lorenzo Caceres, told Efe that in a period ...

Source: UNHCR SABALITO, Costa Rica, May 7 (UNHCR) – Elida Andrade has lived in the green hills around the small southern Costa Rican town of Sabalito for her whole life, but until recently the 18-year-old mother never really belonged anywhere. Her parents, members of the indigenous Ngöbe Bugle people, were born across the nearby border in Chiriqui, Panama, and moved to the coffee-growing Sa...