Toronto Mayor Rob Ford at City Hall in Toronto, Nov. 13, 2013. (Reuters OMX) Rob Ford, the controversial former mayor of  the city of Toronto, Canada died Tuesday at the age of 46 following a battle with a rare form of cancer. The former mayor of Canada’s largest city became known for his problems with illegal drugs and alcohol. In November 2013 Ford admitted to smoking crack cocaine after ...

U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuba's President Raul Castro shake hands during their first meeting on the second day of Obama's visit to Cuba, in Havana March 21, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Barria By Daniel Trotta and Matt Spetalnick HAVANA (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama was received by Cuban President Raul Castro in Havana on Monday at the start of historic talks where the U.S. leader ...

U.S. President Barack Obama, his wife Michelle, and their daughters Malia and Sasha, exit Air Force One as they arrive at Havana's international airport for a three-day trip, in Havana March 20, 2016. REUTERS/stringer By Matt Spetalnick, Daniel Trotta and Jeff Mason HAVANA (Reuters) - President Barack Obama arrived to small but cheering crowds on Sunday at the start of a historic visit to C...

Wikimedia Commons Miami, Mar 19 (EFE).- The U.S. Coast Guard said nine undocumented Cuban migrants died while trying to complete a perilous journey by boat to the Florida coast. "Our deepest condolences to the families of the nine people who recently did lose their lives," Capt. Mark Gordon, the head of enforcement for the Coast Guard's 7th District, said Friday. "Unfortunately, tragedy ...

50-cal rifle. Wikimedia Commons Washington, Mar 17 (EFE).- The U.S. government has confirmed that a rifle found earlier this year at drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman's hideout in Mexico entered the country as a result of the failed Fast and Furious gun-walking operation. In a letter made public Wednesday and sent to members of Congress, the Justice Department confirmed a Fox ...

Wikimedia Commons Toronto, Mar 15 (EFE).- Toronto police said Tuesday they have not dismissed terrorism as the motive behind the stabbing of two Canadian soldiers at a recruiting center on the city's north side. Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders identified at a press conference Tuesday the suspected assailant as 27-year-old Montreal native Ayanie Hassan Ali. The suspect, who will appear...

(FILE / White House photo) Editor's note: This story was updated on March 14, 2016 at 3:48 p.m. (GMT -6) with quotes obtained by the EFE news agency. Despite a long editorial by the Cuban government last week in state media stating that the communist island has no intentions of changing its policies and demanding that Washington cease meddling in its internal affairs, U.S. President Barack ...

(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...

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...

Boeing 737 engine The first international route of Air Costa Rica will fly to Guatemala, followed by Panama and hopefully Miami in the next few months. Such are the ongoing plans of Costa Rica's newest international airline, which will fill a decades-old void in the history of commercial aviation in our country. According to a news report filed by business reporter Stefania Colombari of nat...

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...

Zika map. Source: CDC Washington, Feb 23 (EFE).- Two Texas hospitals announced Tuesday that they have created the first rapid detection test for the Zika virus, for which there is neither vaccine nor cure. The new test can detect Zika in the blood and urine, in the amniotic fluid that protects the embryo and in spinal fluid, a joint communique from the Texas Children's Hospital and the Hous...

Source: Flickr Commons Washington, Feb 21 (EFE; additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star).- Michigan police on Sunday arrested the prime suspect in a series of shootings in the city of Kalamazoo that killed at least six people and wounded two others. Kalamazoo resident Jason Dalton, 45, was arrested in a search and capture operation on Sunday morning, Lt. Dale Hinz told the daily Kalamaz...

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...

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...

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...

Washington, Feb 12 (EFE).- The U.S. government announced Friday the upcoming signing of a memorandum of understanding with Cuba in the field of civil aviation that will pave the way for direct commercial flights by fall of this year. Up to 20 direct flights daily will be permitted from the U.S. to Havana, and 10 more to another nine international airports in Cuba, including those at Santiago de...

/TRW / FILE (Reuters OMX) - Members of the Oregon State Troopers and FBI are seen as in Burns, Oregon Jan. 31, 2016. Four armed occupants remain at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns. WASHINGTON (EFE) The last occupiers of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon surrendered peacefully on Thursday after occupying the site for 40 days. Three of the militants who remained at the si...

FBI arrests ISIS suspects in New York. 2015 EFE file photo. Washington, Feb 9 (EFE).- U.S. intelligence services on Tuesday said that the Islamic State "probably" will try to stage direct attacks on U.S. territory in 2016, and it warned that the terrorist group has infiltrated the masses of refugees fleeing the armed conflicts in Iraq and Syria. The IS probably intends to carry out more att...

Thousands of Cuban migrants remain in shelters across Costa Rica. (CIDH/Twitter) MIAMI (EFE) Some 600 Cubans entered the U.S. at Laredo, Texas, in the last five days, and the rate of arrivals will remain constant for the next three months, the founder of the "Cubanos en Libertad" group told EFE. In a telephone conversation from Laredo, Alejandro Ruiz, who lends his compatriots a helping han...

Twitter user and cruise passenger @flatgreg Miami, Feb 8 (EFE).- The cruise ship Anthem of the Seas of the Royal Caribbean company will dock within the coming hours at Florida's Port Canaveral after coming through an unexpectedly dangerous storm in the Atlantic that damaged the vessel and left four people injured. The ship, which had sailed from New Jersey last Saturday on a seven-day cruis...

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton (rear) applauds his wife, Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, as they appear with their daughter Chelsea (R) at Mrs. Clinton's caucus night rally in Des Moines, Iowa February 1, 2016. REUTERS/Adrees Latif By Britt Nelson Editor's note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertis...

Roses now adorn the spot where the Jesuits were gunned down on the UCA's campus on Nov. 16, 1989. They were planted by Obdulio Ramos, husband to Julia Elba Ramos and father to Celina Ramos, who were killed along with the Jesuits. Photo by Charles Barry. Jesuits.org Washington, Feb 5 (EFE).- A U.S. district judge on Friday approved the extradition to Spain of a retired Salvadoran army officer w...

Washington, Feb 4 (EFE).- U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday announced the "Peace Colombia" plan, a new bilateral accord between Washington and Bogota for which he will ask Congress for some $450 million in the fiscal 2017 budget, substantially more than the $296 million authorized for that country this year. The president announced the proposal during the White House ceremony to commemora...

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton (rear) applauds his wife, Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, as they appear with their daughter Chelsea (R) at Mrs. Clinton's caucus night rally in Des Moines, Iowa February 1, 2016. REUTERS/Adrees Latif By Britt Nelson New Hampshire voters will again have the world on their shoulders for the Feb. 9 primary election. Every four years -...

Microcephaly, a birth defect which causes babies to be born with unusually small heads and brains, is linked to the Zika virus. (Photo by Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters) (VOA) A county in the southwestern state of Texas reported what appears to be the first case of the Zika virus being transmitted in the United States by sexual contact. Officials in Dallas County said Tuesday the patient was infe...

Flickr Commons Mexico City, Jan 28 (EFE).- Mexican authorities sent the U.S. teenager who used an "affluenza" court defense after killing four people while driving drunk in Texas back to the United States to face court proceedings. "Ethan Couch, who entered at the Las Agujas immigration station ... after being found to be in an irregular administrative situation, was transferred this mornin...

Alan Gross with his wife Judy, attorney Scott Gilbert, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. watch television on board a U.S. government plane headed back to the U.S. as the news breaks of his release, Dec. 17, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson) By Lucia Leal Washington, Jan 23 (EFE).- U.S. citizen Alan Gross believes the C...

Photo by Cohen.Canada. Flickr Commons Washington, Jan 21 (EFE).- The U.S. government on Thursday toughened the requirements for entering this country from Syria, Iraq, Iran and Sudan for citizens of the 38 countries belonging to the Visa Waiver Program, though the new guidelines make allowances for journalists, aid workers and members of international organizations. The increased requiremen...

Source: America TeVe MIAMI, Jan. 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- América TeVé once again makes television history in the United Stateswith its unique coverage of its' caravan – Path To Freedom Route. For the first time, a professional news team accompanies step by step and day by day, the first group of Cuban refugees stranded for months in Costa Rica, through its pilgrimage through Central Americ...

By Ivonne Malaver Miami, Jan 18 (EFE).- The first Cuban migrants - who had been stranded in Costa Rica - began arriving in Miami on the weekend distressed over their ordeal, but also grateful to the Central American country for its "incredible humanitarian consciousness" after Nicaragua closed its border to them, temporarily halting their trek to the United States. Odalanier Diaz, 27, was re...

File photo Washington, Jan 16 (EFE).- U.S. President Barack Obama signed Saturday an executive order to lift economic sanctions on Iran, the White House said. Obama signed the order after the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, confirmed that Iran has met all the commitments it made last July in Vienna to reach a historic nuclear accord and have international sanctions on that coun...

Washington, Jan 15 (EFE).- Two helicopters of the U.S. Armed Forces collided in mid-flight with 12 people aboard off the coast of Oahu in Hawaii, and up to now no survivors have been reported, the Coast Guard said Friday. Coast Guard official Sara Mooers told local media that each of the two choppers carried a crew of six, and that wreckage from the collision was found 2 miles off the north coa...

IOM Media Release - A pilot group of 180 Cuban economic migrants stranded in Costa Rica since 14 November, 2015, left shelters provided by the Government of Costa Rica and departed the country as regular migrants. They have each paid USD 555 for a commercial plane and bus tickets in a package trip to reach Mexico via El Salvador and Guatemala. “The departure of the pilot group of Cubans should ...

Source: Powerball.com Washington, Jan 10 (EFE).- The Powerball lottery hit $1.3 billion on Sunday, making it the richest lottery prize ever up for grabs in the United States, where lottery fever has afflicted millions of people. No one won the Powerball drawing on Saturday night, with the prize money rolling over to the next drawing. Hundreds of millions of dollars were wagered on Friday...

Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, Jan 7 (EFE).- Three fugtives wanted on criminal conspiracy, drug, sexual abuse and homicide charges by U.S. federal courts were extradited to the United States, the Mexican Attorney General's Office said. "The Foreign Relations Secretariat cited the corresponding agreements under which the government of our country granted the extradition requested by U.S. aut...

Wikimedia Commons Miami, Jan 1 (EFE).- A record 41 endangered Florida panthers were killed in 2015, mostly as a result of collisions with motor vehicles, state authorities said Friday. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, or FWC, said the new record was attributable to the state's growing human population, a demographic trend that is leading to greater contact between peop...

Source: Wikimedia Commons New York, Dec 31 (EFE).- A 25-year-old man was arrested in New York state for allegedly intending to commit a terrorist act on New Year's Eve, inspired by the Islamic State jihadist group, authorities said Thursday. The man was identified as Emanuel L. Lutchman of Rochester, a convert to Islam with a criminal record and mental problems, and he said he was instructe...