Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. By Britt Nelson A Trump fan posted this on Facebook. There is much speculation going around about how the new President–elect Trump administration and his evolving foreign policy might affect Costa Rica along with the rest of Central America. Immediat...

Columbus, Ohio, Nov 12 — Mexico ended a humiliating string of 2-0 losses to the United States in this Midwestern city, getting a 2-1 victory over its arch-rival at the start of the fifth and final round of World Cup qualifying in the Concacaf region. Costa Rica beats Cuba Gold Cup Soccer. Friday night's match at Mapfre Stadium seemed destined to end in a 1-1 draw, but 37-year-old defender R...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.  By Britt Nelson As news of Donald J. Trump’s presidential win starts sinking in around the world, President-elect Trump has met with President Obama in the Oval Office for a smooth transition of power, students are walking out of classes in Berkeley, and orga...

(Reuters) - Leonard Cohen, rock music's man of letters whose songs fused religious imagery with themes of redemption and sexual desire, earning him critical and popular acclaim, has died at age 82, said a statement on his Facebook page. "It is with profound sorrow we report that legendary poet, songwriter and artist, Leonard Cohen has passed away," a statement on the Facebook page said. "We hav...

Jurgen Klinsmann head coach of the U.S.A. male National Soccer Team (U.S. MNT), announced the list of players summoned for the upcoming CONCACAF hexagonal games against Mexico and Costa Rica. Midfielder Jermaine Jones was called to join the team, and will be evaluated to ensure he is in good physical condition; other young figures such as Cameron Carter-Vickers, Lynden Gooch and Caleb Stanko a...

Briefly overwhelmed by web traffic from the U.S., several websites were down for a time Tuesday night. The spike in searches on moving to Canada as U.S. election results come in, Search Engine Land. As it became clear over the course of election night in the U.S. that Donald Trump was on track to becoming the 45th U.S. President, searches related to moving to Canada spiked. These included a...

Washington, DC, Nov. 9 — Massachusetts and Nevada endorsed the legalization of recreational cannabis use, as did California which, like Nebraska also opted to uphold the death penalty in polling conducted alongside the United States presidential elections. Map reveals minimum hourly wage needed to afford a 2-bedroom home in every U.S. state, source NLIHC. California supported the motion to ...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.    By Britt Nelson The winning Trump Train -- with hot smoking brakes, low on coal and packed with “deplorables” -- pulled up to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue early Wednesday morning and parked in front of the White House. In a come-from-behind h...

Washington, DC, Nov. 8 —  Results of U.S. elections this Tuesday will come in step by step, beginning with the closing of Electoral Colleges on the East Coast, and ending with the states of Hawaii and Alaska, the tips of a country with an area of 3.8 million sq. miles (9.8 million sq. kilometers) that spans six time zones. People wait in line to vote early at Downtown Summerlin on October 26...

By Wendy Anders Viogaz bio-digester in the Barra Honda National Park in Nicoya, Costa Rica. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)’s ‘Technology Review’, awarded Joaquín Víquez, manager of the Heredia, Costa Rica-based Viogaz company its young innovators in Central America award. The contest, which is held in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank, recognized six o...

Washington, DC, Nov. 7 — The U.S. government announced Monday that on Election Day it will devote special attention to monitoring voting in 67 jurisdictions in 28 of the 50 states to guarantee that citizens - particularly minorities - may freely exercise their right to vote. Voters in the U.S., photo for illustrative purposes from Facebook. In a statement, the Department of Justice explaine...

Tokyo, Nov 7 — The armed forces of Japan and the United States began today their first joint military maneuvers under Japan's new legislation allowing their troops to fight abroad. U.S. military DASH-8 aircraft. Wikimedia Commons The maneuvers, which will last until Wednesday, integrate some 25,000 soldiers from the Japan Self-Defense Forces and 11,000 Americans into Keen Sword, the joint o...

An accidental early posting of 2016 election results by NBC affiliate WRCB TV in Chattanooga, TN, source Facebook. Moscow, Nov. 4 — The founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange said on Friday that the U.S. establishment will not allow Republican candidate Donald Trump to become the next U.S. president in the upcoming election. Assange said that Trump is supported by only one U.S. power group — t...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. By Britt Nelson source Facebook FBI Director James Comey has chosen justice over politics in his decision to get a warrant and examine hundreds of thousands of emails found on a computer shared by Huma Abedin, a long-time aide to presidential candidate H...

San Juan, Nov. 2 — U.S. authorities in Puerto Rico announced Wednesday the largest onshore seizure of illegal drugs in the history of the island: 1,786 kilos (3,933 lbs.) of cocaine. An at-sea capture of over 1 tons of cocaine near Puerto Rico in May 2014, Facebook. "We have made large seizures at sea, but never on land," Ricardo Mayoral, acting special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration a...

By Wendy Anders Photo for illustrative purposes. U.S. police in New Jersey deported a Costa Rican man who fled the country in 2003 presumably to escape after allegedly raping his daughter, reported El Diario Extra, a Costa Rican newspaper. According to local Costa Rica news, Jose Alberto Orozco Ramirez, 48, was accused of raping his under age daughter who then became pregnant. New Jer...

HELENA, Ala., Oct. 31— One worker died Monday and at least five others were severely injured when a gas pipeline exploded in central Alabama, just south of Birmingham, authorities said. Blast at Alabama gas pipeline, source Facebook. A petroleum gas line owned by Colonial Pipeline exploded in Shelby County while a crew was performing maintenance, sending several workers to area hospitals. ...

Manila, Oct 28 — Nearly one hundred women demonstrated in front of the United States embassy in Manila on Friday to demand that the U.S. government withdraw its troops and allow the Philippines government to pursue its own domestic and foreign policies, according to police. Authorities had put up roadblocks in anticipation of the protest, organized through social media channels by the Gabriela ...

Talamanca, Limón. By Wendy Anders Yesterday morning, Costa Rica’s Minister of Public Security Gustavo Mata Vega together with Costa Rican police officials welcomed a humanitarian mission at the Limón International Airport on the country’s Atlantic coast. Helicopters from the US Southern Command based in Panama arrived with a 16-person medical team comprised of doctors, nurses, dentists, ...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. By Britt Nelson Political Halloween costumes, Facebook. Clinton’s long-time personal aide, Huma Abedin, was hiding over the weekend, noticeably absent and out of view from accompanying Democrat Hillary Clinton on the presidential campaign trail. On Frida...

As tensions escalate at the site of a disputed pipeline close to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota, Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) has sent a delegation of human rights observers to monitor the response of law enforcement to protests by Indigenous communities. Sioux reservation in North Dakota, source Facebook. AIUSA also has sent a letter to the Morton Co...

Washington, Oct 30 — The 2016 elections will be the most diverse in U.S. history and, once again, Hispanics - the country's largest minority - will play an important role. Trump does retain appeal for some Latinos, such as Raul Rodriguez Jr. of Apple Valley, California. Photo from Buzzfeed. Some 57 million Hispanics live in the United States - more than 27 million of them registered voters ...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.    By Britt Nelson Facebook meme. In an unexpected move, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has reopened the Hillary Clinton email scandal investigation due to newly discovered emails involving the email accounts of now disgraced, former Ne...

By Wendy Anders Researchers at Stanford, through intense observations, mapping and analysis, generated a method of estimating biodiversity based on tree cover. The results can be used by policymakers to help protect biodiversity and endangered species. Stanford researchers discovered that in agricultural areas of Costa Rica, increased tree cover corresponds with increases in biodiversity. Th...

OSLO, Norway, Oct. 25 – At least 330 U.S. Marines will be stationed at Norway's Vaernes military base beginning in 2017, the Norwegian Defense Ministry announced. U.S. military DASH-8 aircraft. Wikimedia Commons Norway, like the United States, is an original NATO member and has expressed concern over Russian military maneuvers since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. Norway shares a short borde...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.  By Britt Nelson Two interviews concerning Republican Donald Trump this week stand out from all the media hype over the presidential election: One with CNN’s Dana Bash interviewing Trump on the sidewalk in front of the new Trump International Hotel in Washin...

By Wendy Anders U.S. soldiers exiting Iraq; a large portion were affected by post-traumatic stress disorder. File photo. A senior analyst at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs in Providence, Rhode Island last week expressed outrage at the slew of bombings being carried out by the U.S. throughout the Middle East in the wake of recent attacks on Yemen. ...

Los Angeles, Oct 24 — A life-size statue of a completely naked Donald Trump was auctioned for $22,000. (Wikimedia Commons) As reported in the Los Angeles Times, the statue of the U.S. Republican presidential nominee, created by a street artist who in August placed it on Hollywood Boulevard, was sold at Julien's Auctions to a private collector. Prior to the auction, it has been estimated ...

By Wendy Anders Quepos Plateau - Source: UC Santa Cruz A man from the United States who was apparently vacationing in the Quepos/Manuel Antonio area in Costa Rica’s Central Pacific region was rushed to the hospital in delicate condition this afternoon after the taxi he was traveling in spun out of control after ramming into a tractor, reported El Diario Extra, Costa Rica’s Spanish daily tab...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.  By Britt Nelson A Facebook meme, Clinton is dragged under by WikiLeaks revelations. Remember back on Nov. 3, 1948 when Republican New York Gov. Thomas Dewey was highly favored to win the presidency, and the Chicago Daily Tribune ran with the now famous ...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.  By Britt Nelson Facebook meme. Voters in the United States of America have a choice to make on Nov. 8. Red, Blue, Green and Libertarian are among the choices in almost all states. Republican Donald Trump promises to shaking up establishment politics ...

OCTOBER 17, 2016: The Austrailian immigration department devised a proposal for Australia to take refugees from Central America as part of a U.S.-led program. Honduras peasant lawyer killing, file photo. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull made the announcement during a speech to President Barack Obama's invitation-only, high-level summit on refugees and migration in New York in September durin...

By Wendy Anders Hustler's Larry Flynt, a paraplegic since the age of 35, from Facebook. Pornographer Larry Flynt announced he would pay up to $1 million for video or audio recordings of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump engaged in illegal behavior or acting in a sexually demeaning manner toward women, reported the Los Angeles Times yesterday “I have always celebrated women. Women in ...

Tegucigalpa, Oct 14 — Amnesty International presented a report last Friday in Honduras that puts much of the blame for the worsening refugee crisis in Central America on the governments of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Honduras home owners are vulnerable to gang extortion, photo for illustration. "Although countries like Mexico and the U.S.A. are utterly failing to protect Central Am...

CHAPADA DOS GUIMARAES, Brazil — Maia grunts and nervously moves her huge body back and forth while being released from a transport container to a new home. Here, there are no gawking crowds for the Asian elephant that has spent her life in captivity. There are no blows from bull hooks, no one demanding tricks like people did when she was in the circus. Wikimedia Commons Instead, the first e...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.  By Britt Nelson A Canadian billboard, source, Facebook. While Democrat Hillary Clinton takes a few days off the presidential campaign trail supposedly to prepare for Wednesday’s final debate, rest up and attend fundraisers, Republican Donald Trump is ho...

By Wendy Anders Source: United Travelers using a flexible search feature on the United Airlines site came up with a slew of low round-trip fares from different U.S. cities. The low fares were found for dates between Wednesday, October 26 and Tuesday, November 1, 2016. A 10-day advance purchase is required for the tickets, said Airfarewatchdog.com. Some of the low fares found to and fr...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.  By Britt Nelson How can a voter make an informed decision about the current presidential candidates when most of the information coming out is nothing more than slander, mass media bias, and stolen emails defaming Catholics, effectively burying any real inf...

Newton Grove, North Carolina, Oct. 13 — Around a hundred Hispanics have been sleeping in their cars or on the streets since flooding caused by Hurricane Matthew swept away a trailer park in this small North Carolina town. The Lumber River in North Carolina flooded due to Hurricane Matthew, Facebook. "We have lost everything and we don't know what to do. So far, no authorities have come to h...

MORTON COUNTY, N.D., Oct. 10 -- Actress Shailene Woodley was arrested Monday for protesting against the construction of an oil pipeline in North Dakota. She was charged with criminal trespassing after her arrest, news reports said. The actress, who appeared in 2014's The Fault In Our Stars, was demonstrating peacefully with several others when she was arrested. She also livestreamed t...