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...

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: YourMathGuru.com Miami, Florida (PRWEB) March 03, 2015 - The math quizzing site known as YourMathGuru.com has recently announced its top 13 winners of all time. The establishment of the site dates back to 2012 and, along with Spanish-language sister site TuGuruDeMate.com, YourMathGuru.com has been awarding weekly prizes to winners of their various math contests ever since. The top 13 w...

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...

Jaco Beach A man from the United States was killed in a road traffic accident near the expat enclave of Jaco Beach, located on the Central Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Preliminary reports suggest that the U.S. citizen may have been performed a reckless overtake and pass maneuver in the vicinity of a bridge without realizing that a propane gas delivery truck was coming in the opposite direction...

Rachel Brathen at the Envision Festival. Source: Instagram One of the highlights of the recent Envision Festival in the pristine southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica was Rachel Brathen and her yoga sessions. Ms. Brathen is also known as Yoga Girl, and her yoga workshops and retreats in Costa Rica are legendary. In fact, she is currently conducting a Costa Rica yoga retreat at Selva Armonia in ...

Screenshot of INS webpage MEXICO CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A.M. Best has affirmed the financial strength rating of A- (Excellent) and the issuer credit rating of “a-” of Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS) (San Jose, Costa Rica). The outlook for both ratings is stable.   The ratings reflect INS’ favorable operating performance in conjunction with strong capitalization, sound reinsuranc...

EFE/David Fernández Life is good for tennis star Rafael Nadal from Spain. As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star through an EFE wire, Mr. Nadal was in top form at the Argentina Open, where he clinched his 65th career title against local favorite Juan Monaco.   As reported by national newspaper La Nacion, Mr. Nadal arrived in Costa Rica just hours after proving to the professi...

Source: Aeris If you must park your vehicle at the Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO) in Costa Rica, please note that your parking costs recently went up by more than 100 percent. According to a report by Fabio Mena of online news daily Costa Rica Hoy, the new daily parking fee increased from $14.75 to $35, and the hourly rate climbed to $2.48 from $2.14.   If you choose to...

Gulf of Papagayo PHILADELPHIA, PA (March 3, 2015) — Apple Leisure Group®’s subsidiary, AMResorts®, announced the signing of the company’s third deal in the first quarter of 2015. Secrets® Papagayo Resort & Spa will also be the second property for the company in Costa Rica, following the highly anticipated opening of Dreams® Las Mareas Costa Rica late last year. Apple Leisure Group Signs D...

Wikimedia Commons MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation™ announced today that it will begin accepting applications for its first ever scholarship program beginning Friday, Feb. 27. The program includes 33 scholarships totaling $600,000. The Gifted Scholarship Award and the Scholarship Tuition Assistance Award are the first financial assistance initiatives offered in 24 c...

Wikimedia Commons Back in March 2010, the conservative and controversial radio host Rush Limbaugh mentioned his intention of coming to Costa Rica if and when the Affordable Care Act, often referred to as “Obamacare,” would be enacted. Mr. Limbaugh actually set a date for this move, which would ostensibly take place a few days from today. To wit, we have this recent conversation on Twitter: ...

Source: Fuerza Publica A female sloth insistently trying to cross a busy road in northern Costa Rica was helped to the other side by police officers who are thoroughly experienced in this task. According to press release CP-0270-2015 from Fuerza Publica, the national police force of Costa Rica, the sloth posed a danger to herself and to traffic since she hesitantly hugged the edge of the road ...

Real Madrid's Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo (R) fights for the ball with Ivory defender Eric Bertrand Bailly (L) of Villarreal during the Primera Division soccer match played at Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain on 01 March 2015. EFE Madrid, Mar 1 (EFE, with additional context by The Costa Rica Star).- Real Madrid could not take control on Sunday and had to settle for a 1-1 dra...

Source: Wikimedia Commons A woman from Costa Rica is facing eight felony charges of bank fraud in the United States. According to a report by California television station Channel 10, Gabriela Carter has many years of experience as a real estate broker in the Golden State, but her troubles emerged from a time when she was acting as a mortgage loan officer. Ms. Carter could face a prison term o...

Source: FEDEFUTBOL The Under-23 Men’s National Football Team of Costa Rica wrapped up its participation in the IMG Suncoast Pro Classic with a loss to the Toronto Football Club of the North American Major League Soccer (MLS). As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, the U-23 team took an opportunity to train for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro by accepting an invitation to match up a...

Source: Cruz Roja Costarricense A five-year old boy from the United States tragically lost his life while on a family vacation in Costa Rica. According to a news report filed by Patricia Durán of daily tabloid Diario Extra, the unfortunate incident occurred in a rural hotel located about 13 kilometers away from the town of Buena Vista, in the Liberia canton of Guanacaste. The news report ex...

EFE/David Fernández Buenos Aires, Feb 28 (EFE).- Spain's Rafael Nadal played at his highest level to rout Argentine Federico Delbonis 6-1, 6-1 and advance to the semifinals of the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires. The top seed at this clay-court event needed just an hour and two minutes to defeat his 59th-ranked opponent on Friday night, using his full arsenal of shots and striking the ball w...

Public domain photo By Elvira Palomo. Washington, Feb 24 (EFE).- Genetically modified apples that do not brown will be available in U.S. grocery stores by 2015 with the expectation that waste will be curtailed and sales will expand, despite criticism of altered foods by some groups. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said that, after rigorous scientific reviews, it determined that the va...

Google's director for Latin America, Adriana Noreña. EFE/File Mexico City, Feb 26 (EFE).- Google will invest $1 million to support educational initiatives aimed at narrowing the "digital divide" in Latin America, company executive Adriana Noreña told Efe. Funds will go to three non-governmental organizations promoting digital education in Argentina, Colombia and Mexico, Noreña said by telep...

File photo of U.S. actor Leonard Nimoy, who played the extraterrestrial Mr. Spock in the sci-fi TV series and movie saga "Star Trek," and who died Friday at his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles, at age 83 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. EFE/File Los Angeles, Feb 27 (EFE).- Actor Leonard Nimoy, who played the extraterrestrial Mr. Spock in the sci-fi TV series and movie saga "Star Trek," d...

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA--(Marketwired - February 26, 2015) - The entire Advisory Committee of the TIES program of the International Tourism Collective (ITC) has resigned from the ITC and is calling for global participation from members within the international ecotourism and sustainable tourism community to join in a transition to a new, positive, transparent and accountable global association to sup...

Brazilian law enforcement agents said the cocaine was hidden in a truck and they had acted on a tip from a taxi driver who apparently was a member of the band of drug traffickers. EFE/File .- Brazilian police seized about 1.5 tons of cocaine in an operation in Mato Grosso do Sul state, which borders on Paraguay and Bolivia, the largest confiscation of the drug in the past 10 years in Brazil, a...

Washington, Feb 27 (EFE).- The U.S. government is optimistic about the prospects of reaching an agreement with Cuba to re-open embassies before April's Summit of the Americas in Panama, Washington's chief negotiator in talks with Havana said Friday. "I do think we can get this done in time for the Summit of the Americas," Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson said after discussions in W...

Bing Commons In Costa Rica, a few drug rehabilitation centers offer a controversial treatment that consists of taking certain amounts of Ibogaine, a substance extracted from a few plants that are native to Western Africa. Ibogaine is extracted from these flowering shrubs, and the result is a substance with psychoactive and psychedelic properties. Research on the therapeutic potential of Ibogai...

Main Post Office in Costa Rica In recent years, Costa Rica has been working on implementing a system of street signs, numbered buildings and even postal codes to combat what some people perceive as an antiquated system of cardinal directions and descriptions based on old (and sometimes dubious) landmarks. Thanks to navigation and mapping technology such as GPS, Waze and Google Maps, mail carri...

Source: Google Maps Last week, nearly 250 residents of Liberia assembled at the Municipal Gymnasium to coordinate an effort to reclaim one of the most treasured beaches in their canton: Playa Cabuyal. According to a report by online news outlet Primero en Noticias, residents of Liberia are protesting against what they consider to be an issue of illegal land registration by an extremely wealthy...

Source: Pure Hospitality LAS VEGAS, Feb. 25, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Pure Hospitality Solutions, Inc., (OTC: PNOW) announced today, that the Company has made stronger relationships, to ensure that its FROL booking engine is given new life as Oveedia, the anticipated Central-America-Caribbean Online Travel Agency (OTA) to be launched in Costa Rica later this year. "Take a serious look at the OT...

Source: Tulemar Resort (PRWEB) February 27, 2015 - Tulemar Resort, located in the Manuel Antonio and Quepos area of Costa Rica, was thrilled to see the Fiestas de Quepos of 2015 kick off this past week. The Fiestas de Quepos are an annual week long gathering of the town in order to raise money for civic causes and celebrate all things Costa Rican with one another. The resort, which offers luxu...

China extended loans worth $22.1 billion to Latin America in 2014, topping the $20 billion lent by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank combined. EFE/File Washington, Feb 27 (EFE).- China extended loans worth $22.1 billion to Latin America in 2014, topping the $20 billion lent by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank combined, according to a report from a Was...

Source: Fair Play Labs SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica - Feb. 26, 2015 - Fair Play Labs revealed today that Color Guardians, a new action title where side-scrolling action meets tricky, multi-faceted obstacles and objectives, will launch simultaneously for the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, the PlayStation®Vita portable entertainment system, Windows, and Mac OS on April 14, 2015. Color Guar...

Servando "La Tuta" Gomez Martinez, the reputed head of the Caballeros Templarios drug cartel, is seen in this 2009 file photo provided by Mexico's Public Safety Secretariat. EFE Morelia, Mexico, Feb 27 (EFE).- Mexican authorities early Friday captured the reputed top leader of the Caballeros Templarios drug cartel, Servando "La Tuta" Gomez Martinez, the National Security Commission told Efe. ...

Source; EFE file photo By Emilio J. Lopez for EFE with additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star Miami, Feb 2015 (EFE).- Miami wants to augment its cultural offerings, leisure activities, sun and beaches by making itself - over the next few years - into an alternative technology zone to Silicon Valley, a plan that Miami Dade College is convinced can be achieved. Over the past five year...

Source: OVSICORI Can a luxurious lifestyle become synonymous with sustainability? According to Suzy Amis Cameron, who is married to acclaimed filmmaker James Cameron, luxury can be combined with an eco-lifestyle, and she recently made this point clear during a red carpet event that took place before the Oscars. It so happens that Ms. Amis Cameron has partnered with an upscale “green luxury” bo...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Agents assigned to the Alajuela Regional Delegation of the Office of Judicial Investigations (Spanish initials: OIJ) are investigating the death of a 53-year old man who was found dead upon landing in Costa Rica. The 53-year old man has been identified as a Costel Comana, a wealthy Romanian citizen. In an institutional communique, OIJ agents provided preliminary in...

Adults take part in a beginning computer class. Only 38 percent of people worldwide have connected to the Internet at least once in their lives, according to a study published by Facebook's Internet.org initiative. EFE/File Washington, Feb 26 (EFE and The Costa Rica Star).- Only 38 percent of people worldwide have connected to the Internet at least once in their lives, according to a study pub...

Source: Fuerza Publica From oceanic creatures to sports car logos and from mythology to astrology symbols, the imagery used by drug cartels in their packaging of illegal drugs has been on the rise in the last few years. In Costa Rica, this practice is known as troquelado, and it involves the creative use of logos and packing materials when shipping their products, particularly powdered cocaine...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Canadian airline Sunwing intends to offer more connections between North American cities and Costa Rica. As reported by The Costa Rica Star, Sunwing has previously announced flights from Toronto and Edmonton to the Daniel Oduber Quiros International Airport (LIR), which is conveniently located near the Gold Coast beaches of Guanacaste. According to a report by Juan...

Source: OIJ Detectives from the Kidnapping and Abductions Unit of the Office of Judicial Investigations (Spanish: OIJ) in Costa Rica have not been able to ascertain whether Canadian expat Ryan Piercy, who went missing from family for more than 30 days before returning home in a taxicab, was actually snatched and held under threat of harm. As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star: On W...

GoBe Games If you are a fan of social media interaction and playful adventure who lives in or near the Dallas/Fort Worth area, you may be interested in GoBe Games and their debut event in the Metroplex later this year. There is enough time to organize teams to compete in the various fun challenges, and the reward will be a trip to Costa Rica, where even greater adventure awaits. DALLAS/FORT...