Source: Amazon Books Cocaine, prostitutes and a domineering First Lady are the highlights of a sordid memoir by a former United Secret Service agent stationed in the White House during the administration of former President William Jefferson Clinton. The book is titled Crisis of Character, and it hit bookshelves in the U.S. just a few days ago. The Costa Rica Star has not reviewed this book...

Wikimedia Commons The President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, has appointed independent experts in the case concerning Maritime Delimitation in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean (Costa Rica v. Nicaragua), whose task is to determine the state of the coast between the point suggested by Costa Rica and the point suggested by...

Wikimedia Commons THE HAGUE, June 2016. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, is to arrange for an expert opinion relating to the state of a portion of the Caribbean coast near the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, in the case concerning Delimitation in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean (Costa Rica v. Nicaragua). Longtime ...

Wikimedia Commons Morelia, Mexico, Jun 4 (EFE).- Legislators of the southwestern Mexican state of Michoacan have awarded a medal to the traditional music group "Jimenez Brothers and their Harp" which plays "narcocorridos" (narcotics + the traditional Mexican ballads known as "corridos") that glorify drug traffickers. At a solemn session held Friday night at the Legislative Palace of Morelia...

Mayfair Games Mayfair Games, a renowned publisher of board and roleplaying games in the United States and United Kingdom, recently released a new educational title that prominently features Costa Rica and her biodiversity. The game, which is titled "Costa Rica: Reveal the Rainforest," is described by the publisher as follows:   Welcome to Costa Rica! This land is renowned for its r...

The United States today celebrates Memorial Day, and in Costa Rica the expat community often gathers to observe the men and women who gave their lives while serving in the dear Armed Forces of their country. Author’s Note: The use of the noun and adjective “American” in this Article conforms to the definition in Princeton’s WordNet: (A native or inhabitant of the United States), and the recomme...

Costa Rica National Theater Mural. Wikimedia Commons San Jose, May 29 (EFE).- Latin American cultural expression is being threatened by globalization and new technologies, which have serious consequences in that peoples are beginning to lose their separate identities, Silvia Rosa Martinez, a Peruvian expert in Intangible Cultural Heritage said. In an interview with EFE, the executive direct...

Monument at Punta Querandí, Wikimedia Commons Buenos Aires, May 22 (EFE).- A small patch of land is the epicenter of a conflict to defend the rights of Argentina's original inhabitants against construction firms. Punta Querandi, a little "peninsula" in a river in the Buenos Aires provincial town of Dique Lujan, was isolated by the collapse of its only bridge and by the private neighborhoods...

Wikimedia Commons3 El Castillo, Nicaragua, May 22 (EFE).- A 341-year-old fortress in southern Nicaragua that was formerly a bastion against English pirates is nowadays a growing tourist attraction. The town of El Castillo, in southern Rio San Juan province, owes its name to the local fortress - "El Castillo de la Inmaculada Concepcion," built by the Spanish in 1673-1675 and nowadays one of ...

Photo by Jack Donnelly By Jack Donnelly Malacrianza killed two people and is much loved for it. Malacrianza (bad upbringing, badly raised) is Costa Rica’s most famous bull. He killed two of his riders—a huge career boost—during his time on the circuit. He performed for the last time in 2013 and was found dead in his pasture in March of 2015. He came from Hacienda La Nueva Esperanza in...

Black Star Line before the fire. Wikimedia Commons Late April was an unkind time for Afro Caribbean culture in Costa Rica. On April 29, a structural fire consumed the Black Star Line building in Limón, destroying an important symbol of the legacy left by Marcus Garvey in our country. Starting today, the good people of Limón will conduct a series of cultural and family events for the purpose...

Pixabay Commons Washington, May 11 (EFE).- U.S. President Barack Obama has no plans to divulge information about the secret military base known as Area 51, where spy aircraft were tested during the Cold War and where some believe confidential information about extraterrestrials is being kept, the White House said. However, Democratic presidential favorite Hillary Clinton has said that, if s...

Chicago, IL (PRWEB) May 11, 2016 - In a recent Bird-X blog post, the company explains how it helped preserve history at the National Theatre of Costa Rica with the installation of its bird shock track system, Avishock™. In April, Fuera Aves PRO, part of the JAMUVI Group of companies, installed 300 meters of Avishock™, on the theatre’s rooftop ledges to stop birds from landing and defecating on ...

(YouTube / ODN) Spain’s Minister of Justice, Rafael Catala on Monday proposed leaving some US $4 billion to $17 billion worth of gold and silver on the seafloor off the coast of Colombia in order to avoid conflict over its ownership. The treasure is the cargo of the legendary galleon San Jose, a Spanish ship that was sunk in 1708 near the coast of Cartagena of the Indies, which was discover...

YouTube Commons Lima, May 9 (EFE).- The Cuzco Decentralized Culture Directorate reported Monday that vandals had painted eight graffiti with aerosols on five streets of the historic center of that ancient Inca city, which they called a crime against culture. The graffiti were sprayed on the stone walls with black paint to form the word "KOYOS 16," at a height of approximately 40 centimeters...

Wikimedia Commons Washington, May 3 (EFE; additional context by The Costa Rica Star).- A U.S. Navy Seal who was advising and supporting Kurdish Peshmerga troops in Iraq died Tuesday in an attack by Islamic State fighters north of the city of Mosul. U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter confirmed the death from Stuttgart, Germany, where he is on an official visit, initially without providi...

The National Museum of Costa Rica, in conjunction with the community development associations of the Osa, Palmar and the Diquis Delta region, invite you to the 11th Festival of the Stone Spheres from May 13th to the 15th . The Annual Festival of the Stone Spheres is a cultural and festive event that celebrated the magnificent National Park of the Stone Spheres of Costa Rica, which is a UNESCO W...

Rainforest in Costa Rica By Carol Blair Vaughn Friday, April 22nd, is Earth Day, an international celebration of education about environmental issues that began in the United States in 1970, marking the birth of the environmental movement. It is now celebrated by over 1 billion people worldwide, including here in Costa Rica, as a day of action in support of environmental protection of our p...

Los Angeles, Apr 18 (EFE; additional context by The Costa Rica Star).- J.A. Bayona, director of films like "The Impossible," has been picked to direct the sequel of the dinosaur saga "Jurassic World," the movie's producers announced Monday on Twitter. "Thrilled to announce JA Bayona is on board to direct JW2. Welcome to the team," producer Frank Marshall tweeted Monday. "Proud to collaborate...

Waco Mammoth Museum - Photo By Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 3.0 Washington, Mar 29 (EFE).- Archaeologists have found a mammoth skull and two tusk fragments in a sand pit in northeastern Oklahoma, media reports said. The Oklahoma Archeological Survey, or OAS, identified the animal as a Columbian mammoth, one of the last species of that giant mammal to inhabit both North America and Central Ameri...

Source: Rolling Stones Twitter By Sara Gomez Armas Havana, Mar 26 (EFE).- A sea of cellphones lit up the night in this capital's Coliseo de la Ciudad Deportiva sports complex from the first chords of "Jumpin' Jack Flash," with many in attendance eager to capture an image of The Rolling Stones taking the stage for their much-anticipated free concert in Cuba. "We know that years back it wa...

By Jack Donnelly Ujarrás is a wonderful place you should not run off to visit. You should plan a trip to several attractions in the area and spend some time in Ujarrás as part of your trip, maybe a nice picnic lunch. The Ruins of Ujarrás are not well known, even though they were declared a National Monument of Costa Rica by executive decree in 1985. They lie east of Paraíso (Cartago), just o...

Tony Accardo. Wikimedia Commons LOS ANGELES, March 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- In his multi-media project under the Michael Mann Books imprint, Mann has teamed up with internationally bestselling author, Don Winslow, author of The Cartel, to co-create an original novel about the complex relationship between two Organized Crime giants, Tony Accardo and Sam Giancana. Mann will produce and possibly ...

Global Peace Foundation Press Release - Five former Central American presidents proposed an integrated regional approach as the only way to tackle the endemic problems of organized crime, drug trafficking, violence, and rising income inequality. “No nation can be an island of democracy, in a sea of conflict,” said former Guatemalan president Vinicio Cerezo. The presidents met at the Organizatio...

Radiocarbon dating of items at an archaeological site discovered by workers at Costa Rica’s Reventazón Hydroelectric Project has revealed the 66 human settlements at the site to be 12,200 years old, which would represent the oldest find of its type in Central America to date, the Costa Rican Electricity Institute announced in a press statement on Wednesday. Exploration of the site, which covers...

Wikimedia Commons Beijing, Mar 10 (EFE).- "The 33," the story of the Chilean miners who were trapped underground for more than two months, has arrived in Chinese theaters along with one of the capsules used to save them. The capsule, painted in the blue, red and white colors of the Chilean flag, was made by the Chilean navy to rescue the miners and will be on display in Beijing. "The 33,...

By Carol Blair Vaughn John Ward Flickr Commons The Godfather of Email Has Died Ray Tomlinson, known worldwide as the inventor of email, has died of a reported heart attack at the age of 74.  Tomlinson leaves behind a wife and two children – but more famously – a method for all of us living outside our home countries to communicate with each other any time, day or night: email.   ...

Nicaraguan poet Ruben Dario (1867-1916). Photo: Public Domain MANAGUA (EFE) Nicaraguan poet Ruben Dario (1867-1916) was declared Saturday a "national hero" of Nicaragua, in a special session of the National Assembly marking the centennial of his death. The plenary session of the National Assembly named Dario a "national hero" because "with his pen and intellect as well as arms, he defended ...

YouTube screen cap Miami, Feb 6 (EFE).- Fans of the late songstress Selena are asking Mattel to create a Barbie doll inspired by the vocalist of "Amor Prohibido," a petition that up to now has collected more than 4,500 signatures on the Web site Change.org. The petition comes after Mattel announced the launch of three other kinds of Barbie dolls (tall, curvy and short) that are already on s...

Wikimedia Commons Although it may seem as if Costa Rica has always been the leading nation for dental tourism in the Americas, many of us tend to forget that Venezuela once held the title as one of the best Latin American nations for medical and dental tourism, at least until the late 1980s.   There are good reasons to believe that Venezuela could still be the medical and dental tou...

Wikimedia Commons By Begoña Marin Miami, Jan 26 (EFE).- Spanish tenor Placido Domingo said that at 75, he feels he still has the strength to keep bringing the lyric opera genre to the world's stages. "In the last six years I've gone through some difficult health problems, but fortunately everything came out fine and I still feel strong enough to stay onstage," Domingo, who is giving a co...

Wikimedia Commons Miami, Jan 25 (EFE).- A team armed with picks and metal detectors that was searching the former Miami Beach mansion of late Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar found a locked safe this Monday weighing some 600 pounds (270 kilos), media outlets reported. The safe was discovered under the foundation of the Miami Beach house once owned by Escobar, who was gunned down in a 1993 ...

Wikimedia Commons By Juan Carlos Gomi Bogota, Jan 11 (EFE).- The Spanish galleon San Jose did not sink off Colombia under attack by English ships, as contemporaneous accounts say, and perhaps it did not go down in the Caribbean with its load of treasure due to a powerful explosion, as English commodore Charles Wager reported, nautical researcher Daniel de Narvaez MacAllister told EFE. Th...

Justin Bieber performs in 2011. Wikimedia Commons Cancun, Mexico, Jan 8 (EFE).- Singer Justin Bieber was thrown out of the Tulum archaeological site on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula after his security personnel got into an argument with the guards of the pre-Columbian location. Adriana Velazquez, regional delegate of the National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH, told EFE that the a...

Confederate flag flies in Columbia, South Carolina. Flickr Commons London, Jan 2 (EFE).- Film director Quentin Tarantino sees the Confederate flag as "some American swastika" and said, in an interview published Saturday in The Daily Telegraph, that it's about time that his country questioned why it is still displayed. The moviemaker, who presented in Britain his new film, "The Hateful Eight...

Source: Flickr Commons A group of activists plans to stage a protest against animal abuse at the Zapote holiday fairgrounds, located in the eastern suburbs of San Jose, on Sunday afternoon. The protesters specifically want to call attention to the holiday events known as “Toros a la Tica,” which are sometimes characterized as bullfights, but they are more of a cross between the running of the ...

Jack Donnelly By Jack Donnelly Article 75 of the Constitution states that Costa Rica is a Catholic country. That sounds more theocratic than the reality. The majority of Ticos will readily affirm they are Catholics, but many are rather laid back in their approach to observance and dogma. This is especially true in the areas of relationships, marriage, divorce, birth control, etc. There is a...

Wikimedia Commons San Jose, Dec 16 (EFE; additional context by The Costa Rica Star).- The Nicaraguan government said Wednesday that it acknowledges and will abide by the decision of the International Court of Justice at The Hague putting an end to two border disputes with Costa Rica, decisions that recognize Costa Rican sovereignty over Isla Portillos. The goverment hailed the ruling by the...

Wikimedia Commons Bogota, Dec 15 (EFE).- The Colombian Culture Ministry officially refused to give U.S.-based treasure hunters Sea Search Armada access to the coordinates of the site where the wreck of the Spanish galleon San Jose was found on Nov. 27. In a letter signed by Minister Mariana Garces and made public on Tuesday, Colombia ruled out the possibility suggested by SSA of receiving a...

Wikimedia Commons By Carol Blair Vaughn Last week, President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos announced via Twitter that Colombia had found the Spanish galleon San Jose, which he called “the most valuable treasure that has been found in the history of humanity.” Legend holds that the San Jose was sunk on June 8, 1708, in the Caribbean Sea near Cartagena, Colombia, with a treasure on board ...