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 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 ...

Wikimedia Commons Washington, May 16 (EFE).- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced Monday that it is extending for another 18 months the Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for Honduras and Nicaragua, a measure that also allows the extension of work permits. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced in a statement that the limit on this immigration benefit for Nicaragua...

Source: Red Cross Costa Rica The livelihood of foreigners who choose to live as perpetual tourists in Costa Rica is highly dependent on the stability of the land borders. It so happens that in recent months both the northern and southern borders of Costa Rica have been afflicted by the global migrant crisis; how is this affecting the lives of perpetual tourists? "Visa runs" are those trips ...

Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif will begin a diplomatic tour of Latin America on Sunday. (Archive/Reuters) Iran’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will begin a diplomatic tour of Latin American states on Sunday, May 8, according to Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "The Iranian foreign minister’s 6-day-long visit to Brazil, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Venezuela a...

Nelson Sanderson was returned to the United States in Wednesday in the company of agents of the U.S. Marshals service. He faces two life sentences if convicted. (Handout) A 75-year-old Florida man who had been on the run since a warrant for his arrest was issued in July 2012 on charges of child molestation was returned to Florida in the company of U.S. Marshals agents on Wednesday after being ...

A Russian T-72 battle tank, similar to those heading to Nicaragua. (CC) Russia will deliver 50 new T-72B1 battle tanks to Nicaragua this year, in a deal worth some US $80 million, according to Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency and Nicaraguan media. The first batch of 20 tanks is ready for shipment, and the remaining 30 are to be delivered by the end of the year or early 2017, according to th...

John Cocgh - Flickr Commons Managua, Apr 22 (EFE).- Nicaragua is undergoing the most severe environmental crisis in its recent history, a group of 15 non-governmental organizations said during the presentation of a report coinciding with Earth Day. The drastic reduction or disappearance of 34 rivers, the near-complete evaporation of at least four lakes, the loss of nearly 6,000 hectares (14...

Robert Allen Lopez had been on the run for nearly 20 years. (WFOR Miami / Screen capture / Fair Use) An American fugitive who has been on the run for nearly 20 years was deported to Miami from Nicaragua on Saturday, escorted by officers of the United States Marshals Service. Robert Allen Lopez, 49 was arrested by Nicaraguan authorities on November 14th, 2015, after entering the Central Amer...

REUTERS/Janine Costa By Anastasia Moloney BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The scale of sex trafficking around illegal gold mines in parts of Latin America - including Costa Rica’s northern neighbor, Nicaragua - is "staggering," and thousands of people working in the region’s gold mines are prey to labour exploitation by organised crime groups, a think-tank said on Wednesday. "When ...

(CRS Archive) Nicaragua’s tourism industry continues to grow aggressively, according to the latest data by Nicaragua’s Central Bank, with revenues from tourism increasing 18.7 percent to US $528.6 million in 2015 from US $445.4 million the year prior, due in large part thanks to longer stays. According to the Central Bank, foreign tourists spent an average of $41.50 per day, essentially unc...

Preferred weapon of guerrillas and drug cartels. It's the 1980s all over again in Nicaragua, but this does not mean a return to skinny ties, big hair, Miami Vice, and New Wave hits by Flock of Seagulls. According to a recent report by investigative reporter Frances Robles of The New York Times, the 1980s revival in Nicaragua means armed rebel groups unhappy with the political status quo. Un...

(Facebook) The Costa Rican government’s decision last week to ban the entry of controversial Nicaraguan comedian, Reynaldo Ruiz was the subject of questioning Wednesday by the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations, which concluded and released on Thursday its sixth periodic report of Costa Rica on its implementation of the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political ...

(CRS Archive) President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua seems destined to win reelection in November, according to the latest national poll conducted by M&R Consultores, published by Nicaragua’s Nuevo Diario on Monday. According to the poll, Ortega, who has held the presidency since 2007, has the support of 66.7 percent of likely voters. As such, Ortega is running essentially unchallenged, a...

(Facebook) Costa Rica’s Ministry of Public Security and immigration officials confirmed in a press statement Thursday that Reynaldo Ruiz, a Nicaraguan stand-up comedian who had previously mocked Ticos (Costa Ricans) in a skit that was published in an online video to his YouTube channel which has 300,000 subscribers, will be denied entry to Costa Rica for a comedy show that was scheduled betwee...

A Costa Rican bus driver was arrested by Nicaraguan Army soldiers on Sunday after the discovery of US $467,000 in cash in a hidden compartment above the driver’s seat of the bus he was driving, authorities in Nicaragua report. The cash was contained in 16 packages of $20 and $50 bills, according to who authorities, who identified the driver as 32-year-old Luis Alberto Corrales Jimenez. The d...

The majestic Antigua. Source: Fernando Reyes Palencia - Wikimedia Commons BALTIMORE, MD (PRWEB) FEBRUARY 26, 2016 - Thousands of retirees (and younger folks, too) are benefiting from a higher quality of life and a lower cost of living in places overseas where even a little goes a long, long way—whether it be filling a tank of gas, getting the week’s groceries, paying for health insurance, or mak...

(Nicaragua state media) Eight leaders of a massive religious cult in Nicaragua that attracted some 650 followers from Nicaragua as well as Honduras and El Salvador to live in “subhuman” conditions in a mountainous area in the municipality of El Viejo, in Nicaragua’s Chinandega department, were sentenced to more than seven years in prison on Monday. According to local media reports, the reli...

Nicaragua’s Momotombo volcano ended a 110-year period of inactivity with a fiery eruption on December 2, 2015 (Photo courtesy of INETER, Dec 2 2015) Authorities in Nicaragua activated emergency plans after explosions occurred at both the Momotombo and Telica volcanoes on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Masaya volcano has also witnessed an increase in seismic activity in recent days. According t...

Source: Hyatt CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) and LATAM Hotels Corp announce the opening of Hyatt Place Managua, the first Hyatt-branded hotel in the capital city of Managua, Nicaragua. The hotel features the Hyatt Place brand’s intuitive design, casual atmosphere and practical amenities, such as free Wi-Fi and 24-hour food offerings. The hotel is owned by LATAM Co...

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 ...

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) The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday added Costa Rica and Nicaragua to a growing list of places where travelers risk being infected with Zika, a rapidly spreading mosquito-borne virus. The addition of Cos...

"Map of the Corn Islands (Nicaragua)" by Maximilian Dörrbecker (Chumwa) - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Commons The mortal remains of Sandra Mayela Chacón, born in Costa Rica but a longtime resident of the United States, laid in repose at Base Two of the Air Surveillance Service in the province of Alajuela, located next to the Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO). The lat...

"Map of the Corn Islands (Nicaragua)" by Maximilian Dörrbecker (Chumwa) - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Commons The Nicaraguan Naval Force did not issue a warning to Corn Islands mariners on the day that the tour boat Reina del Caribe capsized off the Caribbean coast, resulting in the drowning deaths of 13 tourists from Costa Rica. Such was the statement made by Fermin Blandon, son...

Source: Facebook A swimsuit and lingerie model from Costa Rica will be evaluated by a prison psychiatrist in Nicaragua after she allegedly expressed strong suicidal intentions. Such was the report broadcast by Nicaraguan news radio station La Nueva Ya yesterday about Kathia Adriana Corella, who has been incarcerated in that country since early December. As previously reported by The Costa R...

San Jose, Dec 26 (EFE).- Costa Rica's Immigration Department said Saturday that a total of 56 Cubans who entered the country illegally will be deported in the coming days. The Immigration Department's press office told the media that those immigrants failed to obtain a Costa Rican visa legally and are being held in San Jose's Hatillo district. Since Nov. 14, Costa Rica has issued almost 8,00...

Wikimedia Commons The evidence given by an expert in rivers from The University of Nottingham has been pivotal in a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on a centuries-old border dispute between Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Professor Colin R. Thorne from the University’s School of Geography was a key witness in a trial which settled a border dispute between the two Central Americ...

Source: Flickr Commons A criminal division judge in the municipality of Carazo, located about 70 kilometers southwest of Managua, has named four suspects in the murder of Canadian expat Rajan Deedar Gill, who was found beaten to death in his country home near La Boquita in Nicaragua. According to a November 30th wire report by Agencia EFE, police officers found the victim next to Marbely de...

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...

Source: Facebook This past weekend, a drug interdiction operation carried out by security forces in Nicaragua ended up with a shootout, a suicide, and several arrests, which include the detention of a lingerie model from Costa Rica. According to a news report filed by entertainment reporter Ariel Chaves Gonzalez of daily tabloid Diario Extra, the lingerie model has been identified as Adriana C...

THE HAGUE, 4 December 2015. On Wednesday 16 December 2015, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, will deliver its Judgment in the joined cases concerning Certain Activities carried out by Nicaragua in the Border Area (Costa Rica v. Nicaragua) and the Construction of a Road in Costa Rica along the San Juan River (Nicaragua v. Costa Rica). A...

Since 2006, the National Surfing Team of Costa Rica has dominated the Central American Surfing Championship, which just happened to be inaugurated in our country. Costa Rica has won every single Central American Championship, and the reigning World Champions have selected 22 surfers to extend supremacy in Nicaragua next week. Next weekend, Playa Maderas in San Juan del Sur will welcome national...

Havana, Nov 23 (EFE).- Cuban authorities are providing "effective cooperation" to provide a "quick, adequate solution" to the plight of more than 2,000 Cuban emigrants who have been stranded for over a week in Costa Rica on the Nicaraguan border, Cuba's official media said Monday. The migrants ended up in Costa Rica after setting out from Cuba "with the intention of emigrating to the U.S., enco...

Freedom House Press Release. Washington, November 20, 2015 - In response a growing number of Cuban migrants passing from through Ecuador and Central America, which has strained diplomatic relations between Costa Rica and Nicaragua and led to Nicaraguan authorities using force against more than 1,500 Cuban migrants, Freedom House issued the followed statement: “Nicaragua’s government should stop i...

Marti Noticias Twitter United States Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a veteran Florida Republican who is Chairwoman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, is not happy about the treatment received by hundreds of Cuban immigrants at the hands of Nicaraguan Army soldiers yesterday at the northern border of Costa Rica. Ros-Lehtinen went on Marti Noticias, an independent news outlet tha...

Managua, Nov 5 (EFE).- The state-run Nicaraguan Grand Interoceanic Canal Commission on Thursday approved Chinese concession holder HKND Group's environmental and social impact studies for that waterway project, clearing the way for construction to begin. "We're authorizing HKND now to begin the design, structural and construction processes," the commission's president, Manuel Coronel Kautz, sai...

Managua, Nov 3 (EFE).- More than 50 divers removed 1.6 tons of solid waste, including tractor tires, from the bottom of San Juan del Sur Bay, one of the main attractions for tourists on Nicaragua's Pacific coast, clean-up organizers said. A total of 785 items were removed from the bay during the two-day clean-up operation, Dive Nicaragua, which organized the event for the second time, said. ...

Cincinnati, OH (PRWEB) November 02, 2015 -- The Growth Coach, a leading international business and sales coaching franchise, is expanding into Costa Rica and Nicaragua with the expertise and passion of new master franchise owner and international partner Diego Artinano. The Growth Coach is the largest provider of affordable group coaching workshops in the United States. Coaches also offer one-t...

Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, Oct 28 (EFE).- A new attraction for fans of extreme tourism has been inaugurated at the foot of San Cristobal Volcano, Nicaragua's tallest, in the northwestern region of the Central American country. The site, with its inn, dining hall, visitors center, tourist service facility and trails for climbing the 1,745-meter (5,721-foot) high volcano, was constructed with a budg...

Flickr Commons Managua, Sep 29 (EFE).- The Managua city government has approved W2E Eco Energy Investment Nicaragua S.A.'s proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant at the La Chureca landfill, on the shores of Lake Xolotlan, that will turn plastic bags into synthetic fuel. The city council granted a 30-year operating permit to the company, which plans to invest $17 million in the plant, Man...