Source: Wikimedia Commons WASHINGTON (DOJ) —Brian Karl Brimager, 37, prior boyfriend of murdered Los Angeles woman Yvonne Baldelli, was indicted by a federal grand jury in San Diego, California, today on first degree murder charges. Brimager was arraigned in court on the superseding indictment and pleaded not guilty. Brimager has been in U.S. custody since June 2013 on charges of obstructio...

By Alfonso Fernandez. Washington, Apr 15 (EFE).- The World Bank said Wednesday that the economic slowdown in Latin America could become "permanent" if structural reforms are not made to adapt the growth model to an international scenario in which China will also slow down economically and the prices of raw materials will remain at low levels. "In the absence of growth-friendly structural ref...

Panama City, Apr 10 (EFE).- U.S. President Barack Obama and Panamanian counterpart Juan Carlos Varela were on hand for a ceremony here Friday in which Panama's Copa Airlines and Chicago-based plane maker Boeing finalized an order for 61 jets. The $6.6 billion deal for 61 Boeing 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 airplanes was signed ahead of the inauguration of the April 10-11 Summit of the Americas in this c...

Esteban Alvarado training with Keylor Navas The alternative lineup proposed by Paulo Cesar Wanchope for the National Men's Football Team of Costa Rica, better known to fans as “La Sele,” proved to be a disaster. La Sele faced the National Team of Panama at the Rommel Fernandez Stadium for the second friendly match of 2015, and coach Wanchope quickly found out that young players such as Lemar H...

Source: Wikimedia Commons MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Centroamerica TV, the official channel of the Central American community in the U.S., recently launched on Cox Communications cable systems in San Diego, Arizona, Las Vegas, Omaha, Orange County, Kansas, Northwest Arkansas, the Central Coast, and Sun Valley, significantly expanding Centroamerica TV’s distribution throughout the national Cox Com...

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...

Source: Fuerza Publica Fuerza Publica officers assigned to the National Border Police of Costa Rica spent an entire night walking across beaches, rivers and the thick jungle of Burica, near the southern border with Panama, to rescue an indigenous child of the Ngöbe Bugle (or guaymí) ethnicity. The child was suffering from an acute and dangerous infection due to a wound that he had sustained da...

Cody Dial The information herein mostly comes from the GoFundMe online fundraiser set up by the parents of Cody Roman Dial, a college student from the United States who arrived in Costa Rica with adventure in his mind. Cody intended to hike across Corcovado National Park in our Southern Pacific region; he has been missing since July of 2014. For the purpose of style and flow of prose, The Costa...

Mr. DeNiro and Ms. Hightower. Source: Wikimedia Commons When it comes to celebrity endorsement, the world knows all too well about perfumes, colognes, clothing, and alcoholic beverages. It is no surprise that large catalog of celebrity-branded products would one day extend to coffee, and that day is now. From actors Leonardo DiCaprio to Hugh Jackman and from Bob Marley's son to legendary Aeros...

Many tourists and expatriate residents in Costa Rica have come to the conclusion that the “Switzerland of the Americas” is called that way not only because of her politically neutral stance or the quiet pastoral scenes in mountain landscapes. Switzerland is known as one of the most expensive places in the world, and Costa Rica can now boast to have that in common with the Swiss Confederation. Than...

Source: Flickr Life's a beach in Costa Rica; unfortunately, so is death sometimes. The number of tourists who come to enjoy Costa Rica continues to grow each year; alas, the number of those whose beach vacations turn fatal is also on the rise. Since 2009, researchers from the National University of Costa Rica (Spanish initials: UNA) have been working on a comprehensive risk assessment study to...

Source: Flickr Commons Security is a major concern for the million-plus international visitors who arrive in Costa Rica every year as well as for the hundreds of thousands of expatriates who have chosen this country as their new home. This being the case, tourists and expats will probably be surprised to learn that the 2013 Gallup Law and Order Index puts Nicaragua and Panama as the safest nat...

Source: Revista Paquidermo Creative Commons On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Panama Canal, a special situation was being scrutinized by intelligence and special operations analysts at the secretive United States Combined Air and Space Operations Center located within Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. Master Sergeant Kelly Ogden wrote the following account for the U.S. Defense ...

The Panamanian / Costa Rican border is in constant flux. The most recent change occurred quietly over the last few weeks. Panamanian border officials are now entering your ticket details into the computer to validate if your flight is a valid outbound flight. Due to perpetual tourism in Costa Rica (a practice where a person without residency lives in Costa Rica by renewing their tourist visa every...

This Sora Mountain estate overlooks the Pacific Ocean in Panama. As the cost of living in Costa Rica continues its steady and relentless climb, the real estate market is responding in sync. In 2012, the Inter-American Development Bank labeled San Jose as the city with the most expensive real estate in Latin America, and luxury housing construction in Guanacaste shows no signs of slowing down. ...

For the past nine years, downtown Nicoya has been lit up during the month of December with the Festival of Light celebration. The main day of this year’s festival, Nicoya Shines 2013, will be on Saturday, December 7th. On that date, the program includes the presentation of 15 bands from Costa Rica and Panama to commemorate the 165th anniversary of the Canton of Nicoya, which was established as ...

Nicaragua cannot catch a break. After bringing a conflict with Colombia to the United Nations and having a tiff with Costa Rica over a border town, Panama announced on Thursday it had a bone to pick with its northern neighbor: President Ricardo Martinelli said Panama would be joining Colombia in its dispute with Nicaragua over territorial waters. Martinelli accused his Nicaraguan counterpart, D...

Foreign drug cartels lost tons of narcotics in a week to police here and in Panamanian waters. Local police captured three truck shipments and Panamanian authorities along with U.S. patrols cooperated in another blow. After a chase that began in Costa Rican waters, a U.S. Coast Guard frigate and Panamanian patrol boat trapped a semi-submersible craft after an unarmed U.S. Orion P-3 patrol aircr...

Panamanian drug agents captured ex-OIJ detective Mauricio Garcia, 40, aboard his yacht Oct. 20. The yacht was anchored just off the province of Bocas del Toro in Panama waters with 633 kilos (more than 1000 lbs.) of cocaine aboard. Garcia was arrested by OIJ 18 years ago and, along with two others, was condemned to 12 years in prison for the murder of Costa Rican farmer Ciro Monge. He completed...

FRIDAY - OCTOBER 26, 2012 A pair of three-goal performances from Claudio Goodridge and Fernando Mena led Panama to a 7-5 victory over host Thailand in the first of two futsal friendlies in Bangkok on Friday. Miguel Lasso had the other goal for the Canaleros, who earned their second consecutive victory against an Asian opponent after topping Malaysia earlier this week. Panama continues pre...

I won’t say I was stunned, but I admit to being surprised when I read the following story in Reuters: Panama leader tells Germany he wants to adopt euro. Anybody who follows the news at all has undoubtedly read about the problems in Greece regarding their participation in the European Economic Union, and you probably have heard dire predictions about the future of the euro due to problems i...

Panama, the home of the greatest closer of all time. Yankee’s Mariano Rivera, and the first country in the region to play baseball, is the subject of a ground breaking sports documentary by a New York filmmaker. US filmmaker Eric Soussan lamented that Panama, which pioneered baseball now lags behind other Latin- American countries in its exports of players to the major leagues. When he obta...

In a blog post by Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein, two announcements were made that were direct results of passenger feedback. First up was the request by Royal Caribbean fans for more Panama Canal cruises. Goldstein announced that Vision of the Seas was slated to originally offer Caribbean cruises will instead sail a set of Panama Canal cruises in the fall and spring. The new Panama ca...

The death of nearly 300 people from medicine provided by Panama’s Social Security Fund (CSS) reverberated around the world, but no one has taken the blame. Now the Committee of Relatives for the Right to Health and Life (Cofadesavi) is calling for the head of the current CSS director. "The president and the board of the Social Security Fund should take action on the matter and call for t...

Attacks on Panama’s electoral tribunal (TE) and the appointing of a new judge are part of a government plan to take over the institution and seek the immediate re-election of President Ricardo Martinelli says a leading constitutionalist. Law professor Miguel Antonio Bernal, said on RPC Radio on Tuesday, September 25, that Panama has a dictatorship and everything regarding the appointment of...

In a Rogue’s Gallery of copyright legislation, many efforts deserve mention. The DMCA is surely there, together with Japan’s new copyright law, the Digital Economy Act, and Ley Sinde. But a new Panamanian copyright bill is giving those laws a run for their money. The excellent project at Infojustice.org have directed our attention to a new bill that has been sent to the Panamanian legislatu...

The first official meeting of the EMPRETEC Latin America Forum was hosted by EMPRETEC Panama in Panama City last week, following a regional training workshop that brought together EMPRETEC directors and trainers from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Peru and Venezuela to share experiences and discuss new developments. Participants reviewed the Empretec + material...

While scientists increasingly name new species after celebrities in order to gain much-needed attention for the world's vanishing biodiversity, researchers describing a new snake species from Panama have taken a different route. Dubbing the new serpent, Sibon noalamina ('no to the mine!' in Spanish), the scientists are hoping the multicolored snake's unusual name will draw attention to mining ...

60% of the world's population have no access to banking services, although 85% have a mobile phone. Brett King, founder of the first mobile banking service in the U.S. and the UK, and specialist in innovation in financial services, was at the XII Latin American Congress on banking automation, which is being held in Panama. He states that the key "to popularize and expand banking services ...

Panama’s national soccer team took a big step forward towards its dream of playing in the Rio World Cup in 2014 when it defeated Canada for the first time on Tuesday September 12. For fans, reaching the holy grail of soccer would overshadow the opening of the Panama Canal expansion and the election of new president, both scheduled for the year in which the country marks the 100th anniversar...

Fifteen Panamanian truckers claimed they were assaulted while driving in Costa Rica from January through August, five more than all of 2011, according to the Panamanian National Cargo Transportation Chamber (CANATRACA). The most recent case involved Nicolás Araúz, a father of four who was shot twice in the head by unknown gunmen on Costa Rica’s Peñas Blancas highway while transporting a tru...

The Panamanian government has presented for review at the National Land Council a draft bill which changes current land titling legislation. The bill gives more power to the National Land Authority (Anati), such as a period of seven years for the role of administrator and the elimination of free titling in any of its forms. Through these changes, the government seeks to plug loopholes ...

The Costa Rica Star previously reported on the Albinos of Kuna Panama. Megan Leavitt, 29, is a self-described nomad. “I’ve been traveling for the last 12 years,” she said. Her travels have taken her from Glenburn, where she grew up; to Santa Cruz and the University of California where she earned a degree, on full scholarship, in Latin American and Latino studies; to Haiti; Mexico; Centra...

Quijano pledged to continue the management model that had made the operation of the canal successful. He also vowed to redouble efforts to train operating personnel and to face new challenges, such as the current expansion project, which will double the capacity of the 80-km canal, built between 1904 and 1914 by the U.S. Quijano also highlighted the importance of expanding the capacity o...

As the boat carried our group from a coastal airstrip in eastern Panama to the Yandup Island Lodge, in the autonomous territory of the Guna Indians, I admired the timeless beauty of my surroundings. A woman in colorful traditional dress glided slowly across the glistening sea in a dugout canoe powered by a lateen sail. The shore of nearby Playón Chico island was lined with Guna huts, their can...

Fresh off scoring his 100th regular season goal in Major League Soccer, Dwayne De Rosario will have the opportunity to hit another milestone with his national team as he leads an experienced squad into a pair of crucial World Cup qualifiers against Panama early next month. De Rosario was named to Canada's 21-man roster, which was announced on Thursday. With his next goal, the 34-year-old wi...

A group of US archaeologists may have uncovered a section of hull and coral-covered chests that privateer Henry Morgan lost during his 1671 raid of Panama. The team from Texas State University is led by underwater archaeologist Frederick Hanselmann. He led last year's discovery of cannons at the mouth of the Chagres River that may also have belonged to five ships Morgan is believed to have ...

Cycling is a great way to get to know the world from a unique perspective. You are close enough to the open road to really experience the place you’re travelling in, but it’s quicker than walking and easier to pack the things you need to keep you going on a long journey. One great cycle ride is the journey from Costa Rica to Panama, which gives cyclists a chance to get to know first had on...

7 to 10 indigenous runners will stop in Las Cruces for the night Wednesday and the public is invited to receive their prayers and blessings before they continue their journey to Central America. The Peace and Dignity 2012 runners have been running from Alaska and are on their way to the Kuna Nation in Panama. Their spiritual journey takes six months and runners travel on four routes - one g...

The Panama Canal will implement more sound “Green Building” practices with regards to future constructions in order to improve compatibility with the environment. Green Construction, also known as Sustainable Building, refers to designing building structures using processes and materials that are environmentally responsible and efficient during the life cycle of the building. This concept ...