SUGESE, the insurance industry regulatory agency in Costa Rica, announced this week the rates for the obligatory automobile insurance for 2013. These are a portion of the Marchamo tax due by December 31st of each year. The Marchamo, also called "derecho de circulación" is tax raising measure that includes several programs and institutions. In every category the premiums rose when compared to la...

By Jeff Mason and Mark Felsenthal WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:45pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama laid out his second-term agenda on Wednesday, expressing a willingness to work with Republicans in Congress and a resolve to defy them if necessary. In his first full-scale news conference since March, Obama said he was willing...

WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:22pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senior Republican senators vowed on Wednesday to block any future promotion of Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, over her handling of the September 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. "We will do whatever's necessary to block the nomination that's within o...

WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 11:56am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Wednesday is expected to be grilled about negotiations to avert a looming "fiscal cliff" and the scandal that brought down CIA director David Petraeus when he holds his first news conference since winning a second term. Obama will have little time to savor his deci...

WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 10:33am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nancy Pelosi told fellow Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday that she is willing to run to be their leader again. Seen as a crusading reformer by backers and a reckless liberal by Republican critics, Pelosi, 72, announced her decision later at a news conference at th...

WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 10:29am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the Judiciary Committee in the House of Representatives has asked for a detailed account of the federal probe into a scandal that led to the resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus last week. Lawmakers from both parties are demanding an official account of the FBI investigati...

By Thomas Ferraro WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 10:23am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator-elect Angus King, an independent and former Maine governor, said Wednesday he will caucus with President Barack Obama's Democrats, raising the party's control of the Senate to 55-45 in the new Congress that convenes in January. King had been expected t...

WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 10:21am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday re-elected Mitch McConnell to the lead their party, a Senate aide said. The decision, to be announced later in the day, comes a week after a disappointing election in which Republicans not only failed to win back control of the Senate, but saw Pre...

If it seemed last year that every time you wanted to drive someplace, you were thwarted by another demonstration protest of this or that, State of the Nation researchers say you're right. Last year, there were 632 street demonstrations, nearly an average of two per day. The only time an administration has experienced more was during ex-President Jose Maria Figueres second year in office in 1995...

Former President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias will marry again this Saturday, Nov. 17, at a private ceremony at his home in Pavas. His bride is Suzanne Fischel who has been his girl-friend for three years. This is the second marriage for the politician and statesman. His first wife, Margarita Peñon, served as his elegant, intelligent First Lady during his first term of office in the...

By Kevin Drawbaugh and David Lawder WASHINGTON | Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:12pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Both sides in the "fiscal cliff" debate stood their ground on Tuesday as they gathered in Washington for the first time since the elections, with a fundamental tax dispute preventing a broader compromise on deficit reduction. The White House made c...

By Kevin Drawbaugh and Kim Dixon WASHINGTON | Tue Nov 13, 2012 11:17am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As major U.S. businesses dive into the Washington tax policy debate now that the presidential election is over, some are finding themselves in an awkward position after betting heavily on Mitt Romney. The Republican, who lost in last week's vote, was...

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...

Of all the political parties in the country, not even the Citizen Action Party (PAC) is as split as Social Christian Unity. The big decision: Calderon or not Calderon. Last week, the party hierarchy decided on next May 19 as the critical date for the party to choose its flag bearer for the 2014 elections. For the young anti-Calderonistas, it is a battle for the soul and future of Unity. The ...

WASHINGTON | Mon Nov 12, 2012 9:25pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two dozen business, labor and civic leaders, including the chief executives of major U.S. corporations such as Ford, IBM and Wal-Mart, will meet President Barack Obama to discuss how to control the federal deficit, said the White House on Monday. Obama was scheduled to meet labor and civic l...

The legalization of recreational marijuana use in the states of Colorado and Washington last week will lead Latin America to increasingly question the merits of the war on drugs, said Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla. The first U.S. states to decriminalize will spur demand at a time when Central American nations and Mexico are paying a high price to halt shipments, Chinchilla said in an i...

Recently reported on The Costa Rica Star Facebook page was a video of this scuffle. What had begun as a peaceful demonstration protesting long waiting lists for medical care in front of the universal health care (Caja) headquarters on San Jose's Av. 2 Thursday morning turned ugly by nightfall. Riot police confronted demonstrators, including two Citizen Action Party (PAC) lawmakers, to try to...

By Alister Bull WASHINGTON | Sun Nov 11, 2012 12:52pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior Republican senator voiced confidence on Sunday that U.S. lawmakers would forge a deal on the year-end "fiscal cliff," while a top aide to President Barack Obama signaled a willingness to compromise over raising tax rates on the rich. Republican Senator Bob C...

By Will Dunham Sun Nov 11, 2012 12:19pm EST (Reuters) - Two U.S. senators launched a fresh move to put together a bipartisan immigration reform plan on Sunday, restarting talks on a proposal that includes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country. Since President Barack Obama was re-elected last week with overwhelming support fro...

A surprise operation seeking bogus drivers licenses netted 95 drivers with falsified documents and landed two Traffic Safety Council (COSEVI) officials in jail. Four other low level COSEVI officials also were arrested. Judicial detectives from the OIJ police agency have been working on the case for weeks and agency officials do not discount further arrests. One of the first drivers caught with ...

By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON | Sun Nov 11, 2012 1:08am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The "fiscal cliff," a metaphor drawn from nature, was actually created by members of the U.S. Congress, who designed it to be so horrible that they and the president would come to their senses and avert it in the nick of time. That time is now with the start this wee...

By Kevin Gray MIAMI | Sat Nov 10, 2012 5:12pm EST MIAMI (Reuters) - With almost all ballots in Florida counted, U.S. media on Saturday projected President Barack Obama the winner in that state four days after he won Tuesday's national election. Florida brings his total of electoral votes to 332 versus 206 for Republican challenger Mitt Romney.Flo...

Getting a mobile crane off a collapsed bridge is not a simple matter, Ministry of Public Works (MOPT) officials found Thursday. The driver of the massive 84-ton Quiros S.A. mobile crane tried to cross a Bailey bridge on the General Cañas Highway Tuesday afternoon with disastrous results. The bridge, with a load-bearing limit of 40 tons, collapsed, causing a nightmare for commuters on the San Jo...

By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 9, 2012 5:27pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The stalled nomination of William Baer to be chief of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division may move forward in the coming weeks, a person with knowledge of the situation said on Friday. Baer's nomination was ap...

By Mark Felsenthal and David Lawder WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 9, 2012 5:23pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday he was prepared to compromise with Republicans to avert a looming U.S. fiscal calamity, but insisted a tax increase for the rich must be part of any bargain. Obama, who was re-elected on Tuesday, reminded Republ...

Fri Nov 9, 2012 4:40pm EST (Reuters) - The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to review a legal challenge to the Voting Rights Act, a landmark law adopted in 1965 to protect African-American voters who had faced decades of discrimination at the polls. The high court accepted an appeal brought by Shelby County, Alabama, challenging a core provision of the act that req...

WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 9, 2012 4:39pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration gave states extra time to work on setting up new health insurance exchanges on Friday, three days after President Barack Obama's re-election ensured the survival of his healthcare reform law. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said states must ...

By David K. Randall NEW YORK | Fri Nov 9, 2012 4:21pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nate Silver is an oxymoron come to life: the famous statistician. After successfully calling the Electoral College results in all 50 states ahead of the U.S. presidential election, Silver, the man behind the popular FiveThirtyEight blog, has quickly become a symbol of ...

WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 9, 2012 4:13pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote next week on a long-delayed bill to ensure U.S. companies receive all the market-opening benefits of Russia's recent accession to the World Trade Organization, congressional aides said on Friday. The House Rules Committee has scheduled a m...

The outcry that has followed the enactment three days ago of Costa Rica’s highly controversial cybercrime law has forced the government into a hasty about-turn. It announced today that the legislation, which provides for up to 10 years’ imprisonment for publishing “secret political information”, would not apply to journalists. The law is not confined to national security but could also be appli...

By David Beasley ATLANTA | Fri Nov 9, 2012 1:46pm EST ATLANTA (Reuters) - A Georgia congressman who attacked the theory of evolution found himself with an unlikely opponent in Tuesday's U.S. election, when 4,000 voters in one county cast write-in ballots for the 19th century father of evolution, British naturalist Charles Darwin. In a September 2...

WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 9, 2012 1:33pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - John Boehner said on Friday the country's immigration system was broken, although he did not offer solutions and said President Barack Obama had to take the lead. Immigration reform is becoming a priority for Republicans after Obama, a Democrat, won a second term in office this week with stro...

WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 9, 2012 1:22pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is inviting congressional leaders to the White House next week for "fiscal cliff" talks, an administration official said on Friday. Obama will announce that the invitation was extended to Republican House Speaker John Boehner, Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi, Democ...

WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 9, 2012 12:02pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner on Friday called on President Barack Obama to lead the efforts to avert the $600 billion "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and spending cuts looming at year's end, but stood by his opposition to any tax rate increases on the wealthy. Boehner spoke...

WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 9, 2012 11:41am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A video of President Barack Obama released by his campaign on Thursday shows him wiping away tears the day after his re-election as he thanks young members of his campaign staff and volunteers for their hard work. "I am absolutely confident that all of you are going to do just amazing things...

By Brian Winter SAO PAULO | Fri Nov 9, 2012 9:55am EST SAO PAULO (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will face an unprecedented revolt by Latin American countries against the U.S.-led drug war during his second term and he also may struggle to pass new trade deals as the region once known as "America's backyard" flexes its muscles like never befor...

WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 9, 2012 1:52am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top Republican lawmaker John Boehner said on Thursday he would not make it his mission to repeal the Obama administration's healthcare reform law following the re-election of President Barack Obama. "The election changes that," Boehner, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, told ABC n...

With US President Barack Obama staying in office via an electoral landslide, in Costa Rica the questions become less vague or theoretical, and more focused on the internal effects. Following are 4 points of reaction in Costa Rica as the president starts his second term. Most Ticos like Obama -- after getting through the initial name game (Obama vs. Osama), most Costa Ricans were pleased to see Oba...

By Tom Brown MIAMI | Wed Nov 7, 2012 7:46pm EST MIAMI (Reuters) - It was all over but the shouting in Florida on Wednesday, where the presidential race between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney was still too close to call. More than 24 hours after polls closed in Florida, election officials said votes ...

By Matt Spetalnick and Steve Holland WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 7, 2012 7:41pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama had little time to savor victory on Wednesday after voters gave him a second term in the White House where he faces urgent economic challenges, a looming fiscal showdown and a still-divided Congress able to block his every mo...