Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.  With the U.S. Congress out for a 2-week Easter break, President Donald Trump has time to kick some ISIS butt – especially in Egypt – before asking Congress for a declared war against radical Islamic terror in whatever countries it is known to exist. It’s...

The International Project Habesha and Cenfotec University are gathering efforts to provide a Syrian refugee with the necessary financial help so he can conclude his college studies. The young man/women has yet to be selected through an interview process, “We are working together with NGO’s and educational centers in the Middle East that represent the first contact to recommend candidates for th...

The president of the United States on Saturday signed an executive order giving the Defense Department 30 days to present a strategy for defeating the Islamic State terrorist group. Donald Trump also signed another order to reorganize the White House National Security Council, a forum the US president uses to address issues of national security and foreign policy with advisers and cabinet members...

MOSCOW, Oct. 9 -- Tensions continue to rise between the United States and Russia as the Russian foreign minister said Sunday recent actions and statements threaten his country's national security. Russian marines take part in the landing operation during the strategic military exercises at the Khmelevka training range in the Kaliningrad region on the Baltic Sea in 2009. More recently, in Octob...

Wikimedia Commons A total of 4,027 refugees and migrants have died in the Mediterranean in the first seven months of this year, a 35 percent increase compared with the same period of 2015, the International Organization for Migration, or IOM, reported on Tuesday.   Drowning was the main cause of death though fatalities sometimes resulted from violence among people on the crowded boa...

Airstrikes on a hospital in northern Syria has wounded babies staying in incubators, according to the UK-based Save the Children NGO, which said there is "no excuse for this vile attack", in a tweet. The bombing, which took place on Friday night, targeted the entrance of a maternity hospital in the Syrian province of Idleb, said the non-profit in a recently released statement. The bombing wo...

Photo: JayPLee Flickr CommonsGerman police is investigating the possibility that the Sunday night explosion in the city of Ansbach in Bavaria, southern Germany, which killed the perpetrator of the attack and injured at least ten people, is an Islamic attack. Bavarian Interior Minister, Joachim Herrmann, said at a press conference that the fact the attacker attempted to kill several people near...

Source: IS Aqam The Islamic State (IS) terrorist group shot down on Saturday a Russian military helicopter in the central Syrian province of Homs, killing all of its crew, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Sunday. The aircraft fell in the wilderness of the ancient city of Palmyra, SOHR added. The London-based NGO gave no further details on the downing of the heli...

Nighttime drone footage of the strike. Al-Manar TV Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah has destroyed two positions of the Islamic State (IS) militants in northeastern Lebanon, according to Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV network. According to Al-Manar, the positions were located in the regions of Baalbek and Ras al-Zaytun, and the attack has also killed or wounded jihadists inside the locations. The...

EFE file photo Washington, May 5 (EFE).- A U.S. Army officer has sued President Barack Obama for waging war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria without congressional authorization, U.S. media said Thursday. Capt. Nathan Michael Smith, an intelligence officer stationed in Kuwait, filed the lawsuit on Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Smith argues that ...

US Special Forces. Pentagon file photo Washington, Mar 25 (EFE).- The United States believes it has killed the Islamic State's second-in-command, Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said at a press conference Friday morning, confirming earlier media reports. "We are systematically eliminating ISIL's Cabinet. Indeed, the U.S. military killed several key terrori...

Wikimedia Commons United Nations, Feb 16 (EFE).- The Syrian government has approved the access of humanitarian aid to seven besieged parts of the country, the United Nations announced Tuesday as it prepared the convoys that will bring assistance to the more distressed areas. Their specific destinations are Deir al-Zor in the east; Foua and Kafraya in Idlib; and Madaya, Zabadani, Kafr Batna ...

FBI arrests ISIS suspects in New York. 2015 EFE file photo. Washington, Feb 9 (EFE).- U.S. intelligence services on Tuesday said that the Islamic State "probably" will try to stage direct attacks on U.S. territory in 2016, and it warned that the terrorist group has infiltrated the masses of refugees fleeing the armed conflicts in Iraq and Syria. The IS probably intends to carry out more att...

ISIS fighters in Iraq. Source: Wikimedia Commons Cairo, Jan 31 (EFE).- At least 58 people died Sunday in at least two bomb blasts in the mainly Shiite Damascus neighborhood of Sayida Zeinab, the Syrian Human Rights Observatory reported. According to the NGO, the victims included 25 Syrian and foreign Shiite militia members loyal to the regime of President Bashar al Assad. The Observatory...

Free Syrian Army forces fighting in urban terrain. Source: Flickr CC. Cairo, Jan 29 (EFE).- The Higher Negotiating Committee of the Syrian opposition decided Friday to take part in the peace talks that began in Geneva between the United Nations and the Syrian regime, after obtaining guarantees that its demands would be met. According to a communique, the HNC won international guarantees tha...

ISIS fighters in Iraq. Source: Wikimedia Commons London, Jan 3 (EFE).- The Islamic State jihadist group on Sunday released a videotape online in which it allegedly executes five men it described as British "spies," going on to threaten one day to invade the British Isles, the BBC reported. In the video, which British media showed portions of, a masked man - pistol in hand and speaking with ...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Source: Wikimedia Commons By Jose Antonio Vera and Jose Manuel Sanz Damascus, Dec 11 (EFE).- Full transcript of Agencia EFE's exclusive interview Thursday in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar Assad: Question 1: Thank you very much, Mr. President, for your hospitality and for giving the Spanish News Agency EFE the opportunity to understand wha...

Source: MSP WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today pressed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson for information about the threat of ISIS members entering the United States through the porous southwest border. Recent news reports have highlighted concerns about Sy...

Wikimedia Commons Toronto, Nov 23 (EFE).- The Canadian government's plan to accept 25,000 Syrian refugees in the coming weeks is to be open only to women, children and families, The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported Monday. Single males are excluded based on security concerns, according to the CBC network. Details of the plan will be revealed Sunday by Prime Minister Justin Trud...

El Dorado airport in Bogota. Wikimedia Commons Bogota, Nov 19 (EFE).- One of the people being investigated for having participated in last week's terrorist attacks in Paris left Bogota in July and traveled to the French capital after bribing officials to let him leave the country, a source in the immigration agency told EFE. The suspect, identified as Syrian national Al Sakhadi Seham, made ...

French Mirage fighter jet. Wikimedia Commons Paris, Nov 15 (EFE).- France on Sunday launched massive airstrikes on an Islamic State terrorist camp near the Syrian town of Raqqa, a zone controlled by the jihadist group, officials with the French Defense Ministry told EFE. According to the officials, the French air strikes, which came two days after terrorists killed at least 132 people in Pa...

Rio de Janeiro By Manuel Perez Bella Rio de Janeiro, Sep 17 (EFE).- A Catholic church in Rio de Janeiro has become a welcoming shelter along the flight routes of Syrian refugees who leave their country because of the ongoing civil war there and move to Brazil. Stories of bombardments, of families separated by war and fleeing on foot across international borders are exchanged among the ni...

EFE New York, Feb 25 (EFE).- The FBI on Wednesday arrested three New York residents who allegedly were planning to join the jihadist Islamic State and commit terrorist acts in the United States, officials with the agency and the Justice Department said. Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev and Abror Habibov, both citizens of Uzbekistan, and Akhror Saidakhmetov, a citizen of Kazakhstan, are facing ...

This article is a press release from the US Embassy in Costa Rica, if you would like The Costa Rica Star to publish your announcements, please contact us. The Embassy of the United States in Costa Rica welcomes last night’s strong statement of support from the Government of Costa Rica regarding the Framework Agreement for the Elimination of Syria’s Chemical Weapons. Costa Rica, recognized ...

The Costa Rica Star recently reported on how Costa Rica views the conflict in Syria. Not surprisingly, former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias has a somewhat different view of U.S. President Barack Obama's acceptance of a Russian proposal to act as negotiator in the poison gas elimination in Syria. Arias gave the Spanish press an earful Friday. Arias claims it was not just Russia and China ...

Free Syrian Army forces fighting in urban terrain. Source: Flickr CC. Recent communications by Costa Rica's Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterate the country's allegiance to, and respect of, International Law and Human Rights with regard to the conflict in Syria. The diplomatic mission of  Costa Rica to the United Nations expressed the Central American nation's repudiation of the use of che...

U.S. President Barack Obama and former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias have much in common. Both are winners of the Nobel Peace Prize and, as such have been critical of war as foreign policy and as a solution for problems. So why is Arias taking Obama to task without mincing words? Arias reacted on Facebook Thursday to President Obama’s speech promising armed retaliation against the Syrian re...

GENEVA | Wed Dec 19, 2012 9:38am EST GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations appealed on Wednesday for $1.5 billion to provide life-saving aid to Syrians suffering from a "dramatically deteriorating" humanitarian situation. The twin appeals, $519.6 million for aid within Syria and $1 billion to meet the needs of up to 1 million Syrian refugees in five coun...

By Oliver Holmes BEIRUT | Wed Dec 19, 2012 8:32am EST BEIRUT (Reuters) - The amber light of the street lamp illuminates the boy, wrapped in a thin blanket, his legs exposed to the December cold as he sleeps by a kerbside in a wealthy district of Damascus. The child - barely in his teens, if that - was said by the opposition activist who posted hi...

By Mariam Karouny and Dominic Evans BEIRUT | Mon Dec 17, 2012 2:47pm EST BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa said that neither the forces of President Bashar al-Assad nor rebels seeking to overthrow him can win the war which is now being fought on the outskirts of Assad's powerbase in Damascus. Sharaa, a Sunni Muslim in a po...

By Dominic Evans BEIRUT | Sat Dec 15, 2012 4:31pm EST BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iran's army chief of staff warned NATO on Saturday that stationing Patriot anti-missile batteries on Turkey's border with Syria was setting the stage for world war. General Hassan Firouzabadi, whose country has been a staunch supporter of President Bashar al-Assad throughout...

By Steve Gutterman and Oliver Holmes MOSCOW/BEIRUT | Thu Dec 13, 2012 10:27am EST MOSCOW/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels are gaining ground and might win, Russia's Middle East envoy said on Thursday, in the starkest such admission from a major ally of President Bashar al-Assad in 20 months of conflict. "One must look the facts in the face," Russ...

By Samia Nakhoul and Khaled Yacoub Oweis MARRAKECH, Morocco | Wed Dec 12, 2012 10:12am EST MARRAKECH, Morocco (Reuters) - Western and Arab nations sympathetic to Syria's uprising against President Bashar al-Assad gave full political recognition on Wednesday to the opposition, reflecting a hardening consensus that the 20-month-old uprising might b...

By Dominic Evans BEIRUT | Tue Dec 11, 2012 11:14am EST BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels clashed with forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad near Damascus airport on Tuesday, battling for the capital's outskirts after 20 months of conflict which the United Nations said has driven half a million people from the country. Fighting near the airport...

By Mariam Karouny BEIRUT | Mon Dec 10, 2012 3:31pm EST BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels expect greater military help from Gulf Arab states after they announced a new command structure which aims finally to unite President Bashar al-Assad's armed opponents, rebel commanders said on Monday. Rebel fighters have made gains across the country in the l...

BEIRUT | Mon Dec 10, 2012 9:07am EST BEIRUT (Reuters) - War-ravaged Syria's economy will shrink by a fifth in 2012 and all its foreign reserves could be spent by the end of next year, a global finance industry association said on Monday. Since a revolt that has since descended into civil war started in March 2...

By Erika Solomon BEIRUT | Sun Dec 9, 2012 3:30pm EST BEIRUT (Reuters) - U.S. and Russian officials have given their commitment to a political solution for the deepening Syrian conflict, a United Nations envoy said on Sunday, but Moscow dismissed speculation it was preparing for President Bashar al-Assad's exit. With rebels now fighting on the doo...

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN | Sat Dec 8, 2012 1:26pm EST AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian rebel groups have chosen a former officer to head a new Islamist-dominated command, in a Western-backed effort to put the opposition's house in order as President Bashar al-Assad's army takes hits that could usher his downfall. In Turkey, a newly formed joint comma...

By Erika Solomon and David Brunnstrom BEIRUT/DUBLIN | Thu Dec 6, 2012 6:03pm EST BEIRUT/DUBLIN (Reuters) - The two superpowers divided by Syria's civil war met head to head on Thursday, with signs emerging that Russia might curb its support for President Bashar al-Assad and Washington saying events were gathering speed on the ground. U.S. Secreta...

By Erika Solomon BEIRUT | Thu Dec 6, 2012 8:50am EST BEIRUT (Reuters) - Western powers are whipping up fears of a fateful move to the use of chemical weapons in Syria's civil war as a "pretext for intervention", President Bashar al-Assad's deputy foreign minister said on Thursday. He spoke as Germany's cabinet approved stationing Patriot anti-mis...