Havana, Oct 20 (EFE).- The "Paquete," a peculiar system for the private, informal airing of audiovisual content in Cuba, does not threaten state television but will rather serve as a "catalyst" for its renovation and updating, according to a commentary posted Tuesday on government Web site Cubadebate. El Paquete de la Semana (The Weekly Package) has become something most Cuban households can't ...

An Uber driver in Bogota. Wikimedia Commons Rio de Janeiro, Oct 20 (EFE).- A group of taxi drivers took to the streets of Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday to protest a ruling by a state judge suspending a municipal ordinance in the Brazilian city that banned the use of the Uber ride-sharing application to hire private vehicles. Taxi drivers gathered at Santos Dumont Airport, located near downtown ...

DelSexto blog Havana, Oct 20 (EFE). - Cuban graffiti artist Danilo "El Sexto" Maldonado, who has been on a hunger strike for four days, was freed Tuesday after being jailed for 10 months without trial in a prison outside of Havana, as he himself told EFE from his family home. "I'm very happy to be here at home. What I want to do now is see my daughter and thank everybody who made such an ou...

Source: Flickr Commons Mexico City, Oct 19 (EFE).- Police found a dead man hanging off a bridge in eastern Mexico City, the Federal District Attorney's Office said Monday. The body had a bullet wound and was completely covered in bandages, a DA's office spokesman told EFE. The unidentified man was left hanging off the steel structure of a bridge over an intersection in the borough of Izt...

Source: Wikimedia Commons If you were to wager on the likelihood of the Nicaragua Canal project being completed, what sort of betting odds would you expect? The controversial project, which aims to compete against the Panama Canal, has attracted considerable media attention in 2015. Most of the news reports surrounding the Nicaragua Canal, which will ostensibly be located more than a hundre...

Kiev, Oct 18 (EFE). - At least 14 people died and eight others are missing following the sinking of a ferry in the Black Sea off Odessa, Ukrainian officials said Sunday. The Ivolga, which was carrying more than 40 people, capsized on Saturday night. Officials initially put the death toll at 14, but they later said the vessel was carrying more than the 36 people that the captain had reported....

Wikimedia Commons Madrid, Oct 17 (EFE).- Police have arrested 81 men in Spain over the past few months for sharing pedophilic files on the Internet, in what is seen as the most sweeping operation against pornography this year. The operation was intended to "uproot" such activities, even when they were limited to viewing photos and videos on the Web. The arrests were carried out thanks to a...

A last-ditch effort by the government of Costa Rica to control the pesky deficit may not work as intended and may also force the appreciation of the United States dollar (USD) against the local currency. The administration of President Luis Guillermo Solis recently pitched an investment idea to the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The idea consisted of a bond package speciall...

Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton. EFE file Washington, Oct 16 (EFE).- The Democratic front-runner in next year's U.S. presidential election, Hillary Clinton, backed the Obama administration's decision to normalize ties with Cuba, but she expressed concern over the human rights situation on the Communist-ruled island. In an interview with EFE Thursday in San Antonio, Clinton said the r...

Mexico City, Oct 16 (EFE).  - Some 4.5 million Mexicans living in poverty benefit from government programs that put food on their tables, President Enrique Peña Nieto said while leading a World Food Day ceremony. "We're working on different fronts against poverty and food insecurity. To get results we have to combine our efforts," Peña Nieto said during a visit to San Felipe del Progreso, a sma...

Washington, Oct 15 (EFE).- U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday announced a new plan to keep 5,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond the end of his term in January 2017 so that they can continue training Afghan forces and tracking terrorist groups. "Afghan forces are still not as strong as they need to be," Obama acknowledged during an appearance at the White House, where he also said that t...

Source: Floyd Mayweather Instagram Havana, Oct 14 (EFE). - American retired boxer Floyd Mayweather, regarded as one of the greatest fighters of all time, made a brief trip to Cuba this week and uploaded photos of the visit to social media. The images posted to his Twitter and Instagram accounts include one of Mayweather on a street in Old Havana, the city's historical center, surrounded by ...

Wikimedia Commons Buenos Aires, Oct 13 (EFE; additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star).- Three armed robbers carrying a baby broke into a clothing store south of Buenos Aires and sat the toddler on the floor while they went through with the holdup, the victim told EFE Tuesday. Security cameras caught the criminals entering the store and carrying out the robbery, while the little one sat ...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Miami, Oct 13 (EFE).- The shark migrations that occur at this time of year on the southeastern coast of the United States set off a new alarm at Miami Beach, where at least a hundred were spotted. The school of sharks, swimming in a southerly direction Monday in search of warmer waters, was just 50 meters (160 feet) from the shore at Miami Beach, according to video...

Free Syrian Army forces fighting in urban terrain. Source: Flickr CC. Washington, Oct 12 (EFE).- The United States airdropped 50 tons of munitions to rebel groups in northern Syria, in an urgent attempt to replace its failed program for training opposition militias, CNN said Monday, citing unnamed U.S. officials. The delivery was carried out with the parachuting of 112 loaded pallets, a U.S...

Mexico City, Oct 11 (EFE).- Authorities seized 3.5 tons of shark fins and 529 kilos of sea bass swim bladders in Manzanillo, a coastal city in the western Mexican state of Colima, the Profepa federal environmental protection agency said. The animal parts came from "wildlife in Colima" and had been dehydrated, the agency said in a statement. Inspectors found the shark fins and sea bass swim b...

Source: Wikimedia Commons By Mariel Huerta Mexico City, Oct 10 (EFE).- Romi, a 10-month-old pitbull, died of poisoning after being taken for a walk in Parque Mexico, a case that would have been forgotten if almost 20 other dogs in the area had not already died that way, a growing cause for concern among the residents of the elegant Condesa neighborhood in the Mexican capital. While regre...

Source: Indian Sao Paulo, Oct 8 (EFE).- Domestically manufactured electric motorcycles and the arrival in Brazil of U.S. brand Indian highlighted the opening day of the Two Wheels Trade Show in Sao Paulo, South America's biggest motor-bike event. The first day of the biennial fair was highlighted by new scooter designs and features, iconic American motorcycle brand Indian's entry into the B...

EFE/David Fernández Beijing, Oct 9 (EFE; odds by IDS).- Spain's Rafael Nadal rallied for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory here Friday over American Jack Sock to reach the China Open semifinals and give himself another chance to solve the riddle of Fabio Fognini, who has defeated the 14-time Grand Slam champion three times this season, most recently at last month's U.S. Open. Sock came out firing wit...

Wikimedia Commons Morelia, Mexico, Oct 9 (EFE).- A small plane loaded with packets of cocaine crashed and burst into flames in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, an accident in which two suspected drug traffickers were killed, officials said. The Cessna slammed into a mountain known as El Organito near the Pacific coast, the Michoacan state Attorney General's Office said Thursday. T...

Wikimedia Commons Los Angeles, Oct 8 (EFE).- Spencer Stone, one of three U.S soldiers who in August subdued a suspected terrorist on a train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris, was seriously stabbed in Sacramento, California, the U.S. Air Force announced Thursday. Stone, 25, is in stable condition. He has been transferred to a local hospital and is currently receiving treatment for his wo...

Wikimedia Commons Washington, Oct 7 (EFE).- U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday telephoned the head of Doctors Without Borders, Joanne Liu, to apologize for the U.S. airstrike on a hospital operated by the organization in Kunduz, Afghanistan. White House spokesman Josh Earnest reported the telephone call and Obama's apology at his daily press conference and added that the president als...

Mexico City, Oct 7 (EFE).- A 24-year-old Mexican man who posed as a drug trafficker on Facebook, posting photographs and threatening messages, was arrested and is being held at a maximum-security prison, officials said. Martin Juarez Campos, who called himself "El M Juarez" in online posts, claimed to be a member of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, one of the most powerful and violent crimi...

San Salvador, Oct 6 (EFE).- The severed head of a Salvadoran police sergeant was found Tuesday on a bridge in the town of Apopa, 12 kilometers (7 miles) north of this capital, authorities said. The Attorney General's Office identified the victim as Baltazar Olayzola Diaz, a member of the Soyapango municipal police whose death brings to 49 the number of officers murdered in 2015. Meanwhile, N...

"Rolling Stones 26" by Gorupdebesanez - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons Havana, Oct 5 (EFE).- Cubans were astonished this weekend to see Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger strolling through the historic center of Havana, where he is on a private trip with one of his children, official media reported Monday. The British rock icon visited the Hotel Santa Isabel in the Old H...

Hurricane Joaquin. Source: NOAA Miami, Oct 5 (EFE).- The U.S. Coast Guard said Monday that the cargo ship El Faro most certainly sank after it sailed from Florida last week with 33 people aboard, then suddenly disappeared east of the Bahamas when it entered the area struck by Hurricane Joaquin. At a press conference in the Miami suburb of Opa-locka, Coast Guard Capt. Mark Fedor said that "w...

Guatemala City, Oct 4 (EFE).- Rescue teams resumed searching on Sunday for victims of the mudslide in a community outside Guatemala City that killed at least 87 people and left 350 others missing, emergency management officials said. The search resumed at 6:00 a.m., Sergio Cabañas, the national emergency management office's coordinator on the scene, told EFE. The national emergency managemen...

Miami, Oct 3 (EFE).- American actor and rapper Will Smith sings again, this time doing a remix of his number "Fiesta" with the Colombian band Bomba Estereo. Missing from the music world for 10 years, Smith returns with the Colombian band doing an upbeat fusion of electro-tropical sound and rap that reflects "the impact of Latin rhythms" on the international scene. "Having a personality like ...

Wikimedia Commons Paris, Oct 3 (EFE).- The Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) organization raised the death toll from the bombing of its hospital Saturday in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz to 12 of its staff and seven patients, the consequences of what is said to have been a U.S. airstrike. According to MSF records, still provisional and reported on Twitter, 12 of th...

Wikimedia Commons Bogota, Oct 2 (EFE).- Guerrilla and drug-trafficking kingpin Victor Ramon Navarro Serrano, alias "Megateo," was killed in a military operation in northwestern Colombia, officials reported Friday. The report was confirmed by the Colombian ambassador to Washington, former Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon, who posted his congratulations both to the police and the armed for...

Source: Sea Shepherd Sea Shepherd Media Release - Last week, while patrolling the waters of the Faroe Islands, the crew of the Sea Shepherd ship, Sam Simon, discovered the carcass of a pilot whale floating in the waters just outside Klaksvík in the Kalsoyar fjord in the northeast of the archipelago. On closer inspection, the Sea Shepherd crew made a number of gruesome and disturbing observa...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Source: Wikimedia Commons United Nations, Sep 30 (EFE).- The United States and Russia on Wednesday agreed to hold top-level military talks as soon as possible on the airstrikes that both countries are conducting in Syria, the two top U.S. and Russian diplomats - John Kerry and Sergei Lavrov, respectively - announced. The agreement is aimed at avoiding undes...

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...

Source: Discovery By Yeny Garcia Havana, Sep 28 (EFE).- Over the past three months, Cuba has experienced an unprecedented, albeit limited, increase in access to the Internet, with 35 new Wi-Fi hot spots popping up, thrilling Cubans and enticing many people to find creative ways to provide services by finding a way around the rules. Many "bisneros," as street vendors are known, are taking...

San Juan, Sep 28 (EFE).- St. Lucia's government said Monday it planned to allow hunting of three endangered sea turtle species exceeding specific weight limits from Oct. 1 until Dec. 31. Hawksbill turtles weighing 27 kilos (60 pounds) or more and green and loggerhead turtles weighing more than 34 kilos (75 pounds) can be taken during the period, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement. ...

Rio de Janeiro, Sep 28 (EFE).- One of Rihanna's bodyguards started throwing punches at photographers in Rio de Janeiro this Sunday as the Barbadian songstress was leaving a restaurant, local media reported while airing a video of the brawl. The bodyguard's fists started flying when he found a crowd of paparazzi milling around the door to the restaurant where Rihanna had dined. The photograph...

Wikimedia Commons San Juan, Sep 27 (EFE).- A total of 1,000 soldiers are ready to be deployed along the border with Venezuela in case of aggression by Caracas amid a territorial dispute over Esequibo region and the Cuyuni River, Guyana Defense Force commander Brig. Gen. Mark Phillips said. Resorting to the use of arms is "necessary to safeguard peace, and not just to provoke a war," Phillip...

By Mario Villar United Nations, Sep 26 (EFE).- Cuban President Raul Castro made his debut in the United Nations Saturday demanding an end to the U.S. embargo on the island, which he considers "the chief obstacle to the economic development" of his country. In his first speech at the U.N., Castro said the renewal of diplomatic ties between Cuba and the United States plus the changes decreed b...

Pixabay Commons Washington, Sep 25 (EFE).- U.S. President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that he has reached an accord with China, according to which neither of the two countries will carry out or knowingly support the theft of intellectual property or business secrets in cyberspace, a source of great tension between these world powers. "Today, I can announce that our two countries have rea...

Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, Sep 24 (EFE).- Mexican authorities' "reckless handling" of the investigation into the disappearance of 43 teacher trainees a year ago exposes "a scandalous cover-up orchestrated by the highest levels of government," London-based human rights group Amnesty International said. In a statement Wednesday, AI's Americas director, Erika Guevara-Rosas, said the case h...