Pixabay Commons Beijing, Jul 26 (EFE).- A passenger deliberately started a fire with a cigarette lighter and gasoline on board a Shenzhen Airlines plane while it was in flight over China, although the fire was quickly extinguished and the man subdued and later arrested, the official Xinhua news agency reported Sunday. The incident occurred about 1 p.m. local time on Sunday during a flight b...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, Jul 22 (EFE).- More than 97,000 Kemp's ridley sea turtles were born in recent days at the Playa Rancho Nuevo wildlife sanctuary in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, the National Protected Natural Areas Commission, or Conanp, said. The hatchlings emerged from more than 2,000 nests in the wildlife reserve under monitoring by Conanp specialist...

Sony Pictures Beijing, Jul 25 (EFE).- Producers of the American science fiction comedy "Pixels," which debuted this week in the United States and Europe, changed the film's screenplay to avoid offending China and ensure access to that market, leaked internal e-mails appear to show. Among the thousands of internal Sony Pictures Entertainment e-mails made public by WikiLeaks in recent months,...

Google Maps Caracas, Jul 24 (EFE).- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said his government is "keeping watch" for a possible tsunami in the Caribbean, after the Seismic Research Center of Trinidad and Tobago warned of strong seismic activity in the underwater volcano Kick'em Jenny "I am in contact with governors, military chiefs and emergency management offices keeping watch for a possible...

Garcia Marquez. Source: Flickr Commons Bogota, Jul 22 (EFE).- Brazilian journalist Dorrit Harazim was awarded the Gabriel Garcia Marquez Journalism Prize for career excellence on Wednesday in honor of her coverage of international events spanning a half-century, award organizers said. The 72-year-old Harazim, a native of Croatia, is currently a columnist for the Rio de Janeiro daily O Globo...

Source: SOUTHCOM One of the most commonly known facts about Costa Rica on the international stage is that our country's lack of a standing military force dates back more than 60 years. Popular opinion in Costa Rica tends to condemn and reject the idea of militarizing the civil security forces, which are largely made up of Fuerza Publica, the national police force, and a handful of smaller, spe...

Wikimedia Commons San Juan, Jul 21 (EFE).- Puerto Rican police are closing in on the "Santurce rapist," a criminal who has spread panic here in recent months. The chief of detectives of the San Juan metropolitan area, Maj. Jazmin Perez, told EFE Tuesday that the cops are working with tips received in the last few hours after they posted photos of the man suspected in four cases of rape sinc...

Beijing, Jul 19 (EFE).- The Chinese government deported 20 tourists from the United Kingdom, India and South Africa who had been arrested in Inner Mongolia for allegedly watching "a video inciting terrorism and religious extremism," authorities here confirmed on the weekend. The state-run Chinese press on Sunday said that the group of tourists had been released without charge and returned to th...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Violence against sea turtle nests and the human volunteers who protect them continued last week, this time in an Atlantic beach of South Florida. According to a news report filed by Anne Geggis of the Sun Sentinel newspaper, a 72-year old man was rushed to the hospital with a gunshot wound on his hip after an altercation involving a man who did not approve of the work...

PRBuzz - For a golf getaway with beautiful beaches and an international flavor, Unlimited Vacation Club (UVC) members can now book the Dreams Las Mareas Golf Package during their stay at Dreams® Las Mareas Costa Rica. Dreams Las Mareas, part of the elite Unlimited Vacation Club (UVC) by AMResorts portfolio, welcomes members with this package that includes a round of golf at Guacalito Golf Cours...

Source: National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center San Juan, Jul 18 (EFE).- The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has announced that the first detailed images have been obtained of Asteroid 2011 UW158, which show it has a very odd shape and structure, and that it spins at a tremendous speed on its own axis, phenomena that have intrigued scientists. The images were obtained by scientists at t...

Wikimedia Commons New York, Jul 18 (EFE).- Mexico is a corrupt country that should be subject to a U.S. "boycott," Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump said in an interview to be broadcast Sunday by a New York radio station. Trump, whose remarks were published on Saturday by several media outlets, cited Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman's escape from the Altipl...

Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, Jul 17 (EFE).- A baby boy died of the bites he suffered in an attack by two pit bull terriers in the central Mexican city of Leon, police told EFE on Friday. The victim, identified as 21-month-old Matias Reynoso, was attacked Thursday afternoon, according to witnesses in the Arboledas de San Hilarion neighborhood. Neighbors heard the toddler's mother scream...

Washington, Jul 16 (EFE).- Authorities in Tennessee confirmed Thursday that four Marines died in two separate shooting incidents at military recruiting offices in Chattanooga. The shooter was identified as Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, who worked as a security guard for the city's Public Works Department, CBS News reported, although later reports said that it is his father who works there. Th...

Havana, Jul 15 (EFE).- Cuba's Raul Castro insisted Wednesday that "it's not possible to conceive of" normal relations with the United States as long as the "blockade" of the island remains in place and said he hopes that President Barack Obama uses "his executive authority" to dismantle aspects of the 53-year-old economic embargo. "We hope that (Obama) continues using his executive authority to...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Bogota, Jul 14 (EFE).- Colombian police reported Tuesday the arrest of five people who were riding in an ambulance as if on a medical mission, while the true purpose of their trip was to transport 214 kilos (470 pounds) of cocaine to the northern part of the country.   "Inside the ambulance, assigned to the southwestern municipality of Puerto Caicedo, was t...

Photo: James De Mers, Pixabay Commons Mexico City, Jul 14 (EFE).- A dromedary, or Arabian camel, that was being sold at a street market in the central Mexican city of Almoloya de Juarez has been seized, the Profepa federal environmental protection agency said. Profepa inspectors went to the San Bernabe street market at the request of the State Public Safety Commission in Mexico state, which...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Washington, Jul 13 (EFE).- U.S. federal authorities arrested and charged with terrorism the estranged son of a Boston police captain who allegedly was planning an attack inspired by the Islamic State, the Department of Justice announced Monday. Alexander Ciccolo, 23, was arrested on July 4 as he was awaiting a shipment of several firearms he had arranged to buy, al...

"El chapo Guzmán" por Fabrizio León Diez - Obra do próprio. Licenciado sob CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, Jul 12 (EFE).- Drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman escaped from the Altiplano I federal prison in central Mexico through a 1.5-kilometer (nearly one-mile) tunnel that led to a house, officials said Sunday. Guzman, who had been held at the prison in Mexico stat...

Wikimedia Commons Panama, 03-JULY-2013 (WireService.co)– 2Bet Bob is pleased to announce that their headquarters have been moved to the country of Panama, due to unexpected red tape in Costa Rica. This move will not affect the excellent customer service which is a feature of the betting site. The pay per head feature allows the company to provide 24-hour betting every day. 2Bet Bob uses the PP...

Wikimedia Commons Guadalajara, Mexico, Jul 11 (EFE).- Residents of the Mexican hamlet of La Yerbabuena were evacuated after an explosion was registered inside the Colima Volcano, emergency management officials told EFE. The inhabitants of that small community on the side of the volcano, which straddles the western states of Colima and Jalisco, were taken to La Becerrera, a town three kilome...

San Francisco, Jul 9 (EFE).- Latinos outnumber non-Hispanic whites in California, according to the most recent figures released by the Census Bureau showing that in July 2014 there were 15 million Hispanics in the state compared with 14.9 million non-Hispanic whites. Demographers expected Hispanics to become the largest ethnic group in the state in 2013, but a slower demographic growth rate tha...

Source: Discovery Miami, Jul 9 (EFE).- The Discovery en Español television channel starting July 13 will air the "Cuban Chrome" docu-series about classic automobiles, filmed exclusively in Cuba and narrated by Cuban-American actor William Levy, the company announced Thursday. The production explores the culture of vintage automobiles on the Caribbean island through "the men and women who pu...

Wikimedia Commons Momentum for Marijuana Reform Builds in Latin America and the Caribbean Drug Policy Alliance Press Release -- On Tuesday, Chile’s Lower House of Congress approved a bill that would decriminalize marijuana for medical and recreational purposes. The bill passed 68-39 with five abstentions and marks a major shift in the country’s drug policies, which currently criminalize cul...

"Taquile from Amantani" by Ingo Mehling - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons Lima, Jul 7 (EFE).- Some 60 tourists left stranded for several hours on Taquile, one of the islands in Lake Titicaca, were rescued in the early hours Tuesday by the Peruvian navy following a storm with winds of up to 60 kph (37 mph), officials said. The naval commander, Capt. Juan Jose Gonz...

Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, Jul 6 (EFE).- At least six gunmen were killed when they attacked a navy helicopter in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, the Navy Secretariat said Monday. The chopper was carrying marines on a surveillance mission Sunday about 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of the border city of Nuevo Laredo when it came across several vehicles carrying gunmen, who ...

Source: Riverside BT San Jose, Jul 5 (EFE).- A video game developed in Costa Rica aims to raise awareness in Latin America of the need to protect the Amazon river dolphin, or pink dolphin, and other river species, such as the manatee, that are threatened by illegal fishing and habitat loss. The game, titled "Apu, el espiritu del rio" (Apu, the Spirit of the River), takes players on a journe...

US NSA Headquarters. Source: Wikimedia Commons Sao Paulo, Jul 4 (EFE).- Whistle-blower Web site WikiLeaks on Saturday published the names of more than 29 members of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's administration who were spied on by the U.S. National Security Agency at the start of her first term in office, which began in January 2011. The release of the list of phone numbers linked to...

Bogota, Jul 2 (EFE).- The area planted in coca in Colombia grew last year by 44 percent, from 48,000 to 69,000 hectares (120,000 to 173,000 acres), and potential cocaine production grew by 52 percent, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, or UNODC, revealed Thursday. Those are the main conclusions contained in the latest Colombia Coca Survey, which verifies that while the cultivation area of coca...

New York, Jul 3 (EFE).- JetBlue made its first weekly flight Friday between New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and Havana's Jose Marti International Airport as part of the measures taken in recent months to restore relations between Cuba and the United States. According to a communique from the airline, JetBlue becomes the first large U.S. airline to serve this route since restric...

Flickr Commons Bogota, Jul 2 (EFE).- A committee of experts at a hospital in the central Colombian city of Pereira on Thursday authorized the first mercy killing in the country in the case of a patient with terminal cancer whom several days ago the hospital ceased treating for legal reasons. Ovidio Gonzalez, 79, suffers from an aggressive cancer in his face that can no longer be productivel...

An Uber driver in Bogota. Wikimedia Commons Sao Paulo, Jul 1 (EFE).- Members of a militarized state police force will be enlisted to help prevent the Uber ride-sharing service from operating in Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest metropolis, a city official said. "Only taxis can provide individual public transportation" services, Sao Paulo Transportation Secretary Jilmar Tatto said during a meeting...

Washington, Jun 30 (EFE).- The United States and Cuba are preparing to announce that they have reached an agreement to reestablish diplomatic relations and open embassies in each other's capitals, White House officials said Tuesday. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry will speak about the matter very soon, a White House official who requested anonymity told reporters. Th...

The RV Farley Mowat is no longer part of the Sea Shepherd fleet. Source: WikiMedia Commons The Research Vessel (R/V) Farley Mowat, which was once under the command of controversial Canadian conservationist Paul Watson, has unceremoniously sunk in Nova Scotia. The R/V Farley Mowat was once the flagship vessel of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which was founded by Mr. Watson, and it was ...

Wikimedia Commons Brasilia, Jun 29 (EFE).- Some 3,350 Web sites have been set up to promote sex tourism in Brazil, press reports said. The top city for sex tourism is Rio de Janeiro, which will host the Summer Olympics next year, the O Globo newspaper reported, citing a study by consulting firm Axur. "Unforgettable erotic vacations amid the beauty and enchantment of Rio de Janeiro, on th...

Source: Flickr Commons Rabat, Jun 28 (EFE).- A Moroccan woman strangled her three children, ages eight months to five years, in their apartment on Sunday before being arrested by police, Moroccan media reported. According to the MAP news agency, the woman's husband, from whom she was separated, reported the crime - which was evidently carried out early Sunday morning - to the police. Upo...

Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, Jun 27 (EFE).- Nine months after 43 trainee teachers went missing in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, their parents said here they will continue their struggle to find them and that the truth of their whereabouts will soon come to light. "We're telling this murderous and corrupt government that no matter what they do they won't succeed in dividing the p...

ISIS fighters in Iraq. Source: Wikimedia Commons Washington, Jun 26 (EFE).- The United States condemned "in the strongest terms" the terrorist attacks that occurred Friday in France, Kuwait and Tunisia, and following the aggression offered the three countries "any necessary support." "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of these heinous attacks, their loved ones, and the people of...

Washington, Jun 26 (EFE).- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday in favor of legalizing gay marriage across the country, a historic decision that annuls the power of states to ban same-sex unions. The high court's decision makes same-sex marriage a constitutional right in the United States, and consequently requires the 13 states still prohibiting it to allow people of the same sex to marry legal...

Haitian orphans with charity workers San Juan, Jun 24 (EFE).- The Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, has called on the Dominican Republic's government to halt the deportations of tens of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent to avoid a grave "humanitarian crisis" in the region. "The Community calls on the Dominican Republic authorities" to adhere to the principles of protection of citize...