(EFE).- Central American nations and South Korea expect to sign a free-trade accord by June 30, 2017, representatives of the parties said here Wednesday at the end of the final round of negotiations. The proposed pact is consistent with the rules of the World Trade Organization, the governments of South Korea, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama said in a statemen...

REUTERS - A group of the countries most at risk from climate change said they would strive to make their energy production 100 percent renewable "as rapidly as possible", as part of efforts to limit global warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius. The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), which numbers 48 nations, also committed to update their climate action plans submitted as part of the U.N. climate pac...

REUTERS - A year after Guatemala passed a law banning child marriage, poor families who regard girls as a financial burden are still marrying them off as prolonged drought plunges many into deeper poverty, campaigners say. Guatemala has one of the highest rates of child marriage in Latin America, long driven by poverty and cultural acceptance especially among the country's Maya indigenous commu...

(Reuters) - Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have agreed to join forces and seek support from Mexico to forge a joint strategy in response to Donald Trump winning the U.S. presidency, El Salvador's foreign minister told Reuters on Wednesday. Trump's election upset has sent shockwaves through Mexico and Central America, which rely heavily on U.S. remittances and bilateral trade.President-elec...

Marrakesh, Morocco, Nov. 15 — The Secretary-General of the United Nations said yesterday that he hopes the new president-elect of the United States will understand the severity and urgency of climate change. Ban Ki-moon spoke at a press conference in Marrakech, Morocco, amid the ongoing COP22 talks, a meeting of almost 200 nations to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement limiting greenhouse gas em...

Reuters - Governments should invest at least 20 percent of their transport budgets in infrastructure that promotes walking and cycling, to save lives, curb pollution and cut climate-changing emissions from vehicles, the United Nations' environment agency said. Almost half of the 1.3 million people who die each year from traffic accidents are pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, the U.N. Env...

(EFE).- A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the South Island of New Zealand on Sunday, without reports on casualties or declaring a tsunami alert by the authorities. The tremor occurred at 23:02 local time (11:02 GMT) and had its epicenter at the depth of 10 kilometers (6.21 miles), according to the United States Geological Survey which records seismic activity worldwide. Incident re...

Thomson Reuters Foundation / Sixty percent of the world's 5.9 million children who died before their fifth birthday last year were in 10 countries in Asia and Africa, said a study published on Friday, prompting calls for action to reduce the mortality. The study published in The Lancet medical journal said the latest data highlights the inequality in children's death among the 194 countries it ...

(Reuters) - Leonard Cohen, rock music's man of letters whose songs fused religious imagery with themes of redemption and sexual desire, earning him critical and popular acclaim, has died at age 82, said a statement on his Facebook page. "It is with profound sorrow we report that legendary poet, songwriter and artist, Leonard Cohen has passed away," a statement on the Facebook page said. "We hav...

By Wendy Anders Indigenous peoples have disadvantages vis-a-vis governments and companies in consultations on projects that affect their communities, reported TeleSur TV this week. The United Nation Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Victoria Tauli, on Wednesday recommended the Mexican government regulate and supervise the activities of mining companies that affect unprote...

Tokyo, Nov 7 — The armed forces of Japan and the United States began today their first joint military maneuvers under Japan's new legislation allowing their troops to fight abroad. U.S. military DASH-8 aircraft. Wikimedia Commons The maneuvers, which will last until Wednesday, integrate some 25,000 soldiers from the Japan Self-Defense Forces and 11,000 Americans into Keen Sword, the joint o...

The global peace index in the 10th annual edition ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness. The GPI states “The 2016 Global Peace Index overall score deteriorated slightly compared with 2015, and at a faster rate than the previous year. Once again, the Middle East and North Africa was the region that saw its levels of peace deteriorate the most.” ...

(EFE).- A new earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale struck central Italy on Sunday morning, reported the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology. The quake, which was originally reported to measure 7.1 and hit at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) in the regions of Umbria and Le Marche, demolished several houses. Fabrizio Curcio, director of the Department of Civil Protect...

Marketwired - Global populations of vertebrates -- mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish -- have declined by 58 percent between 1970 and 2012, states a new report from World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Animals living in the world's lakes, rivers, and freshwater systems have experienced the most dramatic population declines, at 81 percent. Because of human activity, the report states that with...

Avianca airlines announced today the cancellation of all flights to and from Venezuela, after a Venezuelan military plane harassed one of their planes. (EFE).- Colombia's Foreign Ministry on Saturday was asked to demand an explanation from Venezuela for an incident in which a military plane allegedly harassed an Avianca passenger jet while it was in the neighboring country's airspace. Colom...

(Reuters) - Hackers unleashed a complex attack on the internet through common devices like webcams and digital recorders and cut access to some of the world's best known websites on Friday, a stunning breach of global internet stability. The attacks struck Twitter, Paypal, Spotify and other customers of an infrastructure company in New Hampshire called Dyn, which acts as a switchboard for inter...

Mexico, Oct 18 — The executive board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) approved a controversial resolution on Jerusalem's holy sites yesterday that has sparked the outrage of Israel, a spokesman said. Israeli soldiers at the Temple Mount, source Facebook. The international agency's board adopted the motion by consensus (24 votes in favor), alth...

CLIMATE CHANGE Nexus is a line of hydrofluorocarbon-free appliances, Facebook. Kigali, Rwanda, Oct. 15 — Nearly 200 countries reached an agreement Saturday on the phase-out of hydrofluorocarbon gases found in air conditioners, refrigeration devices, foams and aerosols, which have a strong impact on global warming. The agreement, adopted in Kigali after a week of discussions and an all-ni...

Thomson Reuters Foundation/by Anastasia Moloney - Gang violence has become so deadly in parts of Central America that many people are living in what is a war zone, Amnesty International said on Friday, adding that some migrants who have fled danger are killed within weeks of being deported home. Every year violence at the hands of gang members drives tens of thousands of people, including child...

Asuncion, Oct. 12 — Paraguayan Indians on Wednesday expressed their rejection of an Oct. 12 national holiday marking the anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas and also denounced the expulsion of indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands. Pai Tavytera indigenous in Paraguay, Wikipedia Leaders of 75 Indian communities who are part of the Coordinating Body of Indigen...

REUTERS- Home to the vast Amazon, Brazil has reduced its deforestation rate by more than 70 percent since 2003, but Latin America's largest country is still losing the equivalent of two football fields of rainforest every minute. The country aims to reduce net new deforestation to zero by 2030. Key tools in the fight are new satellite monitoring technologies, rural titling schemes to encoura...

By Wendy Anders Taxing sugary drinks can lower their consumption and reduce obesity, type 2 diabetes, and tooth decay, says a new World Health Organization (WHO) report released yesterday. Fiscal policies that lead to at least a 20 percent increase in the retail price of sugary drinks would result in proportional reductions in consumption of such products, according to the report titled “Fis...

(Reuters) - Hurricane Matthew's winds diminished on Saturday as it headed towards the Carolinas after killing almost 900 people in Haiti and causing major flooding and widespread power outages in the southeastern United States. As winds dropped to less than 85 miles per hour (135 kph), making it a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale of 1 to 5, the storm was about 20 miles (35 km) s...

(EFE).- The death toll in Haiti from Hurricane Matthew climbed on Friday to more than 800, making it the worst natural disaster since a 2010 earthquake claimed roughly 300,000 lives. The latest fatalities figure came from a Haitian government source, who told EFE that 820 people had been confirmed dead. The magnitude of the disaster was only beginning to become apparent on Friday, three days...

(EFE).- Hurricane Matthew strengthened on Thursday to Category 4, with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (220 kph), and continues to approach the east coast of Florida, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. As of 1500 GMT, the "extremely dangerous" hurricane was located 25 miles (40 kilometers) west-northwest of Nassau, Bahamas, and 180 miles (290 kilometers) southeast of West Palm Beach, F...

(EFE).- The United Nations said Wednesday that the Paris Accord on climate change will take effect Nov. 4, as a sufficient number of countries have ratified the agreement. "I am delighted to announce that today the Paris Agreement will cross the second and final threshold needed for entry into force, and will enter into force on 4 November 2016," said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a sta...

By Wendy Anders Photo courtesy of MarViva. Silky sharks, thresher sharks and giant devil rays were voted to be included in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) yesterday during the 17th convention conference in South Africa. Appendix II includes species that are not necessarily threatened with extinction, but whose int...

NOBEL MEDICINE  Tokyo, Oct. 3 — Japanese biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi, who won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the mechanism of cellular autophagy, underlined Monday the importance of challenges. After hearing about his win, the 71-year-old scientist told media outlets the recognition by Stockholm's Karolinska Institute was an honor because his study was in basic m...

(EFE).- The United States Navy has ordered the evacuation of all non-essential personnel and their families from the Guantanamo base in Cuba, owing to the threat posed by the Category 4 Hurricane Matthew. Around 6,000 people, including members of the US Navy and their families and workers contracted from Jamaica and the Philippines, stay at the Guantanamo base, which serves as a prison for terr...

Although Costa Rica has not been affected yet by Hurricane Matthew and is expected to only receive an indirect effect, Costa Rica's National Emergency Commission (CNE) declared green alert for the South Pacific and Caribbean, heavy rain is expected as of Saturday night and throughout the weekend specially in the counties of Corredores, Osa, Golfito, Coto Brus, Buenos Aires and Pérez Zeledón. If yo...

UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY United Nations, Sept. 20 - U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told world leaders attending the General Assembly Tuesday that the Syrian government was to blame for the majority of the deaths in Syria and that that country's future should not depend on President Bashar al-Assad. "There is no military solution. Many groups have killed many innocents but none more than the gov...

By Wendy Anders Each year, the United States determines the major illicit drug producing and major drug-transit countries; the major sources of precursor chemicals used in the production of illicit narcotics; and major money-laundering countries, according to the International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) published today on the U.S. Department of State’s website. Costa Rica was ...

By Wendy Anders Source: PRC FM The China-Latin America 10th Annual Business Summit is set to take place in China's northern Hebei Province in October, reported the China Xinhua News Network Corporation today. Chinese officials visiting Costa Rica say the activity is intended to boost economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, and with the Latin American region as a whole. ...

Vienna, Sept. 9.- The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) confirmed on Friday that it has detected an "unusual seismic activity" in North Korea, indicating a possible new nuclear test by Kim Jong-un's communist regime. Source: Courrier International (France) "Our monitoring stations picked up an unusual seismic event in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)...

Sydney, Sep 8 (EFE).- Ten percent of the planet's untouched natural areas, around 3.3 million square km (1.27 million square miles), has disappeared in the last two decades, especially in the Amazon and central Africa, according to a study published in Australia Thursday. The study, led by James Watson of the Wildlife Conservation Society Canada (WCS), and the University of Queensland, says since...

Mao Zedong declares the founding of the modern People's Republic of China, October 1, 1949. Wikipedia. Mao is not an easy family name to carry in China, and a great-nephew of the epochal Chinese leader Mao Zedong, seems to understand that well, and acknowledges the importance his family attaches to maintaining their ancestor's good name. Mao Anping, 72, spoke about his great-uncle's life an...

Brasilia, Aug 31.- Brazil's Senate voted 61-20 on Wednesday to remove President Dilma Rousseff from office over budget irregularities. Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff smiles as she attends a meeting with jurists at Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, March 22, 2016. REUTERS/Adriano Machado The decision means that Michel Temer, who became interim president May 12, will serve the remaind...

NIcaraguan forces. File photo By Patricia Pernas for EFE Governments in Central America, one of the world's most violent regions, are expanding the role of their militaries in civilian affairs and increasing their weaponry, thus posing a threat to democracy, an expert told EFE. "This strengthening of the armed forces does not come in response to national security problems," Alberto Mora,...

FARC guerrilla unit marching in 1998. Wikimedia Commons By Christian Escobar Mora for Agencia EFE Tacueyo is among the villages most affected by the armed conflict between the FARC and the government, so its indigenous inhabitants are enthusiastic about the new cease-fire but at the same time believe that not all the members of that guerrilla group will obey the orders of their leaders. ...

An electrical storm has caused the deaths of 323 reindeer living in a national park in southern Norway, authorities announced Monday. The animals' corpses were found Friday night by a ranger at Hardangervidda National Park in a small area with a diameter of between 50 and 80 meters (164 and 262 feet). "It is something very unique. I've heard of cattle killed by lightning before, but never in...