At the start of the new year, after Costa Rica's winter football season has concluded and while tournaments in cycling and surfing are at a lull, the country's main sports attraction comes from an unlikely place -- the tennis court.
An amateur bullfighter remains in serious condition at a hospital in San José after he was flung into the air by a 990-pound bull Sunday night at the close of the annual Zapote festival.
The announcement recalled the sanctuary movement of the 1980s that provided safe haven to several thousand people fleeing civil wars in El Salvador and Guatemala, with churches in Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities sometimes filled with people seeking asylum in the United States.
South American nations are more dependent on global commodity markets than the Caribbean, Central America or Mexico, whose fortunes are more closely linked to the strengthening U.S. economy.
Venezuela's opposition launched an offensive Wednesday against President Nicolás Maduro at its first full session in control of the legislature, having vowed to oust him within six months.
