In the six months since President Obama announced a new opening to the island, sales of U.S. foodstuffs — among the few U.S. products allowed, with restrictions, under the embargo — have dropped by half, from $160 million in the first quarter of 2014, to $83 million this year.
The prosecutor will ask the Criminal Court of San José to set a trial date for a 2013 organ trafficking case that allegedly spanned from Tel Aviv to Cartago as Costa Ricans were paid upwards of $20,000 each to sell their kidneys to Israeli buyers.
Flares of violence in Central America’s Northern Triangle have sparked a sudden rush of migrants seeking refugee status in Costa Rica, according to Immigration Administration Director Kathya Rodríguez. In the face of this rush, immigration officials have been working to reactivate its long-lauded refugee system after no refugee applications were granted in 2014.
The Associated Press reported Tuesday that the head of the Dominican Republic's immigration agency, Army Gen. Ruben Paulino, said his agency will begin patrolling neighborhoods with large numbers of migrants on Thursday. "If they aren't registered, they will be repatriated," Paulino said, according to the AP.
Costa Rica's Chief Public Prosecutor Jorge Chavarría has confirmed the arrest on Wednesday of the head of the Judicial Investigation Police, or OIJ, in the central Pacific town of Quepos. The OIJ boss, surnamed Solano, is accused of illegally detaining three North Americans, whose names have not yet been released, in an apparent land dispute with an alleged drug trafficker.
"These findings, consistent with those from earlier studies, provide the strongest empirical evidence yet that medical marijuana laws do not account for increased use of marijuana in U.S. adolescents," the researchers write.
Swiss prosecutors are investigating 53 cases of possible money laundering as they look into FIFA's handling of bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, officials said Wednesday. Attorney General Michael Lauber said the "suspicious" cases had been reported by banks and that a "huge and complex" inquiry into football's world body could take months if not years.
CLEVELAND, Ohio – An enchanted and astonishing season in which the Golden State Warriors bum-rushed their way into the NBA elite and mesmerized crowds throughout the country with a barrage of three-pointers and playground-approved layups came to a conclusion Tuesday night as Stephen Curry walked off the court at Quicken Loans Arena holding a shiny, gold Larry O'Brien trophy and hearing chants of "MVP."
