NARANJO, Alajuela – Between the arts-and-crafts capital of Sarchí and the reveling festivities in Palmares lies the oft-overlooked town of Naranjo. Bundled into the high hills of the Central Valley northwest of the capital, Naranjo hardly gets more than a paragraph in most guide books. But the small town has its claim to fame: Naranjo is home to the best coffee in Costa Rica.
Jorge Hidalgo, acting president of the Costa Rican Football Federation, FEDEFÚTBOL, told the website AmeliaRueda.com that U.S. prosecutors are “mistaken” and that there was nothing inappropriate about a $27,500 wire transfer cited in the indictment as proof of wrongdoing.
ZURICH, Switzerland – Sepp Blatter won a fifth term as FIFA president on Friday in a dramatic end to an angry campaign dominated by a corruption storm that engulfed the leadership of world football.
The Costa Rican Coast Guard on Thursday took custody of three Costa Rican men arrested by the U.S. Coast Guard earlier this month. The suspects were caught with nearly 2 metric tons of cocaine, according to a statement from the Public Security Ministry.
Costa Rica will be represented by a lineup including international superstar Carlos Muñoz from Esterillos, Latin American champion Anthony Fillingim from Santa Teresa, and four-time world medalist Leilani McGonagle from Pavones.
The 56-year-old president of Costa Rica’s national football federation built himself into a regional and international figure in the sport. But U.S. authorities say that with that rise came the temptations of a vast criminal conspiracy outlined in a sweeping indictment of FIFA.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter did not raise the many calls made for him to resign for Friday's election, as he opened FIFA's annual congress one day after seven top football officials were arrested as part of a U.S corruption inquiry.
Three years after Raúl Castro cast aside decades of communist housing dogma and allowed homeowners to buy and sell their properties for the first time since the 1960s, the island's real estate market is proving to be a powerful engine of economic and social change.
