The Tico Times

The plan has a particular focus on working mothers and people with disabilities. The national unemployment rate is 8.5 percent, but the rate is higher among women, reaching 10.8 percent. Some 65 percent of 188,00 unemployed Ticos have a disability.

The three countries Costa Rica beat on the way to the quarterfinals -- Uruguay, Italy and Greece -- all rank ahead of La Sele.

Since the death on Saturday of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, shot dead by a police officer, Ferguson has exploded into a seething morass of urban riots. But it is the police response to the unrest that has unsettled many across the United States.

NEW YORK – Banana giant Chiquita rejected Thursday the takeover bid by Brazil's Cutrale and Safra groups, calling their offer "inadequate" and sticking to its plan to merge with European fruit seller Fyffes.

Twenty years ago, when he debuted in national politics, Eduardo Campos, the Brazilian presidential hopeful who died in a plane crash Wednesday, was easy to underestimate. With his elegant suits, camera-ready smile and pale-blue eyes as big as fog lights, the junior legislator from the northeastern state of Pernambuco seemed a better fit on the set of a soap opera than in the two-fisted arena of Brasilia.

Costa Rica ranks near the top of a just-released annual index that scores 17 Latin American countries plus the United States on civil rights, access to markets, political participation, education spending and other criteria. Guatemala ranks dead last – again.

Responding to an official complaint filed with the National Animal Health Service (SENASA), police raided a Cartago home last week. With only two small bedrooms and a cramped sitting room, the tiny house had served as the only living space for 18 French poodles, part of an illegal breeding operation.

The magazine on Aug. 5 named the 10 most influential families in Central America, based on the number of businesses in the region and the families’ economic clout.

Whatever her original objective, Rosi Garita's paintings have a mysterious quality, as if, like the stars, each must be decoded for hidden meaning.

Since leaving office, former Public Works and Transport Minister Pedro Castro no longer enjoys impunity from prosecution. Tatiana Vargas, spokeswoman for the Prosecutor’s Office, told The Tico Times in an email that the documents would be sent Wednesday morning to the Deputy Prosecutor for Probity, Transparency and Anti-corruption for review.