San Jose, Jan 7 - The Turrialba volcano in Costa Rica has become active for the first time in 40 years.

The authorities were on alert Wednesday, a day after the eruption of the 3,300-metre volcano located 80 km northeast of San Jose.

According to the Seismological Institute of the Central American country (Ovicori), the volcano spit clouds of "white powder". According to vulcanologists, it is not ash but an as yet unidentified matter.

San Jose - One person died and two were reported missing after a magnitude-5.3 earthquake struck Costa Rica, the local Red Cross said.

It said a young woman was buried by a landslide in the southern community of San Vito de Coto Brus on Friday. Two others were reported missing in the same town.

The quake epicentre was located at Parrita, about 100 kilometres south-east of the Costa Rican capital. (dpa)

San Jose, Costa Rica - Costa Rican President Oscar Arias has returned to work after a bout with swine flu, his office said Monday in the capital San Jose.

Arias had been quarantined for seven days after being diagnosed with a mild case of the A(H1N1) virus last week. Arias has been serving as the mediator in talks to solve the political crisis in Honduras after President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in June.

The 68-year-old suffers from asthma and was therefore considered a high-risk patient for the virus that first appeared in Mexico in April.

San Jose  - The old excuse of having no cash on you when they pass the collection plate around in church will no longer pass muster in Costa Rica.

Credit cards will be accepted in some churches from September, the Catholic Church in San Jose has said.

Two local banks have supplied card readers to churches for the field trial of credit card donations in 13 of San Jose diocese's 110 parishes. (dpa)

San Jose  - Costa Rican President Oscar Arias was suffering from the A-H1N1 virus, or swine flu, the government announced Tuesday.

Arias, 68, had a cold in the morning and a subsequent examination revealed that he had been infected with the swine flu virus, Parliament chief Francisco Antonio Pacheco told reporters.

He said the president was in "fairly good shape," but all his engagements had been cancelled. Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and mediator in the Honduran crisis, was to remain in isolation for seven days.

San Jose - Honduran de facto leader Roberto Micheletti arrived Thursday in Costa Rica for talks, mediated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, with ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.

Micheletti, the former Congress speaker designated to head the Honduran government set up after the June 28 coup that ousted Zelaya, said he was optimistic that a way out of the ongoing Honduran political crisis could be found.

"I have faith that there can be a solution," Micheletti said.

San Jose - It will be a challenge for Costa Rican President Oscar Arias to mediate discussions between two Honduran rivals on Thursday, with both willing to talk but reluctant to set aside their demands.

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and former Honduran Congress speaker Roberto Micheletti - the man designated to head the government after Zelaya was ousted in a military coup June 28 - were expected to arrive in Costa Rican capital San Jose Wednesday, ahead of formal talks with Arias Thursday.

San Jose  - Two years after Costa Rica broke ties with Taiwan in favour of relations with China, the two countries were moving forward on a free trade agreement Tuesday at meetings in San Jose.

The delegate from Costa Rica's negotiating team, Fernando Ocampo, indicated that important advances had been made in the area of customs procedures and services on the second day of talks.

"Monday were were more focused on ... goods and supplies," he said.

San Jose - Costa Rican authorities confirmed Tuesday the first case of swine flu in the country, which would also be the first in Central America. Costa Rican Health Minister Maria Luisa Avila said the life of the patient - a 21-year-old woman who lives in the San Jose metropolitan area - was not at risk. Doctors were following her progress and the health and that of her relatives, the minister said.

According to a recent study, Vitamin D deficiency can be linked to asthma. This makes the populations of sunlight deficient regions more prone to this disease of the respiratory tract.

In the study, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Dr. Juan C. Celedon at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital and co-investigators examined the association between vitamin D levels and markers of asthma severity and allergy in 616 asthmatic children between the ages of 6 and 14 from Costa Rica. They found that 175 had insufficient levels of vitamin D.

San Jose  - Heavily armed gunmen stormed a police evidence facility Thursday in southern Costa Rica, making off with 320 kilogrammes of recently seized cocaine, authorities said Thursday.

The cocaine was originally been seized Sunday in Sirena in the Corcovado national park, in Costa Rica's southern Pacifico Sur region.

Five men armed with machine guns and revolvers struck early Thursday in Golfito, 300 kilometres south of San Jose, subduing two police officers guarding the facility.

San Jose, Costa Rica  - Costa Rica plans to re-establish diplomatic ties with Cuba, which were broken in 1961 when the communist island was expelled from the Organization of American States (OAS).

"The time has come to re-establish relations with Cuba, as happened in our relationship with China," Costa Rican President Oscar Arias said Wednesday.

The Central American nation restored relations with Beijing in June 2007, and dropped ties with Taiwan, which China considers a breakaway province.

San Jose - A modern science and business centre is set to be built in Costa Rica with financial assistance from China, Costa Rican authorities said Wednesday.

The 65-million-dollar complex will seek to attract investment from state-of-the-art companies, the daily La Nacion reported.

Wang Xiaoyuan, the Chinese ambassador to Costa Rica, confirmed the project.

"The idea is to have a development area with research and production to attract investment," he explained.

San Jose - A quake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale shook Costa Rica Wednesday, the Central American country's Volcano and Earthquake Observatory (Ovsicori) said.

The quake also affected the provinces of Chiriqui and Bocas del Toro in neighbouring Panama.

The epicentre of the quake was located in the Pacific Ocean some 12 kilometres south of Golfito, in southern Costa Rica, and 28 kilometres below the earth's surface.

There were no immediate reports of damage, although the quake caused panic among Costa Ricans. (dpa)

San Jose, Costa Rica  - Former German Formula One driver Michael Schumacher was shocked and concerned over the extent of the damaged caused by last week's earthquake in Costa Rica.

The seven-times Formula One champion visited the region around Poas volcano, which were hit hardest together with Costa Rican Transport Minister Karla Gonzalez.

Schumacher is visiting the Central American state for a campaign to promote road safety.

San Jose, Costa Rica - The Costa Rican government is seeking international aid in the wake of last week's devastating earthquake, news reports said Tuesday.

According to Costa Rican authorities, the death toll in the 6.2-magnitude quake has risen to 20 and damage has been estimated at around 100 million dollars.

Eight bridges, 7 power lines, 61 villages and 26 roads were badly damaged in the earthquake, officials said.

San Jose  - A strong earthquake, with a magnitude of 6.1 on the Richter scale, rocked Costa Rica killing at least five people and wounding more than 90 others, Red Cross officials said Friday.

Earlier in the day, the Red Cross confirmed 14 deaths and later said as many as 32 people were killed. The organization revised its figures and admitted the earlier numbers were a result of poor communications and the inability to access many affected areas.

San Jose - At least five people, among them three children, were killed after an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 on the Richter Scale shook Costa Rica, local media reported Friday.

More than 300 people were injured and scores remained missing after the quake, which took place on Thursday at 1.21 pm (1921 GMT) with an epicentre about 35 kilometres north off the capital San Jose.

Numerous subsequent tremors up shook the country up into the morning hours of Friday. More than 1,000 residents in Costa Rica remained shut off as roads remained impassable.

San Jose - A strong earthquake, with a magnitude of 6.1 on the Richter Scale, shook Costa Rica on Thursday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage to property.

According to the US Geological Survey, the earthquake was centred about 35 kilometres underground and 35 kilometres north of Costa Rican capital San Jose, where the tremor was strongly felt.

The earthquake took place at 1:21 pm (1921 GMT) and caused widespread panic in San Jose, with residents rushing out of shaking buildings. (dpa)

San Jose, Costa Rica  - The Costa Rican government has declared the Los Quetzales region the country's 28th National Park.

The 4,000 hectares of reserve were first created in 2005 in one of the rainiest parts of the Central American country, 122 kilometres from the capital San Jose.

According to officials, the park owes its rich biodiversity to the seven different levels of altitude which house 25 different local species, 116 types of mammals and wetlands such as seasonal lagoons from the glacial era.