- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
- Penrith Panthers win fourth straight NRL title after downing Storm
- Weary Sinner happy for day off after battling into Shanghai last 16
- Pakistan's Masood warns England still a force without Stokes
- Madrid's Carvajal to miss several months after serious knee injury
- Israel pounds Lebanon ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Sabalenka targets world number one and Wuhan hat-trick
- Toddler among 4 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
- Mozambique vote: no suspense but some disillusion
- Austrian rapper channels anti-racist rage in Romani hip-hop songs
- Ohtani magic powers Dodgers over Padres in MLB playoff thriller
- Five of the best: Pakistan-England Test thrillers
- Man sets arm on fire as marches across US mark Gaza war anniversary
- Vietnam's young coffee entrepreneurs brew up a revolution
- Trump rallies at site of failed assassination: 'Never quit'
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
- Is music finally reckoning with #MeToo?
- Fans hail Trump's 'guts' as he returns to site of rally shooting
- Lebanon state media says 'very violent' Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Guardians maul Tigers, miracle Mets rally in MLB series openers
- Lebanon state media says Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Miami on track for MLS record points after win in Toronto
- Madrid beat Villarreal but Carvajal suffers knee injury
- Madrid beat Villarreal to move level with Liga leaders Barcelona
- Monaco take top spot in Ligue 1 with win at Rennes
- French rugby player on rape charge whistled but 'serene' on return
- Madrid beat Villarreal to level Liga leaders Barca
- Thuram treble fires Inter past Torino and up to second
- 'Fight': defiant Trump jets in to site of rally shooting
- Toddler among 3 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Mexico City's new mayor sworn in with pledges on water, housing
- Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Guardians maul Tigers in MLB playoff series opener
- Macron criticises Israel on Gaza, Lebanon operations
- French rugby player whistled but 'serene' on return amid ongoing rape case
- Kovacic stars as Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
- Visiting UN refugee agency chief decries 'terrible crisis' in Lebanon
- Spinners come to party as England defeat Bangladesh at T20 World Cup
- Search continues for missing in deadly Bosnia floods
- Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- France's Auradou whistled on Pau return in Perpignan loss amid ongoing rape case
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Arsenal hit back in style after Southampton scare
Costa Rica: Central America's green pin-up
Costa Rica, which elects a new president Sunday, is a small country thriving on ecotourism. Its neutrality, strong democracy and political stability have earned it the nickname of Central America's Switzerland.
Here are four facts about the country of more than five million people:
- Beacon of peace -
Independent since 1821, Costa Rica is considered a model of democracy in Central America.
A short civil war in 1948 led to the abolition of the army and helped put in place the country's political stability.
In the 1980s, when several other Central American countries were mired in civil wars, neutral Costa Rica acted as peace broker, earning then-president Oscar Arias Sanchez the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987.
It saw a political shift in 2014, when the two rightwing parties that had shared power since the 1960s -- the PLN and PUSC -- suffered an historic defeat as centrist Luis Guillermo Solis was elected president.
Outgoing president Carlos Alvarado is from the same party.
On the international stage Costa Rica has fought for disarmament and for a total end to nuclear weapons and the strengthening of the non-proliferation regime.
Over recent years it has seen an increase in organised crime, largely due to the drug trafficking that has ravaged its neighbours.
- Green paradise -
With its stunning beaches on the Pacific and Caribbean coasts, its lush rainforests and imposing volcanoes, Costa Rica has become known as a green democracy and global leader for its environmental policies.
Nature reserves cover a quarter of Costa Rica's 51,000 square kilometres (19,700 square miles), territory that hosts five percent of the world's biodiversity.
It is one of the few countries to have banned blood sports and to have shunned exploitation by the mining and oil giants, which are the main source of income for many Latin American countries.
Over the last decade the environment has nevertheless come under strain from economic development, with a poor administration of protected areas, increasing air, ground and water pollution, and damage caused by the cultivation of pineapples.
Costa Rica is nevertheless the only tropical country which has managed to reverse deforestation, according to the World Bank.
It has invested heavily in clean energy, passing the threshold of generating electricity exclusively from renewable energy 300 days in one year, in 2017.
The nation has vowed to eliminate the use of fossil fuels by 2050.
- Decades of growth -
Costa Rica has seen 25 years of regular economic growth, thanks to the opening up to foreign investment and a gradual liberalisation of foreign trade.
Its main exports are bananas, pineapples and coffee. It is also the world's biggest exporter of butterflies.
GDP per capita has tripled since 1960, but in 2020 it contracted by 4.1 percent due to the Covid pandemic.
In 2021 growth was expected to reach 3.8 percent, according to the World Bank.
The poverty rate that year rose to 23 percent, according to official statistics.
Costa Rica has a top-notch social security system and has invested heavily in education.
It is ranked 62nd out of 189 countries on the UN's Human Development Index.
The tourism sector represents eight percent of GDP, but was hammered by the pandemic.
A member of the OECD since 2021, the country has been trying to attract digital nomads to boost its economy.
- Land of asylum -
More than 100,000 Nicaraguans, fleeing the violent crackdown on anti-government protests, have taken refuge in Costa Rica.
A conservative, religious country, but with a long tradition of opening its arms to asylum seekers, Costa Rica has taken in hundreds of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people who were persecuted in their home countries in Central America.
Ch.Kahalev--AMWN