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