Tico Times

Benjamin Adams McCoy died from an apparent gunshot wound to the head. The woman was found surrounded by drugs, but showed no signs of physical violence at the man's home in Tres Ríos.

"The government is facing a very, very difficult domestic situation and is inclined to search for scapegoats," says a former ambassador to Venezuela.

Last weekend, the Caribbean threw a giant art party. Tico Times photographer Crush Boone was there to document it.

The incident occurred several days into a U.S. government shutdown and the security scare shattered the previous focus on Washington's political gridlock.

And other fantastic signs spotted around Costa Rica.

Clancy's biggest hits featured the character Jack Ryan, a CIA analyst whose smarts and bravery stand out among the lesser lights of the government around him.

An Iranian diplomat with Iran's U.N. delegation, Khodadad Seifi, responded swiftly, warning that "the Israeli prime minister had better not even think about attacking Iran, let alone planning for that."

President Barack Obama accused conservatives in the House of Representatives of waging an "ideological crusade" by making government funding conditional on gutting his health reform law.

In a troubling announcement this week, the Catholic Church has closed a human rights office that oversees an estimated 80 percent of documents regarding human rights abuses in El Salvador.

Politicians from both parties have suggested that a shutdown would prevent the State Department from handling passport and visa applications, but State Department spokesman John Gerlach said consular services wouldn't be impacted because they're funded through processing fees, not through congressional appropriations.