Managua, May 13 (IANS/EFE) An Agence France-Presse photojournalist has been expelled from Nicaragua, Chilean Consul Diego Rivera said. Hector Retamal, a Chilean national, was put on a plane Saturday to Costa Rica, where the French news agency has its Central American headquarters, Rivera said.

Managua, May 10 (IANS/EFE) UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova inspected two of the three biosphere reserves in Nicaragua to get a firsthand look at their condition, first lady Rosario Murillo said. Bokova, who arrived in the Central American country for an official visit Wednesday, flew over the Rio San Juan and Ometepe Island biosphere reserves.

Managua, April 18 (IANS/EFE) An environmental group is calling for a greater government presence in Nicaragua's Caribbean waters following the discovery of a boat with dozens of dead sharks aboard in Little Corn Island.

Managua, Feb 2 (IANS/EFE) A subsidiary of Nicaraguan conglomerate Grupo Pellas presented here a novel plastic surgery method for Latin America based on the use of stem cells extracted from the patient's fatty tissue.

Managua (Nicaragua), Dec 6 (IANS) Spanish giants Real Madrid plan to open a football school next year in Nicaragua, diplomatic sources said. A delegation from the team will visit the Central American nation next week as part of the club's plans to open the facility in the northern city of Esteli, Nicaragua's Ambassador to Spain Augusto Zamora and the president of Real Madrid Florentino Perez said in a joint statement Thursday, reports Xinhua. An agreement to open the soccer school for both girls and boys was signed last June, according to the statement posted on Nicaragua's state-run news portal El 19 Digital, which added the project has been in the works since 2009.

Managua, Sep 8 (IANS/EFE) Nicaragua has signed a memorandum of understanding with a Chinese company on financing for a $30 billion inter-oceanic canal, an official said. The document was signed by Nicaraguan deputy foreign minister and president of the Grand Interoceanic Canal Authority, Manuel Coronel Kautz, and the head of the HK Nicaragua Development Inversion Company, Wing Jang, the official told EFE. In the MOU, the Nicaraguan government authorized the Hong Kong-domiciled firm to structure and manage the financing for the project, President Daniel Ortega said in comments posted on the government web site El 19 Digital. Nicaragua has also sought financing for the project from Brazil, China, Russia and Venezuela. The Nicaraguan Congress, controlled by Ortega's allies, approved a bill July 3 authorizing construction of the inter-oceanic canal project, a joint public/private venture in which the state will have a 51 percent stake and offer the remaining 49 percent to countries, international organisations, corporations or individuals. Initial projections are that the canal could be partially completed by 2019, when it would have the capacity to accommodate 416 million metric tonnes, or 3.9 percent of global maritime cargo. The canal construction zone also will be declared "of public use", with owners of the affected properties to be compensated by the Nicaraguan government within a period of no more than 10 years. Nicaragua is studying six potential routes, all of which traverse a section of Lake Nicaragua and one that would have ships navigate a portion of the San Juan river, the Nicaraguan-controlled waterway that forms the country's border with Costa Rica. Three Dutch companies currently are conducting pre-feasibility studies for the construction of the canal, the Nicaraguan government says. --IANS/EFE rd

Managua, Sep 3 (IANS/EFE) Nicaraguan police have announced the dishonourable discharge of three officers accused of raping a mentally challenged 12-year-old girl. Police spokesman Fernando Borge told reporters that the dismissed cops had been guarding the premises of the general secretariat of the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front, or FSLN, which the nation's President Daniel Ortega occupies as the seat of government. According to Borge, the three agents, who had only belonged to the National Police for "a short time", were dishonourably discharged "immediately" because that institution cannot accept "such behaviour". The girl's father reported the incident, which occurred 20 days ago, to the National Police.

Managua, Aug 28 (IANS/EFE) Eighteen people arrested last week while trying to enter Nicaragua disguised as a news crew from Mexico's Televisa television were carrying $9.2 million in cash, police said. The money was hidden in several of the six news vans - painted with the Televisa logo - the suspects were driving at the time of their arrest, police spokesman Fernando Borge told EFE. Traces of cocaine were found in the group's luggage. Televisa said the detainees are not employees of the network. Arraigned Saturday on charges of money laundering and racketeering, the 18 suspects are being held without bail. The group tried to enter Nicaragua from Honduras en route to Costa Rica, Nicaraguan prosecutors said. One of the 18 people arrested appears to be a municipal police officer from the Mexican city of Durango. The phony journalists were intercepted shortly before the beginning of a high-profile trial in Managua of 24 people accused of smuggling Colombian drugs via Costa Rica to Guatemala, for ultimate delivery to traffickers in neighbouring Mexico. --IANS/EFE rd

San Francisco, July 3 (IANS) US semiconductor manufacturer Micron Technology has announced acquiring the bankrupt Japanese chipmaker Elpida Memory for approximately $2.5 billion. Under the agreement, Boise, Idaho-based Micron will buy Elpida for 60 billion Japanese yen ($754 million) in cash and then pay 140 billion yen (around $1.75 billion) in annual instalments through 2019 to cover Elpida's debt, reported Xinhua.

San Francisco, June 29 (IANS) Google has announced Compute Engine, a cloud-computing service that allows businesses to run their applications on servers in the tech giant's data center. "We're introducing Google Compute Engine, an infrastructure-as-a-service product that lets you run Linux Virtual Machines on the same infrastructure that powers Google," said Google in its official blog Thursday. According to the company, the economy of scale and efficiency of its data centers can provide users 50 percent more computing power than other leading cloud providers, reported Xinhua. Industry watchers said Google Compute Engine will compete and challenge the leading position of Amazon Web Services, which was launched in July, 2002. Google has been building a huge amount of data centers to support its own services and applications over the last decade. In 2008, it started to open up its infrastructure to outside developers and businesses, launching services like Google App Engine to allow users to build applications and websites, and store and analyze data on its servers. Also Thursday, Google introduced Chrome web browser for Apple's iOS platform, offline editing for Google Docs and retail selling of Chromebooks at Best Buy.