Costa Rica is the country with best technological development in Central America and seventh in Latin America, according to "The Global Information Technology Report 2007-2008" published by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Overall, Costa Rica places 60th of the 127 countries ranked. Denmark is the most networked economy in the world, followed by Sweden and Switzerland. In Latin America, Chile took the top spot. Under the theme Fostering Innovation through Networked Readiness, this year’s report places a particular focus on the role of networked readiness in spurring innovation. The report is published for the seventh consecutive year with record coverage of 127 economies worldwide, the report has become the world’s most comprehensive and authoritative international assessment of the impact of ICT on the development process and the competitiveness of nations. The report is produced by the World Economic Forum in cooperation with INSEAD, the leading international business school, and is sponsored this year by Cisco Systems.

Binge drinking teenagers are still at risk of absent-mindedness and forgetfulness days later, a study says. A team from Northumbria and Keele universities compared 26 binge drinkers with 34 non-bingers in memory tests, and found the drinkers fared worse. They told the British Psychological Society conference that binge drinking could be harming developing brains. A spokesman for the charity Addaction said drinking at dangerous levels was putting some young people at risk. Binge drinking is already known to affect people's memories of past events. In this study, the scientists looked at students aged 17 to 19 - a period when the brain is still developing. Binge drinking was defined as at least eight units a session for a man and six for a woman once or twice a week. The researchers said the binge drinkers studied consumed, on average, 30 units in just two sessions.

Europe is set to launch the biggest, most sophisticated spacecraft in its history. The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is an unmanned ship that can carry up to 7.6 tonnes of supplies to the International Space Station (ISS). Its other primary role is to push the orbiting outpost higher into the sky to keep it from falling back to Earth. The ATV will launch on an Ariane 5 rocket from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana at 0403 GMT on Sunday. Its mission will be a huge statement of capability. The maiden voyage will announce that Europe now has some important new technical competencies to rival the very best in the space exploration business.

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have shown that a person's enjoyment of wine can be heightened if they are simply told that it is an expensive one. Twenty-one volunteers were asked to sample different bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon and rate the ones they preferred. The only information they were given was the price of the wine - but in a number of cases, they were not told the real price. In one case, the volunteers were given two identical red wines to drink and were told that one cost much less than the other. Most described the "higher priced" wine as much more enjoyable. Researchers also managed to pass off a $90 (£46) bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon as a $10 bottle and presented a $5 as one worth $45. The volunteers' brains were scanned to monitor the neural activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex - the area of the brain associated with decision-making and pleasure in terms of flavour. Higher ratings were given to the more "expensive" wines. Antonio Rangel, who led the research team, told the BBC News website that the experiment showed how "expectation can affect the actual encoding of the pleasantness of the experience."

Recently coming bottom in an independent UK taste test of the main coffee chains, the US giant has seen its sales fall in its main home market for the second quarter in succession. With its share price also having declined more than 40% over the past year, the Seattle company's founder, Howard Schultz, returned to the chief executive role last month to try to turn around the firm's fortunes. While Starbucks is undoubtedly being hit by the wider slowdown in consumer spending in the US, analysts say the problems at the company run much deeper.

The writhing star was rushed to hospital tied to a stretcher after a three-hour stand-off with cops. The junkie singer had refused to hand over her two kids to estranged husband KEVIN FEDERLINE and then locked herself in the LOO with one of her sons. The Sun can reveal that 26-year-old Britney has been hooked on a lethal cocktail of narcotics - including a drug designed to make RACEHORSES leaner. When police finally coaxed her from the bathroom, she was so hysterical she had to be bound by her wrists and ankles to a stretcher.

Three new species of salamander have been discovered in a remote forest reserve in Costa Rica. They were among some 5,000 plants and animals recorded by scientists from London's Natural History Museum during three expeditions to Central America. Two species are nocturnal, while the third is a dwarf variety, growing to little longer than a thumbnail. The three new finds bring the number of Costa Rican salamanders known to science to a total of 43. Salamanders eat insects and worms, and live in water or in moist areas. They usually feed at night and hide during the day, often hibernating during the winter. Some 300 species are known around the world, mainly in the Northern Hemisphere, but there have been few new discoveries since 1998, when five new salamanders were found in tropical east-central Mexico. The three new salamanders were found in La Amistad National Park, a Unesco World Heritage Site on the Costa Rica-Panama border.