As Costa Rica went into Day 2 of the third round of negotiations toward free trade with China on Tuesday, the Tico delegation appeared to lose support from several important national sectors.

Leaders of Costa Rica's industrial, food, metals and other markets have announced they reject the proposed free-trade agreement (FTA) with China, on the basis of a lack of trust in, and competitive edge against the Asian giant.

“Costa Rican industry rejects the government's unfortunate decision to initiate negotiations with China,” said Juan María González, president of the Costa Rica Chamber of Industries (CICR).

“Costa Rica's international commerce has always been based on trust and not opportunism. China is not a trusted partner and Costa Rica is taking a serious risk,” said González, one day after the third round of free-trade talks initiated in San José.

The industrial leader stressed that certain Chinese products are of a lesser quality and don't meet health standards, pointing to the mass recall last year of goods that contained milk or milk-derived ingredients made in China.

But there's another concern for Tico industry. Under an FTA, the Costa Rican industrial sector is bracing itself for a potential onslaught of goods manufactured at lower costs in China, which could enter the market duty free and sell for less than their local counterparts.

González said the industrial sector comprises 75 percent of Costa Rican exports and almost a quarter of gross domestic product, as well as offering employment to some 250,000 people.

Instead of free trade, the chamber is urging the government to seek a partial trade alliance with China, with adequate safeguards for sectors that would be most vulnerable in direct competition with Chinese goods.

Upon initiating this negotiation round, Costa Rica's chief negotiator, Fernando Ocampo, told reporters a Tico market safeguard has already been presented to the Chinese.

As of Monday, the San José delegation had not put such sectors as textiles, plastics or metals on the negotiating table. All told, the Ticos have offered to open 70 percent of markets for free trade with China, which the Chinese delegation views as insufficient compared with their proposal of 94 percent. However, China has so far excluded basic goods such as sugar and chicken, pork and beef from the talks.

Despite the Costa Rican team's efforts to protect certain industries, leaders of some of this country's sectors made a public plea for Costa Rica to change its course with China.

Besides CICR, representatives from the Food Industry Chamber and guilds from the plastic, mechanical and metalworkers industries attended the press conference Tuesday, each voicing support for withdrawing from a free-trade pact.

The third round of trade talks come to a close on Wednesday.

Oscar López has his sights set on Casa Presidencial.

The 38-year-old legislator, who has been blind from birth, says he has the experience and the vision to confront many of the problems Costa Rica faces today, listing the financial crisis, poverty and crime as three.

“I am quite sure that Costa Rica is ready to be governed by someone who has learned to see life through the eyes of the soul,” said López, who will run with the Accessibility without Exclusion Party (PASE), which he helped create.

Diagnosed with r etinitis pigmentosa at birth, López has faced a constant struggle to improve the lives of family, friends and fellow citizens. He lived with his grandparents, uncles, parents and five siblings, growing up in a dirt-floored and rusty-roofed home in San José torn by poverty and alcoholism.

With his father's encouraging words “to swim against the current,” he achieved a bachelor's degree and continued on to study law. He became president of the National Foundation of the Blind and was the country's representative to a United Nations Development Program commission, tasked with protecting the rights of disabled people in the world.

He was elected to the legislative assembly in 2006 and came with the direct mission to defend the disabled, the elderly and the disadvantaged. Now, he claims to be the first blind man to run for the country's highest office.

In the upcoming 2010 election, he faces Liberation Party candidate Laura Chinchilla (who also hopes to give Costa Rica a first in the election of a female president), Citizen Action Party candidate Ottón Solís and Rafael Angel Calderón with the Unity Party, among others.

Leo: Actor Leonardo DiCaprio at a recent NBA basketball finals game in Los Angeles, California.

Paul Buck | EFE

Hollywood gossips and media heavyweights alike have been passing on the word that Leonardo DiCaprio's next film will be an action-thriller set in the bowels of Costa Rica's virtual casinos.

The untitled project is supposedly being produced by DiCaprio's own company, Appian Way, and will be distributed by Paramount Pictures, who own rights to the script, the film industry publication Variety reported. It is unclear when production will begin on the project or where it will be filmed.

The script is said to have been written by veterans of the gambler thriller genre, Brian Koppelman and David Levien. The two are responsible for “Rounders” (1998) – an adrenaline-pumped look into the underground poker scene in New York City starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton – and “Ocean's Thirteen” (2007) – the wild heist-comedy with an all-star cast too long to list.

While illegal in the United States, online gambling sites are heavily popular worldwide, with many of the parent companies set up in Central America and the Caribbean. In recent years, they have been all over the news, as accusations of fraud have led to international lawsuits that are still pending.

DiCaprio's latest movie, “Shutter Island,” is a collaboration with director Martin Scorsese and is set for release in the United States in the coming weeks.

MANAGUA, Nicaragua – A tourist from the United States visiting Nicaragua is among the latest cases of the Influenza A(H1N1) virus in this country, which total 123 as of Tuesday, Nicaraguan health officials said.

Health Minister Guillermo González said in a televised statement that the U.S. tourist – whose name has not been revealed – was in Tola, in the southern department of Rivas, when he was identified with H1N1 flu symptoms (see the World Health Organization Web site for description of symptoms and prevention guidelines).

The patient has returned to the United States in “stable condition,” González said.

Of the 123 confirmed flu cases, 72 have been sent home from the hospital while the remaining 51 are still being treated and reviewed by doctors.

González stressed that the 72 people no longer under medical supervision are healthy and free of the virus, which they can no longer pass on to others.

A citywide celebration of music, the three-day Fiesta de la Música, kicks off Friday on stages throughout the San José metropolitan area.

The festival originated in 1982 in France as the Fê te de la Musique. Since then, it has spread throughout the world, with more than 110 countries now participating every June 21 in the free event, according to a statement from French- Costa Rican cultural group Alliance Française, which has been organizing the Costa Rican fiesta since 2000.

This year's venues are San José's Central Park, Avenida Central, Liceo Franco-Costarricense, Central Bank Museums, Parque de Francia, El Farolito and Eugene O'Neill Theater; Parque de Moravia in the northeastern suburb; Plaza del Sol in the eastern suburb of Curridabat; and the Centro de la Cultura Cartaginesa in Cartago, east of San José. The free concerts start at 10 a.m. each day.

Participating musicians – all of whom donate their talents for the event – include Merecumbé, Wonder Years, Trauma, the University of Costa School of Music Children's Band, and Grammy award-winning jazz group Editus, among a legion of others.

For a complete program, visit www.fiestadelamusica.blogspot.com, or call Alliance Fran ç aise at 2222-2283 for more information.