Expert Opinions: French expert Bertrand Cattiaux is restoring the organ at Inmaculada Concepción de María Church in Heredia, north of San José, as part of a restoration project being carried out by the Costa Rican embassies of France and Germany to restore 19 organs in the country.

Tico author and journalist Oscar Núñez is getting ready to launch an English translation of his novel “Enclave de Luna,” a story based on the workings of a daily newspaper office.

Gala Concert
By the winners of the Young Soloists Contest and the National Symphony Orchestra, 8 p.m., National Theater, San José.

Broadway Spectacular on Ice
Ice skating show, today and tomorrow, 8 p.m.; Nov. 4, 4 p.m., Castillo Country Club, San Rafael de Heredia. Info: 267-7111, ext. 101.

Pejibaye Fair
Exhibits, food fair based on pejibaye, cultural shows, through Nov. 5, Tucurrique, Jiménez, Cartago.

Telefood-FAO 2007
Rock Concert to collect money to help rural communities to eradicate malnutrition with LePop, Porpartes, Escats, Akasha, In Situ, Diversus and El Parque, 3:30 p.m., InBioparque, Santo Domingo de Heredia.

Health Fair
Free screenings, 8 a.m.-noon, Sports Science School, National University, Heredia, 1.5 km. west of Jardines del Recuerdo Cemetery.

National Mascarada Day
10 a.m., Frailes de Desamparados.

Trip to Tárcoles River
Organized by the Organization for Tropical Studies, leaving from San José at 6 a.m. Info: 524-0607, fax: (506)524-0626, http://www.ots.ac.cr/es/biocursos 

Francisco Murillo in Concert
9:30 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro

By Peter Krupa
Tico Times Staff | pkrupa@ticotimes.net

Banco Nacional announced yesterday that its subsidiary BN Fondos will begin offering Costa Ricans16 investment funds from global fund giant Franklin Templeton Investments.

The funds range from stock investment in emerging markets to investment in U.S. Treasury bonds, with the accompanying range of risks, said Hugo Petricioli, Franklin Templeton's manager for Mexico and Central America.

“Here you have exactly the same product that they have in Switzerland and New York, at the same price,” Petricioli said, explaining that Costa Rican investors no longer have to look abroad to invest in these products.

Banco Nacional CEO Pablo Montes de Oca said the bank has yet to make the funds officially available and set the fees, but that should be completed within the next few weeks.

Franklin Templeton is an investment management company publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. One of the largest in the world, as of Sept. 30 the company had $645 billion worth of investment under its management.

Montes de Oca said Banco Nacional had been in talks with Franklin Templeton for a year and a half about offering its products in Costa Rica. The arrival of large, multinational banks to the Costa Rican market, along with the investment products they plan to offer, spurred Banco Nacional to offer its own products.

“The mega banks that have come here said they want to bring large investment tools,” Montes de Oca said. “We're not going to sit around waiting for that to happen.”

Tropical Storm Noel is expected to keep kicking up rain in Costa Rica over the weekend, and the National Emergency Commission (CNE) maintains a yellow alert for the entire Pacific coast and a green alert for the Caribbean.

Low-pressure systems over the Caribbean Sea are generating precipitation over much of the country, according to reports from the National Meteorological Institute (IMN).

Wednesday night, rains flooded about 40 houses in the cantons of Barva and San Rafael; 20 of these families lost everything. The bridge over Río Segundo de Barva collapsed, and a fiber-optic phone line providing service to San José de la Montaña was severed, according to a statement from the commission.

In the Southern Zone, three shelters remain open with about 90 people who were forced to leave their homes after they were washed out by floods late last week.

CNE president Daniel Gallardo announced yesterday that the commission has received ¢560 million ($1 million) in donations from individuals and companies to help with relief efforts for those affected by flooding during the past month. The money is being put toward rebuilding homes, repairing roads and bridges and getting urgently needed supplies to those who have been displaced.

-Tico Times

Tico author and journalist Oscar Núñez is getting ready to launch an English translation of his novel “Enclave de Luna,” a story based on the workings of a daily newspaper office.

Núñez said he will present his book in London and it will later be distributed around Great Britain, Australia and the United States by the publisher Aflame.

The novel tells a story “reflecting the life and the problems of a newsroom” and “the different economic and business pressures that journalists face,” Núñez said.

The original version of the book was published in 2004 by the publishing house Uruk. Manager Oscar Castillo said it's “one of the few literary works that transcends the barriers of language in our country.”

Núñez, who worked for 14 years as an editor and correspondent for the French news agency AFP, won the Latin American Educa award in 1996 for his first book “El Teatro Circular.”

His second book, “Los Gallos de San Esteban,” was published in Honduras in 2000 and is now part of they country's list of mandatory reading for schoolchildren.