Journalists at the Nicaraguan daily El Nuevo Diario are mourning the loss of the newspaper's founder-publisher, Xavier Chamorro, who died Friday after a long cardiac illness at 75.

Newcomers Club Meeting
Featuring speaker Delia Peña, on “Cultural Adjustment for Women, Personal Safety and Strategies to Improve Your Life in Costa Rica, 9 a.m., for location and info contact Ruthann Marleaux, marleauxr@gmail.com, 266-1548.

Summer Activities
Making Kites, kids 8-10, today, 9 and 11, 10 a.m.; Sewing, kids 10-13, today and Thursday, 2 p.m.; Country Workshop, kids 10-15, Jan. 15 and 17, 2 p.m., José Figueres Ferrer Cultural Center.

National Music Institute Auditions
For kids 7-12, through tomorrow, 1-4 p.m., Moravia, 100 m south, 100 m west of former Lincoln School.

Officials in the United States have unsealed an indictment against 12 men for their involvement in a Costa Rica-based online gambling site. Eight arrests were made yesterday in the states of New York, Maryland and Massachusetts, but the alleged ringleader, Carmen Cicalese, is still at large, possibly in Costa Rica.

Online gambling is effectively illegal in the United States following the adoption in 2006 of a law banning credit card companies from process payments to online gambling websites; a move that essentially closed the lucrative U.S. market to foreign companies.

Carmen Cicalese is alleged to have operated several Web sites, including betwestsports.com, and a toll-free call center that were collectively known as the “Cicalese Wireroom.”

The wireroom worked by getting hundreds of U.S. bookies to sign gamblers up to the Web site, allowing them to bet over the phone or via the internet. The individual bookmakers were responsible for collecting and paying out money from clients. The wireroom charged a fee of $15 to $30, collected in person by two so-called “runners,” per registered gambler per week to process online and telephone bets. Patrick Cicalese would collect the money from the runners and then move it out of the United States to Costa Rica by courier, debit cards and electronic transfers, according to the LawFuel news service.

The 12 defendants are charged with a range of offences including illegal gambling and conspiracy to commit money laundering for their involvement in the operation, which, according to Reuters, reaped millions of dollars a year since it began operating in 2005. Those charged include several bookmakers who used the wireroom.

-Tico Times

World famous Mexican rock band Molotov is set to pop the lid off 2008 with their first concert of the year to be held in San José.

Frontman Tito Fuentes and his band of four are scheduled to play here Jan. 19, according to United Press International newswire. Molotov, a favorite of MTV Latino América, is sure to play material from “ Eterniamente,” the band's latest album released in October with the single “Yofo.”

Molotov is known for explosive lyrics charged with social commentary. Their Latin Grammy-winning hit “ Frijolero ” (a literal translation of a derogatory U.S. term for Mexicans, “beaner”), from the 2003 recording “Dance and Dense Denso,” is one such song. Its message: Gringo, don't call me beaner!

The weekend follows with a reggaeton romp on Jan. 20. Puerto Rican stars DeLaGhetto are among the performers set to put the booty-moving hip hop-dancehall fusion in motion. Then on Feb. 2, diehard reggaeton fans will hail the genre's reigning king, Daddy Yankee, who hits the Jacó Beach Music Festival as part of his “Big Boss Tour.”

-Tico Times

Journalists at the Nicaraguan daily El Nuevo Diario are mourning the loss of the newspaper's founder-publisher, Xavier Chamorro, who died Friday after a long cardiac illness at 75.

Chamorro, brother-in-law of Nicaragua n ex-President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, had suffered from heart problems for four months and in his final days his health had deteriorated, Francisco Chamorro, his son and assistant publisher of El Nuevo Diario, told newswire EFE.

The newspaper's founder was born Dec. 31, 1932, in Managua, where he lived until his last days.

Chamorro was the closest associate of his brother, journalist Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, the publisher of La Prensa de Managua who was murdered on Jan. 10, 1978 by gunmen linked to dictator Anastasio Somoza.

After the assassination of Pedro Joaquín, husband of the future President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, Xavier took over the management of La Prensa together with doctor and journalist Danilo Aguirre.

Nonetheless, in May 1980, Xavier Chamorro, Aguirre and close to 85% of La Prensa employees decided to leave the newspaper in support of the Sandinista government, which had taken power by force of arms on July 19, 1979, and founded El Nuevo Diario.

Chamorro leaves five children: Francisco, Margarita, Gabriel, Ana María and Juan Sebastián Chamorro.