Open mic night
El Boyero 7:30 p.m., 350 m east of Catholic church, San Antonio de Escazú. 

Art opening
Jorge Rojas Alfaro exhibits his acrylics through April 1 at Galería Valanti Los Sueños, Marina Village, Playa Herradura, Central Pacific. Info: 637-8412.

Play: 'Cocina Meditativa'
Comedy, through Sunday, 8 p.m., Teatro de Bellas Artes, Fine Arts School, UCR.

V Transitarte summer festival
Including plays, dance shows, concerts, food and craft sales, Friday through Sunday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Parque España and surrounding areas.

Opening of game room at Shopping Center
At Momentum Lindora, with activities for kids. On the road to Belén-Santa Ana. Info:205-4122.

Dog Adoption Fair
10 a.m.-3 p.m., Veterinaria Planeta de Mascotas, Centro Comercial Vistana Este, Lindora, road Santa Ana – Belén, 100 m. north of MATRA.

Photo exhibit
Gabriela Soto Sáenz exhibits at José Figueres Cultural Center, San Ramón. 

Rugby tournament
At Colegio Humboldt, 2:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Race for International Women's Day
Two laps around La Sabana Park, Sunday, 9 a.m., start line at León Cortés Statue. Info: 295-6061.

Artisans' Day Celebration
Crafts exhibit, through Monday, José Figueres Cultural Center.

Blue Desert in concert
Blues, country, Jazz Café, San Pedro, 9 p.m.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega announced his country is breaking diplomatic relations with Colombia, intensifying a Latin American rift over the Colombian government's attack against Colombian rebels on Ecuadorian soil.

“We're breaking with the terrorist policy that Alvaro Uribe's government is practicing,” Ortega told reporters.

Ortega announced the decision yesterday during a visit in Managua by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, who is on a whirlwind tour around the region to shore up leftist leaders to pressure Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to apologize for the attack. Latin leaders are expected to seek a diplomatic resolution to the conflict at a regional summit in the Dominican Republic this week.

Correa said instead of apologizing to Ecuador for the assault, Uribe accused Ecuador of “sheltering” rebels of the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Correa denied the allegations and said he would only accept a resolution from the Organization of American States condemning the Colombian violation of Ecuador's sovereignty as a crime.

Nicaragua followed suit after Venezuala and Ecuador both broke ties with Colombia after the attack in northern Ecuador at a rebel camp 2 kilometers from the Colombian border, which took the lives of more than 20 FARC guerillas including the force's No. 2 leader, Raúl Reyes.

“It's time to make decisions and recognize this isn't just a bilateral problem,” Correa said. “There's nothing to negotiate. There's an aggressor and a victim.”

The Colombian assault on Ecuadorian soil came as Nicaragua has been engaged in an ongoing territorial dispute with Colombia over maritime boundaries.

It also occurred as Ortega's closest ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, was taking fire from Uribe for allegedly supporting FARC– which the Colombian government and the United States consider a terrorist organization – and for negotiating with the rebel group to have hostages released. Colombia says FARC, the country's oldest and strongest rebel force, finances itself with profits from drug trafficking and kidnapping.

Not long after the meeting, back in Colombia, FARC blew up a pipeline owned by state oil company Ecopetrol S.A., Bloomberg reported, quoting analysts who said this was the beginning of the rebel group's reprisals against the Colombian government.

The National Museum is displaying the work of 15 female artists today, getting an early start on tomorrow's International Women's Day celebrations.

In conjunction with the National Institute for Women (INAMU), the Barrio Amón-based Gallería Amón has collected 30 works, including photographs, paintings and sculptures, which it will show at the National Museum for one day, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“INAMU called on the gallery to do this event in commemoration of Women's Day,” according to the gallery's director Claudia Mandel.

Mandel, curator of the exhibit, said she wanted to use two works per artist “to give a more complete idea of the themes they explore.”

The works were not created expressly for the event, she said, and some of them have already showcased in Mandel's gallery. Adela Marín, Roxana Nagygeller, Rebeca Alpízar and Sussy Vargas are four photographers whose pictures formed an exhibition last year at Amón entitled Miradas Intimas (Intimate Looks), also sponsored by INAMU.

“These artists focus inward at the private world of women,” said Mandel.

The event opens with videos and talks organized by the women's institute. Later, starting at 2:30 p.m., artist Mariela Richmond will lead an outdoor painting class on the pedestrian-only street beside the museum, which is free and open to the public.

For the curator, there's certainly a need for such a celebration as Women's Day.

“Evidently, in Latin American countries it's very important to dedicate a bit of the calendar to reflect on women's issues,” said Mandel. “It's something we have to continue working on.”

The National Museum is located at Calle 17 between Avenida Central and Avenida Segunda. The exhibit closes at 3 p.m.

The 14 people held earlier this week for alleged involvement in an illegal adoption scheme have been released.

Costa Rican police believe the detainees – including a family court judge, a lawyer and two social workers – had arranged to have mothers paid up to $10,000 to give up their babies.

“This trafficking is prohibited by law,” said Jorge Rojas, chief of Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ).

The 14 were released after a judge declined to accept a prosecutor's motion to keep them in preventive prison.

The judge and two social workers were suspended for six months, pending the results of a prosecutor's investigation.

Police said their investigation into the adoption scheme began early in June 2006 and at least three babies have been adopted through the scheme.

None of those suspected of buying babies is a foreigner, police said.