Roots reggae
Costa Rica's Kingo Lovers play Jazz Café, San Pedro, 10 p.m. ¢3,000, http://jazzcafecostarica.com. 

Live jazz
Jazz Café Trio at Jazz Café Escazú, 10 p.m., ¢2,500, http://jazzcafecostarica.com. 

Chamber music
The Quinteto Miravalles and Ivette Ortíz perform at the Theater of Fine Arts at the University of Costa Rica (UCR), 7 p.m., free.

Art show: 'Introvoco'
Works by Gloria Rivero Roch at Dr. Rafael Calderón Guardia Historical Museum, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., free.

Costa Rica suspended legal cooperation with the United States and sent a protest note to the U.S. Embassy after Chief Prosecutor Francisco Dall'Anese was held at Miami International Airport on Wednesday in what U.S. authorities called a “routine security check.”

Outraged by his detention, Dall'Anese flew home the following day, skipping a meeting with U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and other Central American prosecutors. Dall'Anese was held at the airport between one and two hours, according to press reports. Zachary Mann, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said he may have been mistaken for someone else.

“This treatment is completely incomprehensible and unacceptable,” Costa Rican Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno wrote in a letter to acting U.S. Ambassador Peter Brennan Friday. “This offense to our chief prosecutor is an offense to all Costa Ricans.”

Dall'Anese said he was suspending all cooperation with U.S. prosecutors on judicial cases, including extraditions, until his government is reimbursed for the cost of the trip, according to The Associated Press.

The U.S. Embassy apologized in a statement and said it had not known that Dall'Anese was traveling to the United States, even though the U.S. Justice Department had invited him.

“If we had been informed, we would have made sure that all courtesies were extended to Mr. Dall'Anese,” the statement said. “We never intended to show disrespect to Mr. Dall'Anese, the Costa Rican government, or its citizens.”

In addition to the meeting with Mukasey, Dall'Anese had planned to attend a summit for justice ministers and chief prosecutors at the Organization of American States and a court hearing connected to a corruption scandal in Costa Rica.

Separately, the Egmont Group, an informal global intelligence-sharing network, slapped Costa Rica and threatened to expel it from its 108-member club for failing to pass anti-terrorism laws (see story here http://www.ticotimes.net/topstory.htm).

John McPhaul contributed to this report.

Amid soaring world prices on basic food, Costa Rica's government moved to allay fears that a food crisis could hurt families here, releasing information that suggests grains such as rice are plentiful.

“The government assures Costa Ricans that the country does not have, nor will it have, a shortage of rice,” said Marco Vargas, the minister of economy, industry and trade.

The statement came after the National Rice Corporation (Conarroz) urged President Oscar Arias to declare an “emergency” and to swiftly pass measures that would boost domestic rice production.

An Economy Ministry press release Friday said that 60% of the country's rice consumption is homegrown, and the remainder is imported, showing an increase by national rice growers from past years when half of the foodstuff was grown abroad. Combining the last rice harvest with that expected for 2008, Costa Rica will have enough of the food staple to last “eight and a half months,” the release said.

Yet the assurance followed a week of doubt as U.S. supermarkets such as Wal-Mart and Costco banned bulk sales of rice in the United States, Costa Rica's largest supplier. Wal-Mart's limit – four bags of rice to each customer – was a response to purchasing frenzies by alarmed buyers who have seen prices in some stores doubled in the past month, according to media reports.

Poor countries are facing a humanitarian crisis because of the fast inflation and shortages, according to the U.N. World Food Program, whose executive director, Josette Sheeren, says “This is a silent tsunami.”

Before a “possible shortage” happens here, said the Economy Ministry press release, the government has authorized Conarroz to import some 162,000 tons of rice, “so as not to affect Costa Ricans' purses.”

“Costa Ricans will have rice on their table for the rest of the year and there's no reason for house wives to go purchasing more than they would normally buy,” the ministry's release said.

The release added that the government is also examining an “aggressive program” proposed by the Agriculture Ministry to stimulate the growth of rice and other basic grains. The plan, if activated, would join a $500 million fund agreed last week by the Council on Agriculture and Livestock of Central America (CAC), and other food aid programs worth hundreds of millions launched by the United States, the World Bank, and their leftist Latin American counterweight, the ALBA trading bloc.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega yesterday inaugurated an emergency meeting of ALBA nations – Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela – and other Central American and Caribbean countries to tackle the issue.

Ticos gobble some 18,700 tons of rice per month, according to a report by newswire ACAN-EFE. Conarroz President Oscar Campos told the wire service that the cost of rice internationally has jumped from $100 a ton in 2003 to $485 a ton, but he added that Costa Rican consumers will not likely feel the impact of the price hike before July.

Costa Rica's first Lutheran Bishop, Melvin Jiménez, was consecrated at a ceremony at the Lutheran Church of Costa Rica in San José yesterday morning.

The father of two adult children, Jiménez, 51, studied sociology at the University of Costa Rica (UCR) before gaining a master's degree in theology from the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago. He was ordained as a minister in 1990, becoming president of the Lutheran Church of Costa Rica in 2000.

Jiménez was consecrated by Medardo Gómez, Lutheran bishop of San Salvador, at a service attended by delegations and Lutheran bishops from the United States, Sweden, Germany, El Salvador and Nicaragua, along with Anglican bishops from El Salvador and Costa Rica.

The Lutheran church here is heavily involved in social programs and claims to have helped 5,000 people, including indigenous communities, those suffering from HIV/Aids and the poor through various outreach programs

“I am very proud to take the post,” Jiménez told The Tico Times. “Especially as it is a church that has an extremely strong social commitment. We want to serve the people.”

Tracing its origins to Germany and the teachings of Martin Luther, who in the 16th century launched the Protestant Reformation, Lutheranism differs from Catholicism in a number of ways, including the belief that humans can access God and “his grace” directly, without a priest or pope as intermediaries. The Lutheran church has approximately 70 million followers worldwide and has been active in Costa Rica since 1988, with 1,500 followers in more than 30 congregations.