Film 'Transylvania'
French director Tony Gatlif's drama film starring Asia Argento, at ArteCine Lindora, through May 5, showtimes: 4 p.m., 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.

National University Film Festival
“Marius y Jeannette ” (France), 5 p.m., Centro para las Artes, UNA, Heredia.

Dance show
4 p.m., José Figueres Ferrer Cultural Center.

Jazz Café Trio
Jazz Café, San Pedro, 10 p.m., http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

Electro-tribal
Mundo Loco concert series: Ensamble Etnico, DJ Kabuto & Koji, Jazz Café Escazú, 10 p.m., http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

Julio Sabala imitator
April 29, 8 p.m., Melico Salazar Theater, tickets at Hipermás, www.mundoticket.com

Smoking cigarettes in offices, bars, restaurants and nightclubs is against the law in Panama after a smoking ban took effect last week – and residents say it's working.

“You could tell the difference immediately,” says Mario Fonseca, a lawyer in Panama City. Fonseca says he's not a smoker, but lights up a cigarette occasionally. “All my friends are happy, smokers and non-smokers,” he said. “It's a complete change – beautiful!”

The law prohibits people from lighting up in indoor spaces that also include transport terminals and many other locales considered a workplace.

The ban goes further than a prior clampdown measure, the March 2005 Executive Decree 17, under which venues in the hospitality sector created separate sections for smokers. Now they have to go entirely smoke free.

Businesses that do not follow the rules face fines of up to $5,000, or even $100,000.

Health Minister Camilo Alleyne, who announced the drafting of the new legislation last April, said the lenient days are over. “Now if they (officials) hand you a fine and you don't comply … a judge will call you in, and they're going to come looking for you,” Alleyne told the daily Panamá América.

The ban also aims to prevent cigarette companies from advertising, sponsoring events or promoting their products. Cigarette packs also must come with the health warning, Fumar puede causar la muerte, or Smoking can cause death.

Ministry spokeswoman Mayanín Rodríguez told reporters that anti-smoking personnel will deploy on private and public establishments to verify their patrons and employees are obeying the law, newswire EFE reported.

More than 2,500 Panamanians die every year from smoking-related illness, according to the Health Ministry.

The best-tasting cigar in the world last year was rolled in the Padrón factory in Esteli in northern Nicaragua, according to the most recent rankings from Cigar Aficionado magazine.

The magazine named the Padrón Serie 1926 No. 9 the best smoke in 2007 in its most recent top-25 cigar ranking.

The cigar is rolled under the supervision of José Orlando Padrón, who started making cigars for fellow Cuban émigrés in Miami after fleeing his native Cuba. The Miami stogie guru began growing tobacco in Nicaragua in the 1960s when he couldn't find the blend he was looking for in the United States, says Padrón spokesman Cesar Gadea.

“It's the blend, the construction, quality control. That's what it is. There are a lot of other companies (in Nicaragua ) that make cigars, but we're still the only one that has been chosen for the No. 1 cigar,” Gadea said in a phone interview from the family-run company's Miami office.

The Padróns have never finished out of the top three in Cigar Aficionado's Top 25 tastings, and this is the second time one of their cigars has been named the No. 1 cigar of the year.

“They are clearly at the top of their game,” Cigar Aficionado said of the Padróns.

Doesn't work: Thousands of fire hydrants such as this downtown San José pump haven't worked for years. Costa Rica needs 10,000 fire hydrants, but it has only 5,000 and half of them function poorly, according to the Firefighters Corps.

Harmony Reforma | Tico Times

Fighting fires will soon become easier, thanks to a new bill to fix an alarming shortage of working fire hydrants.

Lawmakers voted yesterday to make fire hydrants a “public good,” to be installed and maintained by water providers and funded by the state.

Fire hydrants have been abandoned for decades because no one is legally responsible for their care. Costa Rica needs 10,000 fire hydrants, but it has only 5,000 and half of them function poorly, said Héctor Chaves, director of the Firefighters' Corps.

“It's almost a national emergency,” said National Liberation Party (PLN) lawmaker Fernando Sánchez. “We are sending (firefighters) into a war without weapons.”

Under the new bill, public and private water providers will pay for the hydrants by charging their clients a small tax, fixed by the state body ARESEP. The Firefighters Corps will help decide where to put the hydrants.

Fires destroy some 1,100 houses every year, often for lack of water, Chaves said. Two trucks, each with a thousand gallons of water, usually respond to a fire alarm. But because it takes a thousand gallons a minute to fight a fire, their water runs out after just two minutes, said Jorge Marrero, who directs the Firefighters' Corps in the Central Pacific and southern zones.

Firefighters then turn to hydrants or rivers, or they call for another fire truck. Often, the closest hydrant is several blocks away and has little or no water.

A working fire hydrant can spew an average of 400 gallons per minute for up to two hours, Marrero said.

The National Insurance Institute (INS), which funds the Firefighters Corps, used to install and maintain fire hydrants, said Alvaro Escalante, who was corps director in the 1980s. But INS could not afford to keep pace with the growing population density.

Dozens of firefighters drove cranes and trucks to the doors of the Legislative Assembly yesterday, and they sounded sirens periodically for hours as lawmakers debated the bill.

The bill will become law once it is passed in a second vote and signed by the president.