Churches in focus
U.S. photographer Frank Kainrath exhibits work of churches of Costa Rica, opening 7 p.m., Amodeo Gallery, 100 meters before western end of Rohrmoser Boulevard. www.amodeogallery.com.

Ensemble Bambú in concert
Oboe, clarinet, bassoon. 7 p.m. at Musical Art School at UCR.

Santos y Zurdo in concert
Along with Via Satelite, Jazz Café, Escazú, 9:30 p.m. http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

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

Move over Blackberry. Here comes Centro.

By the end of the week, Palm Inc. will introduce its newest smartphone to Costa Rican consumers at a price of ¢250,000 (about $500).

As with other smartphones on the market, Palm Centro boasts voicemail, text, instant messaging, e-mail and Web services. It also is equipped with an agenda and calendar functions – among other programs.

Not all of its gadgets can be accessed locally, however.

Spokeswoman Paola Ramírez said some multimedia functions will not work in country due to technological limitations of the local network, controlled by the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE).

“Here we see ourselves limited,” Ramírez said. “Users can't exploit all the tools [the Palm Centro] has.”

Mobile access should loosen up in coming years. The Legislative Assembly passed a liberalizing telecom bill tied to the Central American Free-Trade Agreement last week.

Canadian company Research in Motion has also agreed to sell its Blackberry through ICE in Costa Rica. Roughly 1,500 of their models should hit the market in July 2008. Prices will range from ¢250,000 to ¢350,000 ($500-$700).

The Palm Centro – available in red and blue models – will be available at a variety of local stores, including Play, Gollo, Universal and Office Depot.

President Oscar Arias will seek medical attention abroad for a severe vocal chord problem that has left him unable to speak.

Vice President Laura Chinchilla will act as president for eight days, starting today. A Casa Presidencial press release did not say where Arias will receive treatment, but the Associated Press reported it would be in the United States.

“The exact reason for my trip, as well as its costs, are absolutely private,” Arias wrote in a letter to Legislative Assembly President Francisco Antonio Pacheco, who is third in line for the presidency.

On May 12, Mauricio Buitrago, an ear, nose and throat specialist, wrote that Arias “suffers from an acute and severe problem with his vocal chords…He must rest his voice for several weeks and receive intensive medical treatment.”

The latest U.S. citizen – Aaron Lee Fileger – arrested here for alleged drug trafficking back home was traveling and working with someone else's passport.

If he was striving to avoid detection, he picked the wrong passport because it belonged to Russell Bloom – who also has arrest warrants for drug trafficking in the United States.

On Monday, Immigration police arrested Fileger, wanted on warrants from Pennsylvania, after a week's worth of surveillance, Public Security Ministry spokesman Carlos Hidalgo said. The surveillance began after a call from an anonymous tipster.

“The surprise was that Bloom was also wanted,” Hidalgo said. “He's in some other country yet to be arrested and we think they're friends. But (Fileger) confessed to the U.S. Embassy his true identity.”

The spokesman said it is a strange case because the passport is authentic but the photo is clearly of Fileger and not Bloom.

Hidalgo said the arrestee entered the country in March and, because of his confession, he would be deported by Friday.

The arrestee was allegedly working for a call center in La Sabana in western San José using the Bloom name.