Zurdo and Parque en el Espacio in concert
Trip hop, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, Escazú, http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

Jazz jam
10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro.

Escalafandra in concert
10 p.m., La Grappa Bar, Santa Ana.

Diversus in concert
Pop in English and Spanish, 9 p.m., Mac's American Bar, Sabana Sur, info: 2231-3145.

Acting workshop
Intermediate Level, for adults and teenagers, Tuesdays through October, 6:30-9 p.m., Alajuela Cultural Center . Info: 2440-1022, 2441-1281.

Two more Costa Rican athletes qualified for the Summer Olympics in Beijing, expanding the Tico team to eight competitors.

Marianela Quesada, who will participate in the 50-meter freestyle, and Gabriela Traña, a marathoner, qualified through Wild Card entries.

They will join Mario Montoya (200-meter freestyle), Nery Brenes (400-meter dash), Allan Segura (20-kilometer race walk), Kristopher Moitland (Taekwondo heavy-weight), Federico Ramírez (mountain biking) and Henry Raabe (road cycling) in the August games.

Most Costa Rican athletes qualified for the games through their performance at previous Olympic Games or tournaments. Wild Card entries are based on recommendations made by individual sports federations to governing Olympic committees, explained Josabeth Azofeifa, spokeswoman for the National Olympic Committee (CON).

Raabe and Ramírez were also Wild Card entries.

The committee estimated that 10 to 12 athletes would qualify for the Beijing Games, running Aug. 8-24.

Azofeifa said more athletes could still qualify in the remaining month.

The Costa Rican government promised to provide 70 million colones (about $136,000) to Olympians to pay for their training expenses in anticipation of the August games. CON should receive a response from the Comptroller General's Office this week on the disbursement of funds, Azofeifa said.

The Pan-American Sports Organization also offered ¢25 million (almost $50,000) for scholarships to help cover the athletes' costs, but have not delivered yet, Azofeifa said.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has accused Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega of harboring “terrorists,” in reference to alleged members of a Colombia guerrilla group to whom Managua offered asylum after they survived a Colombian military attack in March.

“When an Ecuadorean judge ruled that they (the alleged Colombian guerrillas) should be captured as terrorists, the government you're talking about (Nicaragua) gives them asylum. It sent a plane to pick them up and deceived (everyone). It lied,” Uribe told reporters.

The accusation was a shot back after heavy criticism from Managua over Uribe's intensions with leftist guerrilla group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Ortega last week called the U.S.-backed Colombian leader a “terrorist” for ordering the bombing of a FARC camp in Ecuador, which killed the militant group's No. 2 chief, Raúl Reyes, more than 20 guerrilla soldiers and university students.

Three young women, Martha Pérez, Doris Torres and Lucía Morett, survived and are now living under Nicaragua's protection.

“He says he's fighting terrorism but he's the terrorist,” left-winger Ortega said, according to Reuters.

Thirty-five municipal police officers will soon be patrolling Santa Ana, west of San José.

Backed up by 16 surveillance cameras strategically placed throughout the municipality, the officers will take on a burgeoning crime problem.

That's the plan, at least, according to Mayor Gerardo Oviedo. “The lack of police has been one of our residents' primary complaints,” he said. “We've got a serious problem with drug addiction, alcoholism, organized gangs of car thieves and assaults for cell phones.”

Oviedo, whose municipality reassessed local property values in 2007 to help come up with funding for a municipal police force, said 31 officers have already begun work and another four will begin work soon.

He said the 2007 assessment resulted in a roughly 20 percent increase in property values and of the 3,000 appraisals already conducted, there have been only 10 appeals.

“This is something the community has wanted for a long time,” he said. “There hasn't been a lot of resistance.”

Oviedo said the 35-strong police force will have two patrol cars, each with a shotgun, and two motorcycles. Each officer will be armed with a pistol.

The police office, where the surveillance cameras are being monitored, is in the municipal headquarters. They can be reached at 2203-5559.