Morrisey/Warhol film “ Chelsea Girls” (1966, U.S. ), Part 1
Espacios Audio visuales Film Festival. Contemporary Art and Design Museum. Free showing, 6 p.m. 2257-9370, www.madc.ac.cr 

Auditions for the National Symphony Choir
Requirements, be 18-45 years old, able to attend rehearsals Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays night, Aug. 12, 6:30-8 p.m., Centro Nacional de Música, 100 m. west, 100 m. south, 100 m. west of former Lincoln School, 2240-0333, ext. 304, 1-8 p.m., www.corosinfonico.org 

Batuke Congo and Fabio Abelino in concert
Electro-Brazilian, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, Escazú. http://jazzcafecostarica.com/agenda.php

Poetry Recital
7 p.m., Casa Azul, 50 m. north, 25 m. east of UNA, Heredia.

For those who have been frustrated in their search for coverage of the Beijing Olympics due to the blackout of NBC broadcasting rights in the country, two local channels have been picking up the slack.

“We are transmitting live games,” said Dagoberto Alvaro, sports coordinator at Repretel. “The vast majority are live, some are pre-taped. We are showing everything, including full coverage of the Tico athletes.”

Repretel's Channel 11 offers coverage from 12 midnight until 12 noon, including live coverage of many nighttime events from midnight to 4 a.m. from Beijing, which is 14 hours ahead of Costa Rican time. They also air an hour-long rundown of the previous day's goings-on at 11 p.m.

The Teletica network is also airing the games in Costa Rica.

“From 10 to 12 at night, we show the Olympics on Channel 33,” said Hellen Mesen, sports secretary at the network. “On Channel 7, at 9 a.m., we show a rundown of the games and another at 11:30 p.m.”

Henry Raabe competed in his road race on Saturday and was eliminated, but the majority of Tico athletes' are still gearing up for their events.

Upcoming Tico events include Marianela Quesada's women's 50-meter freestyle swimming competition at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Allan Segura's racewalk at 7 p.m. that same evening, Gabriela Traña's marathon on Saturday at 5:30 p.m., Nery Brenes' 400-meter sprint at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Federico Ramirez's mountain bike race at 3 p.m. on Aug. 23 and Kristopher Moitland's taekwondo competition at 7 p.m. on Aug. 23.

The country's all-time medal count remains at one gold, one silver and two bronzes.

A steady stream of drug seizures continued this week as Public Security Minister Janina del Vecchio unveiled her ministry's “anti-crack” plan.

Judicial Investigation Police contributed to a host of recent drug seizures with a raid Saturday in La Uruca of the Rical Corporation, a business they believe responsible for trafficking drugs to Guatemala and Germany.

During the operation, they seized 35 kilograms of cocaine and arrested four Ticos and one Colombian, last names Alem, López, Salinas, Gutiérrez and Mejía. All five have been ordered to five months of preventive prison and are facing international drug trafficking charges.

The first suspect, Ricardo Alem, notably was the president of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE) in 1987 during President Oscar Arias' first presidency. Alem recently was released last December after serving a 13-year sentence for drug trafficking after being arrested in Miami in 1995. Alem also has the dubious distinction of being the first person to be arrested under Costa Rica's 1988 Psychotropic Drug Law, but was eventually acquitted of those charges.

Additionally, Drug Control Police arrested a Guatemalan, last name Chocón, Thursday in Peñas Blancas on the border with Nicaragua, after seizing 135 kilograms hidden in truck motors and gas tanks. He has been ordered the three months of preventive prison while prosecutors investigate.

According to a Public Security Ministry press release, Chocón is the fourth Guatemalan arrested by Drug Control Police in seven months.

In La Uruca in northwestern San José, police arrested a Colombian man, last name Hurtado, after they seized 200 grams of cocaine wrapped in condoms. The man was traveling in a taxi when police pulled it over and searched all of the passengers.

Del Vecchio announced her crack plan last week.

“Drugs are directly involved in the increase of thefts, murders, gangs, suicides and families falling apart in Costa Rica,” she said. “It's a downward spiral that has become the country's principal problem.”

As of Monday, the Public Security minister had yet to make a copy of its plan public.

The Inter-American Development Bank is lending Costa Rica $850 million to rebuild roads and bridges now in a significant state of disrepair.

Costa Rica has promised to match the loan from the regional bank, with a $200 million investment in infrastructure.

The loan is the biggest the bank has ever given to Costa Rica, and the third biggest that the bank has granted to any country for transportation in the last eight years. Only Brazil and Argentina received more, said Fernando Quevedo, the bank's representative here.

The money will go toward building 60 bridges along the Inter-American Highway and expanding to a third lane along part of the highway between San Ramón in Alajuela, northwest of San José, and Barranca, on the Pacific coast, said Karla González, Public Works and Transport Minister.

The ministry also intends to spruce up a highway that runs between the southern towns of San Vito and Ciudad Neily, and a highway from Bribrí to Limón along the Caribbean coast.

Sidewalks, bridges and bicycle paths will receive $50 million, González said. Some $30 million will go toward modernizing roads, bridges and intersections to promote public transportation in the Central Valley.