Sept. 11 attacks remembered
The U.S. Embassy will host a commemoration of the 7th anniversary of the terrorist attacks during a ceremony at 8:30 a.m. at the Sept. 11th memorial, located in northern Sabana Park. 

Gala Premier of ‘Mamma Mia'
To benefit rural school libraries, 7:30 p.m., Cine Magaly. Info: Thomas Ghormley, Rotary Club president. Info: 2255-1001.

China business expo
Cars, appliances, textiles, crafts, through Sat., 1-8 p.m. and on Sept. 14, 1-6 p.m., Ramada Plaza Herradura, Ciudad Cariari, Barreal, Heredia.

Trashion Fashion
Fashion show featuring clothes made out of recycled materials, fundraiser for Tamarindo Recycles, 7 p.m., Bar 1, Tamarindo, Guanacaste. Info: 2653-2929. 

Sasha Campbell in concert
Soul, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, San José, http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

The Costa Rica men's national soccer team beat Haiti last night 3-1, holding its place atop its World Cup qualifying group with a third straight win.

Despite four successive storms, including Hurricanes Ike and Gustav, that led to the deaths of at least 550 people in weeks prior, the game was played as scheduled on a water-logged field in the Sylvia Cator Stadium in Port-au-Prince.

Tico forward Bryan Ruiz drew first blood with a goal in the 12th minute, but Haiti responded with a goal in the 39th minute, and the two teams went into the halftime in a draw.

In the second half, the Haitians outscored La Sele, but only Tico shots found the net, as Ruíz notched his second goal in the 74th minute, and Alejandro Alpizar scored the game's most stylish goal on a cross that slid just over the keeper's hands and under the far upper V.

Earlier in the week, Costa Rica pounded Suriname 7 to 0. Froylán Ledezma commenced the barrage by scoring the first two goals, however, drew his second yellow card in as many games, disqualifying him from last night's match.

Halfway through the six-game quadrangular phase, Costa Rica leads its qualifying group with nine points – three for each win – to El Salvador's six. Although the wins take La Sele have the team sitting pretty (and secure) in qualifying, many say the team has yet to meet any considerable opposition and remains relatively untested under new head coach Rodrigo Kenton, who took over this summer.

For now, La Sele gets a break until they play in Suriname on Oct. 11.

The United States and Trinidad & Tobago lead Group A after two games; Mexico and Honduras Group B. The top two teams from each of the three groups will advance to next year's hexagonal final qualifying round.

Tomorrow about 150 managers of small hotels from around Central America will gather in San José's Radisson Hotel for their sixth annual conference, searching for ways to remain competitive in the face of a growing number of foreign-owned chain hotels.

The irony of their chosen venue is not lost upon the event's organizer, local hotelier and president of the Costa Rican Network of Small Hotels, Jane Lemarie, but she says the problem with small hotels is they just don't have the space to host a big conference. That is why the message of the conference, which is also organized by the Central American Federation of Small Hotels, will be strength through numbers, she says.

Some 2,500 hotels are open in the country and 80 percent of them have fewer than 50 rooms, according to figures from the Costa Rican Tourism Board. Yet the increasing presence of foreign hotel chains, such as the Hilton, which recently announced a fifth hotel project here, presents a challenge to smaller hotels with fewer resources, especially in marketing.

But Lemarie, who is the president and founder of the, has a plan. She hopes that small hotels can better compete by emphasizing service and by cooperating with each other as a network.

GRANADA, Nicaragua – The decision this week by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez to cancel his trip to Nicaragua later this month represents a “chilling of relations between the United States and Nicaragua,” according to a top foreign policy analyst here.

Ex-Foreign Minister Emilio Alvarez said yesterday that Gutierrez's decision to cancel his trip to meet with President Daniel Ortega indicates relations between the two governments could be “less friendly” moving forward.

The U.S. Embassy has confirmed that Gutierrez canceled his trip here because “international circumstances have changed.” U.S. Ambassador Robert Callahan would not elaborate.

Arturo Cruz, Nicaragua's ambassador to the United States, has described Gutierrez in the past as one of Ortega's closest allies in the U.S. administration of George W. Bush. The two have met on several occasions and his trip here later this month was going to be an effort to strengthen relations even further, while exploring possibilities of bringing new U.S. investment to Nicaragua.

Alvarez says that the cancelation sends a clear diplomatic message that the United States is not – at the moment – interested in strengthening those ties with Ortega's government.

For Alvarez, the decision is a response to Ortega's recent controversial recognition of two Georgian separatist provinces that are seeking independence following Russia's military intervention in that region last month. Ortega announced Sept. 2 that Nicaragua will officially recognize the rebel provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, making Nicaragua the only country in the world besides Russia to do so.

Alvarez said Ortega's recognition of the rebel provinces has to do with a “nostalgia” for leftist solidarity with the Soviet Union in the 1980s and a political gamble that Nicaragua could benefit from Russian oil if Ortega buddies up to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But in recognizing the breakaway provinces, Alvarez says, Ortega is sticking his nose in an international problem he has nothing to do with, threatening relations with the United States and the European community.