Independence Book Fair
Through Monday, 9 a.m.- 7 p.m., south side of Banco Central.

Ivette Ortiz in concert
Miravalles Wind Quintet, Soprano Ivette Ortiz, and artist Fabio Herrera, Sept. 12, 8 p.m., National Theater, 8380-4670.

European jazz concert
German Christof Lauer (sax), French Michel Godard (tuba) and Patrice Herál (percussion), 10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro, http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

Desafío Limón 2008 race
Long distance race, 3 p.m., Limón Airport-Reina's, Playa Bonita, Limón. Info: 2798-2822. And Children's race, Playa Bonita, Limón, 2798-2822.

Lubin Barahona and Los Caballeros del Ritmo in concert
Salsa, 8 p.m., Zapote Bullring.

Beginners break-dance, hip-hop workshop
2 p.m., Spanish Cultural Center, registration at estacionfarolito@ccecr.org.

Triathlon
8 a.m., Punta Uva-Punta Cocles Hotel, Puerto Viejo, registration at Runners Store, Sabana and Reto Sport Store, Curridabat, 2294-8612.

Marathon
To benefit street children, 9 a.m., start and finish line BCR, Pavas, 2287-9000.

Free Independence Day concert
By Escats, pop, 7 p.m., Central Park.

Cantares in concert
Trova, 6 p.m., Terramall, Tres Ríos.

Independence Day torch relay
All day long leaving from the Nicaraguan Border to Cartago.

Singing of the National Anthem
6 p.m., around the country.

Lantern parade
6:15 p.m., every town of C.R. and main parks.

Costa Rica could miss its Oct. 1 deadline to pass law reforms needed to enter the Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) because of a legal snag in the final bill on intellectual property: Nobody thought to ask the country's indigenous people.

Procedural irregularities occurred when the Legislative Assembly passed the bill, “having neglected to consult the indigenous people, in accordance with Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization,” according to the 4-3 ruling by the Constitutional Court yesterday.

Following the ruling, the government issued a statement expressing concerns that Costa Rica might not make it to CAFTA, ratified here in referendum last October.

The government “is greatly concerned about the impact of this ruling, in particular because of the issue of deadlines that Costa Rica has committed to,” said a communiqué cosigned by the Presidency Ministry and the Foreign Trade Ministry, according to newswire EFE.

The government “will do everything possible and within its reach so that this doesn't affect the ultimate incorporation of Costa Rica into CAFTA,” the statement said.

Trade partners have said Oct. 1 is the final deadline after extending the date initially from Feb. 29.

What makes a herpetologist hoot for joy in the humid night high in the cloud forest of Monteverde?

The discovery of a female Isthmohyla rivularis, one of the rarest tree frogs in the world.

“This is probably the first female that has been found in 20 years,” beamed Andrew Gray, a British scientist who this week wrapped up a visit to Costa Rica.

Poking around in the damp brush, playing a recorded frog call on a CD player, the scientists this week also managed to find a male Duellmanohyla uranochroa, or red-eyed stream frog.

“This is one of the most critically endangered frogs in the world,” Gray said to a BBC photographer as the tiny amphibian perched on his hand.

Gray and his team, hailing from the University of Manchester and the Chester Zoological Society, have been in mountains northwest of San José at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve looking into whether increased cloud cover caused by climate change is threatening the tree frogs.

The scientists believe the tiny amphibians are able to kill off a deadly fungus by lounging under the sun. Other species of frogs avoid the sun.

“In places like Monteverde, the temperature has changed drastically over the last couple of years. Lowlands are getting warmer and so the clouds are thicker in the highlands,” Gray told The Tico Times last week in a phone interview before heading to Monteverde.

“(With increased cloud cover), the frogs can't bask. They're cold blooded and need to heat up, and also use sunlight to clear themselves of things like these funguses that live at damp, low temperatures,” Gray said

See the latest Tico Times print or pdf edition for more on this story.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias is set to come home this afternoon from his official Spain visit with a shiny new Spanish guitar, but without achieving a prime item on his agenda: convincing the old country of flamenco to pardon his nation's $56 million debt.

The president's guitar came as a show of brotherhood from the Spanish Confederation of Corporate Organizations, reported news agency EFE.

He failed, however, to strike the right chord when it came to debt cancelation, newswire DPA reported. That issue was among Arias' main talking points in Spain, Casa Presidencial press officer Esteban Arrieta told The Tico Times.

Arias has previously acknowledged that Spain doesn't consider Costa Rica eligible for debt relief because the Central American nation has achieved a relative level of development compared with other countries in greater need of aid, according to DPA.

But Arias' recent call in Brussels for Europe to take swift action toward a European-Central American trade partnership agreement seemed to echo in Madrid yesterday. After a meeting between him and Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain's leader showed support for the pending partnership.

“Central America is doing its job, it's meeting its commitments, and Spain agrees that the European Union needs to do the job it's been tasked with and make that agreement happen,” Zapatero said, according to news agency AFP.

For Arias, Spain is “the entryway to Europe,” the Costa Rican leader said, according to AFP.

Arias' Spain tour has also included a 30-minute sit-down with King Juan Carlos and a trip to southern Spain. Discussion themes have ranged from the purchase of Spanish train wagons to immigration, international weapons trade and the peace-oriented Costa Rica Consensus, Arrieta, his press officer, said.

Newswires EFE, AFP and DPA contributed to this report.