Russian National Ballet
Tonight and tomorrow, 8 p.m., Melico Salazar Theater. 2207-2025, www.mundoticket.com.

The Skatalites in concert
Legendary ska band, 8 p.m., Club Capone, Centro Comercial El Pueblo, San José.

Ticos are more satisfied with life than people in any other Latin American country, according to a report released yesterday by the apolitical group State of the Nation.

On average, Costa Ricans are happier overall with their health, work, finances, free time and family and friend relationships than people in other nations. Still, figures released in the same report suggest they may be overly optimistic.

The report, which measures political, economic, social and environmental progress in 2007, identifies key challenges that are setting back Costa Rica's development.

Overall, the economy did well in 2007. Gross domestic product grew at a clip for the third consecutive year, and poverty dropped by 3.5 percentage points. But income inequality was at its second highest in two decades, and 33 percent of the workforce made salaries at or below the state minimum.

Economic growth and improved tax collection have boosted state coffers, but state revenue is still low compared to other Latin American nations. And Costa Rica's regressive tax system weighs on the less wealthy and increases inequality, the report said.

Meanwhile, school retention rates remain low. Some 38 percent of children who entered kindergarten in 1997 will graduate from high school in the expected 11 years. The others have either repeated grades or dropped out all together.

Costa Ricans are also increasingly worried about crime. Just 25 percent think the state guarantees protection against crime. For the first time, in 2007, the homicide rate was greater than one victim a day.

Residents in parts of Costa Rica were bewildered this weekend and through the start of the week to see a lot less rain – a stark contrast to the torrential downpours that have recently lashed countries across the region.

The lighter rain and heavier winds, mostly along the Pacific and in the Central Valley, mean the beginning of a transitional period to the dry season, according to the National Meteorological Institute (IMN).

In a weather analysis posted Monday on its Web site, www.imn.ac.cr, the institute said this period, characterized by alternating rainy and sunny days, will last three to four weeks in the Pacific and Central Valley regions.

Conversely, Costa Rica's Caribbean side, with cold fronts drifting in from North America, is transitioning into its rainy season, forecast to last from November to February.

The hurricane season, however, remains in effect through Nov. 30 and could spur more violent storms that temporarily veer the weather away from expected patterns, the IMN said.

An international commission based in Washington, D.C. held a public hearing yesterday on whether Costa Rica's restrictions on in vitro fertilization violate human rights.

Andrea Bianchi, who is infertile, testified tearfully before the Inter-American Court on Human Rights that the restrictions violated her right to privacy and to have a family. Vanessa Videche, the legal director at the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry, argued that the restrictions are justified because they protect the embryo's right to life.

Bianchi is among 10 couples suing Costa Rica before the commission, which is part of the Organization of American States (OAS). The commission must now decide whether to bring the case before the Inter-American Court on Human Rights, based in San José.

In 2000, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) appeared to ban in vitro fertilization, and the country's only in vitro clinic shut down its lab. But earlier this month, a lower court reinterpreted the ruling to allow in vitro fertilization with just one egg, which yields a 10 percent success rate. The ruling is under appeal.

The state's lawyers argued that the commission should not hear a case still being discussed in Costa Rican courts.

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