Outdoor Art Festival in Curridabat
Art sales, cultural shows, through Sunday, 9 a.m.-9 p.m., José María Zeledón Soccer Field, Curridabat, 300 m. north of Ferretería El Mar.

Masterkey in concert
Gospel, R&B, soul, 12 a.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro, info: 2253-8933, www.jazzcafecostarica.com.

Malpaís in concert
Costa Rican trova, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, Escazú, info: 2288-4740, www.jazzcafecostarica.com.

GRANADA – Nicaraguan-Italian opposition leader Alberto Boschi fled to his native Italy after Nicaraguan judges sentenced him to a year in prison for illegally carrying a firearm and inciting violence in a trial he says was based on false charges and supported by paid-off witnesses.

“It's not worth dying in Nicaraguan prison,” Boschi said in an interview from Italy.

A member of the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) party, a rival of President Daniel Ortega's ruling Sandinista Front, Boschi planned on running for mayor of Ciudad Sandino before the Ortega government banned minority opposition parties in June from participating in the Nov. 9 election.

Boschi attended a violent protest against the government's ban in which Antenor Peña, a reporter for the state-run TV channel 4, was injured with a rock. Boschi said he, too, was attacked by protestors during the march.

Boschi was prosecuted for Peña's injury and for carrying a firearm, allegations Boschi says are absurd. Boschi says he was filing a police report against his assailants in Managua when Peña was injured.

Boschi moved to Nicaragua in 1994 as a Catholic missionary and has since helped build a high school in the industrial city of Ciudad Sandino. After receiving Nicaraguan citizenship, he backed the MRS, which is filled with ranks of former Sandinistas who have fallen out with President Ortega.

“Clearly, the government of Daniel Ortega has decided to (persecute) all those who aren't aligned with him,” Boschi said. He is appealing his case in Nicaragua.

Read The Nica Times in print or find select stories online at www.nicatimes.net for more Nicaragua news.

Costa Rica is set to be the ligne d'arrivée for the Transat Jacques Vabre 2009, France's world-class boat race that launches next November.

The regatta, which takes place every two years, will set sail on Nov. 7 and 8 to navigate some 4,340 miles, starting from Port of Le Havre off Normandy and ending at Costa Rica's Caribbean Port of Limón, according to a statement issued this week by the Costa Rican Tourism Institute and the French Embassy.

Organizers expect some 270,000 spectators to attend the finale here, to see 124 crewmembers (two per boat) from 13 countries finish the race.

Sponsored by coffee company Jacques Vabre, the regatta started in 1993 and has since symbolically traced coffee's trade route from France to the Americas. This year's theme is sustainability, which the organizers said is why they picked Costa Rica for the finish line.

For more information, go to www.jacques-vabre.com/en.

PANAMA CITY – A visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sparked protest yesterday in the streets by opponents of free trade with the North American giant, a subject Rice is set to discuss here in a conference today.

Protesters temporarily blocked a major avenue and burned dolls and signs to protest a free-trade pact signed by Panama and the United States in 2007.

Rice is here to participate in the Pathways to Prosperity Ministerial meeting.

“President Bush and leaders of 11 Western Hemisphere countries launched the Pathways initiative on Sept. 24, 2008, to ensure that the benefits of trade more broadly reach all of our citizens,” according to the U.S. Department of State's Web site.

This is Rice's second official visit to Panama after a trip last May to participate in the General Assembly of the Organization of American States.