Earthquake victims benefit concert
Featuring Le Pop, Kurt Dyer and Akasha, entrance is ¢3,000 and one non-perishable product, all the money will be sent to the BCR account that doubles the quantity, 8:30 p.m., Latino Rock Café, Barrio La California.

Pachanga de Enero Festival
Traditional food, concerts, folkloric dance, carreras de cinta, horse parade, Jan. 16-18, San Isidro, Miramar, Puntarenas.

Talk about Archeo-Astronomy
With participation by Dr. Jesús Galindo Trejos, from Universidad Autónoma de México, Jan. 16, 2:30 p.m., Consejo Nacional para Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (CONICIT) Auditorium, 100 m. east of the Rotonda de las Garantías Sociales, Zapote. Reserve at 2224-4172 ext. 129 ó 225.

Las Tortugas in concert
Classic rock, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, Escazú, www.jazzcafecostarica.com.

Salsa y Son in concert
10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro, www.jazzcafecostarica.com.

Canine Agility Rally
To benefit the victims of the earthquake. Participants are welcome to bring human and pet food, hygiene products, Jan. 17-18, 9 a.m., Pipasa Sports Complex, La Ribera, Belén. Info: 8381-8285. 

Drive for Young Earthquake Survivors
Everyone is welcome to bring toys, candy, cookies, colored pencils, books, for the children of the earthquake. Clowns, storytellers, musicians are welcome to spend a day with them. A car caravan will take all the items to the refuges, Jan. 18, 8:30 a.m., in front of Universidad Nacional, Heredia. Wear a white shirt. Other places to drop off toys are El Financiero newspaper, Llorente, Tibás, with Gilda González, 8853-3599; La Media Docena Office, Channel 7, West Sabana Park, with Gloriana Sanabria, 8381-6980; Tennis Club Parking Lot (indicate that the items are for “Jornada por los Niños”); contact Cristian Cambronero, www.fusildechispas.com.

Calacas Blues in concert
Blues in Spanish, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro, www.jazzcafecostarica.com.

‘Taxiando por un Sueño'
Comedy, Fri.-Sun., 8 p.m., La California Theater, Av. 1, Ca. 21, 2257-0223.

6.2 Hours of Music for the Victims of the Earthquake
Featuring Por Partes, Bernardo Quesada, Esteban Mongue, Enjuague Vocal, el grupo El Quinto Día, LuisGa and Malpaís, Jan. 18, 11 a.m., Curridabat Park. Bring non-perishable food.

Costa Rica will soon be able to access a $65 million credit line from the World Bank to rebuild villages devastated by the Jan. 8 earthquake.

The loan, awarded in November to deal with any type of natural disaster, was cleared by lawmakers Thursday in an initial vote. Lawmaker Oscar Núñez of the governing National Liberation Party (PLN) said  Costa Rica will likely use the entire loan to rebuild the provinces of Alajuela and Heredia, where hundreds of houses and vast stretches of highways are in shambles.

On Wednesday, President Oscar Arias asked foreign governments to be more generous. The United States has donated $50,000, China has given $100,000, and the Inter-American Development Bank has given $200,000, among other donations. The daily La Nación reported that the United Nations gave $240,000.

"Now that we have to rebuild schools, houses, highways, and electricity and water infrastructure, the country opens its doors to any help," said Arias, noting that money is more welcome than nurses or clothes.  

Lawmakers are expected to approve the World Bank loan in a second and final debate Tuesday. The money must be repaid within 30 years at 2.25 percent interest.

In a major victory for Costa Rica's environmental movement, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) has ruled against a controversial water pipeline project on the northern Pacific coast.

The pipeline project “violates the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment” because it lacks the “technical certainty of the exploitation capacity of the Sardinal aquifer” and failed to assure “water availability to satisfy the community's interests, which are fundamental,” the Sala IV said in a ruling handed down Wednesday.

Coastal developers in the booming tourist beach towns of Ocotal and Playas del Coco hashed out a deal in 2006 with the local water authority to build a pipeline to the inland village of Sardinal to draw water from an aquifer there.

Water supplies for the two coastal towns and neighboring Playa Hermosa have been sapped to the point of seasonal water shortages, and municipal officials have been forced to suspend authorizing new construction permits until other water sources are available.

See this week's print or digital edition of The Tico Times for more on this story.

A liberal Managua city councilman formally requested an investigation by the Nicaraguan Comptroller's Office of allegations that Managua Mayor Alexis Argüello, while serving as deputy mayor of the capital, used a public loan to build his $100,000 home.

City council member Luciano García is pushing for a probe into how Argüello financed his home in Valle de Ticomo outside of Managua after the daily La Prensa reported Argüello paid for the house with a loan he obtained as Managua city's No. 2. La Prensa alleged that seven checks from municipal funds were used to pay Urbanizadora Urroz Zamora Inversiones y Proyectos, the construction company that built Argüello's house.

A three-time world boxing champion, Argüello served as deputy mayor under Mayor Dionisio Marenco until stepping down last year to launch a campaign for the mayor's seat.

Argüello, who was inaugurated last week as mayor despite unresolved claims that the Nov. 9 elections were rigged, has denied to local press that he used public funds to finance his home.

A relief commission has pledged to move many of the more than 2,000 earthquake victims living in crowded shelters to temporary houses starting next week, the government announced Thursday ahead of expected rain and cooler weather.

On Jan. 8, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake, which killed at least 23 people, leveled more than 300 houses in the provinces of Heredia and Alajuela, north and northwest of San José, respectively. Since the quake, hundreds of families have taken refuge in schools, churches, or tents pitched on soccer fields.

“What we want is for the people to feel more comfortable and not suffer more from the cold front and rain,” Marco Vargas, Costa Rica's inter-institutional coordination minister, said.

Vargas, who heads the commission, said several solutions for temporary dwellings are being considered. They include the prefabricated wooden constructions used in Un techo para mi país (A roof for my country), a program that Vargas said can erect more than 200 homes in one day.

Recovery workers postponed efforts Thursday because of windy conditions, the National Emergency Commission (CNE) said. A search for the eight remaining missing people in Cinchona, virtually wiped off the map by the quake, will resume Friday, according to CNE.