Tea time for Women's Club of Costa Rica
Chinese New Year-style, including a cup of jasmine tea or ginger punch, Asian bocas, Monday, Cariari; Tuesday, Escazú/Santa Ana, both at 1:30 p.m., information and directions at 2267-7042, 2268-3748, www.wccr.org.

Kids' summer class
About trees, ages 9-12, Jan. 26, 1-3 p.m., National Museum, Calle 17, Avenida Central/2. Info: 2256-4139, 2256-8643.

Mundoloco concerts
Featuring Celtic and Brazilian music by Medieval, Dan and Zé Culé, at 10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro. Info: 2253-8933, www.jazzcafecostarica.com.

Son del Pueblo
Salsa, 10 p.m., El Observatorio, Barrio La California, opposite Cine Magaly. Info: 2223-0725.

The Costa Rica national men's soccer team won and lost this weekend: two games and an estimated $17,000 worth of belongings, respectively.

Two coaches' rooms at the Clarion Hotel in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where the regional Central American championship is being played, were broken into right as their game against Panama was starting Friday night.

According to the daily Al Día, two men who had registered at the Clarion as journalists, dressed up as national team players and pretended to be in a hurry to get to the team's game against Panama. They approached the front desk and asked for new pass card keys for “their” rooms, saying theirs no longer worked. The hotel staff gave them new ones, and the two entered rooms shared by the team's coaching staff, making off with an estimated $17,000 worth of goods, including all the coaches' passports, three laptops and a large amount of cash.

The robbery aside, the weekend was still a success for La Sele, and key preparation for the next round of World Cup qualifiers that kick off Feb. 11.

Costa Rica knocked off Guatemala 3-1 Sunday night. The game opened slowly, going into the half with Costa Rica up 1-0 after a goal by Alvaro Sánchez in the 34th minute. It picked up in the second when Guatemala scored one goal in the 51st to equalize, but Costa Rica responded with two back-to-back goals by Pablo Herrera in the 59th minute and Roberto Segura in the 61st.

Two Guatemalan players received red cards, leaving the team to play with only nine men on the pitch for the last 25 minutes.

Costa Rica shut out a dreary Panama 3-0 in a more well-played game on Friday afternoon. Andy Furtado scored twice and Sánchez, who came on as a substitute, bagged the other.

Costa Rica will play their semi-final game next Friday against the second-place finisher – either El Salvador or Honduras – in the other bracket.

Costa Rica's Finance Ministry plans to invest about ¢350 million ($636,000) in the market to cushion the effects of the financial crisis.

About 45 percent of the money would be invested in bonds, 35 percent in no-interest bonds and 20 percent in other instruments.

The ministry revealed its plan for the first semester in 2009 on Friday, citing the impact of the current world economic crisis as its main concern.

The finance ministry announced a deficit in production for this year of 2.8 percent due to the deceleration in maintaining social programs, incomes and investment incentives nationwide.

In addition, the economic slowdown in liquidity and credit from numerous state and private banks is another consideration the ministry is trying to deal with.

Projects such as the $850 million transportation infrastructure improvements by Public Works and Transport Ministry and the $72.5 million Limón Port Project are among other plans for 2009.

In other news, the ministry announced it believes inflation this year will be 9 percent.

The World Bank has approved a $7 million grant to Nicaragua to help the country cope with higher food prices, the bank said Friday.

The money will come to Nicaragua via the Food Crisis Response Trust Fund, which the World Bank launched in May, and aims to help two existing programs.

“The first program will ensure that poor children in the most vulnerable areas continue to receive lunch at school, maintaining their intake of nutritive food at a time of crisis and encouraging their continued attendance,” Laura Frigenti, World Bank Director for Central America, said in a statement.

The second, she said, is meant to boost small farms to increase production.

Nicaragua's food price inflation went from 10.7 percent in January 2006 to 34.2 percent in August 2008. The World Bank said the poor are disproportionately affected by these price hikes, as meager incomes are stretched further to keep the family fed.