‘Walking with Wolf' book presentation
Co-authors Kay Chornook and Wolf Guindon present their chronicle of the Quaker settlement in Monteverde, Costa Rica, 6 p.m., Friends Peace Center, Calle 15, Avenida 6/8. Info: 2233-6168. 

2009 Francophone Festival
Piano recital by Michael Thalmann, 7:30 p.m., National Theater, 2221-1433.

Dance: ‘La Avenida'
Dance show by Los Que Somos group, choreography by Gustavo Vargas, Thursday through Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 5 p.m., Teatro de la Danza, CENAC, 2221-2154.

Two moderately strong earthquakes hit Costa Rica's Southern Zone on Wednesday. The first, a magnitude 5.7 quake, struck at 11:24 a.m. near the mouth of the Golfo Dulce, and the second, magnitude 5.9, a few kilometers farther north in the gulf, according to preliminary reports from the U.S. Geological Survey.

Local instruments, on the other hand, registered different numbers. The National Seismological Network recorded a magnitude 5.5 for the first quake, while the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (OVSICORI) issued reports with magnitude 6.3. For the second, the two institutions registered magnitudes of 5.7 and 5.8, respectively.

Although the area sits just off a major fault line, Wednesday's quakes were both shallow – less than 30 km in depth – and, said USGS geophysicist Bruce Presgrave, the initial interpretation is that they are the results of movement along local fault lines.

“The tremor was a bit strong, but we didn't have any damage,” said Isai Venegas, assistant manager at the Danta Corcovado Lodge, located near Golfo Dulce. Venegas, an Osa Peninsula native, added the quake was the second strongest he has ever experienced.

The Red Cross and the National Emergency Commission (CNE) reported no injuries and only very limited structural damages. Nature Air representatives also in Puerto Jiménez said the airport was unaffected.

On Jan. 8, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake hit Costa Rican territory, centered right by the Poás Volcano, a couple dozen kilometers northwest of San José. Officially, 23 people died in that quake, with another seven whose bodies were never located and are now presumed dead.

Costa Rica sits over a conflux of various tectonic plates, what seismologists qualify as a “highly seismic” territory.

Tico Times reporter Vanessa I. Garnica contributed reporting.

For planes flying into Juan Santamaría International Airport, the Central Valley's overcast skies and low, lingering clouds often pose a problem for landing. Many times, concerned pilots will divert flights to Panama or Daniel Oduber International Airport, in the northwestern Costa Rican town of Liberia, creating delays and headaches for travelers.

That all may change soon, however, thanks to an investment by the Public Works and Transport Ministry (MOPT), the ministry said Tuesday. The projects, which cost a combined $13.5 million, include new radar, firefighting equipment and long-awaited approach lights to help guide pilots to the runway when visibility is low.

The lights, which will be supplied by Siemens and cost $2.6, will span a length of 900 meters west of the freeway by the airport in Alajuela, west of San José.

The new radar system, a $5.4 million project of the Central American Arial Navigation Corporation (COCESNA), is already up and running, and links Juan Santamaría air traffic controllers with information from radar towers in Mata de Caña, in Guanacaste, and in Managua and Bluefields, Nicaragua. Air traffic controllers will now be able to monitor flights within a 212-mile radius, up from 60 before, MOPT said.

The fire fighting equipment consists of seven specially equipped vehicles, three of which will be deployed at Juan Santamaría, three at Daniel Oduber and one at Tobías Bolaños International Airport, in the western San José district of Pavas. The vehicles cost a combined $5.4 million, to be paid for with resources from the Civil Aviation Authority, a MOPT spokesman said.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. government decided Wednesday it will continue to withhold $64 million in aid promised to Nicaragua over suspicions the ruling Sandinistas rigged last year's municipal elections in the Central American country.

The funds were pledged to Nicaragua by the Millennium Challenge Corp., a U.S. government development program that operates in poor countries.

The MCC's directing council, presided over by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, made the decision not to completely cut off the aid, but rather to suspend it until the Nicaraguan government makes a "meaningful change" in its way of governing.

MCC Deputy CEO Rodney Bent said U.S. officials prepared a letter for Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega outlining conditions for the resumption of aid to the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

The U.S. ambassador to Nicaragua, Robert Callahan, referred last year to "profound doubts over the transparency of the count" in the Nov. 9 elections that saw Ortega's leftist Sandinistas take a majority of Nicaraguan mayoralties, including Managua.

Nicaragua's main opposition, the Liberal Constitutional Party, completely reject the official results, claiming that irregularities and violations of election law occurred before, during and after the balloting.

The European Union also froze $31.7 million in aid to Nicaragua after the municipal elections because in its judgment the country has not fulfilled requirements of governability, transparency and respect for human rights.

Ambassador Callahan noted last December that since 1990, the U.S. Agency for International Development has given Nicaragua $1.4 billion in aid for education, health care, infrastructure, strengthening democratic processes and environmental protection.

During the same period, he said, Washington forgave $500 million in Nicaraguan debt and financed food programs for $175 million.