Percussion festival
Through March 23, different concerts at various locations such as the Music Insititute. (Moravia), San José's National Theater, Variedades and Eugene O'Neil Theater (Barrio Dent).

Enhake Quartet in concert
Classical, 6 p.m., CR-North American Cultural Center, Alajuela, 2447-2178.

“Salud Poeta” poetry night
With Marco Tulio Alfaro “Tuli, el Parrillero,” at Rayuela, 25 meters west of Legislative Assembly, opposite northern corner of Plaza de la Democracia, 2256-5780.

Researchers with the ocean conservation organization PRETOMA were pulling in their fishing line when they realized they had caught a little more than they had bargained for: what is believed to be a bull shark measuring approximately four meters (13 feet) in length.

“It was very close to the surface. We were pulling it in when the line broke,” said Allan Bolaños, a researcher who was aboard a boat about two kilometers off the coast of the southern Pacific Osa Peninsula when he and others spotted the massive shark.

Bolaños and a group of researchers were in the region to capture bull sharks in order to outfit them with tracking devices in order to study their movements. The fishing lines the scientists were using, however, were no match for the largest of these sharks, PRETOMA said in a statement released last week.

“Many of the hooks and steel leaders were mangled, destroyed, or simply bitten off by the large animals, only one of which came close enough to our fishing vessel for us to take a glimpse of its amazing size, before it too broke free,” said Randall Arauz, the expedition's scientific director.

Bull sharks, particularly juveniles, are known to swim up freshwater rivers in search of food and protection. According to National Geographic, bull sharks have been seen far up the San Juan River, which forms Costa Rica's northern border with Nicaragua, and are believed to inhabit Lake Nicaragua, the river's source.

On average, bull sharks range between 2.1 and 3.4 meters, and are classified as “near threatened” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

As part of t he Bull Shark Tagging Project, t he researchers captured and tagged four juvenile bull sharks measuring approximately one meter in the brackish waters where the Sirena River meets the ocean, at the edge of Corcovado National Park. Bolaños and others are studying the movement patterns of the sharks in the hopes of expanding the national park's boundaries to cover more of the sea.

Currently, Bolaños said, the park's protected status extends 500 meters into the ocean, an area where fishing is prohibited. The four-meter bull shark was spotted two kilometers from shore.

The research project is funded by the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN), the BBC Wildlife Fund, and corporate sponsors through PRETOMA's Corporate Membership program.

Costa Rica's under-20 men's national team crushed the United States 3-0 Sunday in Macoya, Trinidad and Tabago, taking home a long-awaited CONCACAF Championship title.

The match featured Josué Martínez in a starring role, scoring two of his team's three goals, helping the Ticos win their first regional U-20 crown since 1988.

Both teams have already earned their ticket to Egypt for the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in September and October.

Joining them will be Honduras and Trinidad and Tobago, who came in third and fourth, respectively, in the CONCACAF tournament. The Hondurans beat Trinidad and Tobago 2-1on Sunday.

SAN SALVADOR – Mauricio Funes, the candidate of the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), claimed victory Sunday night in El Salvador's presidential election and vowed that his administration would promote unity, turn the economy into the most dynamic in Central America and bolster relations with the United States.

Funes' victory ends 20 years of rule by the conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) in El Salvador, which was torn by civil war in the 1980s.

Funes delivered his victory address after elections officials gave him 51.27 percent of the vote in Sunday's presidential election, with 90.68 percent of the ballots counted.

Funes' opponent, ARENA's Rodrigo Avila, conceded defeat late Sunday.

"In a democracy, we all have to realize that sometimes you achieve your objectives and sometimes you don't," Avila said in his concession speech.

Funes, a former television journalist who never took up arms during the country's civil war, which lasted from 1980 to 1992, promised that his administration would "seek to benefit the majority of the people, independently of their political preferences."

"I greet my adversaries with respect, I recognize their work and express to them my willingness for a permanent exchange of ideas in the national interest and for the strengthening of democracy," Funes said.

As the opposition party, "ARENA can be certain that it will be respected and heard," Funes said.

Most polls gave the FMLN, a former guerrilla group, the edge in Sunday's presidential election.

The FMLN won 35 seats in nationwide legislative elections held in January, giving it a plurality but not a majority in the unicameral legislature. The FMLN also won 95 mayoralties in the Jan. 18 elections.

"This is the happiest night of my life" and "the one of greatest hope for El Salvador," Funes said.

Funes said he would work to create "a dynamic, efficient and competitive economy" and promote "the creation of a broad business base."

"Our goal is to turn El Salvador into the most dynamic economy in Central America," Funes told his cheering supporters.

The incoming administration, according to Funes, will adopt "an independent foreign policy based on the protection and promotion of national interests."

"Central American integration and the strengthening of relations with the United States will be priority aspects of our foreign policy agenda," Funes said.

The Costa Rican government congratulated Funes Monday following the news of his victory, inviting him to visit along with outgoing Salvadoran President Antonio Saca on March 30, to join a meeting of Central American heads of state and U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden.

“Costa Rica lends its warmest congratulations to President-elect Mauricio Funes and the Salvadoran people, and salutes the participating candidates in the presidential election for contributing to the revitalization of the democratic exercise in that nation,” the Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement.