Expo Manuel Antonio 2009
Travel fair, Thursday through Saturday, Costa Verde Hotel, Manuel Antonio, Puntarenas. Info: 2777-3822, www.expomanuelantonio.travel.

Chamber Opera of Costa Rica
Works by Rossini, 8 p.m., National Theater. 

Erik Truffaz and Murcof in concert
Jazz trumpet, electronic, Sept. 24, 9:30 p.m., Jazz Café, Escazú.

II International Linguistics Congress
With guest speakers from univerisities in U.S., France, Italy, Spain and Costa Rica, Sept. 24-26, at School of Philosophy, National University (UNA).

Film screening: ‘The Age of Stupid'
A U.K. film (http://www.ageofstupid.net) on climate change by director Franny Armstrong, part of the European Film Festival, 6:30 p.m., at the cinema in Universidad Veritas, http://www.uveritas.ac.cr. 

Honduras' deposed President Manuel Zelaya said Wednesday that at least 10 people died in Tuesday's violent clashes between police and his supporters.

“I have information of at least 10 people dead in the country,” Zelaya said in a phone conference with reporters Wednesday from the Brazilian Embassy in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, according to the news agency EFE. He added that hundreds have been detained and dozens injured.

Honduran police on Wednesday confirmed one death from Tuesday night's clashes, denying an earlier claim by Zelaya that same evening that put the number at six.

De facto President Roberto Micheletti reestablished an indefinite curfew Wednesday afternoon after having suspended it for seven hours to allow the population to shop for food and basic necessities. The Micheletti administration said the curfew will start at 5 p.m., but gave no end time.

The curfew is costing the Honduran economy about $50 million a day, Jesús Canahuati, vice president of Honduras' chapter of the Business Council of Latin America, told the news agency Bloomberg.

During the hours without curfew on Wednesday, Zelaya supporters took the opportunity to take the streets once again to protest, prompting the police to resume efforts to disperse the mob with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Human Rights Watch, an international non-governmental organization, has charged that Honduran police used “excessive force” in confronting demonstrators.

According to newswire AFP, the United States on Wednesday welcomed an invitation by Honduras' de facto leaders for senior international diplomats to visit Tegucigalpa to engage in dialogue.

In the midst of what some officials have called Costa Rica's worst drought in memory, Ricardo Sancho, president of the Costa Rican Water and Sewer Institute (AyA), has warned of water shortages in the near future if the nation's citizens don't begin to conserve the resource.

During a press conference on Wednesday, Sancho said the country needs to reduce its water consumption by 20 percent over the next three months in order to avoid an emergency drinking water situation. The average Costa Rican, who consumes 200 liters of water per day, must lower his or her daily use by 40 liters, according to Sancho.

This year, some regions have seen half their usual rainfall due to the presence of the El Niño phenomenon in the Caribbean Sea. AyA projects that every area of the country, except the Caribbean province of Limón, will see surface water reductions between 20 and 40 percent through next summer.

“This has given us a very important alert,” Sancho said. “If there is no change in water consumption on the part of Costa Rican families, we are going to have serious problems with water shortages.”

Sancho insisted that individuals should not wash their cars with anything other than a piece of cloth. He urged citizens to steer clear of watering their gardens and to spend a maximum of three minutes in the shower over the next three months.

In the case of a water shortage emergency, AyA will set up a crisis center and send cistern trucks to affected neighborhoods. The institute will also prepare bags of water to pass out to parched communities.

These plans are already in the works and should be ready in 2010, if needed.

As deliberations over a possible free-trade agreement (FTA) between Costa Rica and China continue, opposition from some of Costa Rica's leading business associations is growing stronger.

“The country has not made a case as to why the country needs this free-trade agreement,” Tomás Pozuelo, president of the Food Industry Chamber (CACIA), told The Tico Times on Wednesday.

The CACIA and other groups including Costa Rica's Chamber of Industries have become more vocal in their protest against the agreement. Fernando Ocampo, the Costa Rican Foreign Trade Ministry's chief negotiator, who last week wrapped up the fourth round of trade negotiations with his Chinese counterparts, expects the deal will reach a final handshake in February 2010.

That would create enormous challenges for local businesses, say the deal's detractors.

“China is not a democracy, it works on different rules, it makes the cheapest products in the world. The question is, why are we doing this? What is the benefit to us? This is why we are against the treaty. No one has been able to tell us why we're creating this agreement,” Pozuelo said.

For the foreign trade authorities, however, the reasons for creating the FTA are obvious, and the benefits it will provide are too juicy to pass up.

“China has a consumption level that is growing every year and provides the opportunity to improve the amount of Costa Rican exports,” said Ocampo. “The agreement will also benefit local markets as the amount of Chinese investment enters the country.”

As the countdown to February continues, business leaders realize their lone opportunity to halt the agreement will come when the FTA is considered for approval in the Legislative Assembly. The industrial chambers said they are seeking to sway lawmakers over to their side of the debate.

See the Sept. 25 print or digital edition of The Tico Times for more on this story.