Chamber Music Festival
Featuring Centro Cantonal de Cultura de Mora (CCC) Camerata, Cello Orchesta, ARSYSS Contemporary Opera Group, and soloists Delberth Castellón (oboe) and Mercedes Sánchez (soprano), Oct. 7-9, 7:30 p.m., Teatro de la Palestra, Ciudad Colón 2249-3124.

4th National Theater Festival
Workshops, conferences, theater pieces, Oct. 1-18, Teatro 1887, CENAC, Contemporary Art and Design Museum, National Theater Workshop and Conservatorio El Barco, 2221-6325.

2009 International Sax Fest
With guest musicians Kenneth Tse (Hong Kong), Juan Alzate (Mexico), Alejandro Chiabrando (Argentina), Arturo Arango (Colombia), Aldo Salvent (C.R.), Javier Valerio (C.R.), Sonsax (C.R.), Sept. 30-Oct. 3, UCR Music School, San Pedro, and National Music Institute, San José, gala concerts at National Auditorium, Children's Museum, and National Theater, www.saxfestcostarica.com.

By Mike Faulk
Nica Times Staff

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – As many as 1,000 protesters showed up at the Radio Globo station here Wednesday morning only to run for cover when military officers chased them up the street, threw tear gas at them, beat them with batons and arrested at least 30 people, according to witnesses.

The protest, the largest to date, followed an executive order issued Monday by de facto President Roberto Micheletti limiting freedom of speech, communication and assembly.

The turnout at protests by sympathizers of ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya shrank drastically during the past week – from thousands of people to at most 500 following the decree.

Protesters blocked one lane of traffic outside Radio Globo, but they insisted they weren't disturbing the peace when military officers moved in.

David Romero, director of Radio Globo – which officials took off the air Monday following an interview with Zelaya in which he asked sympathizers to flock to Tegucigalpa for “one final struggle” – said the military herded the protesters like sheep, surrounded them, then began their assault.

“They attacked without warning,” Romero said. “The protesters didn't want to fight.”

Cesar Caceres, spokesman for Micheletti, said he didn't know enough about the incident to comment. Caceres said the protest had not been given previous approval by the national police.

Under the executive order limiting freedom of assembly, protests of 20 or more participants must be given previous approval by the national police. Caceres said protesters at Radio Globo had not notified police about the rally.

See the Oct. 2 print or digital edition of The Tico Times for more on this story.

Lights on: Juan Santamaría International Airport now has 34 functioning lighting towers.

Photo courtesy of MOPT

Flights coming into Juan Santamaría International Airport in Alajuela will no longer be left in the dark. Public works and aviation officials unveiled Tuesday evening the airport's long-awaited approach lights, a project that required an investment of more $2.6 million and seven months of work.

The airport has been without approach lights since 2004.

The arrival of the lights will alleviate visibility issues pilots have experienced for several years flying into Juan Santamaría airport. The overcast skies, clouds and fog of the Central Valley pose problems for pilots attempting to land, sometimes causing flights to re-route to Panama or Daniel Oduber International Airport, in the northwestern Costa Rican town of Liberia.

The landing difficulties caused by the lack of lighting prompted the intervention of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which deemed that the airport did not meet the standards of an international Category I airport. According to ICAO's Annex 14, which contains the necessary standards and practices for airports, the lack of lighting placed Juan Santamaría in Category II. The installation of the approach lights satisfies the international Category I requirements of ICAO.

The new lighting towers span 900 meters and are located west of the freeway that flanks the airport. There are 34 towers in all, each 30 meters apart. The lights, produced by the Siemens corporation, have five different levels of intensity and are adjusted according to weather conditions. According to t he Public Works and Transport Ministry, t he towers were also constructed to withstand harsh weather conditions and powerful gusts of wind.

Costa Rica will sell close to 3,000 tons of carbon credits to Equator, a United States company that specializes in carbon credit management, according to the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications (MINAET).

The sale represents Costa Rica's first carbon credit transaction and is the result of negotiations in New York City last week after a United Nations summit on climate change. The sale is expected to bring $9 million to the country.

The government will deposit the money into the National Forestry Financing Fund and use part of the cash to replant 2,000 hectares of forest near Cinchona, a town north of San José that was destroyed by an earthquake on Jan. 8.

The rest of the money will be used for conservation practices such as support for the environmental services program that pays rural residents to protect nearby natural resources, such as forests and waterways.

Equator will buy one million carbon credits that Costa Rica produced from 2002 through 2009 – called “old carbon” – and almost two million credits for “new carbon” that the country expects to produce from 2010 through 2013.