E-Science Symposium
Feb. 17-19, Ciudad de la Investigación, UCR, San Pedro, 2511-1338, www.vinv.ucr.ac.cr/e-ciencia.

Media Historians Conference
Feb. 17-19, Social Sciences Building, UCR, San Pedro, 2234-9771, www.historiadoresdelaprensa.com.mx.

Puntarenas Carnival
Features a band parade, 5 p.m., Parque Abelardo Lobo-PP; Big Band in concert, 5 p.m., PP; Logaritmo Band in concert, 6 p.m., PP; Tribute to Nirvana concert, 6:30 p.m., PP., Feb. 17. Info: www.puntarenas.com/carnavales.

Concert for Haiti
With Humberto Vargas, Pato Barraza, Bernal Villegas, Manuel Obregón, Marta Fonseca, Tito Oses, Bernardo Quesada, Esteban Monge and Francisco Murillo, Feb. 17, 8 p.m., National Auditorium, Children's Museum. Info: 2206-7770, www.specialticket.net.

“Canto de ballenas”
Play by María Silva, Feb. 17, 5 and 7 p.m., auditorium, EARTH University, Guácimo, Limón.

The Prosecutor's Office of Limón has accused Rugeli Morales, the mayor of Talamanca, of accepting a percentage of money that the municipality had slotted for public works projects.

Talamanca is a municipality in Costa Rica's southern Caribbean region. The new accusation adds to a list of corruption charges against the public official.

Press officers at the Public Security Ministry said that the authorities suspect that Morales maintained close contact with a municipal construction material supplier between 2005 and 2009. Officials believe that Morales received payments from the supplier, which was awarded contracts by the city council in exchange for the execution of community repair and construction projects.

Morales' lawyer told the daily La Nación that Morales denies the allegations and claims that the supplier and one other official in his administration devised the plan in order to frame Morales.

Morales, member of the governing National Liberation Party (PLN), was arrested Thursday and charged with directing ¢ 350 million ($641,000) in municipal funds to his personal bank accounts. Authorities also arrested three other Talamanca municipal officials who are suspected of aiding the mayor. They include a municipal accountant, a mayoral adviser and a city inspector.

They have been charged with embezzlement of public funds, aggravated corruption of public officials and activities incompatible with his public service.

Over the weekend, the Penal Finance Court ordered two months of preventative prison for Morales and Saúl Barrantes, the mayoral adviser, while authorities investigate the charges. The city inspector and municipal accountant, whose last names are Bastos and Cortés, and Morales' son have been ordered not to leave the country or talk to witnesses in the case.

The charges against Morales are the latest in a string of recent municipal corruption cases that have involved the mayor of Alajuela, northwest of San José, and Liberia, the capital of the northwestern province of Guanacaste.

The smaller exporters in Costa Rica had a big year in 2009, according to a report conducted by the Chamber of Exporters (CADEXCO). In a year that national exports fell 9 percent, CADEXCO reports that rural Costa Rican exports increased 9.61 percent in 2009, earning more than $2.5 billion.

Rural exporters, which sell agricultural products – from pineapple to house plants – grown outside of the central region of the country, shipped an estimated 1,141 products to 256 international destinations.

Of the countryside, southern Costa Rica's Brunca region saw the biggest increase in exports, improving 17.3 percent in comparison with the previous year. According to the study, the exports of palm oil in the region rose 35 percent, the exports of pineapple rose 2.2 percent and the export of seeds to plant walnuts and almonds quadrupled.

Exports from the Huetar Norte region in the northern part of the country also experienced significant growth, shipping out 17 percent more products than in 2008. In this region, exports of pineapple grew 24 percent, cassava (yucca) by 82 percent and ornamental plants by 65 percent. These were the fastest growing exports of 2009, chamber officials said.

“The data is clear and reflects the productive importance of these regions,” said Sergio Navas, executive vice president of CADEXCO. “This reinforces the call to multiply and strengthen small and medium sized businesses in order to attract new investments under the reform of the free-trade zone laws.”

The reform of the free-trade zone law, which was passed in December and signed last month, grants tax breaks to businesses that choose to set up operations in areas outside of the Central Valley (TT, Dec. 24, 2009). Members of Costa Rican trade boards have begun to promote the benefits of the reformed law to potential investors or companies interested in establishing operations in the country.

According to CADEXCO, 27 percent of all exports from Costa Rica are sent from the Central Valley.

In a report released last month, the Foreign Trade Promotion Office announced that national exports fell 9 percent in 2009. Costa Rica made $8.7 billion in national exports last year, down $859 million from 2008.

Three suspected gang members were arrested for the murder last September of French-Spanish journalist Christian Poveda, El Salvador's National Police (PNC) said on Monday.

The individuals, believed to be members of the Mara-18 gang, were arrested and charged with homicide, according to the PNC.

Monday's arrests came on top of 25 others that were made in September and December in connection with the slaying.

Police said the three are suspected of acting as lookouts on Sept. 2, 2009, when Poveda was shot and killed in a rural area on the outskirts of Tonacatepeque, a town about 16 kilometers northeast of the capital of San Salvador.

The Mara-18 allegedly carried out the killing after three meetings between gang members, according to a PNC report, which said at least 36 people had a part in the murder.

Poveda, 54, directed the documentary “La Vida Loca” (Crazy Life), depicting the daily lives of a group of gang members in Soyapango. Media outlets said that Poveda, who also covered the country's 1980-1992 civil war, witnessed three homicides while shooting the film, which has been seen at film festivals in the United States, Mexico, Spain and Cuba, as well as in El Salvador.

PNC agents are looking for seven more people for suspected connections with the killing, a PNC spokesman, who had his face covered with a ski mask, told the newswire EFE.

Police estimate the number of gang members in El Salvador at roughly 10,000, most of them affiliated either with the M-18 or its main rival, Mara Salvatrucha.