Subscribe to our Daily News RSS feed.

Read the Daily News on your mobile device.

Francophone Festival
March 16, conference and film about Alice Rivaz, 2 p.m., auditorium, Philosophy Building, UNA, Heredia; opera performance by Olga Machonova Pavlu and pianist Francisco Piedra Vegas, 7 p.m., Paraninfo, UNED, Sabanilla. Reservations required at 2527-2502.

Theater at Noon
Juilliard Jazz Artist Diploma Ensemble, March 16, 12:10 p.m., National Theater.

Martes por la Noche Concerts
Cello and piano recital by Paul Christopher and Christine Burczyk Allen, March 16, 7 p.m., Room 107, Faculty of Music, UCR, San Pedro. 

Dub and Fusion Concert
By Moonlight and Friends, March 16, 9:30 p.m., Jazz Café Escazú.

Los Flying Borracho Brothers Return of the Devious Angel Tour
With Eliot Greenspan and Tim Pertz, March 16, 7 p.m., Dos Locos, Quepos. Info: 2777-1526.

If you don't have travel reservations for Semana Santa, you'd better act quickly. According to a study by the National Tourism Chamber (CANATUR), hotels, tour operators and car rental companies are expecting an 80.2 percent occupancy rate during Semana Santa, or Easter week, which runs from March 28 through April 4.

Using a survey sample of 61 nationwide tourism companies, CANATUR found that the expected occupancy rate for hotels is 81.9 percent, 70.6 percent for Tour Operators and 93.6 percent car rental companies. Of all reservations, 27.5 percent were made by national tourists.

“It is important to know how the tourism sector is shaping up for Semana Santa,” said Juan Carlos Ramos, the president of CANATUR. “The week has generally represented an increase in national tourists as well as foreign tourists that come to Costa Rica to enjoy vacation during this time of the year. So far, we are seeing positive results in many areas of the country.”

The study surveyed businesses throughout the country. Of the sites surveyed, CANATUR found that hotels in the central Pacific are reporting the highest expected occupancy rates at 91.6 percent. Travel companies in the Caribbean and northern parts of the Guanacaste province also reported an expected occupancy over 85 percent for the week.

Of the tourism companies surveyed, 18 percent said their tourism outlook for Semana Santa is “much better” than last year, 28 percent said it was “better” and 38 percent said it was about the same.

In 2009, tourism fell 8 percent in Costa Rica, as over 166,000 fewer tourists visited the country than in 2008.

Costa Rica's attorney general said French telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent followed through with a payment of $10 million last week to settle a corruption case in Costa Rica.

Alcatel deposited the funds on March 9 in payment for “societal damages” – money the attorney general said should be funneled into public programs. This would help pay society back after the French company allegedly paid kickbacks to former President Miguel Angel Rodríguez and other government officials in return for a 2001 contract to provide cellular phone equipment here.

“We confirm the deposit of money and we've sent a note to the head of the Finance Ministry to inform them of the transaction,” Attorney General Ana Lorena Brenes said in a statement issued Friday. She added that her office is recommending that government officials spend this money with “the interest of the collective” in mind. “We would expect that it is invested in projects that have a direct impact on the population,” Brenes said.

Payment for societal damages is a recent concept in Costa Rica and is rare throughout Latin America, according to the attorney general. “(Societal damages) confirm recognition by a company or individual that they participated in acts of corruption that affect the collective,” said Brenes.

The settlement came as former President Rodríguez, who was in office from 1998 to 2002, prepares to go to trial for corruption.

Rodríguez was expected to attend a preliminary hearing on Monday, but the court date was suspended after the judges received new evidence in the case, the newswire EFE reported.

The ICE-Alcatel trial, which is scheduled to begin on April 13, will be the second time a former Costa Rican president is placed on trial on criminal charges. Former President Rafael Angel Calderón was sentenced to five years in prison for embezzlement last October.

Rock and rumor have always gone together like popcorn and melted butter. In Costa Rica, that axiom seems doubly true, with some bitter salt added to the mix.

In the midst of the hubbub about a possible Guns N' Roses appearance April 9, the 1990s-born heavy metal, rap-infused rockers KoRn and their born-again Christian counterparts, P.O.D., are also said to be planning a Costa Rica concert, reportedly on April 24. But, as with the Guns N' Roses show, Costa Rica doesn't appear among the tour dates published on the bands' official Web sites.

Ko?n's 2010 world tour, Modlife, jumps from São Paulo, Brazil, on April 21 to Orlando, Florida, on May 1, with no dates in between, according to the band's Web site, www.korn.com P.O.D. begins a South America tour March 19 in Argentina, but the group's Web site, www.payableondeath.com does not list any dates after an April 18 show in Bogotá, Colombia.

According to Costa Rican production company Flevent, KoRn and P.O.D. will play April 24 at Alejandro Morera Soto Stadium in Alajuela, northwest of San José, and the date will appear on both bands' Web sites soon. Jose Cañas, the press contact for the event, has already notified the media about reserving credentials for the concert.

Tickets are on sale at www.publitickets.com or at Penny Lane stores, for die-hard fans willing to risk the controversy. Prices range from ₡ 12,500 to ₡ 48,500 ($23 to $88).