BORAT: Sacha Baron Cohen, from the TV program “Da Ali G Show,” has taken his character as a reporter in Kazakhstan to the big screen with the new movie “Borat,” which arrives to Costa Rican theaters today. The film documents Borat's humorous journey from his country to the United States to film a documentary.

A U.S. citizen accused of child molestation and possessing child pornography identified by the last name Mastin, 70, was arrested yesterday in Playa Garza, on the Pacific Nicoya Peninsula, according to a statement from the Public Security Ministry.

By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff | aroberson@ticotimes.net

Environmentalists from Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia and Panama yesterday said they will encourage their governments to pass laws to protect the Pacific Ocean.

These countries started working together three years ago, when they established the Marine Conservation Corridor of the Eastern Tropical Pacific (CMAR), explained CMAR technical secretary Ricardo Meneses. The corridor is a “regional conservation and sustainable-use initiative to manage biodiversity and marine resources... by establishing regional governmental strategies,” according to a statement from the marine conservation organization Marviva.

The corridor focuses on unique and delicate ecosystems such as Isla del Coco, off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica; Malpelo e Isla Gorgona, in Colombia; and the Galapagos Islands, in Ecuador.

“The Pacific Ocean is a source of development for these four countries, and we're looking to create sustainable management instead of the exploitation that has always gone on,” Meneses said. These countries are now ready for the next step: a legal document signed by the four countries to regulate the use of Pacific waters, he said.

CMAR, together with Marviva and the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), is drafting a document that will be presented to these countries' environmental ministries, nonprofit environmental organizations, judicial branches and ministries that regulate fishing, tourism and foreign relations, according to a statement from Marviva.

These groups will have a chance to discuss the document and send it to each country's legislative assembly, where lawmakers will vote on whether to approve it. This process will begin this year and could take up to three years, Meneses said.

By Blake Schmidt
Tico Times Staff | bschmidt@ticotimes.net

A proposed legislative reform that would put the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) on a fast track got slowed down Wednesday when legislators opposed to controversial trade pact voted for the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) to weigh in on the proposal's constitutionality.

Legislators this week discussed the fast-track proposal, which would reform the assembly's regulations, allowing legislators to speed up CAFTA's congressional track by limiting how many sessions legislators can spend debating it, according to legislative aides.

Legislators will continue to debate the fast-track proposal while the court looks into the matter. The court has a month to review the case, and discussion of CAFTA on the assembly's main floor is expected to begin next week.

A U.S. citizen accused of child molestation and possessing child pornography identified by the last name Mastin, 70, was arrested yesterday in Playa Garza, on the Pacific Nicoya Peninsula, according to a statement from the Public Security Ministry.

Immigration Police located Mastin at a liquor store he owns in Playa Garza. Records show he entered Costa Rica in 1999, fleeing Florida, where he was wanted for alleged crimes against children, the statement said. He was residing here illegally and faces deportation to the United States.