Foreign Film Festival
“Transylvania,” tonight; “Caramel,” tomorrow, both at 3:30, 5:30 and 8 p.m., Arte Cine Lindora, Santa Ana, 2205-4130.

Sonámbulo in concert
“Psychotropical,” 9:30 p.m., Jazz Café, Escazú, 2288-4740, www.jazzcafecostarica.com.

Master Key Christmas Concert
Gospel, 7 p.m., Terramall, Tres Ríos.

Chief Prosecutor Francisco Dall'Anese unexpectedly stepped in to prevent the extradition of Nicole Kater, a U.S. mother accused of international kidnapping.

Saying Kater's rights had been violated, Dall'Anese filed a writ of habeas corpus with the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) yesterday to remand Kater's case to the Criminal Court of Puntarenas where the case was first heard.

Police arrested Kater, 28, in April, after an investigation by the U.S. Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Interpol and Costa Rican police. Kater fled here with her daughter three years ago during a custody dispute with the child's father, John Gehl, in Humboldt, California.

In August 2005, the Humboldt County Superior Court ordered Kater not to leave the county until a scheduled hearing on the case could occur.

Twelve days before the hearing, however, Kater flew to Costa Rica with her daughter. The United States issued an arrest warrant in December 2005, and the California court awarded Gehl custody. A judge from the San José court for childhood and adolescence awarded Gehl custody this September.

The Chief Prosecutor's Office and the Costa Rican National Institute for Women (INAMU), however, both say that Kater had Gehl's signed authorization to travel here, and that the mother and daughter entered Costa Rica legally, settling in Cóbano, on the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula.

Kater has been held in San José's Buen Pastor Prison since her arrest in April.

In September, the Criminal Court of Puntarenas turned down the U.S.'s request to extradite Kater. The U.S. Embassy appealed that decision to the San Ramón Court of Appeals, which last week voted to overturn the Puntarenas court's decision, clearing the way for Kater's extradition.

But yesterday, Dall'Anese personally filed a habeas corpus writ, saying the appeals court had violated Kater's rights by not offering her due process to counter the San Ramón court's decision. He has now asked Sala IV to send the case back to the Puntarenas court. “The American Convention on Human Rights upholds the right to all accused to challenge any sentence against them before a higher court,” said Dall'Anese in a press release.

Fabián Barrantes, a Judicial Branch spokesman, said he has never seen a chief prosecutor intervene on behalf of a foreigner in an extradition case.

Assailants disguised as Costa Rican Red Cross workers entered the aid group's installations in the southeastern San José district of Zapote Sunday afternoon and stole ¢11.6 million (more than $20,000) in cash set aside for humanitarian services, according to the Red Cross.

The thieves possibly consisted of four people, including a getaway person waiting outside, Red Cross spokesman Freddy Roman said yesterday.

The money had been raised through Tico Bingo ticket sales, he said, adding that the aid organization is still surveying the offices – 100 meters west of Casa Presidencial – to see if any other valuables went missing.

Just 43 percent of students who entered their senior year in 2008 received diplomas last weekend, when schools closed their doors for summer vacation. The rest either dropped out over the past 10 months or failed their courses.

For many high school seniors, the biggest obstacle was the bachillerato, a series of nine exams. Some 36 percent of students who took the bachillerato this year failed one or more exam, up from 33 percent last year.

The hardest tests were math and physics, each failed by more than 20 percent of test takers. The easiest were Spanish, French and civic education, which were failed by just 6 or 7 percent of test takers. Students can retake the tests early next year.