Cooking workshop
Level 1, Monday through Wednesday, 6-9 p.m., Gastronomy Studio Con Mucho Gusto, Barrio Dent. Info: 2234-0840, www.revistamuchogusto.com. 

Steven Soderbergh's ‘Che'
Part of the “Revolutionary Cinema” program, 7 p.m., Rayuela bar, opposite Plaza de la Democracia.

Santos y Zurdo in concert
Electro-tango, of the Mundoloco concert series, 9:30 p.m., at Jazz Café, San Pedro. Info: 2253-8933, www.jazzcafecostarica.com.

Manuel Antonio National Park will stay open, for now.

Local businesses and tourism outlets breathed a sigh of relief Friday after Health Minister María Luisa Avila gave the Environment, Energy and Telecommunications Ministry (MINAET) a four-month extension to resolve the park's longtime sewage contamination problems.

Avila announced the decision after touring Manuel Antonio Friday with officials from MINAET and the Costa Rican Water and Sewer Institute (AyA). The Health Ministry had given MINAET until Thursday to correct the problems at the park, which included mosquito-breeding standing water, a garbage dump on site and sewage leaks from the bathrooms near the park's most popular beach.

While park administrators had resolved the first two issues last week, MINAET and local business leaders sought an extension to resolve the sanitation problems, which they said could not be solved before the Health Ministry's 10-day deadline. According to a statement by MINAET, portable bathrooms will be installed for tourists while construction begins on new, permanent bathrooms and a sewage treatment facility for the park.

Greasing the wheels will be ¢120 million (about $214,000) from the Costa Rica Tourism Institute (ICT), half of which will fund the sewage treatment plant, while the rest will be earmarked for infrastructure improvements, including new buildings to house park rangers.

Between 1,000 and 2,000 tourists attend the park every day, generating over ¢1 billion (nearly $1.8 million) last year in revenue. That money is put into a general fund and split among the country's national parks, however, leaving meager resources for the country's second-most visited park, park administrators said.

Richard Lemire, president of the Aguirre Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, expressed gratitude for ICT's assistance and the Health Ministry's understanding, but warned that park operations must not return to business as usual.

“Obviously, that won't be enough,” Lemire said of the ICT funding. “We're still very concerned with the basic administration of MINAET.”

For its part, MINAET said it is conducting an internal investigation to determine how conditions have deteriorated so badly at Manuel Antonio, and how funds appropriated for the park are being used.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Chicago has arrested a U.S. and U.K. citizen wanted for allegedly kidnapping and murdering a U.S. citizen in Costa Rica.

Matthew Francis Nolan, 40, was arrested Thursday as he left a bankruptcy court hearing, according to the Web site www.chicagobreakingnews.com. He is charged in Costa Rica with March 2005 kidnapping and slaying of Robert C. Cohen.

Nolan and an accomplice are believed to have kidnapped Cohen and held him for ransom. When the demands were not met, the FBI said, Cohen was killed. His body was found underneath a bridge over the Chirripó River in Costa Rica's Caribbean province of Limón.

The Chicago media Web site reported Nolan was being held at Chicago's Metropolitan Correction Center pending the completion of extradition proceedings.

MANAGUA – The Nicaraguan government and Brazilian construction company Andrade Gutierrez have signed an agreement for financial and technical studies to be conducted on the Brito hydroelectric project, officials said Friday.

The technical studies will allow the partners to determine investment and financing costs for a project that is expected to generate 250 MW of electricity and in which Andrade Gutierrez is prepared to invest some $600 million.

The project, which is to include the construction of two dams, will be built near the border with Costa Rica and will use the waters of Lake Nicaragua to regulate the reservoirs.

The accord states that to execute this project, scheduled for completion in 2014, an investing company will be formed in which the Nicaraguan government will have a 10 percent stake.

The agreement – signed Thursday by Energy and Mines Minister Emilio Rappaccioli and the Brazilian firm's vice president, Ronaldo Pereira – also establishes that an updated study be drawn up on the water resources of that region of southern Nicaragua and the project's environmental impact.