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Social security coverage first in Southwest The government announced that the Family Health Plan and Basic Health Plan will be implemented first in the southwestern provinces of Barahona, Bahoruco, Independencia and Pedernales. The social security program is scheduled to start on 1 November. In a meeting held yesterday, the National Social Security Council (CNSS) reaffirmed that the program calls for the gradual implementation of social security coverage nationwide. Gradual is the key word here and the scant population in the southwestern region will serve to test the plan. Bernardo Defillo, Superintendent of Health, also says that the border provinces were chosen because of their extreme levels of poverty and because health reforms in line with the new program are already being implemented there. The Social Security program groups beneficiaries in three categories: Contributors. (Regimen Contributivo): 3.5 million persons employed in the private or public sector. Subsidized. (Regimen Subsidiado): 2.2 million unemployed persons or those with wages below the minimum wage. This category encompasses those retired, handicapped or indigent. Self-Employed. (Regimen Contributivo Subsidiado): 3 million persons. Professionals, technicians, maids or other household employees, or self-employed persons with income equal to or above the minimum wage. |
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US$42 million for early childhood The World Bank announced it is lending US$42 million for a Ministry of Education early childhood project. The project will fund the expanding access to and improving the quality of preprimary education, psycho-social stimulation, health care and nutrition for young children through age five. The funds will be used to expand and improve formal, center-based preprimary services in coordination with the local communities and non-governmental organizations. The loan is to be paid over 17 years, with a grace period of five years. |
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Government gives in to power distributors Hoy newspaper reports that the Mejia administration apparently has given in to the power distributors. According to the newspaper’s sources, Spain’s Union Fenosa and the US’s AES affiliates will be allowed to keep the higher power rates that have been levied on consumers after the privatization in 1998. Newspaper sources say that power companies would maintain the present US$0.14 kilowatt hour rate. The Superintendence of Power had sought a reduction to the more fair US$0.085 rate or at least to the US$0.11 rate in effect at the time of the privatization. To justify the privatization in 1998, the government had promised significant power reductions within three years. Dominicans were sold the idea that the private companies would make the necessary investments and be more efficient at collecting debts than the government. This never happened and instead consumers today have to pay higher rates while the service has not improved. Hoy newspaper reports that apparently the power companies were able to steer the talks away from the high tariffs and instead focus these on what the government owes the companies. This is regardless of the fact that millions of the arrears are the outcome of surcharges and concessions beyond those approved in the contracts and in the Power Law. Over the years, government negotiators have made new concessions to the Union Fenosa (Edenorte and Edesur) and AES (Ede Este) power distributors that monopolize the local power market. In this way, the newspaper says that the story of the Madrid Accord signed by the Mejia government negotiators is repeated. Under the Madrid Accord, the government extended the duration of the power contracts for another 15 years in exchange for a slight reduction in the power generation costs. El Caribe newspaper reports that the government has secured US$130 million with a pool of commercial banks and will be paying the power companies next week. The payments should reduce the long hours of blackouts consumers have to endure today. |
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CDs confiscated The District Attorney office confiscated yesterday 30,000 CDs and 5,000 fake cassettes in Santo Domingo. Judge Ana Hilda Nova Rivas of the Department of Intellectual Property was in charge of the operation. Equipment used to manufacture the CDs and print the CD covers was also confiscated. Businesses were closed down in Villa Juana, Villa Francisca, Maria Auxiliadora and Los Minas neighborhoods. |
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Commanding drug operations from jail? The Police said they suspect drug dealer Rolando Florian Feliz, who is in jail at the Monte Plata jail, is the mastermind behind the killing of Victor Feliz Mendez, a son of a former senator for the province of Barahona. Florian was sentenced to 20 years in jail for a shipment confiscated in Pedernales, near the border with Haiti. El Dia newspaper says that Department of Drug Control authorities think that Florian could be involved in several shipments confiscated recently by their agents. The newspaper says that the participation of Police formerly stationed at the Monte Plata jail in the murder could prove that Florian is active in the drug dealing business despite being in jail. Hoy newspaper reports on how police and military staff at the penitentiary have been at his service over the years. The newspaper mentions the cases of several that have been removed from their posts or sent to jail for accepting bribes. |
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Brother denies drug trafficking charges In an interview in the Listin Diario, Edgar Augusto Feliz Mendez denied that his brother had been deported from the United States for drug charges, as reported by Police Chief Jaime Marte Martinez and spokesman Ramon Francisco Rodriguez Sanchez. He said that his brother had a US visa and traveled between both countries. Edgar Augusto Feliz says the family will sue Army First Lieutenant Charles Rodriguez Diaz, who works for the National Drug Control Department, for covering up for the real culprits of the murder of his brother. He denied the Police version that sentenced drug dealer Florian Feliz ordered the death to settle a drug dealing matter. |
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Visa in the Dominican Republic Visa credit card transactions in the Dominican Republic last year were US$1.4 billion, according to visiting Eduardo Eraña, president of Visa International for Latin America and the Caribbean. Total region sales volume reached US$177 billion in 2001. Bancredito has the largest number of credit cardholders in the Dominican Republic, with 41% of the market. He said that Bancredito transactions from July 2001 to June 2002 were US$641.7 million. |
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Alex Rodriguez’s back-to-back 50 homers In the Texas Rangers game against the Baltimore Orioles yesterday, Alex Rodriguez hit two home runs to become the first Major League player to hit 50 this season. The feat made A-Rod only the fifth big leaguer to post consecutive 50-homer seasons. This is Rodriguez’s ninth multihomer game of the season and the 29th of his career. According to the Texas Rangers official report on the game, A-Rod's blast in the first inning landed in Baltimore's bullpen 395 feet away, and his second one in the third inning was a 412-foot shot over the left-field wall. It also made him the first shortstop in history to post back-to-back 50-jack seasons. A-Rod is the fifth big leaguer to post consecutive 50-homer seasons. Babe Ruth did it in 1927-28, and Ken Griffey Jr. did it in '97-98. Mark McGwire (1996-99) and Sammy Sosa (1998-2001) are the other Major Leaguers to register successive 50-homer seasons. |
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Oakland A’s winning streak The Oakland Athletics are the show of the 2002 Major League Baseball Season, grabbing fans attention the way the Sammy Sosa vs. Mark McGwire homerun match did in 1998. The team consolidated its American League record of 20 straight wins in the Wednesday game against the Kansas City Royals, winning with an unbelievable Scott Hatteberg homer in the ninth that gave them the narrow victory of 12-11. This is baseball’s longest winning streak in 67 years. And it is the first time an American League team had won 20 consecutive games. With the victory, the Oakland A’s passed the 1947 Yankees and the 1906 White Sox for the longest streak in American League history. Now the team travels to the Metrodome stadium in Minnesota to confront the Twins, the toughest challenge because that’s a division-leading team playing at home. With one more victory in Minnesota in the Friday, 6 September game, the A’s would match the 1935 Chicago Cubs at 21 for the longest winning streak in baseball other than the 26-game streak by the 1916 Giants. Dominican infielders Esteban German and Miguel Tejada play with the A’s. Tejada is a candidate for the MVP of the season, together with fellow Dominicans Alfonso Soriano of the New York Yankees and Alex Rodriguez of the Texas Rangers. http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com |
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Felix Sanchez vies for Jackpot today The spotlight in the track and field world is on the four aspirants to the summer’s IAAF Golden League Jackpot, the Grand Slam of Athletics, in Berlin, Germany today. The prize - 110 pounds of gold bars worth about £300,000 - will be divided by athletes who win their event at all seven Golden League meets. Dominican world champion 400 meter hurdler Felix Sanchez is one of four star contenders competing for the £50,000 award. The others are Marion Jones (USA-100m), Ana Guevara (MEX-400m), Hicham El Guerrouj (MAR-1500m). All are winners six times over, during a season-long quest, which started in Oslo on 28 June, and has since alighted in the cities of Paris (5 July), Rome (12 July), Monaco (19 July), Zurich (16 August) and Brussels (30 August). This Friday in the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark the journey reaches a spectacular terminus at the ISTAF 2002 meeting in Berlin. To follow the races, see http://www.iaaf.org/ |
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