2003 – Page 292

A twin-engine aircraft crashed into the Calle San Anton intersection, just meters away from the Herrera International Airport runway, landing on top of an Izusu pick-up truck and a Toyota Camry car waiting for a traffic-light change. The small jet with a capacity to hold 16 people had departed from Las Americas International Airport, about …

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Merengue stars Milly Quezada and Fernando Villalona, in addition to jazz maestro Michael Camilo are on the list of nominees for the 45th Grammy Awards as announced yesterday in New York City. The Recording Academy Awards will be held on 23 February at the Madison Square Gardens in New York City.  In the Best Jazz …

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The Estrellas are tied for first place with the ?guilas Cibae?as in the Dominican Winter League Round Robin Tourney, after defeating Escogido 4-3 last night in a makeup of a game suspended due to rain last Friday. After Estrellas’s Jason Lane hit an eighth inning homer to tie up the game, Escogido managed to manufacture …

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Minister of Finance Jose Lois Malkum confirmed that the Union Fenosa power distributors (Edesur and Edenorte) want the government to sell its shares in the capitalized power companies.  Malkum said it would be unacceptable for the government to transfer its interests in return for the cancellation of the alleged debts. The government owns 49.9 percent …

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The Superintendence of Power obliged power distributors to credit consumers with RD$22.5 million for last year. The 7,560 consumers who underwent the often torturous process of filing a claim received the credits from the company to make up for the excess billings in 2002. The Superintendence determined that the consumers were in the right in …

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El Caribe reports that bills that have been marked will no longer be accepted as legal tender as of 31 January. The Central Bank is expected to apply the deadline given last year for the removal of all such bills. After that date, people will need to be especially cautious when receiving cash, as any …

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Diario Libre newspaper explains that US dollars are increasingly scarce because the exchange houses want the government to lift the RD$20.80 to US$1 ceiling for the purchase of US currency. Removing this limit on currency exchange would break the so-called agreement the government had made with banks and exchange houses last month. The newspaper reports …

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According to a report in Diario Libre, the gross international reserves of the Dominican Republic stood at US$828.9 million at the end of 2002. Diario Libre says the figure is similar to that of 2001, less the US$500-million sovereign bond placement made in October 2001. The newspaper observes the reserve level kept high despite the …

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The spokesman for the majority PRD block of senators, Pedro Antonio (Papo) Luna (PRD-Sanchez Ramirez), says the PRD block will choose the two new judges for the Central Electoral Board (JCE), the government body responsible for organizing the 2004 presidential elections. As a result of a political agreement, the number of judges on the JCE …

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The president of the Central Electoral Board, Manuel Ramon Morel Cerda, said that the JCE has nothing to do with the hundreds of ID cards that were dumped in the Duquesa landfill. Instead, he blamed the political parties, who accuses of purchasing the cedulas when they suspect someone will vote against them. Morel Cerda said …

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