2007 – Page 100

Economy, Planning and Development Minister Temistocles Montas has told reporters that the government will decidee whether or not to continue with the IMF Stand-by arrangement later this year. According to Hoy newspaper, the government will have to analyze the “delicate international situation” before taking a decision about future relations with the IMF. Montas referred to …

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The Public Health and Industry & Commerce ministries made a ruling yesterday aimed at prohibiting the use of potassium bromate in bread made in the DR. They gave traders 30 days to stop adding the substance to bread manufactured in the country. The decision came after a heated press debate on the adverse health effects …

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The World Bank and the Dominican government have signed an agreement under which the bank will lend US$19.4 million towards securing documentation for nearly 400,000 people currently without even so much as a real birth certificate. This paperwork will allow them to access government health benefits and other social programs. The deal was signed by …

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Dominican Medical Association president Enriquillo Matos has asked the government to intervene in four of the largest private health insurance providers (ARS) in the Dominican Republic. Matos said that the companies in question, Humana, Universal, Monumental and SDS are engaging in monopolistic practices which are having an adverse effect on the government’s new Family Health …

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Business and industry leaders are questioning one of the provisos of the recently modified Electricity Law, stipulating that all entities that are granted “non-regulated consumer” status – which purchases electricity directly from the generators-will be subject to a 10% tax on the energy consumed. The basic argument by the business and industrial sector representatives is …

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The plan to establish a set of rules and regulations aimed at controlling political activities in the run-up to an election has been posted on the Central Electoral Board’s website, www.jce.do. According to Adriano Tejada, today’s Diario Libre A.M. editorialist, these are some of the regulations: No asking people not to vote. Corrections must be …

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Investigators from Santo Domingo, from the Ministry of the Environment and the UASD University environmental commission, are studying the evidence along the shoreline at Las Garitas Beach where thousands of small and a few large fish were found dead or dying over the last few days. According to Hoy newspaper, some believe that poison was …

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Seven people who were caught as they waited for a plane to drop some drugs were sent to Najayo Prison to await trial. Five Colombians and two Dominicans were sent to the prison by magistrate Franny Manuel Castillo. The seven were seized by DNCD agents at kilometer 26 of the Yamasa Highway as they were …

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The Chamber of Deputies has finally approved 919 land sales, some of which had been pending for decades. The lots were each less than 1,000 square meters in area, as the larger portions were removed from the bill. The deputies accepted the favorable report issued by deputy Radhames Gonzalez, the president of the permanent committee …

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The police and the Technical Office for Land Transport (OTTT) will join forces to clamp down on drivers who use their vehicles to commit crimes. Apparently there has been a series of robberies committed by people passing themselves off as official drivers of the various “concho” routes. As a result, the OTTT and the police …

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