2007 – Page 147

An international product recall by Mattel and Fisher-Price also covers the DR, where many of the affected products are on sale. Earlier this week Mattel’s Fisher Price division issued a recall of 1.5 million toys containing lead in paint. The toys are painted by a contractor in China and CNN reports that this latest recall …

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Following an invitation from Vice President Rafael Alburquerque, the Fair Labor Association of the United States carried out an assessment of the Dominican apparel industry in May 2007 to identify possible opportunities for improving the situation. In the past 18 months the DR has lost an estimated 50,000 jobs in the apparel sector. Between 2004 …

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Several health organizations working in the fight against HIV/AIDS have announced that they are preparing to bring formal charges against Dr. Jose Ramon Baez Acosta. They claim that he is responsible for the death of ten patients and for having damaged the health of a further 50 patients. According to the health groups, the deaths …

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Two British citizens were arrested in possession of four packages containing approximately five kilos of cocaine as they tried to leave the country via the Punta Cana International Airport last night. The president of the National Drug Control Department (DNCD), Major General Rafael Radhames Ramirez Ferreira named the pair as Gary Matthew McLacthie, 45, and …

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Doctors from the International Children’s Heart Foundation have completed a series of free operations on 18 children at the Arturo Grullon Hospital in Santiago. The children come from Santiago, La Vega, San Franciscio de Macoris, Moncion, Puerto Plata, San Jose de las Matas, Samana, Navarrete and Santo Domingo. Juan Ramirez, director of Heartbeats for Vanessa, …

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Economy, Planning and Development Minister Temistocles Montas says that the DR has one of the most open economies in the region and one of the countries with the lowest risk for investors and investments. He added that a continued process of social, economic and political reforms has moved the DR ahead of countries like Jamaica, …

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Dominican rum and tobacco’s duty-free access to the European market will heavily depend on the signing of the Caribbean Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe, as reported in Hoy. Jose Alberto Garcia, president of the Barcelo Rum board of directors and vice president of the Dominican Rum Producers Association, said that duty-free rum’s access to …

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First Lady Margarita Cedeno de Fernandez and Higher Education Minister Ligia Amada Melo handed out 2,240 scholarships at a ceremony at the UASD yesterday. Of the 2,240 scholarships, 1,610 fund university studies in the DR and the rest cover study abroad programs at universities such as the Sorbonne in France, Complutense in Madrid or Palermo …

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The Attorney General has responded to yesterday’s claims by Chief Justice Jorge Subero Isa by saying that prosecutors are not making public statements about opinions expressed by judges and dismissed the idea that the Public Ministry has failed in the fight against corruption. Yesterday Subero said that the Attorney General has a “fairly large file” …

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The Foundation for Institutionalism and Justice (FINJUS) finds it deplorable that corruption in the DR continues to go unpunished in the judicial system and warns that it is weakening the institutions that are meant to support and uphold democracy. FINJUS vice president Servio Tulio Castanos Guzman says that Dominicans continue to doubt whether or not …

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