2001 – Page 62

A 23-year-old watchman at the Acropolis commercial center under construction on Winston Churchill Avenue apparently lost control on Saturday evening. He killed a fellow watchman and then boarded a motorcycle-taxi. The police were on his trail so he entered a small hotel in the Buenos Aires low-income neighborhood of Herrera where he held a family …

Read more…

Four Dominicans (a 26-year-old woman who was 8 months pregnant, her unborn child, her 4-year-old son, and her 16- year-old sister) were killed by a drunken police officer on his way to work last Saturday in New York City. The four were relatives of Puerto Plata bishop, Monsignor Nicanor Peña. Despite efforts to save the …

Read more…

El Caribe newspaper reports that the DR is the third country in levels of remittances (behind Mexico and Brazil) and the second in remittances per inhabitant in the Americas with US$230 per person per year, only surpassed by El Salvador. In 2000, the DR received US$1,877.4 million in money sent home from relatives abroad, or …

Read more…

Felix Sanchez, the Dominican Republic’s 2000 Athlete of the Year, has won a gold medal in the 400m hurdles at the Edmonton, Canada World Athletics Championship. He clocked in at 47.49 seconds, a personal best. His time was the world’s best this year and the 10th best in history. This is the first medal ever …

Read more…

Kmart Corporation, the US’s second-largest discount retailer, will open five stores in the DR starting next year. Kmart is a US$40 million company with more than 2,100 Kmart and Kmart Supercenter retail outlets. The opening of stores in the DR is part of an expansion plan in the Caribbean. Kmart already operates in Barbados, Trinidad, …

Read more…

The informatics director of the Central Electoral Board (JCE) announced that the civil registries automating program will continue. The program should have been completed in February 1999 but was suspended to give way to preparations for the 2000 presidential election. Franklin Reynaldo Frias told El Siglo newspaper that the program has been redesigned. It calls …

Read more…

The Administrative Secretary of the Presidency, Pedro Franco Badia, said a new group will prepare a report on the status of Plan Renove, a government plan to renew public transportation by importing new vehicles. Earlier this week, President Mejia asked that Franco Badia study irregularities in the program which has been criticized in the press. …

Read more…

The Customs Department has made a counteroffer to vehicle importers. Vehicle importers asked the government to increase the tax exemption on vehicles from the present US$10,000 to US$20,000. Customs is offering to increase the exemption to only US$15,000. This would mean vehicles from US$15,001-US$30,000 would pay a Selection Consumer Tax (ISC) of 15%, those from …

Read more…

City hall has given Brazilian company Breica the go ahead to start the construction of 150,000 prefabricated dwellings. A Santo Domingo municipal mission will travel to Brazil to observe the construction of similar dwellings in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo. Joaquin Freite, spokesman for Breica, said the dwellings can go up in three hours …

Read more…

The Colonial City Children’s Library that for 22 years has operated within the Fortaleza Ozama will suspend its activities as of today. The Ministry of Culture signed an agreement with the Ministry of Armed Forces for the installation within the fort’s area of a Museum of Arms, reports El Caribe newspaper. The library served the …

Read more…